Where Does Church Take Place?

I have found that the most invigorating, inspiring spiritual ephiphanies that I've experienced have never been in a church setting. Instead, they have come in the form of 1-on-1 conversations or in a small group of 3 to 4 people (including conversations with pastors). While I can't deny that I have sat through excellent sermons that challenge me, I've found my truly life-changing breakthroughs have been through informal fellowship with other believers.

I read an interesting article by Stephen Simpson entitled "The Flabby Body of Christ," which starts out with this statement: "Church is boring. I don't ever recall hopping out of bed on Sunday morning jazzed about the sermon, even when the preacher was good...As much as postmodern evangelicals bandy about the word 'community,' our gatherings have changed very little. Stylistic alterations might add some hipster flair, but the focal point of the liturgical week remains theater. A dozen or so people perform for a few hundred that sit, stand, kneel, pray, and sing on command. We squeeze real community into the gaps, between events with a hierarchiacal structure."

That last sentence caught my eye since I've also found that my real "community" with other believers has typically taken place outside of the church structure. It's funny, I remember back to when I co-led a Bible study while I attended Cal Poly, and how I always enjoyed the before and after banter/conversations with the guys but was always apprehensive/terrified about the formalities of actually "leading" the study.

I also just finished an interesting read called "So you Don't Want to go to Church Anymore" by Wayne Jacobson & Dave Coleman. Honestly, it's really been challenging my traditional understanding of the purpose of the Church. I've always struggled with getting plugged into "Church" (local body of believers), but have always thrived in deep, meaningful conversations/discussions with individual believers.

What is "Church" anyways? We (meaning believers) are the Church, right? So would it be considered "Church" if 3 guys got together at Starbucks to talk about what's going on in their life and their spiritual journey? After all, Matthew 18:20 states, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Now, I'm not advocating that small groups are by default better than a larger church, but I do think it poses an interesting question as to what types of activities produce the most spiritual growth, encouragement and fellowship for me. My wife's Grandmother is the most amazing Christian I have ever met and she has attended a traditional Church her whole life. I also know an incredibly strong Christian who has participated in home Churches for years.

Again, there's not a hard-and-fast answer, but these reads have definitely gotten a few wheels spinning in my head, which I think is a good thing!

Only Working 24 Hours/Week by the Year 2000

I heard an interesting quote the other day that intellectual people thought we'd only be working 24 hours a week by the time we reached the year 2000, due to the advances made in technology. How wrong those people were! While my last post talked about the importance of "intentional time," there's also the other side of the pendulum, which consists of constant connection with people via facebook, blackberry, etc. and lends itself to an over-saturation of communication. Let's be honest...people don't really want to know every little detail of your life, yet some people (specifically facebookers and tweeters) use that platform to broadcast that they are "on the couch passing gas" or "watching a boring movie." This over-communication then causes people to tune out and filter out the majority of what you're saying. This is in accordance to Proverbs 17:27 that "a wise man will be of few words."

So, I think there must be a balance between "intentional time" and not overwhelming people away. I'm now meeting with my buddy Steve every other week at the crack of dawn just to hang out and catch up on life. It may be possible that if we tried doing this every week, we'd end up hating one another for making us get up so early in the morning, but 2x/month may be doable. It's nice to be able to get together and not have an "agenda" (bible study, accountability partners, etc.) but just feel free to talk about what's going on in life. Yes, it's intentional time, but it's also non-directed, which is really freeing and doesn't feel like just another "to-do" on my list.

Well, my blogging goals have been blown to bits...

It appears it may be more difficult than I originally thought to keep up this blog on a daily basis. My goals have changed -- now, I just want to keep up the blog throughout the year, without specifying a certain amount of blogs.

Something that has been on my mind lately is the idea of "intentional time." My friend Steve told me about this phrase and how he seeks out intentional time with various people in his life (via emails, texting, facebooking, getting together for coffee, etc.). Instead of leaving communication to chance, he actively pursues these relationships that he wants to maintain primarily through short "check-ins" (i.e. text that says "hey how u doing?"). That way, he stays connected to people. This is a lesson that I'm trying to put in place in my own life -- maintaining connections with important people in my life (which I've historically been terrible at :) ).

Living in Mexico

I wonder what it would be like to live in Mexico? I mean, really live, as in speaking Spanish all the time, trying to run a business, figuring out how to pay taxes, etc. What made me think of this, you might ask? 2 words: Shawshank Redemption. You remember the end of the movie when Morgan Freeman is walking along the beach down in ol' Mexico and sees Tim Robbins in the distance restoring his boat. Well, my wife forwarded me the website for the city that that scene was supposed to have taken place in (Zihuatanejo, Mexico - although the actual scenes were shot in St. Croix), and lo and behold, there's a Bed & Breakfast for sale in the amount of $280k (US $$). 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 3 separate buildings, terrace with ocean view, lush tropical garden with swimming pool and to top it off, a separate caretaker's house. This seems too good to be true.

The idea of owning real estate in a foreign country is a bit thrilling, especially when the cost is so much cheaper than here in America.

Should I have a theme to this blog...

My wife is telling me I need to have a theme to my blog...sort of like Julia & Julie. She's being a bit adventurous with her 365 new paintings in 1 year goal; I just don't know if I could keep up with that type of activity! I think my goal is more simplistic: I want to blog about something every day. I've always hated social networking and my Facebook upkeep is abysmal. However, this is Day 3 of my blog and I'm still going strong. So each daily blog may bring with it something humorous, something political, something my wife said to me, somewhere I want to travel to, or anything else that comes to mind. I think it's sometimes good to have a roadmap that shows what you were thinking about during a particular year.

So here's to my 3rd blog!

Day 2...still alone.

First Post

To all my fans: I love and adore you! This is a beta-run in my blogging career. I look forward to a productive and fruitful monologue from myself to you.