Hey Dan, thank you so much for your thoughts here. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and everyone else who visits this website to learn more about Christ and His church

Since I left the institutional church system a couple of years ago, I have not returned nor have I found a replacement. I did some investigation into house churches in my area (near Seattle), but I found nothing suitable. I'm a strong believer in the unity of the assembly. As I dove into the details, I bumped up against the problem that my beliefs on the operation of the church might not square with any of the existing assemblies, and the last thing that I want to do is cause division among God's people. So I've mostly sat on the outside looking in, longing for fellowship but unable to make progress.

This last year has seen me take a different path. I've long been active in Internet groups like this commenting on things of interest to God's people, but more and more I see my participation in these groups as my "church". I don't have the strong ties that I would with a local body of believers, but on the other hand I find it extremely freeing to connect with people who share my same set of priorities (namely, our relationship with God as sinners, God's kingdom reign, and the preeminence of Christ). I've found great comfort connecting with people on this website, but I would like more. Not only more contact, but also a deeper connection on the role of Christ as our Savior. I love that we push back on the institutional church as the disaster that it is, but I feel like there's an opportunity to grow beyond just being a voice of sanity in the world of Christendom. My experience has been that no matter where I go within the kingdom of God, so many things other than our dear Savior distract us

To that end, I've put some thought into setting up a Discord server where we can all talk about the church more interactively. I've been reluctant to do so for a few reasons. First, what makes this web site and others like it important is that it is not private. Anything posted here is visible to world, so anyone visiting has access to a rich set of comment history and thought about the church. I find that to be invaluable. This web site was a real blessing to me as I wrestled to discover that there is life after the institutional church and what that life could look like

The other reason that I haven't yet set up a Discord server is that, like any other social media setup, there will be a lot of housekeeping that eventually will distract from the main mission of the group. There are sure to be interlopers. But even within the ekklesia, it's very easy to become focused on things other than our salvation. Managing the server could become a huge time commitment that takes away from the truly important things of our faith

Although I'm not ready to start anything new just quite yet, I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on meeting virtually in a way that we can all contribute and be more connected