It’s fun being married - last night we had a “sleepover” where we stayed up super-late and watched a movie and snacked on anything we could get our hands on. But that also meant waking up around 10:30 this morning with not a little of that infamous “sleep” in our eyes (anyone have a better word for that stuff??).

As I was finally getting ready for the day, (it was about 11:30am), I got a call from my new friend Brad, whose friendship is another blog post altogether. For now, suffice it to say that just two weeks ago he committed his life to Christ through baptism and is pumped about sharing his faith with many of his lost friends. Brad asked, “What’cha doing this morning Mark?”

I responded with “Well, I just woke up about an hour ago, and I’ve just been enjoying the morning at home so far.”

“It’s Sunday morning! Why aren’t you at church you lazy bastard!” Brad cajoled.

It is the funniest thing, “going to church”. I didn’t really have an answer for him right then, so I just laughed along with him and we continued our conversation. Some reflections now as the day comes to a close on our little dialogue:

First, I LOVE the circles I’m running in these days. No longer am I with the “church-ified” Christians, who fear how they might look if they say what they are thinking. Brad’s response was authentically blunt, which is a refreshing joy for me, even though it still throws me off guard.

Second, while I didn’t technically “go anywhere” this morning that could be called a “church”, I am beginning to find the Church as much more of a liquid than a solid. Let me explain my free-flowing thoughts here…

This morning, we woke up together and took it easy. We both read from God’s Holy Word, then got ready as we talked about what we heard God saying to us through the pages, and where the “biblical canon” came from in the first place. Then we talked about how cool it would be to create a booklet or a website that gave seekers the chance to ask questions about the nature, function and origins of Christian Scripture.

After getting ready for the day, we continued our “church” by heading out to grab something to eat, where we bumped into a friend of mine who is doing work with victims of domestic violence and prisoners with drug problems. We scheduled a time for our families to meet up in July. His baby boy is getting so big.

As we were driving, I felt the Lord’s presence in a deep way as I listened to “Something Beautiful” by the Newsboys (audio sample here, lyrics here) and just started worhshipping and thanking God in whispered prayers for his image-rich Creation that points to a beautiful Kingdom that flows in and out of everything wonderful and beautiful and true in our lives here on earth. Inspiring…

A friend from out of town called and said he was passing through town and wanted to meet with us if possible. We invited him to join our cookout with our faith family. During the cookout, our neighbor popped his head out of his door, and we invited him over too. We shared laughs, stories, and watermelons. “Church was happening” all over the place.

“Church happens.”

Afterward, “church” flowed into a coffee shop where the conversation continued, and we met up with a friend Katrina is mentoring/coaching through some big decisions right now. They’ve been talking about everything from major life goals to boy troubles to new shoes. They’ve found their way back to our living room and the conversation is electric. I’m having a hard time staying out of it even now to write this blog post!

Church happens everywhere. It is not something you can GO to - it is the liquid movement of God’s people interacting with each other and with their world. Now when people ask “where do you go to church?” I say, “Where DON’T I go to Church!?!”

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What would happen if Christians found themselves living as the Church God created them to be? IN the world, but not of it?

What if instead of going to a spiritual goods and services distribution center to download God or encouragement, Christians learned how to hear from the Lord everywhere they went?

What would have to change about the Church if it looked less like a solid and more like a liquid, reaching into every nook and cranny of life and our culture? How would this change the world?