I am reading Cadences of Hope: Preaching Among Exiles by renowned Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann. Brueggemann brings the scriptures alive as he writes about the exile experience of the Jews. As I reflected on what I have read, it struck me again how nothing is new.

If we look at history, the same themes keep coming through - themes of love, war, fear and hope. The contexts change of course and sometimes we find it hard to relate to history because it is difficult to see how it could apply to us.

Our modern world with it’s fast paced life and incredible rate of technology creates an illusion that what is to come, is very different to what has gone before. On the surface the differences are painfully obvious but underneath the same themes keep emerging. William Shakespeare’s longevity in literature and his ability to connect with audiences over such a long period of time illustrates that the themes of life endure.

When we look at our experience at Northern Community we can sometimes think we are doing everything brand new. In some ways this is true. Planting different congregations and a range of missional teams has been new - at least to us.

But, I often wonder if we went back in history to the planting of the four former churches of Northern Community, how much commonality we would find. Imagine if we interviewed those who planted our Preston, West Preston, Northcote and Ivanhoe churches and asked them what their purpose was, what they were trying to achieve, and how they thought God was involved. I suspect their answers, while containing structures and words different to ours, would still be at one with our purpose, vision and values.

From the experiences of the Israelites, to the planters of our founding churches and now to our own experiences - things are different and things are the same.

Our missional context is hugely different so our way of connecting needs to be different but the same call from God that gave purpose, vision and nurture to the Israelites and our founding planters, is also a call for us.

May we continue, with God’s help, being the hands and feet of Jesus through many and diverse congregations and missional teams

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 25th, 2004 at 4:09 pm by phil and is filed under notes from northern. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.