Koinonia Joy
A book, a writing space, a longing
The past two-and-a-half weeks have been interesting ones. There have been normal things going on - tons of emails, teaching, preaching, organisational leadership and implementation, shaping a new leadership development intensive, meetings, mentoring and so on. I met up with an old friend with whom I could have talked all day, before heading away for a few days with lifelong friends to walk beaches and explore rock pools and sit in front of a crackling fire. My brother-in-law visited my parents from interstate and I dragged him into doing some odd-jobs at my place. You know, life stuff.
But underneath it all, something has been going on.
Monthly Musings: Koinonia Joy
I mentioned last month that The Barnabas Factor was about to come out. It has, but that’s not it. Well… that not completely it. There’s something else. Something that has been sitting under the surface like a bubbling spring. There has been a sense of grateful joy, wrapped in koinonia. Or perhaps because of koinonia.1
The Sunday before The Barnabas Factor came out, I was able to preach on my chapter, which speaks from Acts 15:22-35, focusing on the idea of mutuality, the giving and receiving, the bending towards each other of mission partnership.
But that’s not completely it, either.
Part of the koinonia joy was that Pastor Tan, my pastor, stood on the stage with me, translating my sermon into Chinese. We provide translation each week in one form or another, but it’s always good fun when Pastor Tan and I do it together. There is a synergistic ebb and flow. In my chapter I write:
I experience the dance of mutuality when I preach and my pastor translates, the swirl and flow of language when the community bursts into laughter at how he has translated something. I trust the twinkle in his kind eye...
But the joy built when, just this past Sunday, Pastor Tan preached from his own chapter,2 focusing on suffering. I’m not fluent in Mandarin, so I couldn’t return the favour to translate his sermon, but I could rejoice in it.
I think the depth of the it - the under the surface bubbling joy - is this. I can’t believe that I get to contribute to a book to which my trusted and deeply respected pastor has also contributed. How amazing! In my last book, Shaped by the Spirit, it was a solitary journey. This has been a communal journey. With Shaped, sometimes people would ask me to sign it. With Barnabas, when I’m asked, I make room for Pastor Tan to sign above me. There is a sense of unity, of mutuality, of “in this together-ness,” of delight in partnership.
It makes me smile out loud with koinonia joy.
If you are curious about how The Barnabas Factor came to be, listen to Josh Irby tell his story on Global Mission Podcast: A Closer Look at Barnabas. It’s a good one!
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Depending on the context, koinonia can mean community, fellowship, partnership, sharing. If you want to learn more about this word, please read Dr. Lazarus Phiri’s Chapter 6, The Koinonia Factor or check out this wonderful free resource - What is Koinonia?
Please see Chapter 9 - The Suffering Factor. It’s powerful!
NB: Sharable asset for Koinonia Joy was generated by Gemini.