You are invited...

In the past few years, I have been somewhat reserved about my faith.It is partially a defense mechanism developed from many years of feeling labeled and prejudged as "a pastor's wife." There are certain ideas that I think many people have about pastor's wives, and I really don't think that I line up to those ideas. I never liked thinking of myself as "preacher's wife." I just want to think of myself as me.

And you see, my faith has nothing to do with my husband's job. I was a Christian a long time before I was a pastor's wife. I used to be very zealous in talking about my faith. I have since drawn back a little because I found that so many people think of Christianity as a religion. There is a reason that people use the expression, doing something "religiously" for things that they do with strict consistency. Religion has such a negative connotation. In many people's minds, it has this connotation of rules and right and wrongs. It is not that at all to me, but I find that hard to really explain, because you kind of either get it or you don't, and it is understandably hard  to rewrite people's preconceived notions about things, so I don't talk about it much any more.

My husband is still a pastor, which makes me still technically a pastor's wife. (Incidentally, it also makes Vinny a "son of a preacher man," which I will always find amusing.) However, he doesn't work for a church right now, which makes for a different dynamic. When he stopped working for a church a couple of years ago, that meant that for the first time we got to pick our own church. We considered and tried out quite a few things before we chose Discovery Church.

We truly love this church. I feel like it is a gathering place, a family, of people who think like me... that Christianity is not really a religion at all. It is a group of often inconsistent people, who see the gray areas in life, but love God and love other people. I like that.

It is "friend" weekend at church. Our pastor has encouraged us to invite people. I have invited most of my friends to church at one time or another. But if I have never invited you... consider yourself invited. It has also been on my heart to invite some of you BACK. For some reason, there are a lot of people in my life who went to church at one time, but haven't been back in a while. If you would like to feel like part of a family again in a place where you will not be judged and can be frequently reminded that there is a God who truly loves you, then come.

http://discoverychurch.com/
It is on Easy street in Simi Valley.
There are services at 9:00 a.m., 10:30a.m., and 11:45 a.m., and this weekend there is one at 6pm.
If you have small children, you should come see the super awesome Discovery Kidz show at 10:30a.m., and attend service before or after. We usually see the show at 10:30 and then go to service at 11:45.

Let me know if I should save you a seat.
:-)