Despite all of our struggles, there is a reason I keep going back to The Crossing each week. This is a community where I have come to a more profound understanding of sacramentality. It is a community where I have begun to learn how service and leadership in ministry can be an offering, an act of worship, in and of itself. It is a community I contribute to, but what I receive is always far greater than what I give. This is a community where I have found support and accountability, where I have found belonging. It is a community that allows me to ask the ‘big questions,’ and that has promised to walk with me along the journey. It is a community where I have found mentors, and where I have become a mentor for others. This is a community that not only accepts, but demands that I bring my whole self to the communion table. This is a community where justice matters, where radical welcome is not just a feel-good ministry or a marketing strategy. This is a community where church is “a way of life, a way of connectedness with other Christ followers in the world.”[1] This is a community where I have found hope—hope that God matters and hope that we matter to God. And although this is a community that is still ‘emerging,’ vulnerability and humility make transformation possible. This is a community where the Spirit is alive. This is a community that has saved my soul.

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[1] Gibbs, Emerging Churches, 115.