WACO—While many things in Baptist life are changing, some things should not. The church still is called to raise up authentic Christians, and the best ways to do that may be to use the same methodology of the early church—people living with a sense of community in pursuit of Christ’s call on their lives, an East Texas pastor said.
One of the ways to manage that may be through the “art of the commonplace,” said Kyle Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches, at a symposium sponsored by Baylor University’s Center for Ministry Effectiveness called “New Wineskins: Emerging Patterns of Congregational Life.”
“The art of the commonplace” is a line by poet/farmer Wendell Berry. Berry was talking about farming, but Childress said there is much to be gleaned from the idea for churches.
“The art of the commonplace refers to the art, the craft, and the skills which we have in common, in community,” he said. “For our purposes, it is about the common and shared life we have in Christ Jesus, in the body of Christ, and beyond that how we see through Christ our commonality with all of God’s creation. I believe a good working definition of pastoral ministry is to see it as art of the commonplace.”
Childress said the triune nature of God offers lessons for his church.
Triune nature of God
“This God is perfect communion, perfect relationship. And as the church has taught for centuries, we end up looking more like that which we adore,” he said. “The more we worship the God we know as Trinity, the more we move from discrete individuals to a community, a single body of Christ. At the same time, as we learn to practice a shared life with each other, we also come to know this Trinitarian God in deeper and more profound ways.
“If our people are going to live the Christ-like life, then they had better do it as a body or else they’ll never make it. Lone individuals trying to live faithfully cannot stand against sin, death, the powers and the overwhelming pressure of society.
“Ministry is the art of building that shared and common life. And we have to do it every day.”
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His Nacogdoches church of fewer than 100 is active in missions both local and abroad, but Childress said it is the everyday ministry that fosters the sense of community. Rather than individuals mowing the lawns of neighbors, a crew is established instead. Whether the task is a visit or rebuilding a porch, a group always is the desired way of getting it done.
Also, whatever the task, after it is finished, a time around a table, with either a meal or a cup of coffee, is seen as the way to conclude the ministry.
Daily, mundane shared life
“Of course, one thing that happens is that worship is both transformed and transforming by this daily, mundane shared life,” Childress said. “If you have several good groups getting together two or three times a week, working and serving and eating together, then the word and table on Sunday is different.”
And that difference in Sunday worship transforms the rest of the week, he said. “All that we do throughout the week becomes acts of worship.”
The sense of community continually must be cultivated if the church is going to remain separate from the worldview that exists outsides its walls, Childress stressed.
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