More

short disclaimer: this is sort of a rant, so I'm sorry.

I've had three conversations in the last few days with Christians (from our place of worship) who want MORE. They are tired of the control, the information transfer, the boxes we put God in, the lack of Living. (And I've had many other previous conversations of this genre.)

They sense, deep inside themselves, that something is wrong with the status quo in our church. And I am frustrated. I'm frustrated because these are not some sub-21, tatooed and peirced, relativistic, obnoxious rebels (ie. not the "typical" face that many in our congregations think of "postmoderns"). These three are moms with 2, 3, and 4 kids trying to figure out this "Christian" thing.

And I'm frustrated because the leadership at our church (seemingly) refuses to listen. They relegate David and I to some weird "postmodern" category, all the while thinking that their little congregation is pleasantly satisfied with an antiquated educational model of transfering our "theologically tried and true" beliefs from the professional God-person to the average attender. But they choose not to see that the "postmoderns" (or whatever you call them)-how about if we just call them people- are here, in their midst and they feel that something is wrong and they want MORE.

It makes me sad, too, because one of these moms has stopped going to our Sunday gathering place because it makes her itchy and she feels like a misfit. She has questions and wants to grapple with those questions but feels like when she asks, there is no dialogue, just simply packaged, processed, memorized answers. It becomes a one way street called "This is just how it is, so believe it".

And it is sad because she needs (as we all do) the body of Christ - to ask, to discuss, to rethink, to journey with her - BUT the body of Christ also needs her. The beauty of her childlike faith, her tough questions, her practice of God's limitless love. She doesn't just need to believe a list of statements or correct thoughts, she needs a community in which she is invited to be an active, valued participant (her thoughts and ideas should challenge ours and ours hers).

So how do we make space for MORE? What is MORE? How do we begin a dialogue with each other and, most importantly, with the Spirit of God? What does He want? (This is most difficult for me because I have only a certain set of models or paradigms that I've inherited and I think many of those models are broken or even part of the problem.) So I ask the Spirit to give new vision, new models, new creation. I guess He hovered over chaotic waters once and brought forth life. Perhaps He's ready to do it again.