On your mark, get set...

This being the first of many blogs for Branches Church, I have to remember that although we are excited about the vision and plans for the future of our church, we are still lining up to the starting mark. We have much work to do in the next three months. We are praying, talking together, recruiting workers, asking a lot of questions, looking for space to meet and how to use it to our best advantage. We've been working with people who have done this kind of thing before and getting their advice as well as rounding up resources. God bless us, everyone!

The most important thing we can do right now is to immerse ourselves into community with each other and continually reinforce the "come as you are" culture we want to create. As we've discovered, people are keeping church, religion, and ultimately Jesus at arms length, so we want to be prepared to meet them as they are, which can be hard for many of us. We're used to people trying to clean up their act before they come to church. We're used to putting on a "happy face" before we "do" Sunday morning with others. We cannot be offended or afraid of holding each other to the task of being accepting, loving, and nurturing. Jesus spent most of his time with people on the streets (in real life) and He championed them and their desire to be redeemed, made whole, fed, and have their questions answered. We will hold to this same mind that was in Christ.

We've been asking, "Why can't church be different?" It can if we do it like Jesus did. We must be willing to defend the vision for Branches "come as you are" culture with everything we've got. Not just "doing church", but "being the church" is the ultimate expression of Christ in the real world today.

Let's go!
Mike