Don’t you love it when you get a chance to sit down with a old friend you haven’t seen in forever and you are easily able to pick up your relationship right from where you left off? Getting caught up on the happenings of life is fun but what’s really fulfilling is the connection — knowing someone and them knowing you. It’s then you realize that time and distance doesn’t change that.
Recently I was writing an email and asked the person to greet all those back home for me. Curious that I would so easily use that word – home. We haven’t lived there for five years and a lot of water has gone over the dam since then. We didn’t grow up there. None of our children or extended family live there. It’s not where we went to school, not where we met or the first place we lived together. It’s not like the physical place or it’s economy was amazing. It was interesting to me that I would still think of that place as home. But I had to be honest, if someone were to ask us where home is we would both think of this same place and for many of the same reasons.
And every one of those reasons has a face. It’s people and the depth of those relationships (like that of family) that allows one to feel “at home”. I could be with them anywhere in the world and it would still feel like home. It’s knowing and being known, caring for and being cared for, trusting and being trusted, loving and being loved. It’s a place where emotion, energy and time don’t have to be spent in image, pretense or posturing. It’s a place where failing is expected, growth is a process and love has no strings. It’s the place where it is OK to be you (warts and all).
As this new faith community, called NineSevenZero Church, begins to take shape we must realize our strategic responsibilities as architects, nurturers and protectors of the culture of this new church family. It is my prayer that we might create and develop the depth of relationship within our church and in our community that people remember and reference as a place where they are at home.
Thanks to all our friends at Christian Life Fellowship, Port Edwards, WI, for inviting us into your lives and allowing us to grow and minister with you. I hope we can recreate that culture here in the Grand Valley so when you come to visit you too will feel at home. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Colorado send you greetings. Grace be with all of you.
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