A house church nearly hits the mark

Our search for a church continues. As I sat with my coworker last week describing my ideal church, I realized just how, well... idealistic I sounded. My critique of established church was unusually cynical even for me. I wonder if part of this polarization is a culture whiplash from being in the south (where you can talk to the bank teller about what the Holy Spirit is telling you and she'll nod empathetically and "the Lord" makes frequent appearances in the most casual of conversations).

So we visited a house church yesterday. Potluck followed by informal worship and teaching "as the Spirit leads". The "house" was more of a multi-million dollar mansion but even the enormous vaulted living room struggled to accomodate the crowd approaching a hundred. There was a real sound system and a legit worship band that most smallish churches would drool over. The "offering" that night went entirely to 2 church members in need, since the church has no salaries and no overhead.

It embodied many of my ideals: relational, missional, spirit-led. But somehow it was slightly depressing to see my ideals lived out. Somehow it looked even sexier in my head.

We both really liked it... in spite of the sense that the whole community was comforting each other's sorrowing spirits since we now (apparently) live in a nation that has clearly rejected "Christian values"...

The main bummer is that they don't kick off until our kids' bed time and finding a way to put them to bed at the house feels like a lot of work. We'll keep checking out the scene.