Gathering For A Change

Consider this scenario:

It’s a Monday evening and you receive a phone call from a close friend (let’s call her Sarah). They inform you that a mutual friend of yours (let’s call him, John) is about to leave the country and you’re unlikely to see that person for a long time. So you and Sarah arranged to meet John and a few others at his home for one last get-together.

You’re all good friends. You have shared a lot of good experiences together and your bond is tight. You agree to meet at 11am the following Sunday, but you can only meet for a couple of hours. What sort of things would you hope to be doing at the get-together? Talking with each other? Sharing good times with each other? Perhaps hoping to have even more good times in this last time together? It’s all about what can occur with each other, right? It’s a great way to show John just how much he means to you all.

Certain things annoy me. I mean seriously annoys me. When certain things annoy me, I am learning it is not for me to stay in an agitated state about it. I take the opportunity given to talk it through with God.

I am blessed with some great relationships where I can thrash things out with people who won’t just pander to what I have to say but push back where necessary to get me to be more sensible where I go over the top. Yet often I really can talk to God about it and seek to hear Him on a matter.

All of that is a preamble to the annoying thing. I sat through a gathering of believers where for the best part of the time together, people were babbling as they were encouraged to ‘pray in tongues’. It might sound a little harsh, but that’s my experience.

One thing that is apparent to me about tongues in a corporate setting from my reading of scripture is that if it is to take place there’s got to be the hope that there’s someone there to interpret. Otherwise, just keep it to yourself and your God. Those were the words of counsel given by the Paul of Tarsus. If you want to edify yourself and strengthen yourself, sure go for it – but it’s just for yourself – no one else is getting anything from it – it’s just you. (And there are those who suggest you’re not always actively conscious of it at the time.)

Now that’s all fine and dandy if you’re the only one that matters. Here’s the thing, though, when we gather together we’re actually there for each other. We’re here to build each other up. We’ve had plenty of time outside of the gathering to be building the self up – but in a setting face to face with members of the family of God the priority is on how we can make the most of the time together, to seek God together and see how that can help each other out. So to some degree, investing time together in purely individualistic self-building activities could be considered to be a waste of the time together. Especially as the norm is not to move on from the self-build to go onto build another.

As I mentioned earlier, though, this isn’t just an issue about tongues in the gathering of the saints. It is to reflect again on what we’re doing together. Is it really primarily about building each other up? Is it really about appreciating that precious few moments together face to face to let John know how much we appreciate His company when we’re together and in the hope of more memorable times together?

Maybe that might be the way to look at gathering for a change.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden