We create space…
Where questions are Sacred and Adorned with Beauty
Where Character precedes achievement
Where the self is communally constructed
Where beauty and love are the ways God speaks and the ultimate apologetic of the Church
Where holiness and perfection are submission
Where abundance and restoration meet justice
Where life is a gift
Where authenticity trumps the absolute
Where we are all a part of the greater story
We belong…
To the disgruntled, the disenfranchised, the odd, the broken, the used, the ones who can no longer wait for programs and top down leaders to respond
To those ashamed of their own brokenness and wonder how God can even use them
To those who desire more but now realize that desire is fleeting at best when attempted alone
To those who lie, cheat, steal, wonder from God, and yet still are used in a mighty way for the Kingdom (in spite of them)
For those who desire leadership but can no longer embrace the old model
To those who see God as both male and female but honor the masculinity of Christ and the reality of God as Father
To those who see the power, beauty, and mystery of human sexuality and desire its integration into their lives in its fullness
To those who can no longer support the rhetoric of stridency, power, and superiority as if God speaks to lost humanity in this manner whether they are Muslims, gays, republicans, or communists.
To those who see God and the sacred in the ordinariness of life and deem it worthy of artistic expression
To those who desire friendship and not just knowledge of God
To those who do not totally trust themselves therefore can no longer give tacit obedience to leaders on all areas of their lives
To those who long and hunger for revelation, miracles, and are willing to re sacralize the world even if that looks odd and strange at times
To those who are not willing to leave the weakest behind for the sake of programs, buildings, and theological constructs
To those who have words form God, revelation, and actual spiritual gifts to offer and can no longer wait for release in those giftings
To those who are unable to be cynical anymore about the Church, the government, the media, and the world thus desire a place where the brokenness of all those principalities are viewed through the eyes of love
To those who ask themselves if any of this Christian and spiritual stuff is really true on a regular basis but are afraid to let anyone else know
To those who feel they are more in touch with their brokenness than they are their healing and hunger for that to somehow begin to change even if it is slow and painful
To those who no longer can view suffering as punishment and God and the great concierge in the sky
To those who actually believe God can redeem entire cites, states, and governments as they represent the very world we are taking the great commission to
To those who can no longer allow their personal preferences, demographic interests, and psychographic attitudes design and create the Church in which they worship
To those who want to see their neighborhoods as sacred places where the Gospel takes shape through gardens, 3rd paces of beauty truth and goodness (galleries, public houses, commercial enterprises, etc.)
To those who want to see discourse between believer and not yet Christians take place on an ongoing basis to foster greater love and to allow real questions to be presented as well as prophetic words form those on the outside as to the Church’s hypocrisy and brokenness
To those who still dream big dreams and wonder why the Church does not ante up
To those who desire for the Church in a city to be united and hate the competition that takes place around denominational theologies, programs, and ways of expressing faith
To those who want to expand the table of God to include the public face of God yet honor the private face of God and not confuse the two
To those who can no longer allow the world to set the precedents for how we do art
To those who can no longer divide the world up into scared and secular departments thus denying immanent nature of God in this world
To those who want to see balance in the Church when it comes to immanence and transcendence
To those who are tired of the Church co-opting out its personalities to therapists, big business, and para -church ministries
We are a place…
Where our entire life is open for discussion, encouragement, reproof, etc
Where spiritual disciplines are offered as means of grace and sacraments
Where the ancient meets the future
Which honors the mystical and ecstatic but does not assume it can recreate the work or God at will thus is always humbled and in awe when God does act supernaturally
Where our apologetic is more like a porous net or trampoline than a wall or fortress
Where men and women mutually submit to one another and honor the gifts and inclinations of their gender in the home and Church
Where discipline is meted out to leaders as well as the rest of the body making such engagements full of real caution and humility
Which believes that the blood of Christ is sufficient to bring restoration into this world and was not offered just to get a “get out of hell” card for the believer
Where we honor the depths and breadth of our Christian heritage and the wider expression of the body in the world today and feel like it is OK to offer rebuke and reproof when we see error (as in the case of some of the TV preachers)
Which sees the difference between what is profane and vulgar and does not fall into legalisms that then become moralism
Where our speech and ways of engagement are filled with grace, holy talk, and sensitivity to others
Which is open to co-housing and creating ways of be frugal that allow the Gospel to go forward with power and might
Which sees the potential of the Church to become a power and principality that mitigates against the Gospel thus becoming the very thing it often preaches against.
Which bows to no state government and is careful to not allow political views to over shadow the power and grace of the Gospel
Which truly seeks to reconcile all its members and views any relationships that are out of fellowship as potential engagements for such grace
Where restoration and restitution go hand in hand
