We are Loren and Laurie Sickles. We have lived in the same neighborhood of central Vancouver, WA for over 20 years, needless to say our roots go deep. We have four adult children (two of each), two sons-in-law, and two grandsons. We are not really prone to venturing out from our comfortable routine (mostly it's Loren that isn't) and so this adventure of visiting 52 churches in 52 weeks is kind of a big deal.
We both grew up in families that put a high priority on being plugged into a local church. We brought this same ideal into our family when we married and up until a couple of years ago had held true to that ideal. During the last several years we, and a lot of others we know, have been regaining our footing after the major economic upheaval we all experienced. In addition we experienced major changes within our family; launching four children into adulthood, marriages, grandkids, major health issues of parents, graduate school, changing jobs, and coming to terms with our new normal. You know, normal everyday stuff.
In the process of regaining our footing we found ourselves reevaluating the purpose and role of church in our life, and ours in the life of the church. As we stated in our initial post, this was not a crisis of faith, nor a moral failing of someone in the church we have called home for 20+ years. Our withdrawing from institutional church life was both uncomfortable and freeing at the same time. Uncomfortable due to the centrality of church life in our family. Freeing as we realized that our faith is first and foremost based on a relationship with Christ and allegiance to a specific organization is secondary.
We also believe that being connected with local members of the Body of Christ is of utmost important; both for our own spiritual growth as well as that of others. This brings us to our current endeavor of meeting with 52 different communities, that are part of Body of Christ, for the next year.
You are welcome to follow along in this journey and we welcome your thoughts, and comments, along the way.
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