Jon Swanson writes a couple of blogs. One is “300 Words a Day.” Here he ponders “8 Ways to Find a Church.” If someone comes into your church, how do they “find it?” I don’t mean Yellow Pages. How do they find the experience? What do you think?
Jon has a list:
- Do they consider themselves a they or a building? (Church, biblically, is always the people.)
- Do people stick around after formalities are done? (It’s a sign of community, whether it’s a large Sunday gathering or a committee meeting.)
- Do they acknowledge God in three persons and build from the Bible (This one matters to me.)
- Do they teach things that I’m not sure I exactly agree with, but do it in a way I can converse with? (I don’t want a group that only knows what I know. I gotta be stretched. But lovingly. And as an invitation to love.)
- Do they allow brokenness or do they expect perfection? (No one isn’t broken. Too often, however, we say “fix yourself and then you can come to God.” That is exactly backwards.)
- Do I feel a sense of holiness that makes no sense? (Can’t explain it)
- Do you have to be related or part of the cultural tribe before you can be accepted as part of the church tribe? (If everyone is Swedish but you, or everyone is tatted or no one is, or you have to have a beehive.)
- Do they go more than they gather? (Are they at the jail and the Starbucks and the neighbor’s garden and traveling across the country with @hardlynormal to visit people without homes.)
Tags: Church
Faith Venture 
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