A Jesus Community in Tulsa:.

Pam and I are talking about what it means to be a Jesus community it Tulsa. We have friends here who have started churches and we are prayerfully listening to God about what our part in a Jesus community might look like here. How connected do we need to be to what is already happening here and how much do we need to pioneer somethings new.

Frankly, I can't have this conversation without thinking of my dear friends in West Michigan. I think of Brett, Jamie, John, Tammy, Ben, Laura, Jamie, Valerie, and others who were expressing interest in starting a new community there. I still grieve not being with them, for each of them are irreplacable to me in my life. In our lives. A few of these folks were so significant in my spiritual formation, that it would be impossible to express my gratitude to them and to God for their generosity in sharing their lives with my family. I still feel our move to Tulsa was good and right and honoring to God. But staying would likely have been as well.

Pam and I are not going to try to recreate a past experience within a new community, to do so would to devalue the people present in the new community here in Tulsa. To presuppose what this community would be like, would hinder it from being what God calls it to be. The strength of our community in Michigan was the people. Sounds simple. It's not.