I decided to follow up my first series on the spiritual discipline of staying put by starting a new series yesterday on the spiritual discipline of hanging out. It comes on the heels of a great weekend that I spent speaking on Show Time with some men from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana, CA. We "hung out" together at a beautiful mountain retreat in Idyllwild, below the towering Tahquitz Peak and spoke of living out our faith in ways that even unbelievers could respect. It was a great weekend.
But what struck me again is the power of time spent together in discussion, prayer and fun (men's retreats always have a good deal of fun connected). The men spent hours in small groups, on walks, at meals. It was truly multi-generational gathering of fathers, grown sons, and in some cases, grown grandsons. It was rich and warm and full of life.
So why does someone like Dietrich Bonhoeffer warn us that these kinds of gatherings can actually break down community? Ponder this excerpt from Life Together (a true classic) and tomorrow I'll respond with my take. Bonhoeffer warns his readers that attempts to make pure "spiritual communities" are dangerous to genuine Christian faith:
A purely spiritual relationship is not only dangerous but an altogether abnormal thing....(and) it is precisely in retreats of short duration that the human element develops most easily. Nothing is easier than to stimulate the glow of fellowship in a few days of life together, but nothing is more fatal to the sound, sober brotherly fellowship of everyday life." (p. 38-39)
So, we shouldn't go on retreat? Or is there an important point here about what hanging out is all about?
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