J.R. Briggs

A place to sift through the gritty reality of life

June 10, 2009

It’s been almost a year since a ragtag group of people committed together to help birth this new endeavor/ecclesiological experiment called The Renew Community. One of the members of the core launch team is Jessica Salasin, a single twenty-something hairdresser who lives in Lansdale and loves Jesus with such courageous and refreshing honesty. This week, Jess sent an email to the other members of our launch team. It was so honest and raw – and reveals what many people today think and feel about this faith journey with Jesus. It so clearly articulates the journey our launch team has been on that I thought it was worth sharing. Jess has granted me permission to publish her words:

“It struck me as I was meeting with my house church this week how I still harbor such intense inner rebellion towards this whole Christianity thing. How am I supposed to influence anyone in crossing over to ‘the other side’ if I can’t even get passed my own ridiculous mess???  I still believe that God is good though, and was struck with such gratitude when considering the fact that I have a place to sift through the gritty reality of life, without shame or fear of judgment. There’s such freedom and comfort in being able to admit that you don’t know all the answers. Or that you haven’t even gotten close to asking all the questions, but that there are others waiting and ready to help carve that path out along side of you. That’s now going beyond my own house church and even the launch team… and rippling into streams I haven’t even given much thought to yet. One year ago, when maybe you were still considering what direction you would take with this, could you even imagine the impact some of those ripples might have???

One more thought, and then I’ll be done. No one is you. No one in the entire world has thought your thoughts or experienced exactly what you’ve experienced, or can say what it feels like to experience what you’ve experienced. You could hide it all away, or you could take it and run with it.”

Posted in: Uncategorized