The KTN principle

I am just going to post something else real quick so this doesn’t look like a craft blog :).

At the moment we are having a series at our church summer fellowship on "How to be happy in church". It might sound like an odd title, and the reality is that it is not even a good question (as Peter Sholl, who is taking us through the series, has pointed out). We have been working through Ephesians chapter four, with frequent reference back to the first three chapters, to make sure we keep in mind that these chapters contain a fitting response to grace and the riches that have been lavished upon us. Chapter four onwards details what a mature, serving Christian will look like (as a mature Christian will be one who contributes to the building of the body) within the community of Christians around them.

I think one of the main things people in the demographic of myself and others at my church, and churches like it, end up looking for, from church, is a certain level of social engagement and personal friendship. At one level “fellowship” ought to be at the very heart of church, but I do remember Mark Thompson saying to the class, when we did the doctrine of the church in the Moore College evening lecture course, "intimacy is not a measure of fellowship". This got me thinking about what is a measure of fellowship? Should there even be such a thing? Perhaps it is another one of those unhelpful questions. Should we actually be expecting anything from the community to which we belong? And if so what? (I am happy to take answers to those questions).

One a slightly different note, in elaborating on how to be a contributing and healthy member of the community, the body, we went through the list of things to put off and things to put on in verses 25 to 32 of chapter four. We then had to asterisk which one of those commands was particularly hard for us. I have to say that verse 29 got the asterisk for me. To take seriously the exhortation to only, and always, speak words that are good for others, and gives them grace - and even only words that are fitting to the occasion (which is the part of the verse that prodded me on this particular reading). How often do we get half way there and then add a whole lot of superfluous talk, which is not fitting to the occasion, or even just distract people from higher things by chatter about more trivial things at the wrong time. Obviously you have to keep those things in the balance, and sometimes the chatter can be a service to others, but it did remind me of something an old family friend used to say to us when we were kids:

Is it kind?

Is it true?

Is it necessary?

Pausing to ask myself those questions occasionally might become a belated New Year's resolution.