Merry Christmas to one and all.

It still seems unreal to me that today is Christmas day, nevertheless I have been reflecting the whole month of Decemeber upon The Christmas Story.

Here I find myself at the doorstep of the stable in Bethlehem, peering in from the side lines.
Although, this year it has been different.

This year I have allowed myself to enter the story...flaws, failures, fears and all.

I have entered regardless of any of these things that try to hold me back.

It feels as though The Christmas Story is actually real to me this year. Ok, yes I've always known the truth but I've never experienced the truth. Not fully.

This month my eyes have been revealed to the wonders and depths of The Christmas Story. No longer do I look at it as a child's nativity story but a true and living event that did actually unfold in history.
But the birth of Jesus is not how the nativity plays imagine it or how some old time carols (some of which I love) paint it. A song that was introduced to me last year was 'Labor of Love' by Andrew Peterson and the lyrics have lingered in my heart throughout the year. The lyrics of this song is the most honest, realistic and humbling description of Jesus' birth I've ever come across.

The Body of Christ.

Over the past few months I have been on a journey of discovering what exactly 'Church' means and further than that, how the beautiful image of 'the body of Christ' that the Aposlte Paul gives us relates to the Church. When I first began this journey my thoughts were laced with bitterness baggage that I've been carrying around from my previous experiences of and in Church. But my biggest question throughout all of this has been and still is

'What is the Church?'

Is the Church only what happens on a Sunday morning?

Is the Church just a place to have your name ticked off people's registers?

Is the Church just an institute that is stuck on tradition?

Or

Can the Church be a safe haven, a place of solace and acceptance?

Does the Church have to be characterised by a building?

Or

Can we call meeting with someone for coffee and listening to their struggles and trying to offer encouragement and support....the church?

Filling a simple need of someone out of love rather than duty?

Please don't get me wrong, my aim here is not to point out each and every fault that the Church has (granted there are many) but rather find a deeper meaning or the original meaning of what the Church was supposed to be.

The Greek word translated church in the New Testament is ekklesia, a compound word composed of ek, meaning "from." or "out of," and kaleo. "to call." Together the two words mean, called from, or out of, denoting a company of people chosen and called.

The Church is a choosen people who are in each others company.

That seems rather simple.

Over the past couple of years God has helped me to break the bounds of tradition and find my freedom in Christ. It has been truely liberating.

I now can see that the Church should be a community. Not a place to show up with your Sunday best on and a fake smile. In fact I would go further than that and say the Church is not confined to a place or building. Thank God!

It is life. It is drawing alongside others and being who God created you to be. No barriers, no fake smiles. Just love and honesty.

And that is a scary place to be.

It can also be a messy place to be, this is a messy world with messy lives.

But I think its the best place to be.

So all I know for now is that I want to be a catalyst for this new way of thinking about Church. I want to be like the Early Church believers in Acts who seen living in community with God and others one of the most important things in their lives. I pray that young people especially will look for Church not only in a building at traditional morning worship service but through the actions of love and acceptance that they find outside of that. I pray that the Church will grasp onto the fact that they just aren't very relevant to people in today's world. And that moving towards a solution for this problem does not mean that the gospel will be damaged. We need to return our focus to Jesus. The One who came and lived in community with the unloveable and the social outcasts. Yes, lived in community with them. Jesus met these people where they were at.

And are we not called to do the same?


(Two articles you should read are You can't love Jesus and hate His wife. and Comfortable Substitute - - thanks to Paul for pointing out this one!)

Welcome to my new blog!

As some of you know I used to blog rather often but haven't written a blog post since April 2008. So I am starting a New Year's Resolution before the New Year gets here, to get reconnected in the world of blogging.

Why? You may ask.

Well, I have found that when I come to type the craziness that is my mind begins to calm and I can focus on just one thought at a time. Basically I can proccess my thoughts better. I'm not really sure where I am going to begin but I pray that God will give me the perfect place to start.

As it after midnight and I have to work tomorrow, I will have to leave blogging for tonight. But no doubt I will come up with a post in the not too distant future.

Thanks for reading.

Rach.