church wanted

I am currently unattached. Not in a relationship. Single.

I refer not to my relationship status, but my church status. I am currently without church.

I'm surprised to find that it bothers me. I'm not really super pro church, ironically given that my husband is embarking on pastoral leadership training this year with my full support. I should clarify - I'm pro the concept of church, in the biblical, original fresh sense. Not so much the organism that has evolved out of the Bible and languishes today in our cities.

For travel reasons I've been without church for quite awhile, as we cycle toured around the world. And it didn't really bother me. For sermons and music its hard to pass up the quality I can download on my ipod. For community, I had my emails, skype and of course my husband.

In many ways the attendance of church can be an event not to be missed, missed as in regretting not going that is. It can be a place of stale ideas, false community, pasted on smiles - nothing resembling or even whispering of promises of, the abundance of joy Christ promised.

But yet at the same time I think a more accurate comment would be to say that I miss church. Even when attending these lifeless buildings, I miss church.

I miss community, real community, the gritty type that calls you and asks you out on a friday night, the type that knows when you're down, that listens and shares their life with you. Community that comes in all shapes and sizes, the type you would never probably associate with in your average world. And in a world where it is too easy to network and keep in touch with friends, the concept of community seems to have been diluted to some once a month coffee catch up.

I miss rubbing shoulders with people who really are connecting with God. Or who aren't, but are open about that, and their desire (or lack of at that time) to connect. Who really want to know God and be known. To be humbled by the stories of others passion and hunger for God, is the best medicine for my apathy, or pride if I was being honest, which I might as well be.

I miss creative spaces where you are opened up to thoughts and ideas and worship spaces you had never thought of before. Of sermons with ideas that cut to the quick, that challenge, annoy, make you ponder the real meat of life.

A good church can root you. Can be your community, your carer. It can be what keeps you on track, focused on spiritual matters in a world where everything else is so much more pressing. It can be your mentor, your accountability. It can be your resource center, your reference point. It can be your place where you find purpose in service. It can be a creative place where you encounter God and your own creativity.

And so the unenviable search for the right church must begin. And begin with a sense of hope, of new and good things, and of the guiding hand of God.