So...... I've been thinking about "church" again. Going, leaving, starting, stopping... all sort of things.
I don't really even know where to begin, or what to say. We're tired, mostly. Frustrated. Tired of trying. Maybe it's 'trying to make things work,' or 'trying to fit in'... I don't know.
Last Saturday night I was a bit drunk and I blurted out to some friends that I actually felt more ready to plant a church now than I ever had - and that's what I actually went to seminary for over twenty years ago! I don't know that I'm more ready, or simply feel like I'm running out of options. Anyway...
In my stupor, I relayed the story I'd heard Eddie Gibbs tell a number of years ago at a discussion on his book 'Emerging Churches.' I can't recall all the details, but it was a time when everyone was big into church planting and throwing oodles of money towards it. Yet he knew of a group of people who were planting churches like crazy, and their organization was providing them with a mere forty dollars and a box of hymnals to get started! And the kicker, which I can still hear him saying, "and most of them didn't know what to do with the forty dollars!!"
I've always liked that story. So it got me started thinking again about just what it would take to start a "church." You know, a church church. One fixated on making disciples, focused on Scripture, and encouraging one another in faith and good deeds, and ministering to the 'least of these,' and that sort of thing...
I've written about this before, so I looked back through my blog and found a few old posts. I want to include them here for my own personal reflection, and hopefully I may have some more to say about this later. Who knows.
But... I say all that... and I don't want anyone to think I am planning to start a church! I'm just thinking about stuff. That's all. Seriously.
Anyway... some posts I want to re-read...
So, we will see where this goes. It's a place to start.
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