Changing Church

Over the last 18 months I have gone through a long journey. In June of 2006, I left Crossroads Church and left behind the title of pastor. I began a long journey of re-examining my views of what church is, what it should be, and what that means for me. The long journey I began has not ended and I am sure at some point in the future I will look back and realize that right now I am only a few steps into the journey.

The journey has included being a church attender/member again for the first time in 10 years. Part of that experiment was awesome, but most of it left me feeling despair and brought me to a decision to leave church completely.

Many of the books that I have read and the people I interact with have a view that seem to me to have lost any hope that the form of the church in United States can be redeemed in any way. So they advocate scrapping the whole thing and creating a completely new thing. I am excited for those who are experiencing church in a new form that is alive and dynamic.

I have recently been given hope that church can be redeemed. There is a part of me that would rather spend all of my time with non-religious people {for me I can then be the one who decides the form and format and encourage unchurched people to adapt my preferences for form}. Having hope for the church means that not only do I have to set aside my preferences for music style and teaching style, but I will be loving and living with people whose ideas and concepts of community seem silly to me.
I believe that my love for my neighbor who doesn't believe in God can be reproduced in a love for my very religious fellow church attender. With one I may lovingly cover his obscene language and drunkness and with one I may lovingly cover her religious practices that seem obscene to me.
If I find unsurpassable worth in my neighbor then I will sacrifice at great cost to myself to give them the love and value that God sees in them whether they are pagan or religious.