Why We Gather

I spent most of my life growing up in a non-denominational Evangelical church. Most of my life has been spent in church services, usually 3-4 times a week I was in church. After graduating high school, I became involved in youth ministry leading small groups, working at a church camp, as well as various other ministries in our church, most of which centered around a church service. Over time this became very laborious, very routine. I had spent countless hours at conferences or meetings, researching and trying to learn how to have a good church service, each one usually the same, centered around a gimmick, or some current pop culture. Eventually that was all that I thought about church services, was how to do them.

To be honest, until I got out of going to church regularly for a while I realized I needed to know why.

Since being introduced to the post modern and emerging church about 2+ years ago, I've been amazed at how church gatherings are happening, organically and obscure; from theaters to coffee shops to night clubs and cigar bars. Amazing. But not entirely the point.

Let me be specific and a bit candid.

I think small groups, meeting in homes breaking bread is amazing. I think meeting at local establishments to have coffee or a pint and great conversation is excellent and necessary.

Building community. Sharing life with each other, but there's this other piece. This other time of gathering. What is it about?

It's about the center.

The moments we gather to sing songs, and pray, the moments when we all come together is wrapped around the center of it all. Christ.

It's a moment when we come to worship Him for what He has done, for what He said He will do. It's sharing the joy with each other of living a life with Jesus, the God became man. Its a re-centering, a moment of reflection.

To be honest, even as I type these words it is hard to believe. It's an area I struggle with. This last sunday I visited a church in Houston, and found myself distracted and somewhat restless, fighting my mind from wandering. Thinking about the service on the bus ride home, I felt like I had ruined myself and could no longer just "attend" a church service. After a few moments, with my mind quieted, and my heart open, I began to realize that it wasn't about the church service anyway. It's about the condition of my heart. It's amazing really, I spend most of the bus ride home from church thinking about how to go to church, and not about how to grow closer and fall more in love with the One who church is all about.

I've forgotten my first love, ironically it's not for the love of another its for the quality of the date.

Living the Dream

This past weekend I went to the Texas hill country for Independence Day, and then to Lufkin, Texas, and then Houston. During the going to and fro, I saw a lot of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd's. and that had me thinking about MLK, his dream and a very common phrase I seem to hear a lot. Whether it's a Facebook status, a bumper sticker, or some form of communication, I have been told by several people that they're "Living the Dream."

I've been even told by other people that because of my (at the time) nice apartment, gaming console, flat screen TV, and being single, I was in fact, "Living the Dream."

To be honest, I've been wrestling with this thought that living a life of self-indulgence is a dream? Not just a dream, but the dream.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having a good time. A little R&R is pretty good for one's soul. But when I think about MLK's dream, a dream that he gave his life to, and quite frankly, a dream that 50 inches of HD Halo until your eyes melt can't compare.

I guess my question is not what is "Living the Dream", but what is the dream worth living, or rather what is the dream worth giving life for?

I think dreams like these are hard to find. I think the reason they are hard to find is because they are found in the place where intimacy and surrender with God is found. We can call it our calling, or purpose driven whatever, or even our preferred future. Many times we call it our dreams, today I'd like to maybe refer to it as our journey.

This journey, this life with God. Breathtaking and immense are these moments in which we interact and live life with the living God. TE Lawrence once said, “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

They act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. They act out their journey with open eyes to make it possible. Wow. Incredible. To live life interacting with God, walking out our dreams in the path that He has set for us. Simply amazing.

Millions are spent finding a life of purpose, a life with a dream worth giving life to. Millions are spent trying to find this thing that can only be found in one place. Intimacy with the Father.

To be honest, thinking about the dream God has for me brings more questions and frustrations then answers, but what I do know is that compared to the life I have lived before, I think now I can say, "Yeah, I'm living the dream."