We believe in one, holy, apostolic, catholic church.



For all of the grief that us independent, PROTESTant, "enlightened" indidualistic, "modern" (read: smarter) Christians love to heap upon our fathers...I think that got some pretty darn important ideas down with the Nicene Creed.



What if a few of us really started to believe in one, holy, apostolic, catholic church? What if we lived within the reality of that construct? Perhaps it wasn't the ideas of the fathers that got the church into trouble...perhaps it was the way they implemented their ideas. We can believe in one, holy, apostolic, catholic church without assuming the burden to MAKE it one or holy or apostolic of catholic. We can assume that God has been and still is building his church...and he builds us as ONE church. He sees one family in one Kingdom with his eyes. He builds us as HOLY-set apart and unique-foreign to the world-an outpost, embassy and foretaste of his eternal Kingdom. He builds us as APOSTOLIC. He makes us a people of the journey. He calls a mobile Kingdom of pilgrims...as he always has from Noah to Abraham to Israel to Moses to the Prophets to Jesus and his team...always wandering, always moving, always sent forth, sent ahead and sent toward. And he builds us into a CATHOLIC church. His blueprint calls for diversity without division...a universal, world-wide family.



I've gotten out of the business of building the church. I don't really miss it too much. I was doing a pretty bad job anyway. I see some of my friends still trying to build it. I feel bad for those who are seemingly succesful...I hope that their success will not blind them to the fact that God is really the one working. Sometimes I get restless or a little bored and want to go build me a church...but I've learned to close my eyes and ask to see what God sees. It makes me want to just trust him more. I'd like to spend a few years just walking around looking for the church that God is building. I'm more of a detective these days than anything else...looking for God in the corners of my world. I saw him working last weekend at the Saga show and yesterday at Grand China. I hope to see him in the underbelly of the Rio Casino tonight...but if not, I'll just wait for him there. He always shows up...his kingdom always comes.



"And when you pray, pray like this...Our Father...let your kingdom fully come here just like it is where you live."