The wrong question or the wrong train of thought

The wrong Question:

I love questions and I love people that ask questions. When people ask genuine questions, that means they have a true interest in finding a REAL answer. Although I love questions, I do believe that you can ask the wrong question.

One wrong question that I get asked often is, "what church do you go to?" I hate that question because usually when someone asks you that question, they already have an idea of how they want you to answer. They want you to respond with a name of some institutional or organized "church". Unfortunately I can't answer that question with most people's perceptions of how they want you to answer. I don't view "church" as being an institution, I see the church as being "the body of Christ", G-Ds people, a community of G-Ds people etc. So to answer that question is tough.

This question however has encouraged me to think a lot about "what church I go to". For example I sometimes attend a worship service at Northstar Vineyard but don't consider this to be a church I go to. I go because there are some very good friends that "worship" there on sunday morning and I do enjoy being able to sing songs of praise to G-D with other people that passionatly love Jesus. But I can't limit this to being my church. Instead I have been trying to map out in my head what "my church" is and it is soooo freakin huge it is incredible. I hang with other disiples of Jesus from all over cincinnati who say they go to different churchs. Crazy enough sometimes these people who are in my immediate "church community" know each other and are connected in different ways. They are from different races, backgrounds, cultures, areas of town etc. and I can call on them at any time for prayer, to hang, for a favor, to share a thought etc. This expands my church community so much farther!! In fact my "church" goes even further than cincincinnati, but to other cities, states, and even counties. WOW!!!

Then I begin to think about the amazing things G-D can do through the "body of Christ" as a whole. Damn!!!! We are everywhere with infinate dreams, influences, jobs, places, gifts etc. My church is the "body of Christ", "the kingdom of G-D", a diverse crazy group of people who passionatly follow and serve YHWH. It makes me smile and reminds me of how awesome and powerful our G-D is to be able to "plant a church" or "organize" his people that goes way beyond my ability to understand or comprehend.

I also get asked often if I will come and be a part of someone's church or if I am interested in checking out there church or need to see what this person's church is like because it is different than anything else that is out there...I think I need to respond with, "Hey come check out my church...it is huge...it does amazing things...it is different than anything else that is out there!!!! We do stuff that is different and there is not box or building that can keep us from doing amazing things!!!!"

Coming soon: A blog called "A Christmas ASS!"