I’ve been reflecting since the Small Group DeConference last week about the role of community in Spiritual Transformation. It is interesting to reflect on the amount of importance that we, in our current North American Church culture, have placed on Small Group ministry. I don’t discard this reality and I strongly believe and live the important value that Small Group ministries need to have in our lives.

However, it has drawn numerous sociological and ecclesiological questions from me. First sociologically…it is interesting that hundreds of years ago people would retreat to monastic communities, or go alone into the desert or wilderness because they believed that Spiritual Transformation occurred in isolation. I think part of the reason this occurred was due to the fact that people lived in smaller communities; people lived with their relatives, personally knew their neighbors, had close friends and lived interconnected lives together.

Recognize the difference?

Our lives today, especially in suburbia, have become exceptionally isolated. We open our garages and enter our houses without connecting on any level with our neighbors, our nuclear families spend little time together, and our nuclear families live very separate lives from our extended family. Maybe it is our isolated lives that draw us to reflect and long for deep community (deep ecclesiology) with others because we don’t experience anything like it on a regular basis. Maybe that is why isolation for spiritual development is not commonly practiced in our culture. Reversely, maybe that is why hundreds of years ago when people lived communally, it would seem appropriate that people sought isolation for a deeper connection with God.

I am not against community or isolation. I see both evidenced in the life of Jesus and throughout Scripture as important aspect for the life of a Christ follower. What I am referring to is the interesting dynamic of our spiritual lives and transformation and how we have begun to look at Small Groups as the sole answer. I think it is an important part of that answer but I also think it needs to be balanced with times of isolation and solitude…both of which we struggle with in our culture. When it comes to spiritual transformation (which can only be done through the ministry of the Holy Spirit), there is a place for both seemingly opposites: community and isolation.

Maybe opposites do attract.

We visited my Grandma at her senior’s home in Edmonton last week and my kids were, well, let’s just say, less than well behaved. There are times when as a parent you try and tell kids to be quiet because there are people sleeping in the next room and all they hear is it’s time to play LOUDER.

What is it about children that make them look for fun in every area of life – in every way? I have been reminded of this lately and how much ministry is often stripped of fun, enjoyment and play by well…us. We often forget that serving God, leading worship, preaching, etc. can be fun. I know there are times where the situation causes fun to take a backseat, death and sickness for example, but serving God can be fun. Elder’s meetings can be fun, small groups can be fun, and even church can be fun filled with fun, laughter and excitement.

There are times where fun needs to take a backset but I think we have often put fun in the trunk and ignored its contagious laughter. I often tell people who are helping to lead worship as we pray before a worship service, that we are called to worship the God of the universe with all our hearts and it is very serious BUT it can also be incredibly fun.

I’m not sure why we have ignored the opportunity to have fun in ministry but it’s time to take fun out of the trunk and put it back in the car. I know there are times in ministry where things are difficult – where visiting a mourning family or dying person is difficult. In these times, fun needs to get moved to the backseat but let’s not lock it up in the trunk.

Taking this a step further, part of fun in ministry is the concept of play…I use the concept of “play” to refer to the idea of creativity and taking risks (the days of make believe, when army soldiers, Transformers or Barbie’s came to life out of the toy boxes of our youth). Maybe our conservative, no risk, modern ministry models need to be refined or even replaced with more of a concept of uncompetitive play and fun. What if we looked at ministry and new ministries as fun ways of loving God and others and if by taking the risk, they didn’t work out then have we lost? Or, what if we opened up the floodgates of trapped and buried creatively to see the new ministry models, ideas and strategies that can creatively communicate the Gospel pour out into our every changing world. Maybe we have taken the competitive nature of our society and mistakenly imported it into ministry. And maybe…just maybe we need to do for ministry what Timbit Soccer and Timbit Hockey has done for kids sports – make them fun again, worrying less about winning and succeeding and more about seeing how we can partner with God and in that profound reality, having fun doing so. Consequently, we will inevitably fail at times, but can trying our best to honorably, joyfully and passionately serve God ever be defined as failure?

Writing something like this is risky as well…some may say that I don’t take God or ministry seriously enough. Well, if that is the case then they don’t know me and have misunderstood. Seeing God work, seeing Him turn death to life, seeing Him give light to darkness is serious stuff to be sure, but it is also exceptionally fun.

Imagine the disciples ministering with Jesus, seeing the lame walk, the blind see, the dead rise…that sounds like fun to me. Serving the God of the universe is a serious calling with a burden to bear, but let’s not forget that when we serve God in the way he has called and gifted, it can be fun too.