The journey thus far

One hears a lot about "the journey" among emerging church types (sure, I'll consider myself one for now) and a couple of people have asked to keep them informed how "the journey" is going. While I have no idea if those same people ever read my blog, I'll still tell anyone who's interested.
For the benefit of any new readers (there might be some!) we decided to leave our church a few months ago and are now churchless (in the sense of considering ourselves as belonging to a certain local body with a name, a place and a Canada Revenue Service charitable status number). This might not seem like a big deal to some, but to this Menno-raised babe who has always belonged to a church of some sort it was a fairly significant step, but not one without purpose.

Shortly after we left, I got my thoughts down in Word. Here's what I wrote:

VISION FOR WHAT CHURCH CAN BE

Community

Time for community

We don’t fill our times with lots of meetings and things to attend

Time we do spend together is meant to facilitate relationship

Less time in meetings frees more time for spontaneous relationship

Format that promotes community

What we do when we meet together helps relationships: lots of face to face interaction

Time to hear from each person about their lives

Family-friendly community

We don’t have lots of meetings and things to attend that involve parents having to leave their children behind

There is less importance placed on splitting age groups – relationships between ages and generations is highly valued

Giving to the larger community

New programs and ministries are not created by the church.

People are encouraged to give their time and effort to what is already happening in their communities

Rather than bringing people to church, we send people into the world to be Jesus’ hands and feet

Reality

Reality is valued – we don’t have to pretend we are more spiritual than we are

People can doubt

People can question

People can disagree

People can be unsure

Celebration and Support

We rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep

We gain support to be Jesus in the world

Church should reflect Hebrews 10:24-25: And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together…but let us encourage one another…

Most of those things are about function. Form has been harder to define. Cindy and Doug have taken a similar leap and being friends we feel like we're in this together, but without a lot of idea of what that means. December and January were difficult months for me and I ended up feeling like I don't have emotional energy to put into anything right now.

But I'm not too worried about form, because I like what is happening with function. I get together with people (walks, coffee - well, okay beer for some, not me, ick, gross - phone calls, book night) maybe not as frequently as I'd like, but more often than has been true in recent history. And when I am with people who love Jesus, it is very much the type of thing I've written about above - and if that isn't church, what is?

I think I might be finally at the place where not going to a weekly service does not bother me anymore. To quote an old college bud: "Jesus’ mission was not to get more people to attend weekly temple meetings. How, by following his example, did this become the mission of the church?"

Not to say I am against a form. I still remember vivid dreams I had about a year ago that left the impression that our house (not this one as anyone who has stopped by our barely bigger than a refrigerator box hovel will realize) will be a place where people will worship and be connected to community. I do think that the form will come as I'm pursuing function.