The Glorification of Spontaneity

I think it's interesting how much we like spontaneity. Sure, some think it is more loving if our love whisks us away for an unplanned evening of fun and excitement. This might derive from not knowing what will happen next, adding the extra benefit of surprise. Contrary to these thoughts, we are told that a man that gives his wife flowers every week displays more love than the man that gives his wife flowers at spontaneous times. Looking at this example, we say that the weekly man is just executing his schedule, that no real thought went into the flower giving. But, what is the man thinking about every time he travels to the store, picks out which flowers to purchase, makes sure he has enough money set aside to buy the flowers, takes the flowers home, and finally delivers the flowers, other than his wife that he loves?

What does this have to do with ministry? We reminisce on times where "randomly" we would receive a call praise by the pool, a baptism, or a game night that was happening in mere minutes. We'd drop everything and rush to the event and have a great time. What is it about these events that we really like? For some, it is praising God out in public, or baptizing someone new into the body, or playing a close game of spades and these are all great things. I think something enjoyed more often and by more people is just being with other people.

Every event that FOCUS does, the key action taking place is fellowship, talking with other people. Look at Sunday Night Focus, people talk before, sometimes during, and after the actual event of SNF. So much so that we added another event after FOCUS (called the After FOCUS Event, a great name), to spend more time with other people. SNF is now essentially an event from 6:30pm-1:00am (depending on homework). My core group officially meets from 7:30-9:00, but I know that people will show up by 7:00 and most won't leave until I kick them out at 1:00 in the morning.

I think communion time outside of SNF creates another venue for fellowship to occur. This would be directed conversation about remembering Christ. I would love to see it last "officially" for 30 minutes, knowing that it would really last an hour. It frees non-Christian visitors from the awkward ritual of communion, something the early Christians thought they shouldn't partake in. It frees us from worrying what visitors are thinking during it (not that bad of a thing, at times). It provides a weekly place for Christians to follow Jesus' command. Something that wasn't delegated to weekly until several hundred years after Jesus, but for logistical reasons makes logical sense for both then and now.

This isn't a complete thought, but it's part of one. I reserve the right to add more to it later.