Merge @ Morning Times
The Merge Community meeting at Morning Times tonight…
Our Merge Community
I just love our Merge community! We are a group of people who don’t pretend to have it all figured out… and we are on a journey together discovering day by day what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We don’t have all the right theological “answers”.
There is no “Bible Answer (Wo)man” in our midst. We don’t adhere to 
some doctrinal statement that we hold as high as we do the Scriptures themselves (as I have seen in some cases). We haven’t boiled the Scriptures down to a “Statement of Faith” list of 3, 5 or 10 “absolutes”.
We see the Bible as a narrative that cannot be narrowed down to any man-made list of “essentials”…. we see it as the story of God’s interaction with His people… that played itself out in real time in the lives of real people. And we see ourselves as privileged people who continue to live out that story today… wrestling with the message of the Scriptures and with the way of Jesus as proclaimed in the Gospels and lived out through his followers as we see in the Acts of the Apostles and communicated in Paul’s (and others’) letters.
Last night our discussion centered around Matthew 22:36-40 and a blog post written by Renee. It was a discussion that challenged me and continues to challenge me (and probably will for the rest of my life). If you get a chance… read her blog and ask yourself the question, “What would your shirt say?”
How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood?
Invisible Children
The Invisible Children Spring Tour stopped in with the Merge community last weekend. What a great group of people! It was great to meet Dave, Andrew, Shannon and Jen.
They showed the film, “Black Is For Sunday: The Story Of The Displaced”, they shared their own stories and their passion for the work IC is doing with children in Uganda. It was a great opportunity for our hearts to be cultivated for such important work that is being done among people who have been so devastated by war and poverty.
It amazes me that God has brought together a group of people here who all have a heart for international ministry or working with people who are under-resourced. I believe He has brought us together for a purpose. I don’t know if any of us is fully aware of what that purpose is, but we are enjoying the process of discovering how we can be more engaged in the work of God’s Kingdom here on earth.
Easter Sunday Brunch
Easter Sunday Brunch at Bill & Cherie’s place at 11:00am…
A New Alternative
A fellow blogger recently posed this question:
”What if we thought of ourselves less as an alternative to church and more as an alternative church?”
He went on to say that the distinction “may appear subtle at first, but I think it potentially could mean a significant shift to our ethos.”
I believe he is on to something that I think it true for Merge as well.
Merging… Our Lives
I find myself at a place of excitement about the community God has brought together here. It is amazing to stop and realize how our paths have crossed and how our lives have connected. We may not all be at points in our lives where we have figured out what we should be doing or where our lives are headed, but we connect together in a very unique way. We are a small group of friends from such a variety of geographical locations and backgrounds, but we find ourselves connected somehow in this spiritual community that only God could orchestrate.
I believe we are a mosaic of dysfunctional beauty in His eyes…
Intoducing…
…the Merge Blog. In upcoming days/weeks/months/years, others from our community will join me in sharing about our journey together as a community and what God is doing in and through us here in Raleigh (and maybe even around the world).
If you are looking for Bill’s personal blog - you can find it here.