504: The Four Pillars — Coming Home to Community

Summary

The BEMA Podcast

Episode 504: The Four Pillars — Coming Home to Community
Date: May 21, 2026
Host: BEMA Discipleship (Marty Solomon, Brent Billings, L. Grover Fricks)

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Overview

This episode concludes The Four Pillars series by focusing on the pillar of Community. Guided by L. Grover Fricks, the co-hosts reflect on biblical and contemporary perspectives on community, loneliness, and what it means to be the people of God together. The conversation weaves through biblical language, literary metaphors, personal stories, and cultural critique to explore why community is central to discipleship and spiritual flourishing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Loneliness Epidemic and Its Spiritual Implications

[00:16–05:05]

• Brent opens by sharing a “poem” crafted from Google News headlines on the “loneliness epidemic," highlighting the global scope and varied angles on the issue.

  “AI friends won't solve our loneliness epidemic. Parasocial relationships are not real relationships.” — Brent Billings [02:10]

• The co-hosts discuss society's deep need for authentic human connection, relating it to being made in the image of a relational God.

  "Lord of the Rings would not be as compelling if Frodo was like, ‘I'm going to take off on my horse all by myself...’ The part that makes us cry is Samwise running into the river... That togetherness, being on mission together." — Brent [04:47]

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2. Witness, Memory, and Communal Storytelling in Scripture

[05:42–11:08]

• Elle Fricks introduces biblical concepts around the Tabernacle, “tent of witness,” and the Hebrew word ood (to repeat, to testify), connecting them to the fabric of community.

  “To witness something is to have to tell the story again and again... Our memories need it. We laugh, we cry together, we remember together as we bear witness to the knowing of this person.” — Elle [07:20]

• The act of telling stories and remembering as a community is compared to eulogies, family gatherings, and times of lament and celebration.

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3. Longing for the Bridegroom: Community as Shared Waiting and Worship

[08:44–13:36]

• Elle presents the parable of the bridesmaids (Matthew 25) and the concept of Christian community as a “bride longing for the return of the bridegroom.”

  "We're adding our witness to that song. We're saying, 'I know this thing that we are singing to be true and trustworthy and stable for the bride whose groom has gone away.'” — Elle [10:19]

• References to literary and cinematic examples (e.g. Little Women and Lord of the Rings) illustrate how stories of community and longing for reunion speak to something deeply human and spiritual.

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4. The Spirit of Prophecy and Testimony

[13:17–17:09]

• Elle unpacks the link between “witness” (ood) and “the spirit of prophecy” in Revelation 19:10, inviting Brent to read the passage in the King James Version.

  “For the witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” — Revelation 19:10 (read by Brent) [16:49]

• Sharing testimonies (personal stories of God’s movement) is portrayed as an act of prophecy that builds up the community and keeps the flame of faith alive.

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5. The Challenge and Healing of Community after Church Hurt

[18:18–23:13]

• Addressing listeners wary or wounded by church experiences, Elle offers compassion and encouragement to seek safer, healthier spaces for community.

  “…sometimes you don’t realize that other communities exist, that there are places which aren't doing those things...your presence, your voice is important. There are groups out there who are trying to do things the right way…and they need you.” — Elle [20:32]

• The co-hosts discuss the illusion of safety in solitude versus the healing found in restorative community.

  “There’s a part of my insides that go, ‘Well, what could be more safe than solitude?’ And I immediately was like, actually, that's not…where I'll experience, typically…the fullness of healing at all.” — Marty [22:18]

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6. Online Community vs. Embodied Community

[23:13–25:59]

• Referencing Pete Davis's Dedicated, Elle contrasts online community (“a little bonfire in the tundra”) with the richness of sharing real-life together.

  “It’s only our heads that tries to tell us what our bones in our heart already knows. We're not actually fine. We need other people.” — Elle [33:36]

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7. The Temptation of Spiritual Elitism and Self-Sufficiency

[25:44–32:51]

• Elle and Marty reflect on how discovering deeper biblical context or suffering church hurt can lead to either disengagement or arrogant correction of others.

• True community requires humility, patience, and openness to others’ journeys with God.

  “God doesn't actually need me to be his police force...my calling is to run around and fix everybody's incorrect ideas.” — Elle [25:44]

  “…I love community more than I love my theology or my idea of hermeneutics…I have a higher premium, a higher value on the people, on the personhoods of all these folks that surround me…” — Marty [26:10]

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8. The Essenes: A Warning Against Withdrawal

[28:32–34:45]

• The hosts use the Essenes as an illustration of what happens when spiritual commitment becomes a pretext for isolation and superiority, instead of flourishing with others.

