The Aroma of Christ
I was sitting for dinner with two friends who have been supporters of Act Five since its early days. They have served on our board, hosted staff and residents, shared meals with our students, supported Act Five financially and become dear friends.
I asked them,
In five years, what is something you hope doesn’t change about Act Five?
The first spoke of Act Five’s neighbourhood presence and commitment to welcome that shapes the practice of hospitality in our students.
The second referenced the passage in 2 Corinthians 2 where Paul speaks of the aroma of Christ–this intangible thing about those odd people following in the way of Jesus, an aroma that felt inviting to those hungry for the life God offers and abrasive to those clinging to the dark. He said (I’m paraphrasing), “The Aroma of Christ, this is what I see in Act Five. This thing about those who come through that place… I think it’s the aroma of Christ.”
I sat across the table after they both shared, taken aback, humbled and thinking, ‘Wow, they get it. They see.’
Is there a formula?
Sometimes we get questions around the methods of Act Five. What’s the secret sauce? How does one grow the vision and practice of presence? Is there a formula that equals hospitality with neighbours and the aroma of Christ in Act Five graduates?
(Side point: We’ve even had fun asking ChatGPT what makes Act Five distinct, seeing what comes up. Try it sometime and see what you think!)
Maybe the formula is something like this:
Canoe Trip + Intentional Community + Spaghetti = Aroma of Christ
But what about the staff we hire? The rhythms of every morning? How we read scripture? There’s a lot… Let me add a few things to the equation:
Canoe Trip + Farms with poets + Good Bible Study + Prayer + Singing together + dancing in living rooms + El Salvador + Conflict resolution + Doing Dishes + Tech-free days + Volunteering + Storytelling + High character staff = Aroma of Christ + Hospitality
Is that it?
We could keep adding. Things like gardening and making art, or riding bikes and hiking in the forest. We could talk about mentorship, staff training and some really thoughtful assignments. Beyond this level, it is all saturated in the trust that this is the work of the Spirit, that we aren’t God and can’t transform anyone. Let me try one more time (the “…” represents all the things I’m not naming to save space):
(Canoe Trip + Mentorship + Farms with poets + Good Bible Study + … + High character staff) x The Holy Spirit = Aroma of Christ + Hospitality + Lots of other good that grows in our graduates
Is that satisfying?
Could we turn Act Five’s discipleship model into a scalable product with guaranteed success?
Of course not. This is always going to be a somewhat futile endeavour. I still always want to just say, “Come for a meal, maybe for a Spaghetti Wednesday, and I think you might see what I see.”
And yet, there are distinct things about Act Five. Our Biblical Foundations teacher, Jackson, said once,
“If you want to become like the person of Jesus, come to Act Five. And even if you don’t want that, it might just happen to you anyway.”
Act Five is far from perfect and is not a formulaic plug-’n-play transformative experience for everyone, but there’s something good that underpins what happens in this place and I am slowly learning how to articulate this.
Imagination and Formation
Outside of my poor math skills, let me attempt to say a few things.
First, there is substantial vision for a life with God and how we imagine the Kingdom of God. Among our leadership and other staff, there is a deep hunger for God and for the flourishing of a groaning creation. There is a high value for thoughtful biblical literacy within Act Five’s leadership and we want to let our faith and longings for the New Heaven and New Earth saturate every part of our life, heart, mind and work.
We long for shalom and grieve its absence.
As leadership and staff we share these things and work them out with each other regularly.
We see in the person of Jesus and in the biblical story a depth and breadth of love and Lordship that is more than we claim to understand.
Second, there are a few pieces of the underpinning educational philosophy that I’d like to try and name. These have grown through a range of contexts, experiences, and education many of us on staff had prior to Act Five, and it includes the way our learning and formation continues.
- Desires, stories, fears, wounds and relationships are the heart of what motivates humans. Not by simple and well-articulated thoughts and statements. Any good marketing professional knows this. Jesus clearly knew this.
- Humans change over time, with rhythms that form our habits and our desires. We cannot rush time and process. We need companions and models for the road who hold us, inspire us and are with us.
- Ordinary time is the site of most of our formation. Times away from the ordinary are essential to see clearly, to be shaken out of our slumbers, and to experience something new; but this leads to real change when it lands in the ordinary.
- Humans are shaped by those with whom they are proximate. Let’s invite proximity with others who are hungry for life and for God, those different from us, mentors older than us, neighbours over shared meals, and those on the margins.
- Environments shapes humans. Let’s get to wilderness spaces, shape a home for young adults that considers our pictures of the “good life” as followers of Jesus, spend time on farms and street corners, and visit churches outside our comfort zones.
- People are formed through challenge, conflict, defeat, and taking risks with peers and faithful guides along the way. Hard does not necessarily equal bad, and we have work to do in growing these muscles in all of us, not just young people.
Through God's grace
Does this educational philosophy paired with our theological vision equal what grows in our graduates? In some ways, yes.
But again, it’s not enough. We cannot produce our own righteousness or author a transformed and good life for another. This leads to a final note, one worthy of the last word.
Grace.
As staff, we sit on the porch and pray a lot or just sit quietly and watch the trees. We respond to questions with new questions and wonderings. We don’t need to control outcomes and we aren’t afraid of how long processes take in our students (this is all a daily work in progress). We are resiliently committed to hope.
All of this is because we have encountered and trust in the undergirding force of grace and love as the fullness of who God is that holds all of creation, all of us, and the whole story of our world together. We are all on some way of being discipled and formed toward an ever-deepening life with God as those faithfully improvising in this world, held by God’s grace every day.
And so,
Theological Vision + Educational Philosophy + Grace = Hospitality and Aroma of Christ?
Let’s not do that.
Maybe it all still just does come down to Spaghetti Wednesdays. You should come sometime.
In grace,
Jon Berends
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