Once a month we ask someone who is part of one of our missional communities to write a blog, through the lens of community life. Heidi Damon (from Cedar Community) is kicking us off.
Richard Foster (author of the excellent Celebration of Discipline) states that ‘the purpose of the [spiritual] disciplines is liberation from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear’. In a postmodern, consumerist society, instant gratification is largely accepted as the norm, from online shopping with ‘next day delivery’ or ‘reserve now and collect in an hour’ option, to online prayer requests. The applaudable values associated with delayed gratification are almost non-existent. The question we have to ask ourselves is this: in post-modernity, how do counter-cultural spiritual disciplines become regular practices for us as individuals and communities?
Over the years I have attempted to study and practice the various disciplines in order to go that little bit deeper. I generally start each January with a big fast of some sorts as an attempt to hand the year over to God, this year is no exception and I am doing the Daniel Fast. I don’t know about you but I find it quite easy to come up with a checklist of new year’s resolutions; when it comes to carrying them out, in some I succeed, and in others I dramatically fail. I want to be able to take some time and hear what God is saying to me, and for me fasting takes me to that place in which I am not distracted, I am focused on God and I have a clear head.
In leading a missional community one of the things that we have sought to encourage is the practice of the different spiritual disciplines together. Some of them come more easily than others. They can often feel hard, because it takes commitment and discipline but they ultimately offer us freedom.
In our first gathering as a missional community this year we shared an ancient South African word Ubuntu, which essentially means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. We felt that this word summed up the totality of what it means to do life together. I know that I am a result of those with whom I share my life with and as we encourage the practice of varying spiritual disciplines together we are stronger. We recently took on the challenge to live below the line, eating for £1 a day for 5 days. It was a real challenge for us and particularly helped us to reflect on our relationship with food, how much we have and how little so many people have. One of the most powerful reflections we had from this week was that if we pooled our finance together as a community our budget increased and we were able 1) buy more food and 2) spread the food much further.
I am convinced that the missional community model reflects the Acts 2 model of Christian community, one which participates with God to bring about the Kingdom of God. Tom Wright has said:
Our task as image-bearing, God-loving, Christ-shaped, Spirit-filled Christians, following Christ and shaping our world, is to announce redemption to a world that has discovered its fallenness, to announce healing to a world that has discovered its brokenness, to proclaim love and trust to a world that knows only exploitation, fear and suspicion.
I think fasting is one of those ways in which we get to become those Christians that shape the world that we are in.