We failed to freshly express church for the past three Sundays. And, honestly, I don't miss it when we don't gather. In fact, because I am an introvert, there are some Sundays that we don't gather that I am overjoyed to be spared the necessity of gathering.
Having said that, it was an amazing joy to welcome the other fresh expressers into our home today. I had an extremely blessed time, and the gathering was nothing extraordinary. I think I actually learned to appreciate how precious even a mundane gathering of this group is.
One thing I did realize today is how intimate our fellowship really is. Often when we pray there is no sharing of prayer requests. We say that instead of talking about prayer, we are going just to pray.
Other times, we do share and, when we do, the level of intimacy is something that would be impossible in a typical Christendom congregation. And that level of mutual trust and love is impossible to explain to someone who doesn't experience it.
One of my characteristics of the CGGC brand is MELLOW RELATIONSHIPS OVER TRUTH. When I describe the significance of that trait it is usually to note the fact that it is core to our DNA to avoid challenging truth so we can all just get along.
While that certainly is true, another reality connected to this core truth is that we only seem to want mellow relationships, not the intimate, love one another as I have loved you relationships.
Perhaps the intimacy we share is another feature of who we are that makes our expression fresh.
At any rate, the time in the Word was challenging, the singing of Christmas carols, not my favorite, was adequate and the taking of the Bread and Cup was a blessing, as usual.
The meal was tasty and the fellowship around it, sweet. Basically, a soup and salad bar. A totally vegetation meal, but not by any intention.
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