The church is God’s positive agent of transformation, but so often people view the church as negative, limited and judgmental; defined by what we are against.  

Walter Brueggeman writes this about followers of Jesus: “We are an odd people who specialize in cold water and shared bread, in welcome speech, hospitality, sharing, giving, compassion, caring, in small ways, setting the world fresh.”

Jesus invites us to ask, what is the church for?  After all, Jesus came for the world God so loved.   During the remainder of the summer we will explore stories from the lives of people who lived in the days of the early church and asked the same questions we have explored this summer:

What are we doing here?  What does the Spirit invite us to be for so that all people might experience a more expansive life?