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Church Street, Princeton
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It would be just like him

The God of the Bible looks like Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. It would be just like him to go to the cross.

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Practicing Our Scales

Imagine if our walk with Christ, representing his kingdom in the world, were as practiced and pure as Hania Rani’s fingers on the piano keys.

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Rescue

I practice the spiritual discipline of rescuing earthworms on paved surfaces. It's a reminder to me that I can pause what I'm doing, get a little dirty, and help. Also, that I've been given the responsibility to care.

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Your Roots Are Showing

The life that I bring to the world can only be found in my attachment to Christ. His presence with me is essential.

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Connection

I live in a U.S. county with traffic problems. It's a peninsula, and what's not swamp land has been developed. Building new roads is difficult and expensive. Making things worse, roads that could connect don't.

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Forming Rick Shafer Forming Rick Shafer

Table-Centered

Gospel-centered. Bible-centered. Christ-centered. Cross-centered. How about Table-centered?

“We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. ”
— 1 John 1:3

We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

Gospel-centered. Bible-centered. Christ-centered. Cross-centered. These are familiar descriptions used by churches to communicate a core emphasis.

In the spirit of the verse above, I am proposing table-centered.

What an amazing invitation we are given here—to be in koinonia fellowship with other saints, together with the Father and the Son. Metaphorically, we share a table. (And why not literally too?)

One English word I use for koinonia is ‘companionship’. The etymology of ‘companion’ is ‘with bread’. It’s the idea of sharing a meal. And this, of course, reminds us of the Eucharist—Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the Passover Feast—where saints together take the Christ into our deepest parts. The word ‘Eucharist’ means ‘thanksgiving’. There’s gratitude and joy at this table.

It’s at the table that we exchange life with one another and we exchange life with the Father and the Son. We grow in intimacy. We worship. We discover who we really are and how to live. We practice hospitality. We share our struggles and burdens. We make plans for showing love to the world. And we make space for more people of every kind.

I rather like the idea of being a table-centered church.

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Forming Rick Shafer Forming Rick Shafer

So that

Blessed to be a blessing.

God's people are blessed by him

so that

God's people will be a blessing to every people

so that

Every people will be blessed by God.

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Forming Rick Shafer Forming Rick Shafer

Spoken Word

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

“Be filled with the Spirit by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (singing and making music with your hearts to the Lord), by always giving thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by submitting to one another in reverence for Christ. ”
— Ephesians 5:18-21

For millennia, Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs have helped to encourage and to lift spirits. Here, Paul tells the Ephesian church to take what's helpful personally and offer it to one another. The Church is a distinct, called-out body that's in the world but not of it. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs remind us of where we're really from and whose we really are. Over the next few weeks, can we be generous with one another in this way?

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