Growing up one of the defining Japanese imports of the 80’s was a cartoon whereby a fabulous super robot defended humanity from evil. What was unique about this super robot was unlike Robocop, where a deceased individual was converted into a machine, or R2D2 who was cute but honestly, limited, Votron was a collaboration. Votron was a group of smaller units coming together, working in unison to become super. Alone they were ordinary, together they were extraordinary. Evil didn’t stand a chance. If you can get past the overt kitchieness of the metaphor, OR its undebatable awesomeness, it’s not a bad way to view the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul describes the church as a body with Christ as her head. It is, like Voltron, the collaboration of ordinary people gifted by God to come together to become extraordinary.
At Vox, this means becoming a Covenant Member. Let us understand what it is by first explaining what it is not. First of all, it is not a contract. We live in a contractual society which makes consumer agreements to protect the self. A covenant is the opposite of that. It is a relational agreement for the sake of the other. Secondly, becoming a member is not like joining a club, like the YMCA or Costco. Rather, it is like Voltron and Paul’s metaphor to the Corinthian church, a physical body. In a body, the head needs the members and the members need each other.
Our hope is that we, as ordinary people striving to love God, can fight Western individualism and come together to become a healthy body, with Christ as our head. Vox will then collaborate with other bodies in our city and the ECC denomination. Through ECC, we will connect to global and historic church.
This past Saturday almost 60 of us came together to talk through God, Spiritual formation, Community diversity/unity and Mission. If you were able to attend, please turn in your application by Sunday, Feb 12th. A Navigation team member will meet with each applicant. If you were unable to attend, we will have another retreat in May. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.
May God’s mercy and grace be on each of us as we pray through, connect with His love and leadership, each other and God’s mission in this world.
[Artwork by Dallas Peters ]