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My family is in the midst of a home search. At some point, before winter sets in, we’d like to be relocated in a new home. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but that’s not the subject of my blog-musings today. Today I’m thinking of differences between house and home.

Because, you may have noticed, I used the word “home” three times in that first paragraph. One technique we’re using to find this home is to go to open-houses. Every weekend we check out the open-house listings, apply our set of requirements, plot a route that fits in the two or three places it’s even remotely possible to look at in the couple of hours allotted to the open-house times and off we go to have a look.

Some of us have believed, during the course of this search, that we surely ought to be able to create a very nice spread-sheet, drop in the required elements, check against what’s available and Bingo! There’s your winner. Pack up and move in. But others of us are pretty sure that won’t work. Even when the boxes have all been ticked, it still doesn’t feel right. Oh yes, there have been some rolling eyes and some shaking heads, but those of us who feel the need for the right “feeling” are holding firm. I do not claim to be able to explain why one set of bricks and mortar, lumber and shingles can feel totally wrong, while another quite similar set of the same bits and pieces feels right. But that’s the way it is. And the search continues.

Last week, Fired Up! spent some time studying author Corinne Ware’s book on Spirituality Types, in our quest to ready ourselves to plan the next season’s events and activities. It was a very interesting and enlightening study as we learned some things about ourselves, about each other and about the experiences we’ve had that have brought us to this budding congregation. We’re trying to figure out what kind of community we’re creating together, and at the same time, we’re trying to discern just what kind of community God is leading us to create for one another, and for those who will find their way to it. Much of what we’re learning is that you just can’t lay out a spread-sheet with the requisite boxes, tick them off as you account for them and move in at closing date.

Building a community is quite a lot like finding a home from the selection of houses available. There are some things you just can’t explain. Of course, there are some elements that must be there, that can be explained and that must be done correctly. Just like the house that felt really good, but that turned out to have mould in the basement and will not be our home after all.

It’s a good thing to have a team working together; and that team won’t always see things the same way. This is good, just as it’s good for a family to house search together, despite their differences. Odds of finding the right home are so much better.

Posted by Marion