Welcome to Tennant Across the Pond

Thanks for coming by--and welcome to Tennant Across the Pond, my online journal which will serve to update friends and family about my upcoming trips to Formby, U.K.

I will be in Formby twice in the next six months, serving with Formby Baptist Church. The dates for the trip are:

March 5-22 and May 16-July 12.

For updates, info, and reflections, read on.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A Weekend in Sheffield

This is a long-overdue post--so I am sorry to my readers who have been holding their breath for me to write another post about what has been happening in Formby. It has taken me a good solid week to process my weekend in Sheffield and really think through the ramifications of what I learned on my 72-hour foray into Gospel Community.

But hang on a second; I'm getting ahead of myself. The first questions to answer are: why Sheffield? Why The Crowded House? Well, that's the easy part. Back in October I was handed a copy of Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. It was required reading to be on the launch team for church plant called The Painted Door, now my home church in the Central Time Zone. After reading the book, I was incredibly compelled by what I read and wanted to know more. The model of ministry presented in that book was one I committed to without ever seeing it in action, though we were in the beginning stages of making it happen at The Painted Door. So, in April, I shot an email out to Steve Timmis asking if I could visit the church where Gospel Communities started, The Crowded House.

I must say that I was surprised by how quickly the weekend fell into place--I received a nearly immediate invitation to join them for a weekend, June 11-13. I hopped on a train that Friday with some clothes in my back pack and plans to meet a man named Michael at the train station. Michael, an elder at TCH, crafted for me a busy schedule that would have me visiting the majority of the seven Gospel Communities all over Sheffield throughout the weekend.

For definition's sake, what is a Gospel Community? It is a small group on steroids. People in GC's don't just meet once a week, they meet all week. They do life together all the time. They are, in essence, true families of people from all sorts of different backgrounds and all ages. They eat together, study the Bible together, pray together, confront one another, disciple one another, and do evangelism together. And that, my friends, is about as poor a definition as anyone could ask for.

So, my weekend consisted of participating in various GC's weekend activities, asking loads of questions, and receiving a whole lot of love and kindness to boot. I have never met a more welcoming, loving, gracious group of people in my life; by the end of the weekend I felt like I could stay for the rest of my life. I made about three dozen new friends and had some much-needed refueling time in the presence of energizing people.

What I saw, at the end of the weekend, is that the Gospel can be radically and authentically lived out in genuine, jaw-dropping community and we don't need to grow dreads, quit our jobs and grow an all-organic garden and protest dairy farming on the weekends. Instead, we can live our lives normally, mundanely, and simply join one another in it. What I saw is a vision for the Gospel going outward that every person in TCH was passionate about and wanted to see move forward. I saw discipleship happening as naturally as breathing, and soul care coming from a twenty-five year old guy to an eighty year old woman. What I saw was biblical, exciting, visionary.

There are very few times in my life when words fail me--but this is one of them. I'm not sure how you describe watching what you've always hoped the church could be happening right in front of you. I'm not sure how you describe your dreams for the church becoming real life in a real place among real people.

Truly, there is only one word for it that I know: beautiful.


1 comment:

  1. Kyle,

    Thank you. I want to hear more about your weekend, like you said a day or two ago: skype date?

    At the Line I'm experiencing the beginning of what you are describing. I loved your description of how a GC doesn't meet once a week, but all week long. I'm so so excited to see what happens in Chicago between the various churches starting GC's all around the city!

    I particularly enjoyed a few of your sentences: "What I saw, at the end of the weekend, is that the Gospel can be radically and authentically lived out in genuine, jaw-dropping community and we don't need to grow dreads, quit our jobs and grow an all-organic garden and protest dairy farming on the weekends. Instead, we can live our lives normally, mundanely, and simply join one another in it." ;) Familiar territory. I have not seen a GC like you have yet, but from what I'm seeing in the beginning of my involvement in this one sure makes sense. Christianity can be lived out and it can be compelling and we can do it together in this culture. We can redeem this culture for and through Christ!

    Thank you Kyle. Talk to you soon brother.

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