We believe we've found another way through the fog...let God lead us.
Without going into details, Amy and I have been at odds with several things going on at our church. There's no reason to go into great detail anymore...what started out as a miscommunication caused us to look deeper. The closer we examined the situation the more we saw that was murky...and truthfully uncomfortable.
It remains so. There are some things we can not be part of...but worshipping God is not one of them.
We prayed for God to show us a way over this bump in the road and He did...but what we saw was not a bump, but a fork.
Initially, we believed that was a clear sign and we would have to break away....go in a completely different direction without looking back.
I'm not sure why though...perhaps emotions were still being mistaken for truth.
Make no mistake, we still plan to explore that new path, travel the fork and see what's around the bend, but while we do feel God nudging us, and we do see clarity ahead, that doesn't mean we have to sever any ties, make any great pronouncements or decisions regarding the church and those areas that are confusing and cloudy.
Somehow we had made this an "either or" situation...we made it that way...God didn't. God simply showed us a light to follow, He didn't say to turn our backs on the path that brought us there.
I walked the land our little church is built upon last night. I have walked it often. I prayed at a small pile of stones which were placed there by the people of Covenant some years ago, before we had any buildings on the property...only dreams.
I thought about the old days, these days, and future days.
They all have one thing in common...I've never been in control of any of them...never was...never will be.
Sure I can make decisions, disagree with decisions, be disappointed by decisions...but this stuff...concern over theological cynicism, disdain for the petty posing as pious...and trying to cut our way through all of it with some sense of balance and integrity - that stuff is above my pay grade.
Amy and I are still going to spend some Sundays normally spent in traditional worship trying to be more Christ-like, reaching out to folks in need, doing "home church" on occasion, being the church on occasion and ministering where we feel called. Walking that new path....
But I believe we still need to spend time with our traditional church family too, on that land we have walked upon, amid the trees we have prayed under, and in the seats where we have wept, and sung, and laughed and mourned.
For this is a place we know very well...our church home.
It is the wheat upon which we feed our souls.
We would hunger for the wheat were it any other way.
And there is no need to hunger.
So there is chaff amid the wheat.
It is not our job to separate the two...that is God's work.
Instead of being consumed and confused, we are going to let go and trust that God will work it out.
He always has...He always will.
" He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
