One of the things I look forward to the most about going Down East for a vacation is the pace of life. Granted it will take pretty much the whole vacation for me to actually slow down, but it is a great exercise. Life in the city is quite a bit different than life in a small town - heck even Halifax is a lot more sane of a pace of life. It seems like everything wants to happen at once in Ottawa.
Now this is really odd because it typically takes at least 30 minutes+ to commute anywhere, but the 45 minute drive to Halifax from Truro was only reserved for special occasions??? But as far as getting things done, when it happens it happens is almost the maritime feel where as in Ottawa everything seems to have an urgent tag attached to it. I do my best to not get caught up in it but the moment I step into my parents house it is like I arrive in a time distortion field. Everything gets done - but it is like time is stretched out there somehow.
When we started to plant Freedom Vineyard, one of our mandates was to create church for busy people. We recognize that there are so many demands on peoples time that church should be part of the solution, not part of the problem. That is why we are not really programme oriented and do a lot of spontaneous community gatherings. We fully expect sporadic attendance and try not to pressure anyone to make every single meeting. Also this is probably why a regular (traditional) Sunday gathering does not serve our community well. Folks who have embraced our community life have expressed how much they appreciate having that extra time on Sunday to just spend with their family - hey if we can do anything to strengthen the bonds of family I think we are doing something worthwhile.
To help this out we gather in two modes. First as a Christian body seeking to unabashedly worship Jesus - which happens in prayer meetings, kinships (small groups), celebrations. And secondly in just being a community that loves hanging out together - poker nights, scrapbooking, tea parties, going to the beach, road trips, RPGs. In both of these settings we attract both Christians and non-Christians. One of my hopes is that our desire to not overwhelm them with more time commitments will make us a safe refuge for folks already overwhelmed by the demands of city life. In fact it seems to be working because when we gather, however we gather, people come because they want to.
OK, got to run and practice slowing down for my vacation.
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