Why "rewire" the church? Church has been at the centre of my identity. It’s formed me, frustrated me, deeply angered and hurt me, guided me, and protected me. Some of the most challenging ideas I have ever met, far more radical than the lawn meetings of my student days, have come from the theologians of the church. There has been a sense of connection to the tradition and wisdom of millennia. And, inevitably, the frustration of tradition hide-bound. I remember singing the words of a hymn one Sunday morning, “nothing changes here...” and one of the youth group muttered sotto voce to his girlfriend, “God, you can say that again!” What worked for our parent’s church doesn’t necessarily work for us. I notice it often doesn’t work for them anymore, although older people are sometimes more gracious about their frustrations! Life changes, we change, and constantly need to reassess where we are going.
This little church on the web is modelled around the metaphor of an old and treasured house. It's the house our parents lived in and inherited from someone we never knew. The house is strong and robust, but needs rewiring. Our ways of thinking and being need to change to make the house liveable and practical. Otherwise it will be a burden, not a base camp for life.
Why
An evening’s television commercials explain it all- have the right Plasma TV, smiling children, and a house in a good suburb, and life will be good. It will be happy and fulfilling. It doesn’t work like that.
Life is full of unfair pain, and yet it has moments of inexplicable joy. It can be enthralling, boring, and miserable all in the one day. People who have lived through appalling horrors find life good and full of hope. Others who seem to have everything are broken hearted. Making sense of it all is the work of a lifetime!
Finding meaning and purpose is not only a life’s work. It can be lonely and dispiriting. In this place we hope to become a safe haven for travellers. We are not a place with all the answers; we too are on the journey. We have made some choices about our directions and some decisions about our values. We offer our insights. Do you have some for us?
The basic life choice behind the people in this place is that the story of Jesus of Nazareth offers a potent backdrop and guide for our lives. Using his story as an inspiration and landmark, we are finding direction and meaning in our own. We are trying to live using this tradition to explore life and grow as people, not to avoid or deny reality.
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