Ben Lemery | Church & Culture

The Fellow Worker Pt. 1

Philemon is one of the shortest books in the Bible and really if you can't read it five times in one sitting, well I don't know what to tell you.  However, it's one of those books that I read and I simply have trouble wrapping my head around it. 

It is like receiving a letter in the mail and the writer just gave you three big surprises, somewhat leaving you stunned but also attempting to read between the lines for any hidden meanings.

I want to walk through this and if you care to walk with me through it, I think we will all learn something.

I guess you start at the beginning.  Who was Philemon?

Paul, in 1b, states that Philemon is his beloved brother and fellow worker.  When you look at the literal translation of this, you find that the greek, agapētō, means loved or beloved.  You may be familiar with agape, which means love.  Clearly, this was someone that Paul truly cherished and in a way, we are gaining a privilege to see an intimate friendship in this letter.

This happened during the Roman Empire and Paul was imprisoned for preaching Christ.  The concept of preaching Christ was not only offensive to the Jews but also to the current empire, because Christ was preached as a King who said that the Kingdom of God was at hand.  As would be expected, talk about this, accompanied by the growing numbers in the church, made the rulers of the precincts paranoid that their rule was being threatened.  Added to the disdain from the Jews, many Christians were being martyred for their faith.

It looked a lot different than our posh Western Christianity that we live in.

According to The Bible Knowledge Commentary, they state that Philemon was a "well-to-do Christian" and hosted church meetings in his home in Colosse.  Colosse was close to Ephesus and Philemon was working to build up the church as Paul was doing in Ephesus.  That is why Paul calls Philemon a fellow worker, it is unclear if they worked side by side but they clearly were in correspondance regarding the expansion of the church in their respective regions. 

I won't go on to much from this point but I am going to read Philemon at least once a day this week.  I yearn to have relationships with people as Paul did with Philemon, fellow workers with a vision to expand the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.  That has always been something I strived for when building friendships and even connecting with more well known people.  I want to know someones heart, not just a good speech. 

What can we learn from the relationship between Paul and Philemon?  How can we be fellow workers in Christ that agape one another?

Blog Topic Week of 6/28/09: Not A Clue

I am not sure what I am going to blog about this week but I am going to focus on getting in the Word and in prayer more intentionally this week.  Check out my 2nd video blog if you have 5 minutes.

Busy Week

What a busy week.  

I still have more on my mind regarding why you should go to church but with everything going on, I want to put more time into it.

On Mondy, I got to hang out with a guy from my church.  I am starting to feel like my church is becoming a place that will feel like family soon.  If there is anything I want to get across in the church theme blogs, it's the importance of finding your family in the Body of Christ.  I have been attending Faith Community since January and it took about six months to really start getting to know people.  

Six months!  It took you that long to get to know people, how difficult!  Eh, get over it, people aren't going to come up to you just because you look lonely, you aren't a puppy in a store, walk up to someone and say hi.  That's how I got to hang out with the guy from my church.  Enough of that rant.

On Tuesday, I went up to Livermore for a Theology Pub.  Adam Walker Cleaveland held the gathering at the 1st St. Alehouse, it is a place to be jealous for.  I am a sap for great atmosphere and this place provided it.  Adam and I connected through the great networking of the blogworld.  Honestly, this is the first blogger I met in real life.  Adam and I agree on very little but I went into the gathering not sure what to expect or if it would end up being a big pissing match.

One thing I am bad at is prejudgment.  I prejudged and I was wrong.  Adam was by far one of the more quality people I have met.  Even though we don't see eye to eye on things, talking about Jesus with a group of people really helps you major on the one person to major on, instead of a lot of the minor issues that split up the church.

I definitely want to attend another one if my finances and schedule allow.

Wednesday was a low key day.

Thursday, was the commission board meeting in Monterey.  I got to talk to Killian before I went and I think she is going to come visit soon.  We planned on going to San Francisco to tour Alcatraz and to check out the Aquarium in Monterey when she comes to visit.  Killian and I have been friends for eight years now.  I gotta love good, long-lasting friendships.

While waiting for the board meeting dinner, Michael Jackson was declared dead.  Pretty sad but I hope it spurs our hearts to pray more for Hollywood and believe that God can bring many in the community into His kingdom.

