Where we are. Part 2..

Our main focus for our "group" if you want to call it that was solely relying on following after what God wanted for THAT meeting no matter what it meant..sometimes we would worship the entire time, sometimes we would listen to a message from various speakers, sometimes we would pray the whole time, sometimes it was just us sharing what God was doing in our lives and encouraging each other in the Lord..or usually a combo of the above. We have had people come and visit and be part of the get togethers but no one consistent.. We met like this for about a year doing a once a week get together with a spiritual meaning and then we'd get together maybe another night for just random hang time.

I think it was around March when Tyler brought up a author(Frank Viola) he had been reading some of his books and said he was having a conference down in Orlando in July and wanted to know if we wanted to go. We really didn't know anything about him other then what Tyler had told us and knew he was kind of a forerunner for house church type gatherings(or organic church as he refers to it). He suggested we read some of his books, although we never got around to it..haha..So the 4 of us went down to Orlando and attended the conference. It was SOOO good..and that's an understatement. It is seriously hard to sum up what we learned at the conference.

Most of what we have come to learn about this process is its totally led of the Lord, just like most Christians are in different places in their life with God. It doesn't make one more holy or less holy or a better Christian or anything, its just a different place. Luke was way more on board with giving up Institutional church way sooner then I was. I only saw a small portion of what I do now...and I'm thankful that Luke was patient with me in allowing me the freedom to come around in God's timing and not Luke's.

We realized at the conference how much bigger the plan of Christ was then just our individual walks with Christ. That's a part of it because we are each a member of the Body, but its also about corporate. I don't feel I'm very eloquent with words and I find it hard to put my thoughts on paper(or on blog!) so I'm really sorry if this is all coming out disjointed.

While at the conference we met soo many people who were looking for something like this and everyone in different stages of coming out of institutional church..Every time someone would speak we would have a time of breaking up into our table groups and discussing what we'd just heard. It was SO rich. There is something to be said of an open participatory meeting, with everyone bringing something to the table. We felt instant connections with tons of people. It was like walking into a family reunion..seriously. The conference also had all the afternoons empty of speaking time so that everyone could fellowship and talk to each other and connect with people in your area. Most specifically we met a group from Gainesville, GA and we were so excited that there was already a decent sized group of people meeting fairly close to us who were pursuing what we were!

When we came back we read one of Viola's books called Pagan Christianity. Its all about exploring the roots of the church's practices. It blew me away. I'm still not quite finished with it, but I'm getting there. Luke has the audio version and listened to it in about 2-3 days in the car(drive much?!). Luke has also listened to Reimagining Church which I think is supposed to be the follow up book.

To be continued..

(P.S. If anyone reading this has questions, feel free to ask. I'd hate for someone to be confused or think I mean something instead of asking me about it.)