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| Front Page 1... Community: the life and work of AACF - What does it mean NOW? 2... Let us Not Give Up Meeting Together 3... Introduction to the Internet Superhighway |
Community: the life and work of AACF - what does it mean NOW? Melvin Fujikawa, former AACF campus minister/current JEMS board member  One
of the most vivid pictures of community and the Church that lives in my mind are
the AACF Bruins that "lived" and "worshipped" at the Ackerman
Student Union during the 1980s. If you have ever been a student at UCLA or have visited
the "mega-campus" you may not have remembered seeing the "Church at
the Treehouse," but they were hard to miss. As soon as you entered the cafeteria,
you would see the community even in the midst of thousands of students. They would
usually be at three or four tables right at the entrance. Some of them were studying
and reading, some would be talking or laughing, hopefully not to the ones who were
studying. Others would join the group after they finished class and others would
leave to go about student business. Outwardly, they looked like any number of other
Bruin tables during a hectic quarter.But underneath the normality of life in the Treehouse, they were being the Church, the community of believers. It would be at this spot that people would meet God as well as other students. It would be through this networking of friends and colleagues - the eating and crying together, the sharing of food and classes, the common joys and pains of student life that others would begin to understand the heart of Jesus that calls people to live together. And it would be at this sacred spot that lives would be CHANGED forever, because students had been faithful and committed to the call to love the world, including UCLA. This is what AACF students do best - their living and eating and worshipping together is the way God has used this vital and powerful ministry at so many college and university campuses. Community - the sign and hope of the Kingdom of God - has been the ministry God has called AACF students and staff to be for many people, for many years. Community, koinonia, the fellowship in and of the Holy Spirit, is what God has created us to be for our own spiritual sustenance. It is our need and God's glory that makes the gathering of students at so many  campuses the sacred places where Jesus is seen and heard
by many for the first time in their lives. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his famous
treatise, Life Together, "Christianity means community through Jesus Christ
and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this." And
as students and all of us live together, worship God, learn from the Word, play and
laugh and cry together, Jesus Christ, the one in whom we are living together is seen
and heard.I can think of no greater calling to university campuses where people are so isolated and lonely, in spite of the fact that they are together in such tight quarters. AACF has been criticized over the years by some for being "too social." Some have felt that there needs to be more emphasis placed on the studying and learning of the Word as well as a greater discipline among the members. But the call to the ministry of "life together" takes more study and discipline than anyone could possibly imagine! In order to be a people who love one another, you must first be a student of the Heart of Jesus. How does God love me? How does God want to love my fellow students? How in God's Name can we live on campus or anywhere for that matter with integrity and passion and hope so that we "preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?" (Eph. 4:3) The study of the Heart of God never ends. And discipline, the fight to not become complacent about a sacred call, is equally as difficult. How do I balance a successful, pre-career path of study with time for other students that might change their lives? How do I work diligently to understand the academic material and at the same time practice the disciplines of hospitality and mercy and availability for the brokeness of others? The discipline of our Lord is exemplified by students and people who can live with and like Him. And like Jesus, the study and discipline are NOTHING unless we live a life together in a cafeteria or a classroom or an office or our home that can be sacred spots where the Heart of Jesus is known. Outwardly, the ministry of AACF may look very social to the point of insignificance. But beneath the three or four tables of laughing and talking and studying students, lies the truth of God's Word, and the disciplines of many hours of prayer and celebration and sacrifice.. The Bruin students who lived and worshipped at those tables in Ackerman during the 1980's have long since moved on in their lives. They and many other AACF alumni from many other university and college campuses have graduated and have gone on to careers and jobs and marriage and churches far from the ministry of life together on campus. But there are important principles to be learned from the vivid pictures of community - ramifications for how you and I live today that can be gleaned from a vital and passionate time in our lives when we REALLY WERE "living together."  First
and foremost, we must find a way to have "life together" - a life and a
lifestyle that encourages the richness of the kinds of communities that impacted
the world on the college campus. The campus is of course such an "ideal"
place to start to build Christian fellowship. At no other time in a lifetime will
any of us experience life with such similar kinds of experiences in the same place
at the same time. But it is from this experience that we can learn how to "build
community" in our lives today. There is such a great need in the hearts of men
and women to have "places" to call home. The home is not simply the place
we live, but like the tables in the Treehouse, it is the place, the sacred spot where
we can find others who will "be there" to eat with us, to listen to us,
to laugh and cry with us as we live out a life in Christ. It is a huge sacrifice
and a larger blessing to practice hospitality in the house or apartment you call
your own and that you guard under lock and key. One of my closest friends has made
so many keys to his townhouse, he simply does not know where or who has possession
of all of them. But it has been through his "clubhouse" ministry that many
lives have been transformed and healed. His keys have, through the years, unlocked
the hearts of people to see and understand the meaning of living together as the
body of Christ.The vivid memory of the students at Ackerman reminds us that true community in Jesus is the place we discover and affirm the gifts God has given each one of us. Each person who came to the tables at the Treehouse found out something more about the "thing" they do best! In the studying and laughing and talking and living together, each of us finds the place, the activity, the ability that makes our own life special to a body of believers. Jean Vanier, founder of many communities build around the handicapped writes, "Using our gift means building community. If we are not faithful, the edifice will be weakened." Finding creative ways to use the gifts and talents God has given us is not an easy task! What was once a comfortable spot at the tables of the campus cafeteria, now becomes the great challenge. But I think if we remember again that it was because of the ease, the acceptance, the freedom to be who we were at the table, we will unlock another principle of life together. I can think of no greater sign of acceptance than when we eat together. No one can hide their gifts, their passions, their faults for very long while eating and talking and laughing together. Jesus himself uses the meal to remind us who He has been for us and who we are to be for each other. Meals are meant to be shared. As you share your food with others, look as Jesus did for the sacrament of the moment - listen to the heart of women and men while you eat, and affirm the gifts and the person with whom you are breaking bread. No matter what part of the academic quarter or what time it was in any given day, there were always students present at the tables. I really believed that some of them slept overnight in the spots they were sitting in! But there was a wonderful assurance in my secret heart in knowing I could find people who  would love me and listen to me and
eat with me at any time of the day. Community is the place, the home, the sacred
spot where, good or bad, we are committed to be and to be there for the hearts of
men and women. We are people on the run - working long hours, raising a family, furthering
our education. Being available for others is extremely difficult let alone being
available at any given moment. Recently, I have become inseparably attached to a
pager. And at the beginning, I hated it! I felt like I was a servant to a rich master,
and when the pager rang out, I would jump to do his will. But I slowly began to realize
how the pager was the sign of servanthood, not to a task master, but to the call
of God to be available to others in their times of need. We have set up "codes"
with each other that let myself and others know when there is an urgent need for
prayer. There is no need to hear a request for help from those I love - the vibration
on my hip and the flashing lights tell me everything I need to know! Commit your
life, your time, your pager number to those you love and serve, and the community
of believers will see the God who is totally committed to our well being.The world cries out for three or four tables, for sacred spots, for places and people who will be the hands and ears and Heart of Jesus. It has been the ministry of AACF, the hundreds of Christian students who have left a legacy of love and a challenge to the on going campus ministries to continue to find creative ways to be a vital, passionate community of the King. Community - the sign and hope of the Kingdom of God - is the ministry that must continue in our homes, in our churches, in our workplaces. Make three or four tables in your life now. Let God open your home and your meals, and let Him light up your pager with His call to love as you live together in His Love and Peace. (Melvin Fujikawa, former AACF campus minister, is currently working at the RAND Corporation. He continues his close ties with AACF as a current member of the JEMS Board.)
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