come as you are...and they mean it

i dont even know where to start on this blog. the only thing i can think is: incredible. yesterday i was standing there and singing along with the rockin band and it hit me, "HOLY CRAP!! we just moved here for this." i was shocked lol i just stood there in awe that we are finally here. i have been making observances and noting things in my mind and now i want to put them down on something where i can go back and re-read them sometime in the future. i have never seen a church that so gets what Jesus was about. its fabulous. here's some of the stuff i've gathered....

1. i love our GP smokers. i love walking up to my church and seeing 10-20 smokers out front hanging out. churches always say, 'come as you are!!' but do they mean it? would they mean it if a couple people were puffing on their cigarettes out front of their building when people are walking in? i love my sunday morning chat with our GP smokers =)

2. GP is the first church i have ever been a part of that they have said 'come as you are' and 'we dont care what you look like and what your baggage is' and they mean it!! i feel like i can come in and wear whatever and be whoever and talk however i want to talk and they will be glad i came. finally...someone who TRULY accepts all.

3. i love that it doesn't matter what the people up front look like. our pastor is a swackit wearing, jeans with holes sporting, young punk =) one of the guys in our band, every sunday he wears a big gray stocking hat. so awesome. i can remember being yelled at by one of my parental units for wearing a hat in church as a kid. i didn't understand why that was a big deal....and still don't. im glad its not here.

4. lives are being changed daily! everything is so real. if it doesn't work, we dont do it. if Jesus would not have been down with it, we don't talk about it. we do not do something just for the sake of doing it because its the way it has always been done. forget that.

when i was hanging out after church, ben was chatting with some people and asked me to 'man' the welcome table. so i was greeting people and not sure if they were new or not because im still new =) i met a guy with a weed shirt and a curly mustache. we talked about how cool it would be for him to walk around and play with his mustache like some kind of deviant lol this was his 2nd sunday and he loves it. he feels accepted. he was never a fan of church before...but GP has struck something inside of him. i am glad that i gave up everything to come here. totally worth it!!

Let me put a disclaimer out there...this may sound like i am saying GP is a perfect church but they are not. these are human people attempting to do the work of our Savior and things will get messed up. however...this stuff rocks.