Crashing Forward

If you are a regular reader of my blog - or even just a hit and miss reader - you have probably realized that Gary and I have been without a church home since last December.  This has been an unusual time for us.

We have taught Sunday School for probably 16 years.  Wow!  It's hard to  believe that we spent that amount of time with kids. This included Sunday School, Wednesday evenings, events, and more recently time with Youth.  We enjoyed every minute of it but was really starting to feel that perhaps it was time for us to move on.  About the time we were feeling that working with children was no longer our calling was the same time that we felt God telling us it was time to find another church.  I don't want to go into great detail as to why we left our former church home/family.  We still have ties with many friends there.  Let's just say that we knew the time had come to move on, we just did not know where God would send us. 

So, we have been spending our Sunday and Wednesday evenings with Redemption Church and our Sunday mornings visiting other churches.  Redemption is the new church plant our former pastor is starting.  Gary has felt strongly called to be a part of this church plant from the very beginning.  I, however, have been more hesitant.  Not that I don't believe in what Redemption is, I just have hesitation.  That's kind of typical of me in most things.  I tend to be reluctatnt to embrace fully without a lot of introspection.

We have recently done a study on The Barbarian Way (if you haven't read it yet, read my post from 05/15/13 on this subject).  Tonight we finished up this study.  As we were discussing tonight we were asked to think of one or two things that really stuck out with us from this study.  Mine was this:  Do whatever God is calling you to do the moment it becomes clear to you.

Also, in this study we discussed how every group of animals has a designation or name (school of fish, pride of lions, etc.).  The most unusual one was a crash of rhinos.  Rhinos just rush forward with all they have although they do not have the ability to see more than 30 feet in front of them.  They don't let that stop them.  We discussed how could we become a 'crash' church?

To simplify this:  as Barbarians we at Redemption want to present a united front while we crush forward with God's calling.  We want to be a church where broken, hungry people can come and feel welcomed without being judged.  We want to know that even if we make mistakes we will be forgiven. 

I think I can safely say that Gary and I both feel that Redemption is the church for us as we move forward.  We will continue to visit other churches on Sunday mornings until such time that we can meet together as a church on our own.  We look forward to what God has in store for us in our new direction.