i am...

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Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada
i'm the Director of Camp Wapiti and i have the best job in the universe. yes, the whole universe.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

a few thoughts...

when i first decided to focus my life on following Jesus and God's plans for my life, i used to get into some great conversations with a really great guy. his questions and experiences challenged me and i love the idealism that he's been able to hold on to throughout his church experience. i think that questions should be asked and that we should expect certain things from our experience of life with each other and (even more so) with our God.



my friend's latest post raised a good question, but it got me thinking about my church experience, and why i need the church. check out his post here and then take a look at my response to his post below (i chose not to comment directly on his site because i'm not sure i should be imposing my ideas where they may not be wanted).



i guess from my experience being part of a larger church (the one i'm part of now is well over 600 people) experience gives me (for lack of a better word) a more 'diversified' experience. i love the small group that i'm a part of because that's where i feel like i really get loved and have the opportunity to be discipled further in my journey towards Jesus. but if i hang out with the same small group of people and don't connect with (and i mean really connect, get involved, serve alongside of, and submit myself to the experiences and wisdom of) a larger group of people then my world and discipleship tends to become a little biased. it might not be that way for everyone, but i need the larger (maybe i should be saying broader) church to shake things up for me every now and then.



i'm not saying the smaller gatherings aren't church experiences, i'm just saying i need both of them (large and small), because i see a need for a variety of groups exampled in scripture (Jesus teaching to his "inner 3" and the 12 and the 72 and the 120 and the thousands), and because i know that my brain likes certain types of people and won't grow unless it's rubbed by people that i don't necessarily agree with every now and then.



just my experience. but please, feel free to comment and we'll have a little mini-dialogue about this. i love to be challenged on ideas.





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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am in agreeance jeremy...I also commented on your friends blog a little more thoughly than I will here

Unknown said...

Wow and also...www.studioy.org that's a good thing to blog about boy oh boy can't get enough of www.studioy.org

Fred and Wendy said...

I would add one further comment - after being part of TSA for many years I find the third community that is important to me is one that is represented by those who I don't attend church with now, but once did. Those people who cheered me on, who lifted my name in prayer and were part of my spiritual formation.
We rarely meet, but they are friends who I feel connected with.