Church is more about being in right relationships than about believing the right thing

Photo from GraceChurch 

This morning I was listening to a super interesting dialog between Richard Rohr and Rob Bell on the Alternate Orthodoxy.  There was so much there that has got me thinking......I'm going to pick
one thing that I want to ponder on and write my way through right now.  Not that I'll totally grasp and apply the concepts in one sitting, but I just want to think on them some more.

The idea that got me to thinking was this concept that we've got it wrong that church is all about believing the right things.  It's so much more about being in the right relationships within the local body.

We need each other; 1 Corinthians 12:21 talks about how various parts of our physical body can't say they don't need one another to function and so it is with the spiritual body. This brings up a few things for me. I've felt a bit daunted that I couldn't find a church that believed just like I do.  I'd decided that as long as the main, big stuff, was the same I'd just go with it. Listening to this dialogue today affirmed that decision.

Because of my current, unique, life style/situation it's a bit difficult.  I live in a small resort town of around 6,000 people - that is where John and I own a home together.  This is my real home.  I work in a suburb of Los Angels that is a 55 minute drive from my home if there weren't traffic issues.  On week days that drive would be between 1.5 to 3 hours.  I can't live that way, doing that kind of commute.  John owns a home that is 9.1 miles from my work and it a 20 - 30 minute commute.  John's adult daughter and her boyfriend and his divorced oldest son live in that house; the oldest son gets his children to be with him in this home every Wednesday and every other weekend.  I have one room that I use in that house during the week and am home on weekends.  I've found a church that I really enjoy the pastors and so much of what they do near that house - but I'm not there on weekends.  Our town is so small that there are very limited choices.  There's a church I was part of for years; but at one point several years back a new pastor came.  I don't have anything against the guy it's just that there's not passion; it doesn't feel like he has a vital, growing relationship with God from which he's producing his sermons.  His sermons are pretty much a difficulty to sit through - not because they are "wrong", it's just there's so very little there.  When I was living in our town full time I solved this problem by participating in a small group with women from the church - I loved that group.  They were really my local body of Christ.  One friend had a gift of playing the guitar and leading simple, sweet, worship and she does that each week.  Another friend has a gift of administration and she'd organize everything and make sure we kept to a schedule, did ice breakers at the beginning of new Bible studies, had some ground rules, etc.  My gift was facilitating discussion, just helping others to be able to speak out and share together and pray. Only now I'm not around during the week.

My career skills are very specific and I'm grateful to have my current job.  I make a good living, do something for which I've studied to obtain my Master's, get to utilize leadership and creativity, am challenged to the hilt, and help other people.  It's also extremely stressful and unpredictable. Some days it will work out so that I have to work long hours because things come up.  I'm on call 24/7 and sometimes nothing happens, but sometimes a lot happens and I have to respond quickly both in terms of decision making and reports to the CA department of public health. I'm trying to get into mid-week groups with that local church but it keeps not really working for a myriad of reasons.  This church tends to have various, time limited groups that revolve around a specific book they're studying together.  I've completed two during the past year where I was able to attend and participate just about every single meeting.  Those were great experiences, but not enough to form real relationships and intimacy.  The current one I'm trying to participate in only meets every other week so you'd think I'd easily make it; but it's been just the opposite - work keeps coming up on the week of group.  I'd also had some issues since I'd participated in this group previously and have some difficulty fitting in.

All of this is to say that I want desperately to come together in meaningful, routine meetings with other Believers - to do "church" but can't seem to work it out.  All I know to do is to continue to try.

I truly don't have it all figured out but I know that I need other people.  I want to love God and love people in ways that are real.  I want to grow in my faith and relationship with both God and people.