Here Goes. . .

This is my attempt to take the Gavin approach to blogging and just sit down to write something even though I have no idea what to write. Here goes. . .

Mark is in his final stage of ordination that propels our family into the cycle of itineracy. I've known all along that this would be the life we live and I'm OK with it. People ask me how I'll deal with it as if it's a disease we'll live with forever. I just think about all the different experiences we'll have that we wouldn't necessarily choose for ourselves. For instance, we probably wouldn't have chosen a small-town 70 miles away from Nashville, but we so value this experience and some relationships we've formed.

I realized the other day that I've never really had a sense of having a "home church" that people speak of. All my life I've sort of lived in the community, but enough outside that if I left it wouldn't be the end of the world. As I say those words a sinking feeling comes over me that maybe I've never fully committed myself to a congregation--given all of my prayers, presence, gifts, and service. But upon further reflection I think it was God's way of preparing me for the life we will have from now on. I have had great relationships in every church I've been a part of, but my "home" is in the larger community--the body of Christ. My membership is in a particular congregation, but all of me is a part of the Church. I wholeheartedly give my prayers presence, gifts, and service everywhere I go.

I'm also thinking that I'm part of a generation that is less about rooting itslef in a single congregation for life and more about what it means to be about the work of the Church in the world. Maybe that has something to do with it. All I know is that I'm ready for God to do what God will do as we continue this unpredictable pilgrimage toward the heart of God.