Explorations IX: maintaining equilibrium

Dear friends,

I am continuing to receive feedback from the first meetings of our exploration groups.  In last month’s coach’s corner I talked about a concern expressed about the future of our congregation’s outreach to the community beyond our walls.  Do we have people willing to take on leadership in this area? If we are to be the body of Christ in the literal sense, we need to have heart and soul, but also use our hands. I would like to extend the discussion about the church as “body” by emphasizing questions I have heard voiced from among you.  It has to with what we do together as a congregation outside worship hour and the refreshment time.  Is what we do together sufficient to strengthen our community and is it balanced?  Using  physical terms, are we utilizing all our muscles as a congregation or are we overdeveloping some or under-developing some, to the point that some muscles may grow weaker or atrophy? To be more specific, I have heard it said that a lot of our activity, our flexing of muscles together is more about the raising of funds rather than the fellowship of fun.  They are both important of course. An organization cannot sustain itself without the ready availability of funds, but at the same time no successful organization can maintain and deepen relationships without informal, unforced activities.  Most of you might agree that the two should be balanced or rather they should have equilibrium.

We need the muscles of our arms to help the Church, but at the same time,  we need our laugh muscles.  Now Parkview is very fortunate to have fundraising leadership (primarily the Fongs) that combines efficiency with humor and the joy of togetherness.  Nevertheless the question of equilibrium is an important one.  We have to keep things in balance: develop activities that generate funds with activities that are just plain fun.  They kind of bring two of the main question of a culture to light, namely: “did you have fun?”  And “how much money did you make?

We must of course remember that both questions are not an end to themselves. They are in fact a means of strengthening the total body of Christ.

May God strengthen the total body of Christ. May God bless all our activities.  See you in Church. Aart