Voices: Christian faith is a shared life

Churches in my tradition commonly share what has been dubbed eloquently as “Wednesday night meal.” It is the only time I see some church members in an informal setting where we can catch up and visit about what is going on in our lives.

The church where I professed faith in Jesus had a small, but meaningful, Wednesday night meal gathering. We had two to three tables where people sat together. The youth group and children took up some of that space, and the adults took up the rest. No one was allowed to take their plate and eat in a different space in the church.

I don’t know how—maybe because it was not a big space—but we hardly segregated ourselves. The youth and teenagers sat interspersed with the adults.

The strangest part to me as a teenager was the adults acted like they really wanted to talk and listen to us. I was not sure why, but it made an impression on me. I had never participated in anything else where this happened.

Here is a challenge for you: The next time your church has a function where the congregation is present as a whole—a Wednesday night meal, a potluck, whatever—try to sit by a younger person if you are older, or an older person if you are younger.

It may be the only time you will sit and talk with this person throughout the week, or even the month. It may be the only time this person has a chance to eat with someone at all throughout the course of their week.

I know it sounds strange and a little uncomfortable, but if we cannot share our lives with one another, how do we ever expect we are going to share our faith with others?

Sharing the Lord’s Supper

At the beginning of COVID, our church temporarily changed the way we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. Instead of our traditional way of passing a plate person-to-person with the elements free to pick up, we called folks to get out of their seats and walk to distanced stations to retrieve prepackaged elements to open and consume when they got back to their seat.

This was not a hit with the congregation. Not only did they not enjoy having to get out of their seat, they struggled to open the packages with the thin flap over the bread and the thicker one over the juice. The bread tasted like Styrofoam and the juice like flat sugar water.

But from my perspective, it was interesting to watch our folks do this together. Some had to help others open their packages; some held them for others until they were ready; and instead of passing it from one to another, they shared in a walk together to receive it.

To me, the whole process actually was a beautiful metaphor of how we share our Christian lives of faith.

We are only able to share our lives with one another because of what Christ has done on our behalf. We are guaranteed we will mess up and need each other’s help and encouragement along the way.

Sharing our lives

When we share our lives of faith, people are transformed. The Thessalonians were transformed, because Paul not only shared words with them, he shared himself with them.

Read what Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians: “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thessalonians 2:8b).

Paul is saying to them and to us the gospel compels us to share our lives with others. This is what motivated Paul and his companions to minister among the Thessalonians.

“Lives” means more than just our physical lives; it means our whole being.

By the time Paul wrote this letter, about a year had passed since he left Thessalonica. Timothy’s report of how the Thessalonians were doing prompted Paul’s letter encouraging them to stay strong and live ready in the Lord.

We need that same reminder if we are going to prioritize sharing our lives with others in the way Paul encourages.

Sharing involves sacrifice

It is important to note: Sharing our lives with others as the gospel compels sometimes demands sacrifice. Sacrifice is at the heart of the gospel and is displayed fully in the cross of Christ. If this is not your motivation, you eventually will quit.

In the relatively short time I have served in ministry, I have seen a number of Christians deflect from service when it became too sacrificial.

Sometimes it happened in the midst of conflict. Sometimes it happened when they experienced some kind of frustration in their personal lives. Sometimes it happened alongside bad or immoral leadership in the church. But it always had to do with what was motivating the person to go, serve and be involved in church and ministry to begin with.

Levi Price used to tell us in our pastoral ministry class at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary that ministry has the highest highs and the lowest lows. As good as the highs are, you cannot live for them.

You have to be motivated by the selfless love embodied by our Lord and Savior that makes all things possible. And often that selfless love embodied in us leads us to set aside our preferences in favor of sharing life together.

Matt Richard is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Llano. His bachelor’s degree is from East Texas Baptist University, and he has a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. The views expressed are those solely of the author.