I have no clever way to begin this post. My life feels the same today as any other day so far, but I know I've entered a whole new reality. I'm no longer on staff with the "old" church, and now I begin following Jesus in a different sort of way.

I'm not sure I have the ability (or desire) to articulate the nostalgic/melancholy feelings I've got in walking away from the place I've called home for the past twelve years. So many good times and memories are there. Many painful ones too. I got a great gift there, though, that I get to keep - Michelle - they knew I needed her way more than they did, so they let me take here with me. I'm pretty pleased about that.

So instead of processing what I feel today, I'll just tell a little story that came out of the weekly prayer group of pastors that I've been a part of for the better part of two years now. Last week, through a strange twist of "divine appointments" we had a couple of new guys in the group. The group has always been pretty open to whoever in terms of denomination and doctrinal expressions - we're all some version of evangelical (whatever the heck that means anymore). Anyway, one of the new guys was asked to tell his story a little bit since nobody knew him, and as it turns out, he's part of the Matthew's House family of simple/organic/house churches. In fact, the specific church he is a part of meets in the home of a friend of mine. A couple of the pastors in the group have some baggage about house church people based on past interactions with them, so they quizzed this guy a little bit, and he spoke very well. He was honest about some of the negative aspects of the house church movement, but he shared about the fresh move of God's spirit within that arena of the Church. I was excited to make a new friend that day, and I'll be calling him to meet for coffee soon.

Yesterday the prayer group met once again, but it was smaller than usual - made up of the usual cast of characters there. One of the guys with some bad encounters with house church folks had seen the connection I had with the "new guy" from last week, so he started asking me if I'm going to plant house churches. I told him that some form of that was a possibility, and we had a good talk about it. When we got to the prayer time, I was very pleased to see the way God moved in our hearts. Five of us there - all a part of the "institutional church" - praying for the success of the house church movement, and for God to open up channels of dialogue, support, and cooperation between the house churches and the institutional churches in our area. I have no idea how the Father wants to lead us, but I keep getting little glimpses that show that many in the San Diego area are realizing that He's still in the captain's chair, and that's exactly how it needs to be.