Church…What is it and why does it matter?

We, in GCF, spend a good deal of time thinking about how to live the Christian life.

We care a lot about our individual spirituality. We wonder together about how we, personally and in light of our faith, should respond to the many injustices in the world. Recently, we talked about how we see God acting and showing grace in our individual lives.

And all of this matters, because we’re all individuals. But we’re also a community. And we’re connected to an even wider community. We call this the Church.

But sometimes the Church can feel like an altogether slow-moving, irrelevant, kind of frumpy behemoth.

In theory, Church people are our people, but how connected to them are we really?

This quarter we’re going to take time to think a little more communally. And we’re going think well about the Church proper—all of us and the all the rest—engaging with the world.

Because Christ died for the Church. And we all get the sense that, while we can do some things on our own, the church communal and worldwide is actually a force to be reckoned with.

And so we’re going to ask some questions..

What even is the Church?

How is the Church supposed to engage in the world?

What makes the Church distinct from any other social organization?

Why does the Church look so different in different places when we all hold to the same fundamental beliefs?

What actually unites us?

Thankfully, we won’t be making up answers to these questions. The Bible actually has lots to say to these questions and more. Let’s learn together.

This Spring Quarter. Thursday night. Chapel on the Ave. Be there.church in the world

Spring Retreat

Because you’ve been really busy and you’re tired and it’s hard to find time for anything, maybe especially prayer and Jesus and all that stuff that matters but doesn’t come with a hard and fast deadline…Join us for GCF’s spring retreat.Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 3.16.33 PM

We’ll take a break and retreat into the things that matter most.

And we’ll be on an island. And there won’t be interwebs to distract us. And there will be good food to nourish us.

For a portion of our time, we’ll be discussing C.S. Lewis’ Learning in War-Time.

You can download the essay here.

If you want a hard copy, the essay is in The Weight of Glory, which is less than $10 on Amazon.

Don’t forget to let us know you’re coming.

into the woods