Devotions for Teachers: Community

44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:44-47

The fuel that used to power these weekly devotions was my pastor’s sermons on Sunday mornings. At the beginning of quarantine, it felt like it would be short-term, and watching church online wouldn’t be a big deal.

Over time though, my technology burn-out set in, and I started avoiding any tech-based activities that weren’t work related. This included streaming church. It felt too sad to ‘tune in’ for worship, when I used to SO look forward to that weekly, live reset.

The more months I went without church, the more untethered I became. I have spent the past 8 months or so of my life swimming in the deep-end of workaholic-ism (is this a word?) And when I say deep end, I maybe mean drowning?

I know now that I wanted to hide from all of the hard things of life. I’m still battling this a bit. Work has always been my identity when all else fails me, and in 2020 I have let my work completely consume me. It’s been terrible. I have been so uncomfortable in my own skin without friendship or community around me. And when I let myself sit too still in that discomfort, guess what I do?? I create more projects!

We recently went to church for the first time since February. It’s a hassle to go now. We have to reserve childcare, and there are all kinds of new rules about where you can enter and where you can walk. It took us a hot minute to build up the gumption to try it (and to snag a highly coveted childcare slot), so here it is, October 11, and we’ve been to church once since COVID hit.

When I was there, live in church, I felt so at peace. I felt a piece of my heart that I had buried under deadlines and to-do lists all through quarantine come back to life. It felt good to sit near others (six feet apart, of course…but near enough). It felt good to sing along with other humans. It felt good to hear the teaching of someone wiser than myself.

And then we left. And I realized that I didn’t know when we’d be back. The childcare space is so limited they can’t guarantee it to the same families every week, or there would be families who would never get it. Who knows when we’ll be picked in the lottery again. Taking toddlers into the sanctuary is the equivalent of not even being there, so without childcare, we won’t go.

And then I thought about the sermon from that morning, and something else hit me: church is not contained to four walls.

In fact, (this is how deep I let these thoughts spiral), church is a giant metaphor for life. A bunch of people show up ready to give the strongest gifts they have to making this single organization work. The singers join the worship team. The teachers volunteer to lead Sunday school. The mentors join the youth ministry. The leaders and detail-oriented organize events and fundraisers. The money-minded collect offerings. Everyone puts their best foot forward once a week to keep things in motion.

But (and this is biblical) the idea of the church was always meant to be a symbol of how we should conduct ourselves out in the real world. We humans do a terrible job of this. More often than not, our churches are messy and full of conflict, drama, and broken people trying to break others. I’ve been witness to many, many horrific church experiences that would have turned me away from church altogether if I had been old enough to make that choice for myself.

But the way Jesus did church? That’s what we should be after.

Jesus spent his time in large crowds. He spent his time in small groups. He spent his time with the people of the world, not the leaders of the church. He led the most perfect example of fellowship and building community, and then said: “Hey-y’all need to be my hands and feet, because I won’t be here to do this forever”. Which meant: watch and learn. Do what I do.

But we don’t. We put church in this tiny box of something good we do on Sunday mornings, and we like to check it off as our feel-good moment for the week, and then move on with the rest of our lives.

But when church was taken away? We simply didn’t do anything at all. (Or at least I didn’t. Remember…I write these for myself.)

So, let me bring this long, winding tale back to how it relates to your teaching life. And let me do it with a football analogy, because it’s fall in the south, and what else would I do?

When you go to church, you’re sitting in the bleachers. You’re amongst other ‘fans’. It’s easy to just be a receiver of the goodness around you. You’re sharing your gifts, or maybe your’e just observing, and others are pouring their gifts back into you. Everyone is there for the same reason.

When you go to work this week…you’re on the field, in the game. There’s adversity. There are people who don’t feel the same way you do. There are people with different beliefs, different values, different life experiences. THAT is where Jesus wants you. That’s where he’d be.

If church is still stripped away from you, or you’ve chosen not to return, or you’ve gone back but it’s all so different, I need you to know that church is simply a metaphor. The real church is in the staff break room. Real church is during your planning time when your team comes to ask how you’d handle a parent email. Real church is when that kid who is just a little too much, on top of all of the COVID stress, makes you want to snap.

The messy. The real. The broken. The forsaken. That’s where you have the perfect opportunity to let your inner peace shine. And that inner-peace (without even speaking Jesus’ name, mind you) is POWERFUL. It’s the difference between someone leaving your room after planning time more overwhelmed than they started, or feeling slightly more joyful. It’s the difference between a kid shrugging off an assignment, or giving it one more try.

In Acts, 2:44-47, the believers are described as gathering EVERY DANG DAY, and it brought God so much joy that he blessed them with more and more congregation members. Now, I’m happy for them that they had all this free time to go to church every day, but as times change so must we. Now, our opportunity to gather and break bread is right where we are. Look no further-the teacher across the hall needs you to be the calm in her storm. She needs your light to shine through her darkness and give her hope. And that will make God so happy, he will entrust you with more people who need your grace.

We are the church, and we take it with us wherever we go. And if 2020 results in more people feeling the grace of God in every day situations, then it was actually exactly what we needed.