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 PrintableVersion By demonstration: GodFifty years and a week at L'AbriGod in the real worldBY DEMONSTRATION: GOD ‘L’Abri’ means ‘shelter’, a place where believers and non-believers alike can join others for a period of time to thrash out their understanding of how the God of the Bible relates to the real world that we live in. Many people get confused about the nature of L’Abri simply because it seems odd to go to a retreat centre in order to make sense of the world. Isn’t that just a neat excuse for escapism? When Francis and Edith Schaeffer formed the L’Abri Fellowship in 1955, their vision was to ‘show forth by demonstration, in our lives and work, the existence of God’. They wanted to make sure that they were living out their faith in every area of their lives and wanted to help others to do the same. Wade Bradshaw, a worker at the British L’Abri centre, has written By demonstration: God in order to help strangers to L’Abri understand the nature and purpose of the many L’Abri centres around the world. As Colin Duriez says in his foreward, L’Abri is very difficult to categorise. It is not a monastery or a commune but it is a community of people. It is not a movement or a denomination or a school but it helps people to study under the exposition of biblical truth. One of the strong messages in the book is that we have very set preconceived ideas about how we learn. We think that sitting in front of a textbook and making notes is when we do our ‘learning’. Bradshaw is keen to stress that we learn all of the time; through the strains of relationships, through times of physical work and activity, through vigorous discussion and through time. Bradshaw structures his book by working through a week at L’Abri. Each day at the centre, teachers and students follow a precise study and work pattern. As he focusses on each element of the week — the lunchtime discussions, the work times, the weekly lectures and prayer meetings — he discusses the reasons for each activity and the corresponding experiences of students as they come to understand and learn more about God’s plan for their lives and the world. The book is an easy read that challenges readers to consider the link between their faith and the lives that they lead as well as helping those who have never studied at L’Abri to become better informed about Schaeffer’s legacy. Eleanor Margesson © Evangelicals Now - November 2005 |
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