The board meeting went well, good food and now I am ending the week in relaxation.  I am going to get up early and head over to the big farmers market at Cabrillo College.  I keep on saying I am going to check one out but they are always in the mornings.....no more excuses, so I will get up early and go.  In fact, I will take some pictures of what I bought to prove I went.  

Further proof to come.

The Internet & the Secondary Personality

In 2004, I went to Guatemala for a missions trip.  It was one of the best times I have ever had in my life.  One of my favorite parts of that trip was the culture.  At night, the parks were filled with young adults, porches were filled with neighbors talking to each other and people weren't inside on the internet for 10 hours a day.  

I will be the first to admit that I love the internet.  I love how it has allowed me to keep in touch of friends, network with complete strangers and the ability to mobilize people to a cause in a very short amount of time.  

The internet has revolutionized how news is communicated and has in the span of one decade made all other media irrelevant for the most part.  You no longer have to wait for the nightly news to find out about Iran, you can watch the Twitter feed #iranelection and get to the minute updates.  

The downfall of all of this is that we now communicate, almost solely, through the internet.  How many times have you been chatting with someone on Facebook chat, they tell a joke but you couldn't tell.  In fact, you don't take it as a joke but instead get a little stung by it.  Of course, had you been face to face with that person, you wouldn't have thought anything of it because you would have known intention, heard inflection and seen facial expressions that would indicate that a joke was being made.

Do you think that people don't go to churches because they are becoming socially impaired?  

Churches are full of people.  People that are great, weird, wounded, caring, overcaring and the list goes on and on.  

Churches are full of people.  People that make you laugh, make you cry, that comfort you when things suck and can stab you harder in the back than anyone you know.  

Because things like Facebook chat, AIM, MSN, and Twitter can create a secondary personality, we put ourselves into position where reality also becomes secondary.  For instance, you will find yourself talking about more personal things online than you would in person.  The best example would be the increase of online cyber sex chats, webcam usages and pornography.  More men enter into secondary personalities with the intent of acting out fantasy that they would never approach in real life.  

We are comfortable being in a fantasy because we get to control the situation and outcome.  In a church, with so many people, so many personalities, we lose that control and open ourselves up to being vulnerable and in the worst case being hurt.  Because most secondary personalities, do not involve negative outcomes, it is no surprise why so many people run to chat sites and pornography first.  

I use all of the instant messengers in one form or another.  But if I am able to sit down, face to face, with someone, I would rather do that than chat online.  While I don't prefer talking on the phone, it is much better to do that than attempt to analyze someones meaning through a chat box.  

Skype has become the best tool for me since moving, because it gives me the ability to talk with someone verbally but also see them on their webcam.  

Going to a new church was difficult for me.  You have to make new friendships and relationships.  To make it even harder, you have to do that within all of those people having their own friends and relationships.  Churches aren't easy but you grow in character, you laugh more and overall I think that you end up happier because instead of sitting at home talking online, you get to enjoy life with other people.  

If the cultural norm is shifting to an online world and we are supposed to simply crawl into existences based on facebook profiles, then let me encourage...no shout it to you, CALL A FRIEND AND GO TO STARBUCKS!  Break the status quo that we all know is present and do something about it.  

Why You Should Go To Church

Church bodies all over the nation are shrinking, growing older (which can lead to shrinking but that is another blog) and are falling into a lower priority for many young adults in general.  

If you don't believe me, look around at your next Sunday service.  What is the ratio of young adults to older adults?  When was there tangible growth in your church?  Are there more people leaving than staying?  What are their reasons for leaving?  

If you still don't believe me, visit a mainline church in your city.  A mainline church is considered a Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian denominational church.  Look for the young adults, ask the same questions I just asked above.  

Let me make it clear that I am not saying that mainline denominations are in some way "out of touch."  But, I don't have to be a sociologist to state a pretty obvious fact.  

Evangelical churches tend to fare a little better, but many Evangelical churches water down and put on a Broadway show to keep those young adults; so much of it to me is irrelevant. 

Charismatic churches seem to be the best out of the groups and I am not quite sure why yet.

I won't touch the liberal sections of the church because I will just get pissed, but they have quite a following also.

It is very concerning to me.  Maybe I am the only one and since moving out to Santa Cruz, being lonely is a pretty easy thing to do but I do think that it is something we need to look at seriously.  

The questions I want to ask this week are:

Why is this becoming a cultural norm?

Are campus fellowships part of the solution or the problem?

What are reasons not to attend church?

What are you looking for when seeking out a church?