I can't speak for everyone, but I thought that our first "Meetup" was a fantastic experience. I had the opportunity to connect with two fantastic people, both searching for answers in their spiritual lives. In this new world of spiritual interest, there is an incredible opportunity to connect and learn from one another. In an age of spiritual awakening, we can share with one another the tools that we have to pursue the Divine. Now, my hope, of course, is that can happen in and through the Christian church. If it is, we must be nimble, willing to change and then change again. We must hold on to what we understand to be the fundamentals (and I believe our grip even on those must be loose). And everything else must be released if necessary.

In fact, I am willing to go out on the limb and say that, as we Christians would explain it, the only thing that matters, the only thing we insist upon, is a relationship with Jesus. That is our point of commonality. We don't judge those who don't share that. We can still dialogue and work with them and learn from them. But, our touchpoint for deep community comes through that relationship and the language surrounding it.

Today in my scripture reading I came across Acts 2:42 : "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers." From the very beginning, there was an understanding of what was important, what was absolutely necessary, for the success of the church: learning, prayer, participation in ritual (the breaking of the bread was, more than likely, communion), and fellowship.

In their brilliant book, Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Bill Easum and Tom Bandy describe what an effective church, a "spiritual redwood" looks like. The book is golden, every page an outpouring of love for the church. When I cam across the passage from Acts this morning, it reminded me of a passage I had read from their book a couple of weeks ago. They describe what they see as the system of "reciprocal rewards" that is inherent in many traditional churches: "If you do this for the institution, the institution will do this for you." and "If the institution does this for you, it has the right to expect you will do that for the institution." They contrast this with what they call the system of shared disciplines (139):

"First, every individual separately pursues disciplines of prayer and Bible reading...Second, every individual is linked to a small group in which prayer and Bible reading are shared, and in which honest conversation seeks to discern how faith can change and direct daily living...Third, every individual is linked to the larger organism of the spiritual redwood...Fourth, all individuals seriously endeavor to engage their faith with daily living, through constant attention to their mission."

Powerful, exciting thoughts on how to be church.