Urban Idealist

With our upcoming trip to the States I have been thinking a lot about Vintage…our church here in Paris. I have been thinking about how different it is from the type of church that I grew up in and how different it is from any other church in Paris. We’re not just different* in little ways, but in big things like: We don’t have a weekly Sunday service and we don’t have our own building…not even offices! Both of these things are typical of most churches in the States and are often defining characteristics of what people would even call a church.

I do want to say a few things in preparation for the next posts. Before we left the States I always thought it would be so cool to be a part of an ‘organic church’ that celebrated church as all times believers got together…and it is really cool…but it was an adjustment for me. Especially, learning how to lead in this environment. I discovered how much I like control and how little I trusted God, which I have spent much time working on since being here. After all the books I read, I was finally putting into practice what I had dreamed of. And I must say, living Church as a lifestyle among community is really fulfilling. Frank and I were talking about 4 months ago about church stuff and I made a comment that there is a cool church in Riverside that I used to ‘go to’. He looked at me and said, “Do you think that anyone can say they go to Vintage?” We laughed because it’s impossible for people to say that they go to our church. For one we are more of a network of smaller events and one small group doesn’t represent all of Vintage. And second, when you choose to define church by its people (like we have) then is it possible to go to it? When you define a church by its events then you can go to the events, but have you really gone to Church or a church event?

These are questions that have left me with a desire to tell the story of our church and the how’s and why’s we do what we do. There have been people who have visited us here in Paris and said, “Are we ever going to go to a real church while I’m here?” or “I haven’t been to church the whole time I’ve been here.” I understand why they would say that…we are doing something different* that doesn’t make sense to everybody…and that’s ok. We are here starting Vintage Church for the sake of people in Paris who don’t go to church, never have been to a church service, have misconceptions of what church is, and don’t trust ‘religion’. A church that they would attend and trust would most likely be completely different than a church that works for somebody who had gone to church their whole life in the United States…or maybe even Europe.

In the next few days I’m going to spend some time blogging about Vintage church and the things we do that make up our church. I will call these blog entries “Redefining Church - Dinner Parties” or “Redefining Church - Sanctuary” or whatever the specific ministry event is. I am wanting to give you a glance at what it is that we do here and why. I know that I won’t give complete descriptions of all that we do because if you can’t ‘go to’ our church…how could I come close to writing all there is about it?

*I want to clarify that when I say different I don’t mean in function or belief, but in form.