Every so often we meet at The Boys & Girls club for what we call The Hub.  This fall we will be doing so once a month to celebrate, connect, pray, and eat.

When we got together a few weeks ago we talked about who we are and where we’re going.
To frame that conversation I shared this blogpost about why people are leaving the church.
It’s a quick read. Go check it out.
I was especially intrigued by this article for a number of reasons. One of the biggest ones is that I agree with it.  While I would prefer to be a community defined by what we’re for rather than what we are against, the reality is that much of what we champion as individuals and communities has its genesis in a discontent with some status quo.  For those of us who started meeting to build into Missio Dei Community, a desire to get away from all of these critiques and create a different kind of community that we felt comfortable in was the catalyst to dream together.

I especially appreciated #3 and this part:

Rather than simply stepping out into the neighborhoods around you and partnering with the amazing things already happening, and the beautiful stuff God is already doing, you seem content to franchise out your particular brand of Jesus-stuff, and wait for the sinful world to beat down your door.

Your greatest mission field is just a few miles, (or a few feet) off your campus and you don’t even realize it. You wanna reach the people you’re missing?

Leave the building.

It’s one of the reasons I actually love not having our own building and why we don’t have any desire to have one anytime soon if ever.
We are constantly learning how to get involved outside of our own gatherings and events.

We want to be – and strive to be – a community that is as concerned about Monday – Saturday as we are Sunday, if not more so.  We want to speak a language that people understand. We want to look like Jesus who was so engaged in his community that he was invited to the homes and parties of people the religious leaders avoided. Hookers. Thieves. Liars. There was something attractive about Jesus and his message that isn’t communicated in what most of the world heard from evangelical Christianity today.

Wherever you see yourself in a faith journey, what in that article resonated with you?
What might you add to the list?
Most importantly, what are tangible ways you’ve seen faith communities do a better job at showing love that looks like love?

Join us tonight as we start a new leg of conversations at our Village environment, these ones about central practices of the Christian faith. 1st & 3rd Sundays at 6pm.