Great night!

Back in the day in Saskatoon I was involved with a group called the Worship Freehouse. It was a collective of Christians that met to explore doing community/worship/church in a different way. Something that I really enjoyed were the theological discussions had over a cold pint at the Black Duck. It was an excellent casual environment to share life with each other.

With that in mind I decided to start something similar at the Pearl. We call it, quite simply, Theology Pub. Since we are an international non-denominational church it's a great place to discuss our different upbringings and viewpoints. One of my goals is to bring us on to a similar page, so that the unity in our community can strengthen. As we share around the table I believe we all learn something and come closer to understanding each others viewpoint. The goal is not to come up with solid answers or discover who's right but moreso to open the channels of communication that sometimes stay blocked and limit our ability to develop relationships.

Tonight we had the best Theology Pub yet. There were about 10 people there representing many different backgrounds and streams of thought. We debated about the Charismatic Spiritual Gifts and their place in the church. Some personal stories were shared, some Bible passages explored and there were some heated moments. I left feeling encouraged that everyone was given a chance to share and that we all have a new spin on things that needs to be chewed on. It's such an amazing thing to see so much diversity in one room coming together in the name of God and building relationship through an unorthodox church activity.

The body of Christ embodied in the church is a concept I'm in love with and look forward to many more nights of arms fighting with legs and eyes trying to be ears all in the name of working it out together to be a functioning body.