Microchurch - The Grove is born

A while back I posted a pretty vitriolic diatribe about my search for a church.

A short time after posting that, I was talking with my wife about how we had such a positive experience at our previous church which was a church plant. (In fact you can see me and my bald noggin sitting at the computer on their homepage). So, I decided to search for any church plants in the Waco area.

I Google'd "Church plant" and "waco" and I found the blog of a guy who (with another guy) was going to be starting a new church in Waco in 2008. I liked what I saw on his blog. He seemed bright and passionate, not entirely ensconced in traditional church paradigms, and not emergent church faux-edgy. So, I wrote to him. He seemed excited to hear from me (as any church planter is excited to hear from prospective members). And he told me he'd be moving to the area in November (07) to a neighborhood called "Sendero Springs". I live in Sendero Springs! So, I asked him where exactly in "Sendero Springs" and he told me "Crystal Ct" which is my road!

We arranged to have dinner with he and his wife (who happens to be a professor at Baylor) and we really hit it off with them. We came back to our house for dessert and they pointed out which house is going to be theirs. It's practically across the street.

We were all struck by the movement of God. It's hard to think of it as otherwise. When you accidentally meet your new next door neighbor on Google... it's a sign. Anyway, we later got to meet the other half of the Grove pastoral staff and they are fantastic as well. We've formed fast friendships with both couples and our kids all have a blast together.

We have church on Sunday evenings across the street from my house (and although the services are very informal, they have asked that I at least put on pants). I don't know how long God will have us in this place, or what role we'll play in this infant church, but right now, we're rejoicing in what was a miraculously quick little community of believers practically knocking on our door when we needed them most.

Find out more about The Grove and my new neighbor Shane (who participates regularly in my Limerick contest.)