  “If the groom loves somebody…we should be right there alongside him…If Jesus loves this person, obviously I do too.” — Elle [31:59]

• The culmination: biblical community is about “knowingness” of the groom (Jesus) displayed through knowing, loving, and belonging with his people.

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9. Coming Home: The Table, the Family, the Insula

[34:45–37:04]

• Community in the Bible is pictured as coming home: to the wedding feast (Revelation 19), to the insula (a group home in ancient culture), to the family adopted in Christ (Ephesians).

  “God has a dream and it’s a safe place, it’s a safe family to belong to. And that is where he’s drawing us back unto…himself.” — Marty [34:50]

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• “[On witness] Sometimes they're new stories nobody's ever heard before…it sparks delight in us to hear, ‘ugh, that's so them.’ And sometimes they're stories we know by heart, line by line, but we love to hear…retelling that story makes us miss them…but our memories need it.” — Elle [07:34]

• “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” — Elle [16:49]

• “The kingdom of God is described in Isaiah as all of those who have been scattered being called home to one another…Let’s not be too self-sufficient or too good or too right for the wedding feast and miss out on that knowingness, miss out on those ouds, those stories.” — Elle [33:36]

• “If we're starting to live a Christian life that looks like camping out in a little shed in the middle of nowhere…we're going to have a hard time in heaven. The diversity of thinking and the diversity of people up there…” — Elle [35:59]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Loneliness Epidemic, Shared Longing: [00:16–05:42]
• Biblical Witness, Stories in Community: [05:42–11:08]
• Bridegroom Metaphor, Parable of Bridesmaids: [08:44–13:36]
• Spirit of Prophecy, Testimony: [13:17–17:09]
• Safe Community after Church Hurt: [18:18–23:10]
• Online vs. In-Person Community: [23:13–25:59]
• Temptation to Withdrawal or Spiritual Policing: [25:44–32:51]
• The Essenes as Warning, Call to Humility: [28:32–34:45]
• Homecoming & Divine Belonging: [34:45–37:04]

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Tone & Language

• Warm, compassionate, a bit playful, but also earnest and direct—especially in addressing hurt, loneliness, or spiritual disillusionment.
• Richly metaphorical—moving fluidly from scriptural exegesis to literary references to pop culture to real-life pastoral encouragement.
• Invitation to belonging over correctness, humility over pride, shared story over solitude.

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Useful Links and References (Mentioned or Quoted)

• Book: Dedicated by Pete Davis
• Clips: Little Women (the letter scene), Lord of the Rings (Sam/Frodo at the river)
• Biblical Passages: Matthew 25, Revelation 19, Hebrews 12, Ephesians
• Music: Handel's Messiah performance ("For the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth")
• Misc.: Etymology of “tabernacle” and “witness”; reference to King James Bible language; historical note on “thorn” letter in English

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Summary: Central Takeaway

Community is not just a helpful add-on to the Christian life—it is central to our identity as witnesses of God’s movement in the world. We are invited to bear witness together, to share story and memory, to live out longing for Christ with and for one another. Despite wounds or disappointments, finding healing, joy, and the fullness of knowing God comes, in part, through courageous re-entry into the company of others who are also longing, witnessing, and coming home.

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End Episode

Transcript

[A]

Oh, dear. Everybody's Kleenexing.

[B]

I'm so sorry. May we be healed for the sake of the audio engineer.

[A]

Amen.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

This is the Bama podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co host, Brent Billings. Today we are wrapping our hands around the pillar of community, guided by L. Grover Fricks.

[C]

Hello, by L. Grover Fricks. We've been walking through these four pillars and it's my series. It was my little baby creation. So I figured I'd start every pillar. But then I want to hear from the other teammates, the other co hosts, and say, when you think of this pillar and you think of this idea, what do you think about? What comes to mind? What are you passionate about? What would you like to say? And I wasn't around when Elle talked about the text and I haven't heard it yet. I hope he said something good.

[B]

Elle, it's just all hair. Don't worry about it.

[C]

Great. That is what we do. That is on brand for the Baymont podcast. But I'm here to make sure everything stays roped in on this one, so.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

Oh, boy. But what kind of things do you think of when you think about community? Take it away.

