My apologies for not blogging yesterday. My computer was down most of the day, and it took hours to restore it to health. Despite the fact that I lost absolutely everything on my hard drive, at least I'm up and running today.
Today I wanted to pause and brag on my Quaker meeting. We conducted a meeting for business that was remarkably free of the kind of unnecessary complications that arise when one creates needless formality and complication to a spiritual gathering. In short, gatherings should not be like work. We get enough of that in our day-to-day life. A total revulsion towards the sort of people who enjoy making rules, committees bearing unwieldy acronyms, and hoops to jump through is why I left congregational-based faith groups for good. This sort of behavior only distracts from fellowship.
And, allow me to pause to reflect upon this phenomenon when it pertains to meetings for business or when it comes time to revise statements of faith, principles, or modification of by-laws. The old slogan comes to mind---the most basic human need is not love or sex, but the ability to revise someone else's text. Certainly everyone knows the one person who is unsatisfied with just about anything, no matter how minor, and holds up the process. I'm fortunate that quabbling about semantics and phrasing is kept to a mimimum. Overly-dynamic behavior and power-plays have no place in the process.
The main idea of this whole post is likely quite plain. Church isn't really all about us in the end, after all. It's about the community, not the individual.
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