i still haven't found what i'm looking for.

In honor of the new U2 album that came out this week, I plagiarized their famous song for my title. But truthfully, it's an interesting concept. Being involved in a new church start up (http://www.riverbendonline.org/), I have had the great opportunity to be a part of God's desire to see his people come together and live out his passions. It is a humbling experience. But one of the things that we always seek to guard against is transplanting Christians vs. building a new community of believers.

Our generation is one where everything is customizable. I think about all the things I have customized to me. Myspace, Facebook, Playlists, my Google Homepage, and a whole bunch of other things. This isn't necessarily bad, being that we are all individuals and we each have strengths, passions, desires and preferences. The problem comes with our societies/generation's drive for focusing on ourselves. When that is our focus, we can have a tough time coming to any decision on choices we have in life.

I was reading a really good article on this concept as it relates to the church (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/columns/church-today/16112-church-shopping) and our ideas about our "perfect" church. There isn't one that is going to match each person exactly. But the point that this article makes is that our choices of churches should not necessarily be "what can this church do for me," but rather, "what ways can I connect into this community." There are times when it is right to leave a church community (lack of scriptural teaching, immorality, etc.) but more so, churches were designed for groups of people to serve and worship God together as a community. This is the basics of this concept, but we can't go deeper until we understand that basic premise.

As we continue to move forward with Riverbend, we pray that God will bring those he desires to be a part of this community. We may do things that are different than other churches, but this is not because we want to attract a niche market of Christians, its because sometimes the lost don't or won't understand the gospel in any other way. May we never be a church that is just "another option," may we be a church that God uses to reach those who still haven't found what they are (truly) looking for.