Life has a way of throwing things at you, and sometimes you just can’t duck. And as all that stuff comes flying towards you the question might arise: is God trying to teach me something, or am I nothing more than a target? The question is actually the difference between hope and despair or, even more fundamentally, is the universe random or is there purpose?

As we entered this zone of flying stuff – church stuff – late in 2022, the first temptation was to go to despair and randomness. But while struggling against the muck, we felt a hand stretched out to us, lifting us and reminding us that we might be down, but not out. And that’s when we were struck with the idea of converting the “stuff” into something meaningful. Taking all we learned over the years about what was right and what was wrong with organized church, and designing something that accented the right while subduing the wrong. Or, put a better way, finding ways to be faithful that would lead us to get out of the Holy Spirit’s way, instead of piling up barriers to its joyful, important, transforming work.

So . . . how do you do that? There’s always the temptation to reinvent the wheel, do something “totally new” and try to be hip and happenin’. Not only would that be hard – we’re not really hip and happenin’ – but it would also be unnecessary. There is a perfectly good theological and ecclesial model out there that we are very familiar with: Wesleyan Methodism. Personal Holiness leading to Social Holiness. A community focused on God’s revelation in scripture, clarified by Christ’s grace and visible for all to see. Without the “stuff.”

We now have begun a journey with friends, old and new, to bring a “stuffless” Wesleyan community to the Vancouver area. Not exactly sure where we’re headed, but we have a lot of faith that we are headed in the right direction.