Field of Dreams

           An expectation in the beautiful motion picture, FIELD OF DREAMS, was that people would come to the baseball diamond that Ray had built in his cornfield. The movie touchingly ends with a line of cars, stretching for miles, containing people coming to the diamond in the cornfield.

            A few years after the movie was released, I read something neat in the NEW YORK TIMES. On the baseball diamond where they filmed FIELD OF DREAMS, which was built in a real cornfield on a real farm in Iowa, people were coming to play baseball. They would come from morning till night. Strangers were getting together and playing baseball, just like kids.

            Someone built it, and they really did come.

            Does this not show us that there really is a hidden desire, a deep need within each of us, for relationships? There is a spark within us that desires to transcend the day-to-day struggle for success and possessions; it takes us back to our roots and to those values that go beyond time and space. It is the desire for community.

            I think the Church should be a place where that kind of community can be found.

No Community

            Several years ago, a courier sent the following to READER’S DIGEST:

As a courier for an express delivery service, I tried to deliver a package that required refrigeration, but found no one home. I went to the house next door and told the woman who answered that I had a package for her neighbor. 

"Oh, she works Monday through Friday and every other Saturday," said the woman, "and some Sundays. She leaves about 7:40 in the morning and gets home around 5:30, unless she goes to the store, in which case it's closer to seven. And she's going to the store tonight because her kids are coming to visit—one all the way from California!"

            When she paused to take a breath, I asked if she would accept her neighbor's package. "Oh, no, I can't do that," she said. "I don't know her that well."

            Some people don’t want to experience community; they want to keep others at arms length. God calls for people to live in community.

Let’s Make a Church Together

Many years ago, in my Abilene days, I heard Rick Atchley tell a story about a Vacation Bible School, where the preacher's wife was teaching third graders.

It was Wednesday, midway through the Bible School, when into class came a little boy, who hadn't visited yet. The boy’s name was Davey.

Davey only had one arm. This made the teacher nervous because kids can be cruel, and she was afraid that somebody would do something or say something that would make him feel awkward.

Nevertheless, everything went fine. They got all the way to the end of class, when the bell rang. The teacher did what she did every day at VBS; she said, "Okay, children, let's make our churches." Then she said, "Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors..."

She got to that point, when right there in front of her eyes, the horror of what she had done hit her. She had asked the children to do the one thing the boy couldn't do. So the teacher simply stopped.

Without even a nervous pause, a little girl moved her desk next over to the little boy’s desk. She took his hand into her hand, and she said, "Davey, let's make the church together.”

Isn’t the church like that? Flawed members pool their resources together to offer God and the world a church that is whole.

He Was Missed

            Deep in the heart of my files, I found a reference to a story Paul Harvey was supposed to have reported a decade or two ago. It seems, at that time, a seventy-three year old man was found pinned under his tractor on his farm. He had been there for a few days, but he survived his nightmare.

            What caught the attention of the person sharing this story was the fact that it was the members of his church, who figured out something was wrong. He did not show up for Wednesday night prayer meeting. This guy was always there at prayer meeting. If he was not there, something was wrong!

            Members immediately began investigating and that was when some discovered his terrible plight. What I like about that story was this—the man’s absence was noticed!

            If you were absent from a meeting of your faith community, small group, Bible study, or prayer group, would people notice? Would it be assumed part of your normal routine (here, absent, here, absent…)?

            Something else, do you let members known when you will not be present? At my church, we have a member who is autistic. She suffers from Asperger’s sydrome, just like Temple Grandin. This member is the best I have ever seen at letting me or others know she will not be at a certain event. She offers no surprises, but she does offer accountability.

            Shouldn’t we all practice this? Why is it that someone, who suffers from a disease that hampers her ability to relate to people, is the only one in our church, who gets a very important point about what it means to relate to people?

(Editor's note: in the original, I made reference to "Temple Grande." I am sure somewhere on this planet, someone carries the Spanish name--translated--of "Big Temple." However, that is not the same person as the one I intended to reference--Temple Grandin. My bad.) 

Goodbye, Office

Business writer and cultural observer, Seth Godin, says the office is on its way out. He believes that in ten years, reruns of NBC’s show, THE OFFICE, will be paying homage to a relic.

I have no way of knowing. Certainly, more and more people are working out of their homes. And Godin makes a compelling case. So let’s imagine what he says comes to pass. What will be the implications?

Will there be a greater desire for community, since a source of meeting that need will be eliminated?

Will family relationships become stronger; such as they were in times past when farmers worked at home amongst their family members?

Will people grow more spiritually with the temptations that come with many offices removed?

I believe if God’s people want to practice godly stewardship, it would behoove them to plan for this possible contingency. Remember, it’s always better to be ahead of the wave than to catch it in progress.