Creating Community or Filling Pews
Near the end of my year at flight school I entered into a month of tactical training. We learned to fly and navigate the helicopter about 3 inches above the tree tops at really cool speeds, 100 plus. Flying that close to the ground is a 19 year old's dream. The army had that airspace near the ground and the airforce had 50 feet and up. The closer you got to picking Pine needles with your skids, the happier I was.
The main thing was to learn how to read a map and keep the pilot on course when you were zooming over the territory and finding it difficult to get and keep your bearings, all the while, not getting painted by enemy radar so they could shoot you down. How cool is that? Video games today just don't do it for me. Sorry.
For the month, my co-pilot and I were assigned to one instructor. We never got much above the tree tops, what we called NOE, Nap of the Earth. Then one day, he tells me to climb to 3,000 feet. Really? That's nose bleed territory for an army pilot. what's up? Don't argue, do it was all I got. All right, you're in charge I thought. We got up there and he pointed to a building on a road, maybe 25 miles or so from the airfield we were flying out of . He made me look closely at it and mark well its location. It turned out that it was his church and if I wanted a good grade at the end of the month, I would start attending. No, he didn't say that in those words, but that's what was going on.
My co-pilot went, I didn't. I just wasn't ready for that kind of God. Too coercive for me. My theological vocab was limited in those days and I had no easy retort to my instructors demand, nor could I carry on a good discussion of why I wasn't ready for God in his church at that time.
At the end of the month as the tactics course came to a close, we all took check rides to see how well we could do in a battlefield simulation. Before the ride, the instructor would post what he expected you to make on the ride, kind of an educated guess. He listed me at 82 and my copilot at 92. Going to church got him an A, at least I didn't fail. As it turned out, I got a 92 on the check ride and he got an 82. Too weird I know. But God does some weird things some times.
As it turns out, I didn't become a part of the community God had planned for us for another 3 years or so. I was ready then as my marriage was struggling and my life was a bit of a directionless wreck. When we finally did turn our hearts over to Christ, we came into a church that became a community for us. We were not a notch on their evangelism gun, making sure that weekly attendance was up and that their church was adding new members by intimidation. We were a part of an extended family that we never knew we had or could enjoy. It blew us away to tell you the truth.
God is big into community. He gave Adam and Eve a great one to get started with and He plans on giving us a greater one if you look at the last chapters of Revelation. He's not threatening to mark us down if we don't show up, he's inviting us to come to His feast and join His family. I'm cool with that. And I'm thrilled to try to build that kind of community here in the meantime. Sometimes I wonder if it will happen, but I keep at it. It's worth it.
The main thing was to learn how to read a map and keep the pilot on course when you were zooming over the territory and finding it difficult to get and keep your bearings, all the while, not getting painted by enemy radar so they could shoot you down. How cool is that? Video games today just don't do it for me. Sorry.
For the month, my co-pilot and I were assigned to one instructor. We never got much above the tree tops, what we called NOE, Nap of the Earth. Then one day, he tells me to climb to 3,000 feet. Really? That's nose bleed territory for an army pilot. what's up? Don't argue, do it was all I got. All right, you're in charge I thought. We got up there and he pointed to a building on a road, maybe 25 miles or so from the airfield we were flying out of . He made me look closely at it and mark well its location. It turned out that it was his church and if I wanted a good grade at the end of the month, I would start attending. No, he didn't say that in those words, but that's what was going on.
My co-pilot went, I didn't. I just wasn't ready for that kind of God. Too coercive for me. My theological vocab was limited in those days and I had no easy retort to my instructors demand, nor could I carry on a good discussion of why I wasn't ready for God in his church at that time.
At the end of the month as the tactics course came to a close, we all took check rides to see how well we could do in a battlefield simulation. Before the ride, the instructor would post what he expected you to make on the ride, kind of an educated guess. He listed me at 82 and my copilot at 92. Going to church got him an A, at least I didn't fail. As it turned out, I got a 92 on the check ride and he got an 82. Too weird I know. But God does some weird things some times.
As it turns out, I didn't become a part of the community God had planned for us for another 3 years or so. I was ready then as my marriage was struggling and my life was a bit of a directionless wreck. When we finally did turn our hearts over to Christ, we came into a church that became a community for us. We were not a notch on their evangelism gun, making sure that weekly attendance was up and that their church was adding new members by intimidation. We were a part of an extended family that we never knew we had or could enjoy. It blew us away to tell you the truth.
God is big into community. He gave Adam and Eve a great one to get started with and He plans on giving us a greater one if you look at the last chapters of Revelation. He's not threatening to mark us down if we don't show up, he's inviting us to come to His feast and join His family. I'm cool with that. And I'm thrilled to try to build that kind of community here in the meantime. Sometimes I wonder if it will happen, but I keep at it. It's worth it.
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