Being the church...NOW!!!

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is "when are you starting?".  This is a fascinating query in that one of the values we share deeply with our mom Watermark is that the church is "people" and not any event or programming.  While I know exactly what people mean when they inquire about this (when are you going to have a weekly service) I tell everyone that we have already started.  We have a weekly meeting time on Saturday from 5-7 (where we eat, talk vision and do some core development), we have people who are on board and we are interacting with our community and building partnerships to help increase the potential of our effectiveness and impact.

I have felt a lot of internal pressure to move towards a larger weekly Gathering, and while we will get there, I know there has been and continues to be real value in where we are.  Being the church now and recognizing that we are just as much the church without a service will help us remember this when we have one.  Also, with the values of diversity and community presence I believe it has made a lot more sense for us to spend our time, energy and money doing things like a kids carnival & a parade than simply getting together to sing and hear me drone on about something we are not doing.

It is fun to actually serve and do what we say we believe first!  If we cease to do these things after launching a Gathering we may have more people and resources but our effectiveness and heart will, in my opinion, shrink...