so this morning we had an Oikos gathering at Seattle coffee shop in Century City where all good Oikos gatherings happen – basically the idea is for an informal setting for people passionate about Jesus (yet maybe not so passionate about church or struggling with church in its current form and style) to have a space to talk openly about loving God and loving people and struggles with church and new exciting books or ideas or possibilities

so it’s every now and then when i feel like it – send out the word and 3 to 8 ish people come and hang and chat and listen – normal format is awkward silence for half an hour or so then suddenly it clicks and people start connecting – because it’s different people every time there is no growing in community in a sense hence the slow start

but today was different – there were 8 of us i think (frans and michelle and mark chapman and ross and jessie and victor and jaryd) and yeah it was just really positive and good questions were asked and some exciting stories were shared [Pinelands Baptist for example, instead of standing outside the recent Sexpo in Cape Town boycotting and placard-waving with all the other good christians, apparently bought a stand inside the Sexpo and advertised their marriage courses and various opportunities for people around Cape Town to strengthen their marriages – and apparently won awards for most liked stall or something like that – that kind of initiative excites me!]

bottom line for me i think was a statement that i made that Christ-followers need to get more creative with their faith (not compromising on it or watering it down at all but finding new ways to present it or live it out and make it real) and every follower of Jesus needs to take or make more time to stop (collaborate and listen) and ask God what they should be doing with what they have (money, skills, passion, time) because i think if they did (and then followed thru) the world would be a much much better place.