Two Short Long Years

Commons Church is celebrating today.  It's been two years since our first official Sunday morning gathering.  I've updated the blog with our stories from the past year.  It's good to hear from so many other voices how God has moved and blessed, that I'm not alone in this heart-swelling sensation of gratitude for our little community of believers.

I'm thinking today about how my life has changed in the last two years, how it looks different now from how it looked before Commons Church.  It's really difficult to put that into words.

More than anything, I think it's made Fort Worth a home for me.  It's no longer just the city I moved to 10 years ago to attend seminary.  Or the place I stayed because the door was open.  It's my home.

For the first time in 10 years, I have friends who really live here, who are't dreaming of moving away and changing the world in other places, but who are purposefully putting down roots and dreaming of changing this city.  We pray for this city.  We are intentional about serving in this city, investing in the ministries of this city.  Knowing this city and its people.  I am sure I didn't even know how much I needed that two years ago.

When I joined Commons Church, I was drawn by the promise of community.  I'd found myself in a situation where a genuine sense of community was lacking in my church experience, mostly because I'd stopped investing in new relationships.  Commons Church provided me with a group of people, a number that's still growing weekly, who really haven't given me the option of not investing.  Sharing meals and Bible study in homes and living in close proximity to one another tends to do that for you.  I get to know kids and pets, food likes and allergies, decorating styles and talents.  I get to celebrate birthdays and weddings and babies, promotions and accomplishments.  Sometimes we laugh until my sides hurt.  Other times, the tears flow in genuine sympathy.  And, in my favorite moments, we just get to BE together, the peaceful company of being where words aren't necessary.

My prayer for the next two years is that this city would truly begin to feel and know that we are here and that we love it and that we long for it to know Jesus.  That we would see God's kingdom come and His will be done here as it is in heaven.  I pray that God would continue to expand our hearts with the capacity to love and serve each one He entrusts to us.