[B]

Oh, man. Things that I think about. I want to start in honor in the style of Reid Dent. Shout out to Derek Rohr and the Living Poet Society because I have a little quote unquote poem. And these are the top 12 first results. When I search for the term loneliness epidemic into Google news now. This is whenever I wrote this piece, so it'll be outdated if you try to check my work. But here goes. How social boundaries might be contributing to the loneliness epidemic. How the loneliness epidemic is affecting black men. AI friends won't solve our loneliness epidemic. The loneliness epidemic is changing young people. Surgeon General called loneliness an epidemic. The way to fix it doesn't come from a doctor. How the Eugene YMCA plans to fight loneliness epidemic. Locally, America glorifies what makes it lonely and women silently pay the price. The new retirement loneliness epidemic. Why finances are only half the battle are neighbors. The key to solving the loneliness epidemic going no contact with family fuels loneliness epidemic. Fighting Korea's loneliness epidemic with convenience stores. And finally loneliness and isolation. The hidden threat to global health we can no longer ignore. That last one is from the World Health Organization.

[A]

What a delightfully varied list indeed.

[B]

Convenience stores.

[A]

The YMCA of Eugene, specifically.

[B]

Yeah. Women and black men.

[C]

I hear that list. And sometimes I'm used to, like the cold open, like really inspiring. And here is this Google search and I'M like,

[B]

yes, when I had the joy of attending living Poet Society, somebody, some wonderful student of Reid and Derricks read the like Google Androids lists for deactivating your account from something.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

And it was like eight times the length. So just, just know this study, this little study and the loneliness epidemic is nice and brief.

[C]

Nice.

[B]

But I chose that because it feels illustrative of this problem that we know we have that every news organization is writing about, every, you know, social media network is talking about, every organization is trying to address this problem because we know real relationships are increasingly hard to come by. AI relationships are not real relationships. Parasocial relationships are not real relationships. Online relationships are not the fullness of in person relationships, even real long distance friendships or relationships in those we feel that like angst, that pain, that wishing that that person wasn't so far off. And we know that's part of being made in the image of God. And the Trinity is relational. And so we find ourselves looking for that relationship. Unless we have steeped ourselves in our loneliness for so long that we become high in our own supply of self sufficiency and then cut ourselves off and become numb to that. But even if that's the case, we still know that it's part of our spiritual DNA because we still love these stories of family. You found family of belonging, where there's a team that loves one another, working together toward a common goal. Right. Lord of the Rings would not be as compelling if Frodo was like, I'm going to take off on my horse all by myself and I'm going to get the ring into the volcano. The end. I've got it, everyone.

[C]

And Samwise is like, I'll pray for you.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Thoughts and prayers, my guy. You've got this. Bye. No, the part that makes us cry is Sam running into the river even though he can't swim, and launching himself after Frodo. That's what grab our hearts, because we know it's about that togetherness, being on mission together. So link in the description for or the show notes for that clip. Obviously. Obviously.

[C]

Obviously. One of the best read and watched,

[B]

but. So if this is what we know our hearts long for, where can we start? When we're looking in the text, as we want to do here at the Bama podcast, what does community mean? What are these words we use? Where do they come from? Well, in the text, there's the word for the tabernacle. Now, tabernacle in English comes from the word tavern, which is fun. Tavern just means little Hut so if you were reading it in the Latin, it'd be like, oh, yeah, the little tavern of God. That's fun. But that's not what it says in the Hebrew. It's the word tent of witness is often how I translate it in my translations. And it's about the tent, but also God's people are described as the witnesses in Hebrew. That word that I'm translating, witness, is the word ood. Ood just means again. So to witness something is to have to tell the story again and again and again. So if we've ever been part of the criminal justice world, we know that that is the work. If something has happened, you have to tell this group and this group and this person and this person and recount the story again and again and again. The word witness in English is tied to the word knowingness. Knowingness. If you look up the etymology there, it's pretty cool. And to me, this reminds me of if you're at a funeral or awake, the people there, if the person was well loved, they gather around to bear witness, to tell a story, to minister to each other by telling stories of who that person was. Eulogy just means you good. And then logos, word. They're telling good stories. They're telling witnesses. Sometimes they're new stories which nobody's ever heard before. And it, like sparks delight in us to hear. Ugh, that's so them. I love that. And sometimes they're stories that we know by heart, line by line by line, but we love to hear it anyway because we love this person. And retelling that story makes me miss them, makes us miss them. But our memories need it. We laugh, we cry together, we remember together as we bear witness to the knowing of this person. So God's people are people who know him apart from me. I never knew you. Right. Matthew 7. And then people who delight in telling the story of experience of God, of encounters of God, stories of God again and again and again.

