How the autobiography of the Belgian Christadelphian community would look like

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

An autobiography for a church sounds weird. Though, certain churches can use some history exposure. Throughout history, there have been many groups of people who tried to form a community or religious group where they wanted to worship the Divine Creator of heaven and earth.

Like there are many paths in life for a human being there might be many paths for church communities. There might also many different ways to come to God, but we should know there is only one path to God and to the entrance of the coming Kingdom of God.

Usually, people do know the standard or usual church communities. But they are not really aware of certain church communities that do not follow the general trend or do not adhere to the most common traditions and holidays.

For this reason, it would not be a bad thing if certain groups dealing with spiritual matters were to come out by making themselves more known with a performance book or “autobiography“.

Similarly, the Christian community of Brethren in Christ could use a “performance book”. After all, they do not belong to any known church communities at all. Yet they are alive and well and active all over the world.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, there are several churches per country, but here in Belgium, we are a very, very small community, which could easily deserve some new blood.

Most in our community are not big talkers or writers. But among other groups, such as the Jewish Jeshuaists, there is even less incentive to come out than with us. We, as followers of Jesus Christ or Brothers in Christ, are also Jeshuaists in essence, but among us there are few of Jewish origin. Yet it may be said that in our community there are too few who dare to come out, and to a certain extent this makes them as unknown as other Jeshuaists or Jewish communities.

Everyone has their own battles to fight to find their way through life. There will be some battles that you will win, other you will lose and every now and then, there are battles you should avoid. It is that way for individuals but also for groups. Groups also have to find their way in this world and are dependent on many factors, of which the human factor is the most decisive. Staying the course of the one who ignited the movement is not always easy, as we can see when we look at the amount of denominations that have risen out that first-century movement.

The general superficial thought could find her way over the Israeli and Palestinian borders, but to keep to the essence of the teachings of that Nazarene master teacher does not seem as easy as it sounds. Meeting much resistance, true followers of that preacher also sought their way in Belgium. In that small (fragmented or torn) country, faithful Jesus followers have been trying for several decades to enthuse people for Biblical Truth.

Because the majority of the population is not at all interested in God, the development of our community in this small country has not been easy. Likewise, hell boulders were laid at our feet because many wished to prevent us from spreading our ideas. Just as children have to grow up through trial and error, it has been the same for our community. Only that growing up of a community takes a lot longer than individuals.

When there would be written an autobiography or a history of our community in Belgium, letters and journals should be looked at. Readers shall have to find how we want to share our journey, observations, and opinions as we continue to search for “Full-Time employment” and find our way through life difficult obstacles. For sure there was no comfort zone near, when we started to create a church in Belgium. Already trying to establish our church community, we are still tackling all the difficulties and trying to reach people. all the time we put all our effort in teaching and preaching about that Nazarene master teacher and his God, trying to show people that by the sacrificial offering of that Nazarene we have the prospect of becoming partakers of a much more beautiful and peaceful world than the one we are living in at the moment.

Publishing our history, we should not be afraid to show how difficult it has been to let the seed grow in the Belgian soil. People should be able to read that like in the life of a human being, our life has not been different, it has also its highs but also deep points. So, our autobiography would tell our story, not hiding how difficult it has been. You would be able to read about our ups and downs, the heaven and the hell, the moments of joy but also the moments of a lot of sadness. Our efforts to get somewhere, succeed but also fail to do certain things or get somewhere as expected. There were times we could feel ourselves grow, and find happiness, but soon we were confronted with times of dissolution and pain, times we took perhaps the wrong direction or actions, it was like we fell in a deep well. Though we very well knew and still know which way to go, our steps are not always liked by others and get not always the reactions hoped for. We had to learn a lot and are still learning, in our trials to grow. Over the years we had to learn many lessons. We learned, and the scars we had to wear well. Many have tried to silence us, but we have continued to believe in the power of the Word of God to be proclaimed and in which we want to do our part.

Now then, imagine if an autobiography did get written by someone from our community. In doing so, if one were to ask what the opening sentence for that work would be, it might sound like this:

In the first century there was a man from Nazareth who irritated the Jewish leaders and got more and more followers who, like their leader, caused friction and uproar. His movement, first called The Way, was the beginning of a movement spreading all over the world, but also causing many debates and the source of several religious groups.

In this autobiography you will find the difficult genesis of such a religious community that wanted to faithfully follow in the footsteps of the Nazarene preacher, Jeshua ben Josef or Jesus Christ.

You’ll be able to read about the communities efforts to establish a church in a capitalist country, where people are more concerned about their material wealth than their spiritual welfare. You shall be able to hear about their struggles and battles, their failures and setbacks but also about little successes, which make us smile and continue what we do believe is the given task by that Nazarene man who gave himself at the stake for the welbeing of all people and for enabling us to enter the small gate of the Grand Kingdom, awaiting for us.