church 2 church
Tonight I had a great evening with some of my brothas’ and sistas’ from another motha’who meet in a rented coffee bar in mid-town Tallahassee as a new community of faith called Watermark. They have been sharing life together for about a year or so and have a small group of college/post-college folks who seem very interested in being Jesus to the community.
It was cool to come from “www” to the “real world” and connect with other disciples of Jesus. RJ, the guitar guy, introduced me as the guy he met online who has an online community of faith called theRealZoo. When he said that, I realized that an online community is just one slice of God’s Big Project that I see people of faith being called to be in the world today.
My dream is that theRealZoo will continue to be an online community but that also has real world connections with the people we find ourselves in natural connection with locally and nationally. From the schools our daughters go to, to the people we work with, and the places we patron every day like the Library or Tropical Smoothie are all part of theRealZoo community because when we are there we bring the community of faith with us. I believe we are all part of the mobile Gospel on the largest network of history.
It was good to sip and sing with the people of Watermark. I connected with RJ as he sang about “Help us Lord to love mercy, Help us to love justice, Help us to love all people.” I believed that RJ believes what he is singing, and that makes all the difference. This is the kind of people I would gladly join hands and hearts to serve the poor, the oppressed and marginalized in Tallahassee, Florida. May the One who holds all things together by his Word bring forth his plan in his timing and may we church to church partner with one another so that no needs go by unmet.
As we left, we had candles that we lit to represent our prayers of faith that the way of Jesus would be realized in the communities we call home. Thank you Michael Anthony, RJ, Stratton, Caleb, Jim, Dave, Trisha, Jim, Rob the tattoo guy for welcoming a total stranger into your community like a brother in the faith.
May each of you who read this find yourselves engaged in bringing Heaven to earth in whatever expression of faith the Creator calls you to be. May you be the good news wherever you go.
6 comments:
i'm so glad that you went - hm.... whose idea was that anyway?? :) so glad you listen to your wife. anyway - i was just sitting here thinking this morning, that i'm sure they are encouraged just as you were encouraged, that there ARE people in tallahasee who are madly in love with Jesus and want to put that love on display in a radical way... who aren't content any more with just sitting in the bricks. may we find that we are all connected by this thing that is SO WAY much bigger than us!! :) thanking God this morning that we DON'T have it all figured out....
It's funny you mention how big God is, Darla, because I just blogged about that last night. And it was inspired by Michael's visit to Watermark. I am glad he listens to his wife. :) The truth is that we could try our best to be the most "emergant" church in Tallahassee but we don't care about any of that. We are just so passionate about simply being a force for good in our community in the name of Jesus. With that said, we'd love to keep this conversation going and make Tallahassee a place where loves explodes all over the place.
Thank you Darla, thank you Michael. We'd love to see you again.
Michael,
I just want to say thank you for joining us last night! I loved getting to finally meet you in person, and honestly, bro, seeing you was a great encouragement for me. if you ask anyone in our community I shared last week about how frustrated I have been about miniscule details with my job, our situation as a community, this city, my faith personally, etc. But I thank God we got to connect last night! I wish you and your wife (not to mention your kids) a blessed week, ever growing hearts in the love of Christ, and many opportunities to show his love to our fair lil' city! Oh and have I said it was great to meet you in person, and thanks for coming yet? If so I tell you again. i hope to see you again soon!
::RJ
where did you guys meet? i'd like to come hang out with you next time...i'm also planning to visit camilla (ga) soon to worship with a group called "wellspring," who also meet sunday eves.
we meet at FUSION (a new restaraunt located at 1225 N Monroe across from Taco Bell & Brueggers) sundays at 5:30pm. Hope to see you there.
Michael, how wonderful to read about your visit to Watermark. (Bless the Internet that brought you there.)
May each of you who read this find yourselves engaged in bringing Heaven to earth in whatever expression of faith the Creator calls you to be. May you be the good news wherever you go. I love these words - and what a beautiful and difficult challenge for me, and one I needed reminding of. My thanks.
Post a Comment