A good friend of mine had a statement recently in his blog…

“If you’re going to blog, then do it!”

I don’t recall in particular what he was referring to, nor can i find it on his site any more.  But ever sice reading it, I have had that phrase tickling the back of my mind.  I can’t get it out of my head at the moment, and it has prompted me to do just that.  Here we go:

I’ve found myself in at a myriad of crossroads, resembling the spokes on a wheel…a very LARGE wheel.  There’s dozens of directions to go, and I’m torn between what I think I need to do, and what I want to do.  I’m torn between my preference and God’s best.  I’m torn between churches.  I’m torn between dwellings.  I’m torn between  career paths. I’m torn betwen marching and not marching.  good grief. Today The marching season is already underway, and I’ve already made that commitment for the duration of the season…  At least that’s decided.  However, I think that I must begin to seek out how to go about what is next.  Understanding that, for me at least, the marching days are going to end relatively soon. Maybe not this season, or even the next (I’d like to finish my 5 years), but “soon”.

Leanings

I’m seeing a trend pretty much everywhere.  Among people in the ministry I have respected and loved, among friends and acquaintences…men and women of God that have my utmost respect.  They’re leaving the traditional “brick and mortar” paradigm of the church and starting churches in the home.  As hard as I look, the reason God has really spoken to me regarding some of this escapes me, but I know that very soon I will be VERY involved at this level…perhaps even by creating one myself…

I find that every church I visit is concerned with programs and policies, methods of garnering as much financial support of the people as possible, “cocooning into their own little world” and doing as much as is humanly possible to segregate every part of their lives from the world.  Some of you will say, “Well, yeah!  You should be separate from the world!”  This is different, though.  There’s no interaction with the hurting…  There’s no eye to the things Jesus Himself requested of us.

Over the next several weeks and months, I’m going to be wondering aloud here, starting with the very basics of the faith, and working my way through just what a church is and should be.  WHat it should look like in our society, what it’s mission is and how we are to effect the works of Christ in the Earth today.

I have the sneaking suspicion that it doesn’t look a thing like what we have in front of us, and that God is calling people to bring things back to the beginning…to the place that first called us to Him.  And for those that never quite knew Him (because the church had failed them by being too full of itself to see that they were hurting and needed rescue from “this place” we call the world) to have an opportunity to know a God that is relevant.  One that is intimately familiar with their hurts, desires, hopes, fears, and faults but chooses to know them anyway due to the immense love He has. Come along for this ride with me…Add your two cents.  Let’s all work through this together, and perhaps…just perhaps we will find God at the end of the conversation, and will all be better for the journey.