What is the Church? It's a family.

I guess the title should be "What is the Church meant to be?"  Maybe I'm just being optimistic here but anyway...

You could say I have "grown up" in church, I started going around age 4 or 5.  The first couple churches I went to I admit, were NOT a good influence on me.  As a child I would say things like "I'm not friends with non-Christians" or slap a girl in the face because she said "there is no God".  Yeah.  I grew up as a very closed minded, conservative, up-tight, judgmental...(you name it) sort of "Christian".  Thank God for forgiveness and friends and experiences that helped me learn, grow and change.  When I was in high school I was in a good youth group, in a nice church but I have to say it wasn’t until recently that I have truly seen what the Church is meant to be.

Before we moved to Seattle we came up to look for a place to live.  We were having a really hard time finding a place that would work for our whole family.  A couple days before we had to leave, we went to the Green Bean, a coffee shop that our (now) church runs and met one of the pastors.  She told us to try looking at the SPU website. Long story short, that’s how we found our first house.  When we moved up here, our church helped us move in.  We met the people that helped carry our couch, beds and tons of boxes on move in day.  They didn’t know us yet they committed to helping us move into our house.  We started attending Sanctuary and have been there for the last 5 years.  In that church I have experienced what I got bored of hearing in Bible college, “community”, TRUE community.  It started when we moved here from California and has not ceased, in fact it has only grown.

I believe it was in that first year that we lived in Seattle, we were really struggling.  Our pastor came over one night and handed us cash to buy groceries.  We were unable to buy Christmas presents for our kids, so they connected us to a group that had collected gifts for kids in need.  Most of you know our  “Thailand story”…in a nutshell we tried moving there and had to return after only 2 weeks because both kids and myself had gotten very sick, among other reasons.  Many people would have said “stick it out”, “make it work” or questioned our choice to go there in the first place…but when we came back and were literally homeless, a good friend welcomed us into his basement to live until we were able to find jobs and get back on our feet.  When we found a place to rent again, another very special couple in our community loaned us the deposit so we could move in.

As you can see, the list goes on and on.  The Church is a family.  It is pretty damn dysfunctional at times.  We bicker, nit-pick, tear each other down (when we’re at our worst)…but when we’re at our best, man…it brings tears to my eyes.

This morning we were talking with a friend in church about our kids.  She was saying how this is our family, so by all means, please don’t hesitate to speak firmly with her child if need be.  We were both crying.

This church has shown me true love, grace, friendship, understanding and acceptance.  A while back, that coffee shop that we had visited was burned to the ground by a homeless man.  It was senseless and unthinkable yet our pastor got up in front of our church and spoke of how he had gone to visit that man in prison, and forgave him.  People, this is what it is to be a “Christian”.  This is what it is to be the Church.

 Norm has just begun his Masters of Divinity so he can become a pastor (finally)…and it is only because of the amazing support and love of our denomination and local church that this is possible.  Norm is able to make occasional trips to Michigan only due to the frequent flyer miles of our pastor and another friend.  He has had offers of people to stay with from friends at church that have family over there.

Life is a long and winding road…cliché I know, but true.  I am immensely grateful that the long road has lead us here to the most amazing community of faith that I have experienced in 25 years.  I can only pray to reflect what they have shown us in our own church someday.  To all you reading this that I have mentioned, you know who you are and I thank you with all my heart.