5.13.2008
A Place for Us
In my readings and travels (online) I have found something that probably won't surprise many of you:
We seem to be always waffling between either going it alone or trying somehow to fit into existing institutions, as if those were the only two options. Why is this? Isn't there a third place? Another way?
To me, going it alone is rife with pitfalls and we must constantly be on the lookout for vultures who will eat us alive or winches who will try to reel us back into church. On the other hand, I would just as soon try to fit my spirituality into a Mosque (no offense to any Muslim readers) as to go back into a church, because both are equally wrong for me. I am as far away from being an evangelical as I am from being a Muslim; we believe in the same God (in my opinion), but our practices of that faith are very different.
I do have another option: I can begin attending the Unitarian Universalist church that is a few blocks from my house. Many of my neighbors go there. But again, it's still a box, and I'm not a bona-fide universalist, either. As I've said before, I don't want religion without Jesus, I want Jesus without religion.
So what I see is like this: over at Jon's blog, Something Else, we've been playing Apples to Apples for almost a week, and we have found beautiful community there. We have laughed and been entertained...and I'm thinking, why have we never done this before? Because blogs are all more centered on discussion, which is valid and valuable, but something we've all been missing is a sense of, well, FUN!
Which is really very much what we all want in real life. Not a church, but a community that shares Jesus in common. We want Apples to Apples and potlucks without being told how to follow Christ. We want to have freedom AND family...why is it we cannot have something that is both? Something that doesn't require a doctrinal statement to create or a creed to join, but that affirms Jesus as the center of our earthly universe? Something that is more like Disneyland than a denomination?
I see a structure with movable walls and a welcome sign, with as many wide open spaces as candles and communion wafers. With a revolving door and a revolving menu. A place where we aspire to live urban mission, even though our homes are in suburbia and we aren't very good at it. A place where we know "To try" is half the battle, and sometimes it's enough. A place where we find ways to get our hands dirty, but we don't always have to. A place to gather, without a boundary to define it.
A place where the fact that life is a roller-coaster is a GOOD thing.
OK, I will concede, I'm sure it exists, somewhere. I'm also sure I'm idealistic, there's no doubt about that.
What I see is a definite need...now, how do we make it happen? Because the thing is, in real life I don't really know how to connect with people in my area who are like me in this way. I have all of you and I treasure you, and yes, we can play Apples to Apples...and if this need was very easily met, we likely would not have met each other here among the magic I's and O's of the intangible universe. So in that, it's a good thing.
But there is a hunger in so many of us, there has to be a way to find it, to create it, to meet the people in our communities who share our dream, to gather with them.
Now, how?
There needs to be another space, a place for us.
Not a church, but not NOT a church. Ya dig?
Not a church, but not NOT a church. Ya dig?
We seem to be always waffling between either going it alone or trying somehow to fit into existing institutions, as if those were the only two options. Why is this? Isn't there a third place? Another way?
To me, going it alone is rife with pitfalls and we must constantly be on the lookout for vultures who will eat us alive or winches who will try to reel us back into church. On the other hand, I would just as soon try to fit my spirituality into a Mosque (no offense to any Muslim readers) as to go back into a church, because both are equally wrong for me. I am as far away from being an evangelical as I am from being a Muslim; we believe in the same God (in my opinion), but our practices of that faith are very different.
I do have another option: I can begin attending the Unitarian Universalist church that is a few blocks from my house. Many of my neighbors go there. But again, it's still a box, and I'm not a bona-fide universalist, either. As I've said before, I don't want religion without Jesus, I want Jesus without religion.
So what I see is like this: over at Jon's blog, Something Else, we've been playing Apples to Apples for almost a week, and we have found beautiful community there. We have laughed and been entertained...and I'm thinking, why have we never done this before? Because blogs are all more centered on discussion, which is valid and valuable, but something we've all been missing is a sense of, well, FUN!
Which is really very much what we all want in real life. Not a church, but a community that shares Jesus in common. We want Apples to Apples and potlucks without being told how to follow Christ. We want to have freedom AND family...why is it we cannot have something that is both? Something that doesn't require a doctrinal statement to create or a creed to join, but that affirms Jesus as the center of our earthly universe? Something that is more like Disneyland than a denomination?
I see a structure with movable walls and a welcome sign, with as many wide open spaces as candles and communion wafers. With a revolving door and a revolving menu. A place where we aspire to live urban mission, even though our homes are in suburbia and we aren't very good at it. A place where we know "To try" is half the battle, and sometimes it's enough. A place where we find ways to get our hands dirty, but we don't always have to. A place to gather, without a boundary to define it.
A place where the fact that life is a roller-coaster is a GOOD thing.
OK, I will concede, I'm sure it exists, somewhere. I'm also sure I'm idealistic, there's no doubt about that.
What I see is a definite need...now, how do we make it happen? Because the thing is, in real life I don't really know how to connect with people in my area who are like me in this way. I have all of you and I treasure you, and yes, we can play Apples to Apples...and if this need was very easily met, we likely would not have met each other here among the magic I's and O's of the intangible universe. So in that, it's a good thing.
But there is a hunger in so many of us, there has to be a way to find it, to create it, to meet the people in our communities who share our dream, to gather with them.
Now, how?
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