What is church? Part 1

I knew we were going to plant a church. I knew we were going to do it in Augusta. I knew we were looking to move before the end of the year to get started. I knew I would be a church planter's/pastor's wife which would be very different than being a coach's wife. I didn't know it would be different than anything I'd known before.

When Scott first talked to me about our church plant looking different than anything I'm used to, I balked. Actually I didn't just balk, I cried. A lot. Very fearful tears. Talk about resistant and hesistant. That was me. I did NOT want to do something different. I wanted church to be the same as it always has been. I wanted a place where I could go on Sundays just like always to be encouraged in the Word and meet like minded people that I could be friends with. I wanted to head up the women's ministry. Or maybe the nursery. I'm a creature of comfort. The ways things have always been done are good ways because they're tried and true. But are they really?

Scott and I have talked a lot since that first conversation about what this will look like for us to plant a church. He is challenging the heck out of me. I've learned so much. I know God is not a God of comfort zones. (Why must I learn the same lessons, like this one, over and over?) Everything He asks of us isn't necessarily going to line up perfectly with what we are comfortable with. Does that make what He asks of us somehow more holy? No. But is it about me? Am I able to put aside what I want and my comfort?

I want to preface this and the other posts in this little series with mentioning that I am still on a journey. I am still learning, and God is still working on my thought processes. I have in no way arrived. What will this all look like exactly? I wish I knew. Whereas I can't answer that question exactly, the goal of this series is to share a bit of our journey, what we're thinking and how we feel God is leading us in this right now. I don't share this to say that it is the end all be all of how we should "do" church and that we should all abandon the traditional structure and do it Scott and Ashley's way. I share this simply to explain how God is leading us right now and so you can know how to pray for our family as we step into this next season of life.

More thoughts on this tomorrow...