Its not about your church!

Penny,your reflection on being uncomfortable has spilled over into my reflections about rethinking church. Its time for me to make a break with some others in our Christian family. God has written things into my story that I must continue to write. Now that I'm aware of my calling to write this story I MUST STOP ADVOCATING WHAT I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT I'D BE ADVOCATING. I simply can not go on advocating for communities to pull away from the church. If I'm honest with myself, its not about my own comfortability. It would be comfortable to pull away from the Lutheran church and do whatever it is I feel "called" to do. BUT, its not about comfortability. We need to stop thinking that this conversation is about our churches. Let me say that again. ITS NOT ABOUT YOUR CHURCH. Its not about your church because when we say that we mean our institutions, our structures and our messy shortcomings. But here's the deal. Its about people. Its about people even when we're in communities who aren't caring for people. If I want the church to change, I must begin the change by BEING the change. That is my calling. That is OUR calling as followers of Jesus. We can not be the change outside of those places that need it the most. Jesus calls us to BE the change IN the places where the change is needed the most.

- tim