The house church I belong to has been together for three and a half years. When we gather each week, we're a group of about 13 people. It's been healing and inspiring. Yet, because it's so different from what I knew during my first four decades of life, I occasionally wonder if I'm doing faith right.
Going to an established church in an established building provides a measure of certainty. If I follow what this church tells me to do, I'm doing faith right, right? If I check the boxes this church proclaims from the pulpit, then God is happy, right? I had a lot of boxes to check once upon a time. Here's just a sampling.
Now that I'm without a traditional church, I have to practice faith more than ever before. I can't lean on what a church tells me and check the boxes it provides. I have to study Scripture; I have to find good teachers; I have to pray and meditate; I have to start conversations. I also can't count on a church to provide opportunities for service to this world. I have to find and create those opportunities on my own. And from time to time the question creeps into my mind, "Am I doing this right?" God, I hope I am. This is all to say that as my faith has evolved, so have my boxes to check. Here they are, not a sampling, but all of them -- at least for now.
If your boxes to check have also evolved, I'd love to read about it in the comments. Take care, Gina
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