Church

So I have been going to a church real close to campus called First Baptist Church of La Mirada.

The church is pretty small, but I am really like the community so far. As you can imagine there are a lot of college kids, but there also is a good mix of other ages as well.

After service we have a college group meeting in one of their rooms. Lately we have been talking about what the purpose of church is. We want to define our role in the church, and we can do that effectively by first identifying what our own personal reasons are for attending.

We have had a lot of meaningful discussions. We've talked both about biblical ideas about the church, as well as American cultural ideas about the church (ex. people going just to feel good about themselves, or just because it is a tradition). I really enjoy puting out my personal feelings in the discussion, as well as hearing others respond and bounce other ideas off each other. We eventually want to take these discussions and apply them practically through our role in the church (whether that be serving the community or church members, exhorting another, just learning, etc.)

Anyhow my closing thought of the day: Be brave enough to step outside of your traditions and habits. Evaluate them and figure out why they're there in your lives. If there's no point, why do it? We need to have meaning in our life...not blind observances of what has been passed down to us and we've been told to adhere to.