Today our church got back together at Libby’s to hangout, share stories and talk a little about some future developments of the open house for this fall.

I have to say I really love our group and the reason I say this is because even through my “working it out” they listen, love and respect what I have to say. As I stumble through sharing some ideas and thoughts, they help me along, encourage and work it out with me.

Tonight I talked about sustainability and decentralization…ya exactly, huge concepts that I have been thinking about but I decide to throw it all out there. But amongst it all they got it and helped me work through what I was really wanting to say…I love that. We talked about membership and tithing and a tonne of other stuff and they worked it through with me.

The biggest point of the night was helping me realize the commitment that our church has already made. I have these “fantastic” ideas that we need a new concept of membership when everyone there is already a member…just without the signed card. As I discussed defining what it meant to belong to the open house, I realized everyone there belonged and in the simplest form of membership they were in essence…moving closer to Jesus. They didn’t need a list or a set of characteristics, they just wanted us to trust that they were moving toward Jesus and that the church was helping them move in that direction.

So my membership thoughts are going to have to take a back seat again. How do I define a member of the open house? As my friend Pernell once said, “Sneezes, burps and farts.” I live in and amongst these great people, watching them grow, accepting them where they are, but not leaving them there. It will be a relational process, hard to measure, but not hard to tell and for now I am quite okay with that.

night…