On Second Thought...

My previous post on the Church has garnered quite a response from my faithful readers (okay, mom and my brother had a lot to say). I guess I just want to reiterate that I love the church. My comments weren't said to bring her down but to raise her up to a higher standard. I feel like Jesus' life was so important, so controversial, so miraculous that if His followers truly believed His gospel message, we would change the world.

Several commentators have asked me what I am doing if I believe this. The first answer is not enough, but more specifically, I've started a church. This was born out of a desire to do church different. I know you hear that from everyone who starts a church and I'm probably as full of hot air as the rest of them, but it non the less is my desire. How am I doing that? Probably not as good as I should.

We have a tiny fellowship. It exists of two couples, two singles, and a married woman who comes sometimes. It's not small purposefully, it just is. We don't have a real formal meeting time. Mostly we meet on Thursdays, but it isn't resigned to only Thursdays (or for that matter, every Thursday). We serve at the homeless shelter a couple of times a month. We have no paid ministers. We are studying the life of Jesus right now, which is a discussion mostly led by me. We do not take the Lord's supper in a traditional sense as of yet, but every month we eat a meal together and thank Jesus for all he has done for us. Someday, I hope this looks different, and I think we'll get there soon. We give our tithes mostly to a shelter for battered women, which is ran by our local rescue mission, but sometimes we also tithe to other churches. We don't have a worship leader, so we go to a local church on Sundays to worship our Father.

I feel like our church is more of a state of being than of belonging or doing. We aren't perfect. And we are different. And I believe what we are doing is different. We aren't there yet. But it's nice to just be a group of people who love Jesus and are living like it.