[C]

I do love the idea of witness. It's one of those good words that I like to. I think I've bumped into it the most in conversations about lament, somebody bearing witness. But that communal aspect of somebody needs to see this, somebody needs to be here, and somebody needs to affirm it and speak to it and say it again, as that Hebrew word refers to. But I do love that.

[B]

Yeah, it's also where we get martyr from. It's just the exact same word. We're telling stories. People have experienced something of God that they find all sufficient to get them through Their martyrdom, their witnessdom. I want to talk about a couple of pictures. I want to pull a couple threads. When we're thinking about community, when we're thinking about what it means to be the people of God and what we're looking for and what we long for. And I want to have this central image we see throughout the text of the bride longing for the return of the bridegroom. So top of the list, in my mind, we've got Matthew 25, right, this story about these women. And half of them have enough oil to make it through the night, and half of them don't. But they're all longing for the groom to come, right? And we can unpack that story. It's amazing. Little parable that. Not entirely going to do here. But I love that picture about Christian community because it paints Christian community, not just about accountability or doing spiritual disciplines together or studying the text together, which, don't hear me wrong, I love being faithful together. It's one of the delights of my life. It shows up in my life psalm. But we are witnesses. So when we're doing corporate worship together, for instance, we're singing about the goodness of God. We're not just, like, listing the doctrines that we all assent to. We're adding our witness to that song. We're saying, I know this thing that we are singing to be true and trustworthy and stable for the bride and her groom has gone away. We're waiting for his return. We're catching glimpse of these stories about the groom that's gone. In the movies, there's that trope where usually, like, the dad or the husband or the son or whoever has gone off to war, but he sends a letter home. And then the wife or the mom or whoever it's written to, they clutch that letter to themselves, so excited to receive it. And then they read it, and then they go and share it with their community, right? There's a letter, there's a letter, There's a letter. A classic example of that is in the new version of Little Women. Laura Dern walks in with the letter. It's like almost Christmas, I think. And they all pile up. All the women pile up on top of each other in this living room. And Florence Pugh says, jo's in the back, so we can't see her cry. And she says, so what if I do? Somebody asks, will he be coming home? And Laura Dern says, he will stay and work faithfully as long as he can. We can't ask for him to come back a minute Sooner than he can be spared. So I put that link in the show notes, too.

[C]

Well, I'm never going to be able to talk about the parable of the bridesmaids, and not now. Picture Florence Pugh and the cast from Little Women. That's fantastic.

[B]

Right? Such a good movie. I love it. But I think it's capturing something important. And that parable is capturing something important that if we don't have any of that sorrow in our heart, any of that longing, any of that waiting for the bridegroom to return, even though we have the spirit, which I think the oil in that story is about the spirit. Yes. But in that story, there's still that eagerness for the presence of Jesus. And again, as we tell those stories, as we talk about our encounters, whether through the reading of the text or through the sharing of what's going on in our lives or through singing, all of those things are testifying to ourselves and to those around us, whether we're in a space of being able to believe it or not. Right. It's work for people who are kind of like, is God really good? I don't know. And we're sharing our story of the goodness of God. We're the bride wanting to catch a glimpse of what the groom has been up to in the world. And we need one another to do that work. We can't just do it all by ourselves, because sometimes we'll be in the dark night of the soul. And even if you do live a life that's full of encounters of God just constantly, you still delight in hearing from others because you're like, oh, that's my God. That's amazing. I love to hear that. Now, every charismatic I know, whether they're in their car or at their forklift or making a meal, whatever you're up to, I can hear you yelling into the air as soon as we talk about witness or testimony. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. You guys run into this text, this motto anywhere, or is that just me?

[C]

I have not, nor have I heard anybody equate the oil to the Spirit. So I'm in good, uncharted Charismatic Pentecostal territory right now.

[B]

Welcome.

[A]

Yeah, I have to say that I am with Marty.

[B]

What? No way.

[A]

I'm in the same position.

[B]

Okay, well, Bibleproject talks about the oil being the spirit, so it's not just me.

[C]

All right.

[B]

And it's not just charismatics, although I have no idea how charismatic they get over there, but I know a bunch of our listeners are, and so they're probably already yelling at that. So I'll talk about this for just a sec. So prophecy profe me, fay me. According to the Lexicons, though Greek, you know, is not tattooed on my heart in the way that Hebrew is. The Lexicons define thaymi as bringing into the light or making known one's thoughts. So when we share the stories of the movement of God in our lives, in the context of community, we're encountering one another, in the context of encountering God, we're sharing the spirit and bringing into the light something that might be happening in somebody else's life, something that's percolating for somebody else. And so I want to read the wholeness of that little pricope. So, Brent, I know you adore the KJV with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your might, et cetera, so I'll ask you to take on that from Revelation 19. And why the KJV? To me, Revelation just ought not to be read in anything but the KJV. It's the only book that demands the KJV.

