Summer Formation
This summer, our formation looks a little different. Starting on June 2, we invite you to begin reading the book Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We will not meet every Sunday. Rather, we will have pop-up formation opportunities which will be announced ahead of time on our weekly emails and Facebook, as well as during services. Alan and Gavin will also be blogging about what we are reading, and we’ll share those links as well. You can check out our reading schedule, which will help keep you on track.
Life Together is available wherever books are sold (and free to listen to with an Audible subscription), and if the cost of this book is prohibitive, please let one of the clergy know, and we’ll make sure you get a copy. We’re looking forward to wading into these waters with you as we discern together where God is leading our church.
Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, famed for his participation in a plot to take down the Third Reich, was more than a martyr and a spy. He was also a professor, a theologian, a broadcaster, an author, but above all, he was a pastor. Life Together was written in 1938, following Bonhoeffer’s travels abroad to New York City and London and eventual return to his home in Germany. At this point in the nation’s history, the Confessing Church (a loose affiliation of churches to which Bonhoeffer belonged), found itself standing in direct opposition to the German National Church and its rising influence from the Nazis.
This book reflects the socio-political context of Germany in the lead up to the second World War, but more than anything, displays a deep commitment to Christian community and Bonhoeffer’s theological reflections on what it actually means to live as Christians together. Understanding this is crucial as this book stands not only as a theological treatise but as a form of genuine resistance to the dehumanizing and debasing ideologies of the Nazi regime.
We at St. Martin’s are reading this book as a congregation this summer, not simply because it’s a classic of the genre (even though it absolutely is), but because as divisions rage across our country and our world, grounding ourselves, deeply, in the reality of and need for Christian community is just as important now as it has ever been. As we read Life Together together, we’re going to be asking God what we’re being called to, how our lives might be changed by the centrality of community, and where we might be heading as a church.