Church has provided a loving culture for our children to learn about our faith, as well as explore their own giftings. One of our children will hard pass on the performance arts, while another child will now explore that in more depth. Thank you Christmas Musicals.
As I continue to write, hear that I value the church and its role, however, we must be careful not to allow church to limit Jesus, speaking both physically and metaphysically. I am unlikely to step into a bar. Some of my friends are unlikely to step into a church. People are not projects to fix or rescue. Barriers to differences must be overcome to build relationships. If the end goal is to get someone to attend church every Sunday, my friends, we have it wrong.
After months of not formally being connected to a specific church (in part due to COVID-19 and in part due to being between churches as a pastoring family), our family is reconnecting with a mission. Where is our relationship with the church headed...short-term? Long term?
Where does God want me to be? He wants me to be wherever I can build a relationship and love like He does. To teach in a public school. To cottage with family and friends. To take "the middle" to build her passion for dance. I am being challenged to reduce my involvement in church as an extra-curricular with events for each night of the week. Instead, I am making a commitment to represent my faith every day and to celebrate that faith with others who share it. This might not always happen in a church building or on a Sunday.
Wall-less.
Moving.
Evolving.
There is nothing wrong with meeting in a church building on Sunday, but there is also nothing wrong with going to dance class on Tuesday instead of volunteering for a church extra-curricular. If I might challenge one step further...what about going to a dance class on a Sunday morning and church on a Tuesday night?
"Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both." Ecclesiastes 11:5-6