[A]

Yeah. The note here says Revelation 19. KJV for Brent. But the way I read that is KJV for to torture Brent.

[B]

Oh, no, it's not too tricky. You've got it. I believe in you.

[A]

All right, all right. Thank you. A voice came out from the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him both. Nope. Yep. See, it's awful already. I just. Sorry, I just read this thing about how. Yeah. The reason that word exists is because there was an entirely different letter that we dropped, and typographers didn't want to have to make a new letter, so they just replaced the. I can't even remember what it's called, the Theo or something. It stands for the th sound. So it's supposed to be the word the. And they replaced it. So anyway, this whole, like, Middle English period has. Has this word that wasn't even supposed to be this word. Anyway, sorry, I'm thinking about that in the background. I will try again. A voice came out from the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both great and small. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, alleluia. For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, rejoice, give honour to him. For the marriage of the lamb is come, and his bride hath made herself ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And the voice saith unto me, write, blessed are they which are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, do it not. I am thy fellow servant. And of thy brethren that have the witness of Jesus, worship God, for the witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

[B]

There it is. There it is. Thanks, Brent.

[A]

One rough start, and then I made it through.

[B]

Yeah. And I got to eat some skittles, so great.

[C]

And that was a clever Gezer shava in your little part there, Elle. Connecting with the bridegroom and the wedding feast and the. Yeah, maybe the Charismatics are up to something here. I like it. I like it. Okay. Okay.

[B]

Amazing. Yeah. We're. We've got the commandment. We've got. The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, which I cannot not hear. The Messiah handles Messiah while reading that. So that's also going to be in the show notes.

[C]

That's way better. I can only hear summer camp. The Lord reigneth and blessed be the rock. And the rockets are salvation. I can't sing anymore.

[A]

Oh, well, fun fact, Marty. I got to experience Handel's Messiah, including the voice of Elle at a local. What is it? The Palouse.

[B]

Palouse Choral Society, baby.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

That was a fun concert with orchestra. Yep. It was great. And I get to sing it a lot. But, yeah, elements we've got here, we've got. Be glad, rejoice, give honor. Those are, like, the themes of my life, those two things. Hand in hand. Rejoice and give honor. The bride is arrayed in white. We are called to the feast. Worship God.

[C]

Why?

[B]

For the witness. The Ood, the storytelling again, of what Jesus has been doing is the breath of what has been revealed and the light, perhaps for another person. That's what we're doing, man. And, like, if that's what's happening in eternity, the fact that we get to echo that down on the ground is a beautiful parallel. So comforting if you're not, like, super in agreement with everybody in your community, just knowing that there's a cloud of witnesses, Ding, ding, ding. Hebrews 12 on the other side of the world to come, who are joining you in that work. Ugh. Scrumptious.

[C]

Well, and I think I'm appreciating now in a new way, like, how much that's A theme of Revelation. Like we keep seeing multitudes or those that have been martyred, you know, dressed in white robes or this great choir and what they're singing like, you're hearing groups of people give ood.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And now in Revelation 19, all that's kind of coming, we keep coming back to it, hearing it. And this is. This is the spirit of prophecy, this testimony that keeps being born out over and over again.

[B]

Beautiful. So if you're out there and you're hearing this, hell wants me to be in community. Because it's not just about community. It's also about worshiping God and hearing from hints of what God's been up to in the world. And there's something in you that says, I don't know, let's look at those reasons for a minute, because I hear you. I've absolutely 1000% been there. So if you don't feel like being in community, being with other Christians, other witnesses, because you've experienced anything, including and not limited to corruption in the church, traumatic experiences in the church, difficulty in that community, I hear you. I have yada. I have this experiential knowledge. I understand and I've been there. If that's you out there, I do lovingly urge, just perhaps in time, that you seek out, you pursue places of safety, places that do have different values, churches that are built in a way that does not perpetuate those same kinds of harms. Right. Because it's not that I'm asking all of us to drag ourselves back to the same places where harm is being perpetuated without repentance. Right. That's not. That's not the goal. But sometimes you don't realize that other communities exist, that there are places which aren't doing those things. And sometimes we get stuck in our little denominational hole and we feel like, well, there's nobody else around. There are. There's always somebody else around, around. And maybe that's a different denomination, maybe that's a different church, maybe that's a Baymont group near you. But try trying to find someone, some other place, trying to find some other place because it is so good for us as part of our DNA, like we've been talking about, to be in a team that's going one direction, to have belonging. And as much as we need that, other people need you, listener, your presence, your voice is important. And there are groups out there who are trying to do things the right way in ways that are healthy and promote the flourishing of all people and following Jesus. And they need You. And so if that's you, you've experienced all this harm, don't let that harm be the end of your story, right? Be like, I used to do this, and then these bad people did this, and that was the end, Right? That's a bummer if that's the. The last line of the story of our community, right? Let there be in faith, in trust, because it's hard to get back out there again. I've been there along the way. Might have some exciting adventures. I know when I was in that period of time, somebody tried to give me an exorcism. Somebody tried to, like, with the feather earring, went to give me a hug. Both were traumatizing. Just kidding. Can tell I've gotten off of my hair outline.

