Community and Experience Part 2

I grew up in church and spent a good part of my life in youth group, but I didn't start to "get" the whole community thing until I started living in Korea. Still, I had a ways to go on the sharing food thing. I liked my food.

My early years in Korea weren't very, well, communal. I had my own place, and when I wasn't teaching or eating the occasional meal with Korean friends I kept myself entertained the best I could. I watched D.V.D. s on my laptop, journaled a lot, and read the best literature the Korean bookstores had to offer. I was a lower-budget version of Will, the main character from About a Boy, without the lying or the stuff after that. But it was kind of similar.

When I watched the movie a line seemed too familiar. Life is like TV, "and I was a star of the Will Show. Guest stars will come and go, but in the end it's only me." That was me. The difference was, I wasn't happy about it. I was bored.

I asked some friends in church one evening what they did for fun on the weekends. The answer led me to the Hospitality House, a ministry for the military. I went one Saturday night and found a group of military, teachers, and Korean friends. We ate, sang, and shared testimonies all evening. Then the Bible study began.

It's encouraging to stay up most of the night listening to people. If there's one thing I learned, it wouldn't be from anything I said. For a couple of years, it was exactly what I needed.

I don't think it's coincidence that my wife and I met there. Once the focus was on friendships rather than courtship rituals, everything worked out.

Eventually we chose sleeping at night over Saturdays at the House as we went to church early Sunday morning. But I owe any sense of relationships to the time we spent in the Hospitality House.

The group in our church is smaller but more diverse vocationally, ethnically, and culturally. We gather in the basement of an office building in Gang Nam, a business district of Seoul. We give to missions and the poor, and use our unique positions and talents to help others and each other. We eat lunch together whenever possible. We're a family. I'll just say it-I love my church.

It finally feels like I'm part of a community, but I can't fault any local church for that. I could have had that anywhere; I just had to cancel the Matt Show first.