church basements and brian mcLaren

Kris and I watched a documentary film on Saturday night about the closing of a 125 year old church in SW Minnesota. The film, Delafield, examines the economic and cultural shift in the late nineties in the heartland of America and the impact that it had on a particular rural faith community. The film is very well done and I would recommend it (and we have it to share if you would like to watch it).

Two things struck me during the film. The first, was a scene in which three young girls were playing around a support pole in the basement of the old country church. As their elders sat around tables laughing and enjoying a meal; these three children danced quietly around the pole with one hand on the pole (their feet near the base) and their other hand swinging freely. It was a powerful scene as you wondered how many generations of children had done the same thing on the exact same pole in that church basement. The second thing that struck me was a woman who had to be in her eighties or nineties telling about the fact that the church was originally built without a basement and that it was added later. This was a major event for the congregation as it provided more space for community gathering which the film depicted marvelously with the centrality of food and fellowship in community life.

This was the backdrop for our visit to the Upper Room last night where Brian McLaren talked about Jesus and his love of a good meal with friends and foes. It is remarkable to me (although it shouldn’t be) that within the Upper Room community there are 400 plus people who are involved in their meal groups. Wow! Every night of the week across the entire Twin Cities metro this community meets. God at work in the world.

As I consider what God is doing in developing missional faith communities it seems that we are being called back to our heritage as a church basement people. A people who are linked together in community that dares to come together to care for one another and share with honesty and openness who we are and what we have been given.

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, and to prayer.”
Acts 2:42