St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Building Relationships

“In the West, we find ourselves scattered too far and moving too fast to maintain a strong base of relationships. We meet many more people, but less frequently. We still have friends and families, but on the whole these relationships are fewer, more intermittent, and less stable. In the mega-community we live among strangers” (Schluter & Lee - ‘The R Factor’). Maybe this is more true of some families than others, but I suspect we all know what the authors mean.

Before the industrial revolution life wasn’t like this, and in bible times people lived in villages or small towns, and had long-term relationships with their neighbours. It’s quite obvious from the Gospels that Jesus didn’t mean us to “live among strangers”: he started off by asking people to come and follow him, and his disciples travelled round with him and lived in community, dependent on each other. He showed them love so that they could love each other. He expected that this love for each other would show the world that they were his disciples (John 13:34-35). Likewise, the first missionaries in Acts travel in pairs and churches meet in houses around fellowship meals. A lot of what Paul writes in the epistles is about maintaining and fixing relationships and living as members of one body.

So church is a place where we live in close fellowship, we give and receive love, we build deep relationships, and the quality of our community life shows the world that we are Jesus’ disciples?

If this is not our experience of church, then we need to ask ourselves some searching questions. Perhaps I have misread what the bible says about the early church? Perhaps the gulf between the ancient world and the modern world is too wide to bridge? Perhaps the bible was written with rose-coloured spectacles? Perhaps God could change people’s hearts in those days but not in our day?

Whatever it is, we need to ask: Why are churches not like that now? What has gone wrong?

You can probably guess what I’ll say. A church service by itself can’t be the place where relationships grow. How can it, when we mostly face the front, listen to what’s going on on the platform, and when we do speak we use words out of books? The service may be good, but it’s not the whole of church. Church must also consist of smaller meetings where we can make friends, study together, talk and discuss, share problems and receive prayer, and give and receive love. It is vital that we all join cell groups.

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. August 2002, Page 1.
Home Page. Index of articles. Vicar's Letters: index, Christening, Body & Cell, Cell Love, Cell Values, Cell Friends, Grilled Preacher. In this issue: (August 2002) Vicar's Letter, Rot in the roof, Ravenscliffe, Question, Church Schools.	Building Relationships “In the West, we find ourselves scattered too far and moving too fast to maintain a strong base of relationships. We meet many more people, but less frequently. We still have friends and families, but on the whole these relationships are fewer, more intermittent, and less stable. In the mega-community we live among strangers” (Schluter & Lee - ‘The R Factor’). Maybe this is more true of some families than others, but I suspect we all know what the authors mean. Before the industrial revolution life wasn’t like this, and in bible times people lived in villages or small towns, and had long-term relationships with their neighbours. It’s quite obvious from the Gospels that Jesus didn’t mean us to “live among strangers”: he started off by asking people to come and follow him, and his disciples travelled round with him and lived in community, dependent on each other. He showed them love so that they could love each other. He expected that this love for each other would show the world that they were his disciples (John 13:34-35). Likewise, the first missionaries in Acts travel in pairs and churches meet in houses around fellowship meals. A lot of what Paul writes in the epistles is about maintaining and fixing relationships and living as members of one body. So church is a place where we live in close fellowship, we give and receive love, we build deep relationships, and the quality of our community life shows the world that we are Jesus’ disciples? If this is not our experience of church, then we need to ask ourselves some searching questions. Perhaps I have misread what the bible says about the early church? Perhaps the gulf between the ancient world and the modern world is too wide to bridge? Perhaps the bible was written with rose-coloured spectacles? Perhaps God could change people’s hearts in those days but not in our day? Whatever it is, we need to ask: Why are churches not like that now? What has gone wrong? You can probably guess what I’ll say. A church service by itself can’t be the place where relationships grow. How can it, when we mostly face the front, listen to what’s going on on the platform, and when we do speak we use words out of books? The service may be good, but it’s not the whole of church. Church must also consist of smaller meetings where we can make friends, study together, talk and discuss, share problems and receive prayer, and give and receive love. It is vital that we all join cell groups. John Hartley
Top of page.	This web page was last updated on 1st August 2002.