A Church Called Revolution (Part 3 of 4)

The fact that something ends (a church, a relationship, a business, a life) is never an indication that what once existed wasn’t beautiful and valuable.

Like my husband acknowledged in his prayer yesterday, we know that due to our collective humanity it’s not possible for a church community to always be at its best. As in every community, there were mistakes and harm, misunderstandings and disappointments, and plenty of pride and short-sightedness to go around. But in those moments when Revolution *was* at its best we cultivated a lot that was life-giving, authentic, and good.

We fed hungry people and invited them into community with us. We gave families in need clean diapers and clothing for their children. We danced and bowled and ate and drank to raise money to meet needs in our city and around the world. We served communion at Pride booths and hosted wedding showers for  friends.

We delivered meals, visited hospital rooms, attended funerals, and mourned losses of all kinds. We celebrated milestone birthdays, weddings, births, adoptions, transitions, and all varieties of new adventures. We gathered for book discussions, game nights, play dates, chili suppers, fish fries, pancake dinners, Easter egg hunts, and fall festivals. We invited children to wonder about God and the Bible with their full imaginations and all of their questions.

We met together to study the Bible, explore what it means to love God and love our neighbors. We learned from, and learned alongside, others who had life experiences and viewpoints that were vastly different from our own as we talked about our hopes, passions, questions, and doubts.

We valued the holy words that are “I don’t think I believe this” and “I don’t know.”

It was beautiful and life-giving and always, always hard.

There was never an abundance of money or staff. Having a small congregation meant the same people were tapped to do the work again and again and again. Our values and priorities sometimes conflicted with our denomination and the results were usually messy and painful.

It wasn’t hard because we were doing it wrong. It was hard because it was hard