A feature story on Church @ the Springs made the front page of the Galveston Daily News today. It was great to read Rick Cousins' take on our church as an objective journalist. For the most part, I think he "gets us." As a Galveston reporter, he's seen many, if not most, of the island's church buildings damaged by Ike. Viewing the Springs through that lens, he asks an important question about church: "So if a major disaster can strip a fellowship down to its essentials, to an experience that lacks both ornateness and overhead, what’s the irreducible definition of corporate Christian practice?"
That is exactly what we envision for the Springs: Christ-following reduced to its most basic and fundamental elements, which also happen to be its most vital and important elements. Christianity stripped of ornateness and overhead by choice rather than disaster. It's a great line of questioning to assess the health of any church. What would happen if the building closed down tomorrow? If the money dried up? If the committees dissolved and the offices shut down? Would a church still exist? Would it survive? Could it even thrive? We're going to know the answers to all those questions.
It's worth noting that Rick's articles about Galveston county churches do not usually make the front page. Whether Rick outdid himself on this one, or the Springs is actually that unusual, or God just decided to give us an early Christmas gift, is anyone's guess. But we celebrate it just the same, and thank Rick for his interest in us and his efforts on behalf of the Church in Galveston county.
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