Church Dreamings

So here is what I've come up with so far for the "Dream Church" question:

It would be a church which is not afraid to reimagine what church is - that is, a church dedicated to discerning the specific hurts and challenges of today's world (i.e. widespread poverty, lack of education, casual sex, women's rights etc.) and confront those problems with Jesus as a guide.

A focus on deep relationships, marked by a willingness to admit failures/faults and open up as the individual and the community to pursue healing and restoration. An environment like this must of course, first be a place of grace and trust, but also hopefully of accountability and truth.

A variety of ages, beliefs, and backgrounds would be represented.

Everyone would be allowed to (expected to) participate during our time together - teaching each other, or worshiping in the ways that reflect each of our passions. We would embrace creativity in worship through singing, poetry, art, or what the heck ever people are interested in.

A constant connection to the larger church (local churches) would be kept through service/conversation/relationships.

We would be disciplined in our faith to pray, study, and move towards justice in our community and world.

There would not be constant separation of families, but we would learn to pray, worship, learn, and serve together to show our kiddos what community looks like and allow them to share in the relationships. Plus I'm sure we can learn a thing or two from them in the process.

Solidarity: I already touched on this a bit, but I want to expand it to sharing with each other in everything - the struggles and triumphs, financial disasters or building a house, marital collapses or new babies - that we could just plain share life together. But our purpose would extend beyond just the enrichment of community to the responsibility of suffering and sacrifice that is required to be a disciple. The hope would be that we could also experience solidarity with the oppressed, and as a group would be able to do much more to work against that oppression than any of us could do on our own.