I just wanna dance!

I visited an orphanage yesterday with a bunch of short-term missioners from Hong Kong. They were from the church's youth group and as you can imagine were full of life and energy. They had this whole program planned with stories, games, and other fun activities. The only problem: the children didn't want any part of it. We tried and tried to get the children to where the games were played but they didn't budge.

So we started playing music. Of course we picked music these 3-7 year olds would relate to. I don't remember the title but the verse starts with "Apple Bottom Jeans." How appropriate right? But out of the corner of our eye we saw almost half of kids on stage dancing. It wasn't just any kind of dancing but a choreographed dance. We were both amazed and shocked. Shocked that they new this song with such explicit connotation but amazed because all it took was a song to gather them.

I think it's the same in community, or the Body of Christ for that matter. I think often times we pry and pull people to do certain things in order to fill certain gaps that need to filled. We fail to realize that we simply need to play music and let them dance to their own tune.

We met again last Saturday. This time Mark and Ida joined us. Ida had expressed interest in the group before and Mark, Ida's friend, came along. Like always there was food. I decided to make my famous tacos, Dave and Kokoy brought beers, and Ida and Mark brought salads from Mark's family business, Goolai (which means vegetable).

Since we had some newcomers we weren't quite sure how to follow up on our first meeting. They knew it was a religious group yet I sensed that we could spend some time developing the relationship before we delved a bit deeper. However up until the end I was tempted to say, "hey guys, can we share about what's going on in our lives before we go?"

This morning I asked Shiloah whether or not I should have asked the group to share. She said something that I won't forget. She said that if I really wanted to know what was going on with someone, I should ask them and that this organic way of developing relationships prevents people from spewing default answers like: "work is hard," "God's good but I need to read the bible more." What I realized was that although I speak of an ideal community which is organic and fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit, I yearn for structure and control. I wanted to push my agenda so that I could say we had done something spiritual. I was so concerned with the progression of the group that I forgot what it was all about: relationships.

Meeting #1

After months of discussing the community we wanted to be part of we finally met up (sort of officially). We met over pinoy spaghetti and beers at the veranda of our 30th floor condo in Mandaluyong, Manila. I was excited but in some ways a bit anxious. I'm always anxious when ideas become reality. Especially when it's my idea. It's the whole rubber meeting the road thing.

Here are some things we talked about. First we discussed our desire for the group to be highly participatory. We've all been part of structures where our voice was never heard or even asked for. We wanted something different, something we could call our own. I brought up how we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to facilitate, guide, and prompt. Then we talked about whether we'll be studying a certain book or passage during our meetings. Dave brought up a way of studying the scriptures he had gone through which was very participatory. It was a study which dissected scripture passages of the gospel through individual comments and questions. It was non-threatening because anyone could ask anything and it was participatory. I thought it was a good idea but Shiloah was a bit against it. She said that it may be too soon at this point to commit to something. Will outsiders feel comfortable in this type of setting? We decided then that we should spend a few weeks simply hanging out and deepening relationships and that it was inevitable that the topic of a study would come up later.

We all agreed that this group should be missional. We need to be reaching out. With a number of us involved in communities and projects I don't think it'll be too hard. It'll be interesting to see what cause the group decides on.

I need to confess that although we are trying to be organic and spirit led I am so used to structured settings. That's all I've known. I think I'll be learning a lot.