[C]

Well, when you said that, Elle, I wondered about. Well, you framed it up as when you started. You said, you know, find those safe, which I love. I love the concept of places of safety. And when we say that, we usually are speaking of communal spaces. And it made me think, like, I think there's a part of my insides that go, well, what could be more safe than solitude? And I immediately was like, actually, that's not. Ooh, that is not a safe. That's not where I'll experience, typically, at least the fullness of healing at all. Like, I'm gonna experience that with safe people that build me up and help me heal and encourage me and bear witness and do the Ood thing. Because. Yeah, I. Yeah, yeah. I think there's a title for your. Your episode. The Ood Thing.

[B]

The Ood Thing.

[C]

The Ood of Community. There you go. I love it.

[B]

I haven't seen Doctor who, but I've been told that oohed as a creature from Doctor who, so that'll be great. Confuse people right off the bat, but, yeah, I hear you. There's that, like, siren song of being like, I'll show you safety. Safety is being alone in the boat. And we don't even realize the. Sometimes the spirals, the whirlpools that we can get into, because is that solitude really solitude, or are we still taking in all of the news and all of the social media? Right? It's not really that. It's just our voice and God there on the iceberg, floating there as a little seal. There's really all these other voices that we still often listen to and call it solitude. And then Pete Davis, in the book Dedicated, which I've talked about in previous seasons, absolutely adore that book. He talks about online communities and feel like you're in the tundra and there's this little bonfire, and you found, like, a tiny scrap of people. And it's not like a place of flourishing necessarily. It doesn't have the fullness of, like, being in an abbey, being in a full community. But we find, like, a little tiki torch planted in the tundra, and we're like, hey, that is still different than fully sharing life with other people. Right. It's only when you choose to log in, when you choose to share certain specific things, the rest of who you are isn't necessarily known in those spaces. So, yeah, different places feel like they're safe, but are they? Another thing that can come up when we're feeling our resistance to being back in community with other Christians is that frustration, especially if you're, like, brand new to Bama and brand new to looking at the text from this different perspective and you've been eating up Forman and all the other gems that we adore so much. There is this phenomenon that can happen where we can get frustrated, especially if we haven't been asked into the elder seats of the community that we're in yet to say, these people don't get it. They don't know the things that I do. They're missing it, and so why even bother going? And I get that. I've been there, too. I was the insufferable spiritual Gestapo, breaking people's windows and hauling them out of their car as a youth, yelling, like, don't you know about the Context of Jeremiah 29:11? It took me a while to learn that God doesn't actually need me to be his police force. That's not really. Actually, my calling is to run around and, like, fix everybody. Incorrect ideas.

[A]

Yeah, I had to learn that, too, at some point.

[B]

Big bummer, honestly, because it feels powerful. Right?

[A]

Yeah, it was a great time.

[B]

It's a rush being like, you're missing it. And I have the real thing here, let me tell you.

[C]

That's also really helpful. I answer that question a lot in different ways of, like. Like, why do you hang around the church? Like, why are you still. How do you even sit through. It'll be different questions in different ways. Like, how do you even sit through a story sermon, like a standard sermon? And in the context of this conversation, I think I really like this idea of. Because I love community more than I love my theology or my idea of hermeneutics, or I love people. And I don't always enjoy people, and not all communities are created equal, but I certainly enjoy People and I enjoy the church and I enjoy community more. I have a higher premium, a higher value on the people, on the personhoods of all these folks that surround me than I do my commitment to Jewish hermeneutics in the way that we're reading the New Testament. Like, right, that's important. Like I'll, I'll show up in a few Bible studies and, and drop some nuggets here and there. But I, I would rather show up in a Bible study and get to know some people and be around some folks so that we can ood.

