Day 1 - The End

Day 1 of posting my journey has ended. Not much happened but a lot of questions filled my mind. The most important question dealt with how to be part of a faith community if we are not part of a church. If you read my other blog, you know that being part of a faith community and journeying with others for mutual support and accountability are big deals to me. If I'm going to avoid the brick and mortar church, where will I get that?

It's especially important to me because it's important to my family, especially my wife. She voiced her concerns and desires for community outside our family. She misses the whole idea of Sunday School and catching up with other people, greeting everyone before and after the Sunday morning worship service. Plus we need to make sure our boys get outside social contact because we homeschool.

These seem like death rays to the notion of living faithfully without being part of the regular Sunday morning church thing. Perhaps selfishly on my part, I'm rather excited about facing this challenge head on. In thinking about it today, I realized just how intentional it will require me to be if I am to live in community. I cannot depend on the organizational structures like Sunday School, Sunday morning worship, and other church functions that facilitate gathering together. I'm excited because people get to relate to me as a normal person again, not as a pastor, or as someone called me this weekend, "The Preacher".

I'm looking forward to building new relationships on a different basis now. I'm looking forward to being missional in my faith as I still do the work of spreading the Gospel. I think it's going to be a great year.