It’s Official!

Today I filed the papers to incorporate our new church. We now are officially recognized as a church by the government. We just don't have a group of people who look like a church yet! But we trust that will come in time.

We also have a name, a post office box, a federal i.d. number, and within a few days we'll have our own bank account. All very official…but I wonder, "What would the apostle Paul have thought about having to go file papers in a government office in order to start a church in Corinth or Ephesus?" He might have been glad to have a government that would recognize his church rather than persecute it. On the other hand, he might have wondered what we have sacrificed in order to gain social and political respectability.

Our name is Reunion Christian Community. A little untraditional, I know, but that's kind of the point of planting a new church, isn't it? We're on a mission to reach people who aren't being reached by traditional churches, and who are turned off by the idea of "church." People associate "church" with buildings and institutions and denominations and dogmatic traditions (wonder where they got that impression?). The Greek word we translate today as "church" referred to an assembly or gathering of people in a community of faith. So we decided to use the more common word "community" rather than the churchy word "church."

The word "Christian" in our name acknowledges that we are followers of Jesus Christ. It connects us to our heritage in the Restoration movement and the nonsectarian conviction that we are "Christians only, but not the only Christians."

The word "Reunion" reflects what we believe is the central mission of the church—reconciliation. Paul says that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ" and that he has given us the ministry and message of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20). God's plan was to bring all things to unity in Christ, to reconcile everyone (Jews and Gentiles) in one body through the cross, making peace between them (Eph. 1:9-10; 2:14-18). Christ's mission was to reunite people to God who had been alienated by sin and unbelief, and to reunite people to each other who were separated by hostility, prejudice, sectarianism, and legalism. Reuniting people to God and to each other is the mission of any community of Jesus' followers.

Reunion Christian Community—Bringing people together and to God.

So, what do you think?

The Return of the Blog: What's happening in our new journey

I'm finally back to blogging. (Do I hear cheering?...Maybe a few "it's about time" comments?...Is anyone reading this?) I will use this blog as one way to keep friends, supporters, and drive-by readers updated on how things are going with our new ministry.

For now, I will keep the name of the blog the same. I considered changing it to something related to the new church, but until the new church begins, this will continue to be my blog, rather than a church communication center. What better name than "What I Didn't Say Sunday"? Since I'm not preaching, everything I say is something I didn't say Sunday!

That in itself is a subject I get asked about all the time—"What's it like not preaching every week?" Hard question to answer. Since January 3, I have spoken one time. I have no other speaking appointments until Good Friday at the local Holy Week services and then not again until mid-July at an area church. This is the first time in almost 30 years that I have gone more than 3 weeks without preaching or teaching.

The first few weeks it was really strange. On Saturday nights I felt stressed even though I had nothing to be stressed about! No deadline. No sermon notes sitting in a folder beckoning me to come revise them one more time. No concerns about whether I should prepare more. No anxiety about whether the worship service would go as planned, bless most of the congregation, upset some, etc. No reason to have difficulty falling asleep, or to wake up in the night with a new thought, or to get up early to read over the lesson again…but I seemed to do all that anyway.

But I have to say that I've gotten used to it. I'm not used to living without constant deadlines. But the break has been nice. At least for awhile. (I'm about ready to start creating some kind of deadline every week just to feel normal!) And I've enjoyed the freedom to visit other churches and listen to other preachers. Something I have only been able to do a few times a year. We've enjoyed the experience—though Judy says every Sunday that she misses her favorite preacher (isn't she sweet!).

Well enough about me. Here's the news:

OUR HOUSE SOLD!!!! (Do I hear cheering? This time I should definitely hear cheering!)

We close on March 31 and will move our stuff into storage and stay at my parents' some, but mostly at Judy's mother's empty house. We'll be moving into Hope Gardens, the neighborhood we have targeted as our home base. We haven't found a suitable house in the neighborhood for hosting gatherings, so it looks like we'll build one on an empty lot there and be in place by July.

The Hope Gardens area is a great place for our ministry. It is probably the closest neighborhood to downtown—just north of the capitol, across the street from the Farmers Market. The neighborhood is very diverse ethnically and socio-economically. Just north across Jefferson Street is the Buena Vista neighborhood, which is also diverse, but with a larger low income population, including the Cheatham Place projects. Across Rosa Parks Blvd. is historic Germantown, an area that is now full of young professionals. The other side of the downtown business district are the upscale condos in the Gulch. All around us are opportunities to connect with disconnected city dwellers, serve underserved residents, and make an impact on the community.

I have been meeting some of the community leaders to learn the needs of the area and explore opportunities for service. Already we have begun helping out with an after-school Bible club at the local elementary school. And the public library invited me to read Dr. Seuss stories to inner city preschoolers at their monthly story time (that was too much fun to be considered work!). This Sunday morning we will meet residents of the neighborhood when they come out to get their community garden ready for spring.

The word of the day is "progress." We feel like we are moving in the right direction and good things are starting to happen.

But now I have to go pack boxes.