[B]

So that we can ood. Absolutely. Yeah. And what we miss out because the spirit still moves in Peshat we talk about honoring pshat and so we should be able to listen to peshat and if we encounter that within ourselves that says boo. You know, I'm reminded of like Philippians where Paul's like, yeah, you're right, they're doing stuff in Jesus's name that is not kosher, that I do not approve of. But who cares because the name of Jesus is still being proclaimed, right? So can we find that same expanse of as Paul so that if somebody comes along and says, God does have a wonderful plan for my life, that we can say, that's amazing. Tell me, what have you heard? Because hearing that encounter first off helps us to love that person, right? And hear like, oh, God's doing some incredible things in you. That's so beautiful. And also again, spirit of prophecy is the possibility something could bubble up in you of saying like, oh, I haven't been thinking about the purpose that God has for me in my life and maybe something that they say will connect with something in you as well. So we get to experience all of that beauty and love and support. If we can set this inclination aside, which often comes to resemble self righteousness, of saying like, I know the things and you don't know the things and I am worthy and you are not worthy. We don't want to do that.

[C]

Well said.

[B]

The last thing that I can think of, though I'm sure there's more that can get in the way of our ability to be fully committed, dedicated, one might say, to community, is this idea of self sufficiency. The Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, lone wolf person out there in the wilderness who's like, it's just me and Jesus. We got this best case scenario, which often by the way, is a coping strategy and often a reasonable coping strategy, right? If you've left your church or if you've been chased out of your church, There can be that moment in the darkness again, that night of the soul, where it's like, man, if I'm not able just to experience the all sufficiency of God for me in that moment when it's just me and him, then we have some ways to grow as well, right? But we're not talking about that. We're talking about community. The best case scenario, if we become addicted to that feeling of it's just me and God out there in the desert, the best case is we become like the Essenes, right? Huffing and puffing out there in the middle of nowhere, rolling their eyes at everyone else's corruption, which wasn't that they were wrong, by the way, and then patting themselves on the back that the sons of light will be preserved and the sons of darkness will be destroyed. And I know some of us, probably me as well, and probably other people in the Zoom room, identify with being an Essene. And we love that. We love commitment to God. That's a credible gift to be made that way. And also, as Marty always says, they weren't in the Shephelah. They weren't ministering to the people that God had placed around them. They shut themselves up in those mountains and said, what we've got going on here is better than where God placed us and the important role that God placed us in and put us on the planet to do, right? It's setting aside one thing, one good thing, to the exclusion of another. The worst case scenario, if witness means knowingness, if hearing this OOD is hearing about the encounters of God in the community around us and in his word. The worst case scenario, if we don't have that knowingness, is that Jesus says, depart from me. I never knew you. Right? Because it's not about at the last day having the best doctrines, the best interpretations. It's about having witness. Is a knowingness of the groom. Can it be that we're Jesus bride, and we say, yes, I want your book and yes, I want your gifts, and yes, I want your calling, and yes, I want your blessing, and also hate the people that Jesus died for, that our groom died for. He poured out his blood and his life and resurrected for the sake of his people. And we're like those people cringe. And then we spend our entertainment hours watching social media, scoffing about all the other people that Jesus loves and Jesus dies for. That can't possibly be it. If we are in love with the groom and our life is dedicated to knowing the groom, if the groom loves somebody, if the Groom is willing to die for somebody, we should be right there alongside him, going back to Genesis, right? To becoming one. If Jesus loves this person, obviously I do too. And none of the ephemera about what we think and the different positions we hold on these issues or these political stances, none of that should be able to get in the way if our eyes are really set on waiting for and adoring and following our bridegroom.

[C]

Oh, no. Well, I don't know if that's relevant to me. Next point.

[B]

Perfect.

[A]

I say. I say you're preaching now.

[B]

Triggering. Triggering to some of us.

[A]

No, that's really good. Like, that's. Yeah, it's so easy to get caught up in that. Like, I do that all the time. And, yeah, like you said about the Essenes, it's like, it's not that they were wrong. So being in the middle of that all the time, where it's like, oh, well, this is like. And I don't know all the context, but it's like, sure, maybe my judgment about something or some situation or some person's actions, maybe it is true, but that's not building community.

[B]

Right? And how much impact might the Essenes have been able to have? Because there's a whole of them. There's a whole community of them. Them. If they had stayed in the priesthood, right, could they have helped walk out the redemption of the priesthood in Jerusalem and actually ministered to people? Could John the Baptist's life have been saved if he wasn't the only one out there dunking people in the Jordans saying, you're okay, you're okay, God, you are clean. You're good with God. Right? If he wasn't the only one, how might the trajectory have looked different for God's people at that time?

