So, when we gathered in Indianapolis...

​…So, when we gathered in Indianapolis to celebrate our unity as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), I must tell you, I was so pleased to see our wider church has begun to realize that “church” in the formal sense of the word, that focuses on building, needs to be replaced with “church” as a body of believers where you go to gather spiritual energy, share testimony, encourage brothers and sisters, share holy focus, divine inspiration and mission, over pews and walls and all the pettiness of institutional/denominational/ecclesiastical eeeeeehhhh.  I am pleased to tell you that one can actually feel, and celebrate as healthy, the direction our faithful remnant is heading. 
 
We do, however, have a very long road ahead of us.  Many pastor’s hear from their ever shrinking numbers that we live in a scarcity of resources…  One can almost hear the complaining from the “Back to Egypt” committee, but, and I say this with great respect, when I last checked, we serve a God who always speaks from abundance. 
 
I’ve heard that Jesus came to give life and to give it abundantly….if that’s not in the bible, it should be.
 
I’m so thankful for those who love, serve and trust God, and grateful to share with you a few tidbits from our recent assembly and to tell you, God has not abandoned us, or left us orphaned.  A new crop of holy guides is being produced in our camps and seminaries, in the mission field, and yes, even in the hallways and pews of the institutional churches, in engaged thinking and acting with like-minded souls who have been touched into faith by a loving God.   A fresh wind of the spirit is blowing across the dusty pews of our aging church, and bones are rising-up from the ashes.
 
You can say Amen and mean “Let it be so” but the time for saying it without living it, have come and gone.
 
Interim Pastor Neil W. Allen