Writing and guitar...

Many times, I find myself wishing there was more time in the day.

I know I am not the only one who has ever thought this but it is time to do something about it.

For me, I want more time because I dont have enough time to write and think and play guitar...
So, I am going to start writing songs and playing them on guitar...

What do you wish you had more time for?

A gathering of people who share life together

What if the church was simply a gathering of people who share life together?


I love thinking about these things, and I find myself thinking about them a lot. The only struggle I have is that when I look at what other people do in response to questions about how the church could change or about what it could be. It seems they almost always abandon everything including their church and tradition in order to start over.

For me, for whatever reason I have this strong need to help the current church shift. I cannot justify just starting something new and forgetting that I am a part of a huge tradition of people seeking God.

As a Methodist, when I go back to our beginnings with Wesley, they really seem to fit with everything the "new" churches are trying to do. The problem is that current churches are in no way similar to where the Methodist church started.

So how can we help the current church notice that they are missing it; to help them see they have missed one generation already and are on the road to miss several more?

I think one way to do this is to simplify what we are doing. We have a program for everything as if the programs themselves are a way to salvation. What would it look like if we cut out many things we currently do and just intentionally gathered together?

I think that there would be a lot of good that comes from this.

How would we still do worship of God without all the exact same people doing the exact same thing every week?
How would relationships between generations change?
How would staffing the church change?

What if a churches focus was simply "Loving God, Loving Neighbor"?

What if the church was simply a gathering of people who share life together?

Why does it have to be so complicated?

Why do we make church and being a Christian so complicated?
We have committees for everything...WHY?
We have events for everything that we do...WHY?
We have certain ways we must do a worship service...WHY?
We have divisions of ministries based on age...WHY?
We are so worried about maintain our buildings, and not relationships...WHY?

We feel that there are certain expectations for things...WHY?
We build the most elaborate and expensive building, often for twice a week..WHY?
We hire staff to build programs to...WHY?
We try so hard to get people in the buildings, but we never go to them...WHY?

What if it was simpler?
What if it is supposed to be simpler?

What if we gathered together, shares our hearts, good and bad, knowing no matter what we are loved. What if we shared our true unfiltered lives together, and as a community...we shared in communion?

Why does it have to me so complicated? WHY?

Missions in Church

I feel that a lot of times we think that missions in a church setting are only for those who are already part of the church. For some reason it has become looked down upon for visitors and seekers to join in...WHY?

This generation born from 1980s til now see the great desire for justice in the world. They know that we are all to play a part in redeeming the world...they just might not know that is what it is.

WHY can we not invite them to join us in missions; the churches way of redeeming the world? WHY can't mission be the main focus of the church?

WHY are we scared to invite others to join us in serving?
WHAT do we fear will happen?
WHAT if this is what the church is supposed to do: Figure out where God is working in the world, join in, and invited others along too?

Break the Circle

Maybe the reason we don't hang out with non-Christians too much or want them around much is we are afraid that they might see us mess up and be real, not perfect...and with us not being perfect, we fear that that might make them think our faith is not good enough...but it is when we are real, and they see that God invites imperfect people to the journey...that is when they want to join in.
So they want real, we don't want them to see the real us, so how can we break this circle...WE MUST BREAK THIS CIRCLE

too long...

So it has been so long since my last post. I think that maybe it is because I have struggled to be inspired or chalenged in such a way that I needed to think externally. Since the last post, Joanna and I have reallized we are called to move cities and start semenary.

Now, four months later from our first talk about this, we have moved to Brentwood, TN. We are both working at Forest Hills UMC, and we are both going to semenary!!!

It seems like so many times we think that God moves so slow, that we have to wait for him to finally listen to us... Well, in this case, God acted so fast, it felt like He had to wait on us. I wonder if this is how it really works?

Maybe God is waiting on us for the BEST thing, and we feel like we are waiting on God but for the GOOD thing. Maybe the reason we feel like we are waiting on God is that we are waiting for the wrong thing?

As Always... Just thoughts.
Can't wait to start thinking again!!!