Get ready, get set, get set, get set...

Have you ever felt this way? Like you're all ready to go, only to have to wait and wait and wait. This past year has been like that. I've been dreaming of this house church. I've been ready to move forward. I've prepared my life, my wife, my friends, my family and people I've just met to move into this brand new thing for us. Problem is, we've been stuck at the starting line. Oh, we thought we were half-way through the race, or at least rounding the corner a time or two, but the reality was, we were just practicing, we were just warming up. It kinda stinks too, cause looking back we were making good time, it's the best we've run in quite a while. In fact, I didn't even know I could run that fast or far. But, that's behind us.

So here we are at the starting line, getting ready, getting set, and...
Well, I'll let you know when I hear the gun fire.
Until then, though, its like preparing for a race that I'm sure will not live up to any expectations or hopeful drama based on the warm ups. In fact, I'm starting to wonder when it will begin and if it can even live up to the hype in my brain. :)

But, as I still continue preparing here are some thoughts to get us started...

House Church as described by some friends of mine recently...

"I used to go to my Sunday School class and then I had to leave before the service, but I felt like I had been to church because we were able to share openly, talk about our lives and not feel judged or condemned." (Uh, you were at church, because the church is people)

"This lady friend of mine (a committed believer) was a rough character. She hadn't been churched. She didn't know what she should or shouldn't say. She had some crazy ideas. I don't think she really believed them, she was just striving for something. I could tell she was really after God." (Uh, yeah, she had been churched, by YOU the committed believer, because the church is people)

"I'm just not into dressing up to go to church. Plus that whole thing about church just doesn't feel like I connect with anyone. We all put on our mask and act like everything is great. It just feels so fake, so put on." (we aren't into that either, the church is people, not a style or a system or a performance)

When I hear these statements, my heart leaps and tells me you are doing what God wants you to do. This is not reactionary to say the rest of the church world is messed up. This is reactionary to say the world is messed up and some folks just aren't willing to try our current, cultural church. We don't really want to win them to the church that bad anyway. We want to win them to Jesus. Of course, you can't be a part of Jesus without becoming a part of the church, because as we know the Body of Christ, the Church, is people.

And if the Church is people (meaning us), we don't have to wait to invite people to church. We take the Church to the people, everyday. And especially in our organized efforts of house church. Even that is not solely about gathering, but about going.