Years ago, when preparing for a series called "Christianity & The Religions Of The World," I had an interview with a local rabbi.
Of all that he said, this comment has stuck with me the most through the years: "You Christians believe that faith starts at the church and families then bring it home with them. In Judaism, it's different. We believe faith starts at the home and families then bring it to synagogue with them."
And I thought, "That's why Jesus was Jewish!"
But there is such wisdom in the rabbi's comments, and we have much to learn in this area from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
And all that is part of the reason why the culmination of the Courageous series will take place on May 6, 2012 when we celebrate that "the church is going home."
Which means that instead of having one sermon at GSUMC, we'll have 1,000.
Instead of morning celebrations at the church, we will resource, empower, and equip families of all stripes to have an intimate experience of worship in their own homes.
Then we'll invite the entire community for a Spring Celebration Picnic that same afternoon, and we'll spend part of the time highlighting together what God did in people's homes that morning.
For our large population of single adults, we are gathering together a number of host homes for family devotions, single-style.
It's all to underscore one of Courageous' central truths: faith begins at home and not at church.
Usually, the only time a congregation doesn't have Sunday worship is because of ice, sleet, or snow.
We consider home-based faith to be a much better reason.
