Doing life together

Submitted by Jeremy Scott on July 5, 2007 - 9:11pm.

A friend of mine once said, quoting someone else I’m certain, that ‘church’ is people “doing life together.” At the time I found it to be a rather obvious statement simply crafted to remind us of the basics of life. However, as I now look back at my first year of seminary, I understand more and more the depth and breadth of those three words and discover that I have been attending church nearly daily at the Church of Kliest Manor.

The Kliest Manors are the on-campus housing here at MTSO for couples and people with children. Our cozy two-bedroom apartment became our home last August. My wife and I divested of about a third of our worldly goods to fit into our new home yet surprising have yet to feel ourselves wanting for anything left behind. Our son, dripping with natural personality at the age of one, became and instant star on campus and we were known throughout as Gavin’s parents. The fellow students were warm and welcoming and it did not take long for friendships to form.

Like any church we’ve had our ups and downs. Some people understood our community and some mistook it for something else. People have joined and people have left, sometimes dramatically both ways. Our worship tends to be around a Settlers of Catan board and a game can be had almost nightly during the summer. The nursery is the courtyard next to my apartment where the children gather to swing on a rope and parents sit on a porch to discuss life’s happenings. On the surface it may seem basic and rather benign. Just a group of people who happen to live near each other making conversation. But it is so much more.

Last December when leukemia took my Godson it was this church that surrounded my family and I with love and support. When a friend was made a local pastor and assigned his first church it was this church that celebrated. At every holiday, birthday, and second Tuesday simply because we can, it is this church that chooses to be in community with each other. Chooses to share their lives with each other

I wanted to share this because I have often times forgotten the beauty of the simple versions of things. I am also not saying anything against Sunday morning church and its important role in my life. But, if we are to truly clothe ourselves in Christ then we must also immerse our self in his church. To do that we need to see all the other places were Christ is at work, all the other places church is happening, all the places we are simply “Doing life together.”

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