what are we building?

My Pastor (Pastor Terry at the Father's House in Leesburg) made several really insightful statements this morning.  One of them was this one: "We are building a church...not a crowd."
Wow.  That might not land on you like it does me, but remember that I was a church Pastor at one time.  Makes me wonder what I was building.  Really.
At the gathering we had ten people come hang out with us on our first Thursday.  We had fifteen last week.  Not bad...especially inside a cafe that starts to feel full when you get over twenty-five people in there.  But, what is it exactly that I am counting...a crowd, or something else?  Something more significant?
I don't want to be in the crowd building business.  Been there, done that, I'm afraid.
And it's not a church we are building, at least not in the traditional, go get a building, staff it, program it, and meet in it (especially on Sundays) sense of the word.  Besides, I already belong to a church.  I suspect you do, too.
So what are we building?
Well, it is my heart to build a community.  A simple, authentic Christian community full of the love of the Father.  I just believe, after many years of experience to the contrary, that "we do life better together."
Pastor Terry said that one this morning, too.

lets get started!

With two weeks of gatherings behind us, my wife suggested that I begin blogging daily thoughts/observations for the gathering community.  I absolutely LOVED the idea for several reasons.  First, I thought doing so will help me feel more connected to y'all between gatherings.  Second, it will allow you to get real-time, daily updates on what God is doing in my life.  And third, when there is a need to update everyone on news from the gathering, this will be a perfect vehicle to do so.  So without any fanfare at all and no advertisement whatsoever, welcome to the gathering's daily blog!


Here's some stuff to look forward to in the very near future:

• the gathering website (a who-we-are page for people who want to know why we gather)
• invite cards (with offers for free coffee)
• a facebook page (exclusively for the gathering community)
• Dan on Twitter.  I've never twittered, tweeted, whatever, in  my life!  Seriously!

I hope you all are blessed at church tomorrow, which is really weird to say right now because absolutely NO ONE even knows at the moment that this blog exists.  But, at least when this post is read later you'll know you were on my mind!