I got to hang out at a The Refuge last week in Denver, CO. It consists of people who gather together to live life, and help each other through the messiness and pain of life.
The night I was there, some people from The Refuge met at the house of Jose and Kathy Escobar. After eating a meal, we sat around the living room and talked. The topic for the night was that most of us try to improve ourselves by climbing the moral ladder, but to really experience community with God and each other, we need to climb down the ladder back into the failures and stinkiness of life. The mess of life is where God meets us, where we meet ourselves, and where life really begins.
Kathy recently wrote a book about this, which explains what it means to follow Jesus on the downward path into pain, doubt, and darkness. Her book is titled, Down we Go, and I recommend you read it.
One of the amazing things for me about the group is not just the fact that people were there from a variety of backgrounds and beliefs, but that some of the people had moved from other parts of the country just to participate in a community like this.
People are starving for community, and it is not often found in the traditional church setting. There are most likely people who hunger and thirst for relationships right in your own neighborhood. This is one of the reasons it is so important to get to know our neighbors (as Sam Riviera has been pointing out — and who previously wrote about The Refuge).
We are trying to do this sort of thing in the neighborhood we recently moved into, and hopefully, as we get to know our neighbors, we can build relationships with them that will allow us to help them (and be helped) through the messiness and stinkiness of life.
Annabelle was sitting in the hot sun at a small table with a sign that named the group for whom she was fundraising. Another sign said “Ask me for my testimony.” Annabelle was dripping sweat.
Want to be the church in your community but don't know? Here are some posts which not only explain what it means to be the church in your community, but also gives concrete, practical examples of what it looks like and how to be the church whatever you do and wherever you go.
Remember, you ARE the church, and wherever you go, Jesus goes with you!
One thing we Christians love to do is gossip. I suppose that due to the Papparazi gossip machine and gossip-heavy magazines like “People” it is only natural Christians fall into this social trend of listening to and spreading rumors about other people. It’s natural, but then, so is all sin.
Most of us are not stupid. We can spend a few hours reading the New Testament Gospels and get a pretty good idea what Jesus is like. It’s also pretty clear that people who call themselves Christians (I read somewhere that means little Christs) should look and act like Jesus.
My friends and I have discussed all of this. Their conclusion is that either this “Jesus thing” is a crock or these people who bear his name aren’t Christians. We’ve all read about Jesus in the Bible, and these “Christian” people don’t look anything like him. Maybe he was a one-of-a-kind and it’s not possible to be anything like him.
Are you young or old, fat or thin, Democrat or Republican? Are you for or against a certain issue? Are you rich or poor? Do you go to church or synagogue or nowhere? Are you straight or gay? Do you live in a big house or under a bush? Do you smoke marijuana? – Regardless of your answers to these questions, I can still love you because Jesus loves you.
I am Queer. What does that mean?
We are related to you, live next door to you, work next to you and may even be married to you. That doesn’t mean we are or are not attracted to you, whatever your gender.
This is a guest post Brandon Chase. Brandon is a baseball player at heart; a practicing Crossfitter, golfer, hoopster and guitarist; fueled by meat, cappuccinos and chocolate. He writes about learning to Live by the Life of Jesus Christ on his blog 
What if there were no “churches” to “go to?”
Yesterday I mentioned Isaiah 53:1-3 in a post about 