I read the “Getting to Know You” post. I thought that this tag was in reference to how we are getting to know one another in Christ. I was mistaken, but am still going to put my comments here. I just finished McLaren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book \u00e2\u20ac\u0153More Ready Than You Realize\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and found it to be inspiring\u00e2\u20ac\u201c forming spiritual friendships with the sole purpose of helping the other discover his\/her own path. It details his emailing with April (aka Alice) and kind of the flow of that relationship.<\/p>\n
One of the most poignant reminders was this on pg 94, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think a lot of us would be better Christians if we spent less time at church.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That to meet spiritual friends will mean developing friendships outside of the church\u00e2\u20ac\u201c attending sporting events, recitals, neighborhood gatherings\u00e2\u20ac\u201c without the expectation of getting our spiritual friends _into_ church. Walk the walk _next_ to them.<\/p>\n
I love that. Getting to know you is about really getting to know _you_ not about WIFM (what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in it for me). Duh. =)<\/p>\n
He closes that same chapter with this benediction and I leave it here now:
\nMay the Spirit of Christ empower you to love and serve your neighbors, welcoming them into your lives and home and schedules and hearts, so that through belonging they may discover the joys of believing and becoming. You are more ready for this than you realize. Go in God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace and peace.<\/p>\n
See you \u00e2\u20ac\u0153out there\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAngie=), Peoria, AZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I read the “Getting to Know You” post. I thought that this tag was in reference to how we are getting to know one another in Christ. I was mistaken, but am still going to put my comments here. I just finished McLaren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book \u00e2\u20ac\u0153More Ready Than You Realize\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and found it to be inspiring\u00e2\u20ac\u201c […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-readings","category-community","category-missional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}