[A]

Would the fruits of their labor have bubbled up sooner than about 2,000 years after they wrote all those scrolls?

[B]

Who knows? Who knows? Okay, I'm gonna land this plane. We know we need community. We know when we watch that Lord of the Rings clip and that little women clip, it's only our heads that tries to tell us what our bones in our heart already knows. We're not actually fine. We need other people. Sometimes it feels good to be out on our horse by ourselves and experience that noble suffering that nobody else understands. Blah, blah, blah. Stop it. Stop it. All of us, including me. The kingdom of God is described in Isaiah as all of those who have been scattered being called home to one another. Jesus talks about the orphans. He talks about the prodigal son being Brought home to the household of God, which means with each other, we are the bride. Let's not be too self sufficient or too good or too busy or too right for the wedding feast and miss out on that knowingness, miss out on those ouds, those stories. Place. That's what community is.

[C]

Yeah. And if we just kept going, like Jesus describes, like I go to prepare a place for you.

[B]

Right.

[C]

That you being plural, that place being a. An insula. Yeah, an insular community. Not insulated necessarily, but a group, a group home where all of us have a place to belong. I think of Paul and Ephesians. We're all adopted into the same family. No longer a, like all of this image, all of it, one big family, one big place of belonging, one big table where we all are supposed to come back home to. Like we often will critique, like this whole disembodied evacuation, this Christian escapism, like, I'm going to get out of here. And we're like, oh, those stupid rapture theology people. But really, in a lot of ways, what we're, what we're wrestling with in this is another kind of version of that. It's just escaping right to some other space rather than realizing God has a dream and it's a safe place, it's a safe dream. It's a safe family to belong to. And that is where he's drawing us back unto. Unto himself. Boy, I started talking like the King James. They're me for myself.

[B]

Amen. Love it. Love to hear it.

[C]

Unto thyself.

[B]

Yeah. Because how easy is it to feel like we're not doing that? That we're like, I listen to my eight different favorite Christian celebrities and I listen to their sermons. And of course I experience like all of the goodness of the global body of grace, which I love to listen to sermons. I love all of that. I love reading the books. But if we're starting to live a Christian life that looks like camping out in a little shed in the middle of nowhere, and we think we're being prepared for the other side of eternity, like you're saying, where every tribe and every tongue, every language of all these different people will be there, we're going to have a hard time in heaven. The diversity of thinking and the diversity of people up there. Okay, well, all of that dedicated by Pete Davis, those two clips. And then for the Lord our God. I can't say it. I can't say omnipotent today. I'm sick. I'll say. That's why. And then that little piece from the Messiah. All of that should be down in the show notes, which I forgot to send to Brent so I can check.

[A]

Well, I've taken notes on most of that anyway, and I'm also throwing in that article that I was referencing. The letter that I was trying to find was Thorn. There used to be a letter called a thorn, and then they changed it. They dropped it. So lots of fun little goodies. If you're like, why do I talk like King James? It's like a little walk through the history of the English language. So I'll throw that in there as well as a bonus.

[B]

Incredible.

[C]

Brent's got to get his show notes where he can. Like, he's like, come on.

[A]

I love a long list of shownotes. And Elle never disappoints, so.

[C]

No, she does not.

[B]

Usually they're a little bit different than movie clips, but that's okay.

[A]

That's what resonates with my heart. I'm always going to link to a movie when I have a chance, so. All right, well, that does it for this episode. Thank you for your perspective on the pillar of community, Al. It's been delightful indeed.

[C]

Yay.

[A]

If not challenging.

[B]

Got to be both.

[A]

But that's. That's what we're here for. We're here for wrestling. Not yet. Not yet. Almost to the wrestling, but we'll get there very soon.

[B]

Honor and joy.

[A]

You can find those show notes in your podcast app [e-mail] you can use the contact page there to get in touch with us. If you want to build yourself a little community, you can check out the groups page. We'll give you the resources for that. Or you can find one that's already going and you can figure out how to be a part of that body. Lots of options, lots of things to do, lots of ways to move forward with this conversation. So thank you for joining us on the Baymaw podcast. We'll talk to you again soon.

[B]

My instinct to do it is gone because you did it so perfectly. Did it sound like Beaker from the Muppets? Yes. Am I okay with that? Also? Yes. Who's the other guy? Who's the other scientist? That one can be you, and I'll be Beaker. That's fine with me.