What in the World Are We Doing and Why?

I can answer this question, more or less. But, it will take several posts to unpack everything completely. Long story short, we’re a family of six from Portland, Maine, who desperately desires to encounter and experience the Church we read about in the book of Acts. As of today, December 18, 2018, we’re in the early stages of getting rid of 90% of our possessions, renting our home and settling into a RV, as we set off to find people who are living their lives, by His grace, as the truest reflection of Jesus Christ. Off the bat, I want to make three things abundantly clear: (1) Leaving the state of Maine is NOT a requisite for this. Yes, we live in one of the “least churched” states in the country, but we know several churches here who truly reflect the love of Jesus and the work of the early church. However, given what God has been doing in our family the past few years, we know we are called to go… so we are; (2) If you read the title of this blog and your first thought was something along the lines of: “You can’t find God, He finds you” or “Obviously, this is just another progressive ‘Christian’ hating on the Church”… this might not be the blog for you. (Only because you’re walking into it with a pre-determined mindset. But, I definitely encourage you to stick around! I LOVE a good theological debate and I really try to be open to RESPECTFUL, thought-provoking conversations. Keyword: RESPECTFUL. (3) We’re not jumping into this adventure expecting to change anyone or anything, but we’re praying fervently that WE will be changed… and we already have been.

 The past six years have wrecked us in a beautiful way, and it’s 100% by the grace of God that we’ve survived the last three of those years. There were days we thought about walking away from the church. Seriously. People would always respond with, “There’s no perfect church, just imperfect people.” And, this is obviously true… but, often times, those words are nothing more than a pithy excuse to not “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel” (Phil 1:27).  I’ve spent most of my life in the church, but not until recently did God truly open my eyes to the truth. Over the next few months, I want to share with you our story: How we’ve been hurt by the church… and how we’ve done our share of hurting. But how God is using it to transform our lives. We’ll also share updates on our travel plans and big, life-changing moments (like my husband leaving his job). Eventually, our goal is to share the stories of others throughout the United States who are trying their best to surrender their lives to Jesus… the one we read about in the Bible. I promise this will be a crazy ride, but the best ones are in my opinion.