It's Good to be Common

Looking over the blog today, I noticed a glaring omission.  I’ve neglected to share with you loyal readers one of the most exciting journeys I’ve been on this last year.  It’s called Commons Church. 

Last October, an acquaintance and fellow blogger, Steve, announced that he and his family were moving to Fort Worth to plant a church.  Being the helpful individual that I am, I jumped right on facebook that afternoon and messaged them both letting them know that I had lived in Fort Worth for a number of years and would be glad to help them in any way I could. 

At the time, I thought that might be helping them find housing and maybe jobs and introducing them to others doing similar works and ministries in our fair city.  I was firmly planted in my own church home with no intentions to leave.  Sure, I’d been struggling to find community within that larger group for over a year and praying for God to place me into a new group, but I genuinely assumed it would be within that body.

In December, Steve called.  They were having an informal informational meeting about the church and asking anyone in the area who might be interested to come sit down and hear their vision.  I agreed to stop by, intending it as a gesture of support, not interest.  I was amazed when I arrived and found that I had at least met all of the people present and actually knew some of them quite well.  We sat down to talk and Steve began to share about his and Joy’s journey to become church planters and their vision for reaching the lost of Fort Worth, and my interest was definitely piqued.  I, however, had a birthday party to get to, and only halfway listened to his announcement about a church planting training coming up in February. 

I knew it there was a cost involved, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to commit, so I ignored the calendar as the date for the training approached.  Then, the day before the training, my phone buzzed.  It was a text from Steve asking if I was coming.  I told him I’d forgotten about it and had some things on my calendar, but I’d see what I could do.  I wish I’d saved that exchange because I think he called me a chicken or questioned my ability to manage my schedule.  Either way, I felt challenged and decided to clear my way to be at Northwood Church’s Turbo Training for church planters the next day. 

There’s no way to succinctly share all that I heard during that training, but when I look back on it, I know that was the day I decided to become a Commoner.  Steve and Joy had shared with us back in December how they’d begun telling others, “We’re going to plant a church in Fort Worth unless the Lord stops us.”  Without even consciously thinking about it, I told a good friend after Turbo training, “I am going to keep walking forward in this church planting adventure unless the Lord stops me!”  As soon as the words came out of my mouth and recognized their correlation to The Bezners own mantra, I was fairly certain there would be no stopping. 

In April, right after Easter, Thomas and Kimberly Law opened their home to our core group of 9 for a Wednesday evening home group Bible study.  I’ll never forget knocking on that door that first night and being welcomed by both Joy and Kimberly.  The community I’d been longing for suddenly had its arms around me in a very literal way.  It looked nothing like I expected it to when I’d prayed, but I recognized it nonetheless.  We met each Wednesday night and shared meals together, talked about what we wanted church to look like, took spiritual gifts inventories and personality profiles, and prayed for one another. 

By June, when we set out on Sunday mornings to visit other local church plants together, I had come to genuinely love and look forward to spending time with this new faith family.  I realized one Sunday morning as I got ready to visit yet another unfamiliar congregation with the people who were quickly becoming my church family that I was actually excited to be up and getting ready and worshiping with them.  Sadly, it had been a long time since I’d felt that way about going to corporate worship. 

In July, we held our first Sunday morning gathering in The Bezners’ living room.  There were about 12 people there, and it was new and different and so exciting.  Scripture says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  I really began to understand that verse in a whole new light when I began actively giving financially to The Commons.  I’d already come to love the church, but somehow, investing my meager resources there, gave me a greater sense of joy and anticipation about what God was going to do in and through us. 

It’s mid-November now, and the journey continues.  We are consistently running 25-30 adults on Sunday mornings, and we’re actively engaged in conversations about moving to a larger space early next year.  We have new visitors almost every week … and lots of them come back!  There are two different home groups meeting during the week with talks of a third (and fourth?) starting in January.  We’re committed to loving our neighbors and have had some great times volunteering with the local Home Owners Association at dive-in movies at the community pool, neighborhood garage sales, and fall festival.  In October, we began having monthly missions lunches to raise funds to allow us to buy Christmas presents for children in need.  And, today, a dozen of us met over lunch to discuss a strategy for local and global missions in the coming year. 

I am so blessed by the men, women, and children who call themselves Commoners.  They are teachers and social workers and business men and builders and doctors and musicians and salesmen and deeply committed to using their gifts to bless others and point them to Jesus.  Each and every week I get to see Ephesians 3:10 played out in big and small ways, “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”