CHURCH TODAY

Hi anyone

As this is my first blog expect mistakes, they will come thick and fast. Its 11.37 on a Friday night and i am sitting in my kitchen typing this. Why you might ask?

Three and a half years ago my wife, Alison,myself and my two girls felt led by God to move to the small town of Dunoon in sunny Scotland (i have never seen such rain). God didn't tell us why, or did he, we might not of been listening. We immediately set about finding a church.

Let me explain, we have never been church hoppers, or spiritual gypsys as my friend calls us, but we wanted to find a church that loved each other and God passionately, taught the word of God, lived in community with each other and had something going for our children.

By the way this might offend anyone that lives in Dunoon but that is not my intention, It is maybe to show a different way, maybe just maybe like the early church.

What we found was small church with small church mentality who just seemed intent on disliking each other and the other churches. Of course this was veiled a lot of the time but obviouse to an outsider like myself. Might i add that not all were the same.

We are preaching the word of God right, no we are and so on. terrortries and boundaries, legalisim and the like. You know i could go on and on because there is so much to say about it but i wont all at one time as i can continue with that part of the story at another occasion.

By the way, we werent looking for the perfect church as those that know me know im far from perfect.

So what did we do?.

We prayed and fasted and under Gods leadership we set up Hope community, a place for the poor, the weary, the mentally ill, the addict,the lost, the lonely, the heartbroken, the not yet christian, the adulterer,the backslider etc. Where is this? Not in a building yet, we meet in each others homes as often as we can.

Its not about the size of a congregation, but a genuine love for Jesus and our neighbours. If size does matter to you, we have a massive total of 4 people.

We do however see more people in their homes, thats where we believe at this stage God wants us to be.

The reaction from some of the churches here has been terrible. They speak out against us and our characters and try and divide but you know God is the one who justifies.

We will continue to quietly go about our business showing Gods love and kindness to anyone and everyone praying that the Lord sends his holy spirit and starts to transform us and the people we deal with and the churches in Dunoon to bring Revival to this lovely wee scottish town.

God bless

Steve Harvey