Hope

During the time we were going to West-side Vinyard, Jessica had a garage sell. I didn't help out because that saturday was full of birthday parties. As for garage sells, it was a pretty horrible day. The sun was bright and the birds were chirping, but the money wasn't flowing in. But one paroozers happened let it out to my wife that she was a pastor's wife. Instant friends.

5 months latter, we found ourselves walking out of the church building. We were quite pleased.

Church Compromise

I had a problem. I made a decision with my wife to regularly attend a church I wasn't 100% in love with. It's a great church that is a force of good in this world, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I don't feel comfortable talking about why, because it seems so petty in the midst of all the incredible things they do, but the longer I attended the more discontented I grew.

There's a long story about how this happened, so I won't get into it, but I came across a pastor named Tim Chaddick who pastors Reality LA (Realityla.com). Unfortunately, I learned about him and the church after we committed to going to the West-side Vineyard. The reason I committed to going to the Vineyard was because I had given up on there being missional/kingdom minded churches close to where we live. It's kind of like going to a restaurant and ordering a meal, but then you realize 10 mins later that there's another menu that has exactly what you've been looking for. What do you do? My wife loved the Vineyard, so I decided to suck it up for her an the kids.

But then one Sunday Rachel was ill and Jessica graciously volunteered to stay home with her while Jonah and I went to church. Now why would I drive 30mins to a church I'm not thrilled with when I could test out Reality LA 6mins away? Jonah and I went. He had a good time and I instantly became a fan. The one problem....the one MAJOR problem, was that I knew it was a church that didn't suite my wife. I could just tell from our last 18 months of church searching that this wasn't her cup of tea. I ended up going a second time with both the kids while Jessica was away for the weekend and we all had a good time and I had another powerful experience.

Going those two times to Reality was like throwing miracle grow on my discontent with the Vineyard church. It was like taking a 2-liter of coke and putting it in your bicycle basket and riding over 1 mile of bumpy LA pavement. The pressure was building. I stopped holding in my satisfaction and talked to my wife more about it. She knew I wasn't 100% satisfied with the Vineyard, but now she was hearing how much i was discontented (every detail)

Next thing, the dominoes start to fall. It turns out just recently that the one good set of friends we met at the Vineyard decided to move back to Haiti. Jessica and I are both very sad about this, but snap (sound of scissors' cutting) goes our strongest ties to the Vineyard. There's another domino, but I can't talk about that yet without giving away the whole story...

So come Easter Sunday when we go to church you won't be able to find us at the Vineyard....nor will you be able to find us at Reality LA. No, you would have to search somewhere much closer to our home....

Church trouble?? what church??

As I mentioned before, I settled. Jessica really liked a church... I wasn't completely satisfied, but I was tired of trying out new churches. I was tired of making my kids go to so many new children's programs and then telling them we're not going back. It's really hard looking for a new church. We've been in Los Angeles for 17 months and we still don't have a church community we're a part of.

Personally, I wouldn't mind trying out all the churches we've been too, but having kids makes it a lot more difficult. Jonah and Rachel grow attached to people or other kids so easily. And they don't forget either. Jonah is constantly asking to go back to a church we visited a year ago. "Dad, let's go back to the rock band church." (Oasis).

I just wish all churches posted sermons or their entire service online. That would help me out a lot. It would be nice to have a website too. Actually, I don't even go to churches without websites (or with really crappy ones). I know it's an assumption I make, but your website says a lot about your church. It would be very helpful to have a detailed description of what my children will be doing with your church. Let me know your philosophy, mission, and values (but only if they're actually lived). I want to see a church that is so passionate about their values/purpose that the leadership is active in applying those things to my children too.

I meant to write to tell you about how we've switched churches.... but I guess this turned into something else.

If the Church was a Car Maker

if the Church was a car maker it would be General Motors. Interesting article on GM from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/business/13auto.html. And I thought this stuff only went on inside church walls.

???

How am I going to survive without my 3G network for a week?

Sent from my iPhone

South Daktoa

Did I mention I'm going to South Dakota?

We arrive today at 7pm.

guess...

Guess where I'm going today....