When I was 23, I moved 750 miles away with some friends to plant a church.  It was what I had determined that Jesus had in mind for me at the time.  Some people acted like it was a big leap of faith.  It didn’t seem that way to me, more like just the next step in that nebulous idea known as “my future.”  I was enthusiastic and evangelical (although at the time, I didn’t know that word, I was simply a Baptist.)  A large and stodgy Southern Baptist church was supporting our plant—do people still say church plant?—and I was glad our church was going to be so much more authentic, so much better than the hymns and suits of the mother ship.

It turns out the northeast suburbs of that city weren’t really looking for authentic, enthusiastic people from the Midwest to deliver their spirituality.  (If they were, then perhaps we were profoundly bad at marketing.)  For two years we did a lot of setting up and tearing down and talking (mostly to each other) about living this certain kind of life.  After a while, we quit.

I’ve been attending church my whole life, but in recent years I’ve not really participated in meaningful roles.  Today, I’m contemplating whether or not to help launch a new church.  I don’t know if I have the spark.  I don’t know if I care enough one way or the other.  Church is demanding and tiring.  I want to do it because there are so many churches just wasting people’s time and I want to see more that don’t.  But church work, well, I’m not that enthusiastic Jesus-loving 23 year-old anymore.  Am I still enough Christian to lead a church?  Do I believe in church? Do I think the local church is the hope of the world? Or at least some source of hope?  I think these are the first questions that need to be answered.

1. Anne Says:
   August 31st, 2010 at 5:04 pm

   I would say community is the hope. Church should be community. Concentrate on building a meaningful community, the rest will follow. I may be naive.

2. DVD Says:
   September 2nd, 2010 at 2:04 pm

   wow, couldn’t agree more with Anne.