If you missed this last Saturday, you missed what is quietly becoming one of our favorite gathering environments. It’s a time where families worship, look at God’s word, celebrate communion, and simply belong…together. In fact, now that I am in my Monday morning reflection mood, the night itself lined up with the topic we spoke about. We looked together at:
“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me,
in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”
2 Timothy 1:14
We all know and agree that there are patterns that enslave us, and there are patterns that set us free. As we look at our own lives, we would be fools to be living in results that are not fruitful, without looking back at the patterns that have gotten us here.
There was a critical point in the night where we presented to all families present a pattern within our ministry that has been causing a check in our spirit. For years, we have become a church that has grown accustomed to worship with families silo-d between multiple buildings. While there is much benefit in getting with your peers to seek God with specific application, there is also some fallout to this pattern. It has become a common thing for students to feel completely disconnected from the church body, at times even saying: “I don’t belong to that Church”. This is painfully revealing of many of our students ecclesiology (understanding and philosophy of the church).
We want to address this pattern first hand with an experiment. For 12 weeks, throughout the course of the summer, we are going to adjust our worship pattern by joining as families (grades 7th through adult) to worship as one. We are pursuing this very humbly, carefully, and above all…prayerfully. We are also doing it with a big safety net, sensing the support and backing of our pastors and elders. We don’t know where this will take us, except to our knees where we will be seeking God together. At the end of the 12 weeks, we will gather together to seek what the Lord has taught us, and where the Lord will take us.
We hope you will prayerfully join us in this journey!
~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy~
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