Some nice stuff from other people.

Howdy All,
Scott from Texas here.

Hoping to get some stuff out there soon.
But until then check this out. This is a very interesting article.

http://freebelievers.com/blog-entry/the-fellowship-abduction

That's all I have for now. Hopefully more later...

See ya then.

Scott from Texas
scottfromtexas@gmail.com

I'm Back... Again...

Howdy All,
Scott from Texas here.

I'm back!
I really thought when I started this that I had a lot of junk to get off my chest.
I guess I was mistaken or maybe God has just worked a lot of that out.
We invited all the neighbors over this past weekend. Some of the regular crowd, some new ones. It was nice. When I first left the sunday morning club I was very into the house church stuff. I read everything i could get about how people were doing it, but it never took off. I really thought that was what I was supposed to do. Get everyone to my house and have church. God made sure that didn't happen. He was still working on that with me. I still thought you had to "have" or "do" church. I just started hanging out with the people that lived next to me, and across the street, and down the street. All the kids from up and down the street would end up in our front yard. Riding bikes and playing. So the more we stood outside with them the more we got to know them. Relationships grew out of that and I have found closer and deeper friendships with them than I have ever had before. Every weekend we end up at one of our houses. We cookout, play games, visit, and just enjoy relationship. God was showing me exactly how to be the church, instead of doing it.
One of the neighbors recently got married. All the rest of us went to wish her well. She moved off but we are still in touch. Her new husband has become just as much a part of us as she is. We also have been with another when his father died suddenly. We just did what was natural and came alongside him and helped him through it. We didn't just take him some food and say we'll pray for him. This is because we have an actual relationship. It is friendship at its deepest level.
I thought I had friendships at the sunday morning club but as soon as you would have something happen, you would have a few people bring food over. Then you wouldn't see anyone until the next time you went to the club. When we left the club all of the people that remained at the club wrote us off. I never heard from them. Three years, and no contact. Now THAT is some true friends... hmmm...
One of the club members that left about the same time I did has kept in touch with me we have become close friends. The two of us with a few others have solved many of the church's problems over a few pints! Work too has provided a place where I have found friends, because I don't have to only associate with the people of one particular club, has allowed me to have relationships with a variety of different people. It is true freedom. Freedom to love people. Strange that I never knew it before.

That's all I have for now. I'll chat some more next time... whenever that may be...

See ya then.

Scott from Texas
scottfromtexas@gmail.com

Trying to Blog...

Howdy All,
Scott from Texas here.

Well it's been a while...
First thing about blogging that I've found out is this: NEVER tell anyone that you're going to do anything! I said last time that I was going to talk about friendships lost & gained. Well not yet.
I've been horribly busy at work the last two weeks. I know everyone says stuff like that but to all who know me, know that is very unusual for me. But it does make the time at work go by faster.
I hope to be back in a few days to post something real but for now this is all you get.



See ya then.

Scott from Texas
scottfromtexas@gmail.com

Let's start this thing...

Howdy All,
Scott from Texas Here.

Without further ado, I shall declare this blog open!

I'm still not sure what all it will be about. Except for one thing. It will relate to my journey.
My journey? You ask? Well my life. But the term life lends me to think about a reflection on the past. A memoirs of sort. This is not that. It's on going. It is my life as it unfolds.

I would say the most significant part of my life at this particular moment is the fact that about 3 years ago I left the institutionalized church and started focusing on the relational aspects of the true Church. I'll have to dedicate another entry to the exit. So for now just know that along with my wife and children, we left.
So far in those 3 years I have personally undergone a myriad of changes. At first, I knew I had done the right thing. Even though a few people said it was not a good idea. "What about your children" was popular, and of course the infamous "Do not forsake the gathering together" said in their best King James English. Looking back I can laugh but at the time it hurt. Not one person from our former institutional gathering has EVER talked to me about it. We were heavily involved in church activities. I had a Sunday School class or college age singles and young married couples. My wife was a Sunday school teacher for children, and Children's Director, and Nursery Coordinator. I was also ordained as a deacon and served as such for about a year & a half. I was forced to leave my position o f teaching high school boys in the youth department because I "needed to be more visible to the older people of the church". I saw things behind the scenes that were touted as "works of God" but were nothing more than the man behind the curtain pulling all the cords throwing all the switches at just the right time. I was forced to "have a talk" with people in monetary troubles before the church would give them any money. Wow. I am getting into more than I wanted to. ANYWHAAAY.
We left. I got in touch with friend that had left the same church a few months before we did. I had not talked to this person since he left. But I found out that he was thinking of starting a church and had a few people to help with the direction of it. I did not want to get involved with another church that soon. But within a month or so I was in. We started an apartment ministry to children after school. It went over great. We changed a lot of lives. I never pushed the churchy aspects of anything. I was just there to play with the kids. Thy appreciated that. Well a few of the people that had been helping me were in between jobs... they got jobs. So one by one the helpers left. So it stopped. And so did I. I was doing things because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. If you were not doing something "for God" then you were not "right" with God. I was in the same place as before. The life I was looking for in Christ was not there. It was work but for works sake. Not God. So I stopped doing anything. It actually felt good. Still deep down I felt guilty for not doing something. But I felt free. Free from the pressure of others. And I did not feel like God had left, just because I stopped "doing". I started to feel closer to God. It was strange. So strange that I thought I was going down a VERY wrong path. "Why is there no one else that is going through what I am" I thought to myself. One of my paths ran me across a blog named "Stupid Church People". This blog, although rough sometimes, helped me. Because by then I had become very bitter towards anything "churchy". This fit in perfectly with a lot of what they were talking about over there. Then in one of the blogs someone mentioned a book by Wayne Jacobson called "So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore" and that book, along with most of Wayne's teachings has changed my life. I found out that there were a lot of people out there that were doing the same thing as me, but one difference. They were not bitter anymore. They were working through their bitterness with this new teaching "Freedom In Christ". WOW! Freedom? I had been aware of that passage for years but I never GOT it. I say "New Teaching" because it was just that to me. I had heard it but NEVER experienced it. All I can say is WOW. You would not believe just how freeing freedom is.

This is kind of where I am at now. I left out a few of the steps along the way but I shall visit some of them along the way. But for now I would like to share a few of the web sites I have found during this time. I no particular order...
http://www.stupidchurchpeople.com/
http://biggerrock.com/
http://www.jakecolsen.com/
http://www.lifestream.org/index.html
http://new.wittenburgdoor.com/
http://www.freebelievers.com/
http://boredagainchristian.com/
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/


If you do anything here please go to these two links...
http://freebelievers.com/blog-entry/into-the-wild
http://freebelievers.com/podcast-info/overcoming-institutional-mindsets



I hope to talk about friendships lost & gained next time...

See ya then.

Scott from Texas
scottfromtexas@gmail.com

More Testing...

More testing...

Only the best thing in the world...



Cowlets!!!



Go to Bells in the Batfry to find out more...
Oh see the links over there =>