i love my presbytery

Pittsburgh Presbytery asked to fund ongoing development of new churches

Saturday, June 14, 2008

By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Over the past year Pittsburgh Presbyery has made news for the churches it lost to another denomination. But at its most recent meeting there was unanimity and celebration when the 214 commissioners voted to ordain seminarian Jeff Eddings, who has already co-founded the fastest-growing church in the presbytery.

Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community on the South Side was founded in 2003 with $237,000 from the presbytery's New Church Development Fund. Now that fund is nearly out of money, and its overseers plan to ask the presbytery to build it back up. They hope one source will be money left by churches that are leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) for a more conservative denomination.

"We believe that God is not finished with what he wants to do here," said Vera White, director of new church development for the presbytery.

When the presbytery voted in 2000 to put $1.55 million of reserve funds toward new congregations, "we had gone 40 years without starting a new church," Ms. White said.

During those same four decades, it had closed about 60 churches and lost more than half its members. The presbytery, which covers Allegheny County, currently has about 150 churches with 42,000 members.

"We had lost the skills, and also the culture, of church planting," she said.

But at the turn of the millennium, the presbytery not only voted to spend generously on outreach but to allow the task force in charge to experiment to see what worked. "They showed that they were really serious about this," she said.

Since then, the presbytery has started seven congregations.

Hot Metal, which recently moved into the former Taco Loco restaurant and bar, has grown to 100 members since 2003, but has an average attendance of 200. It is co-sponsored by the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, which gave $300,000 to help purchase the building.

"Church planting has to be the future of the church. Most young people who have been disenfranchised from the church aren't willing to walk into an established church," said the Rev. Eddings. Hot Metal is known for its rock music and tattoed faithful.

"We have to find the funding and more creative ways for denominations to work together, as they have for Hot Metal. Without support from both, we would not have been able to purchase this building."

Having attendance higher than membership is a sign of congregational health. Hot Metal shares that with two other new congregations. Mosaic Community Church, an 8-year-old multi-ethnic church on the North Side, has 47 members but an average attendance of 120. The Open Door, founded in 2005 at The Union Project in Highland Park, has 65 members and an average attendance of 86.

Fountain Park Church in Cranberry was another successful start-up, receiving $330,000 -- the largest grant to date -- in 2001. It has 125 members today. But that congregation was co-sponsored by Beaver-Butler Presbytery and has elected to charter only with Beaver-Butler, Ms. White said.

The newest congregation, the Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Fellowship, received $12,000 last year, and draws 30 worshipers at Third Presbyterian Church, Shadyside.

Another congregation for new immigrants folded after two years in 2003, when its pastor returned to his native Brazil. And a start-up in Wilkinsburg left the Presbyterian Church (USA) to become independent when its pastor, a Baptist who had originally intended to become Presbyterian, changed his mind, Ms. White said.

Commissioners to Pittsburgh Presbytery will be asked to vote on the funding for new churches in the fall.

The task force is looking to five sources for continued support. They would like to receive $20,000 per year from the presbytery's operating budget. They are also asking for half the assets or proceeds of churches that close -- although that typically isn't much, she said.

A third request is for half the settlement money received from congregations that receive permission to leave the presbytery to affiliate with the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church. So far two have done so, making "mission gifts" of $250,000 and $575,000 to the presbytery as part of the agreement to leave.

"That only makes sense. Something leaves, something new comes to replace it," Ms. White said.

A fourth source of proposed funding would come through the Pittsburgh Presbyterian Foundation, allowing individuals who are interested in local outreach to contribute money to start new churches.

The plan also calls for at least four existing congregations to support each new one with both finances and volunteers. This not only helps the new congregation but "it benefits the existing church by creating an energy and an evangelistic spirit that can bring a lot of hope and excitement to that church," Ms. White said.

apostolic presbyterians????

Thanks to Alan Hirsh who's blog pointed me to this quote which i think summarizes well some the the role i feel called to take on and the open door embodies in the PCUSA.

"The apostolic role within established churches and denominations requires the reinterpreting the denomination’s foundational values in the light of the demands of its mission today. The ultimate goal of these apostolic leaders is to call the denomination away from maintenance, back to mission. The apostolic denominational leader needs to be a visionary, who can outlast significant opposition from within the denominational structures and can build alliances with those who desire change. Furthermore, the strategy of the apostolic leader could involve, casting vision and winning approval for a shift from maintenance to mission. In addition the leader has to encourage signs of life within the existing structures and raise up a new generation of leaders and churches from the old. The apostolic denominational leader needs to ensure the new generation is not “frozen out” by those who resist change. Finally, such a leader must restructure the denominations institutions so that they serve mission purposes.” - Steve Addison

open door story/vision as loyal radicals

The story and vision of the open door as a community of loyal radicals is posted in a podcast interview with me and Karen Sloan (author of Flirting with Monasticism) on the inaugural podcast of the presbymergent, check it out. Thanks to Karen, Adam, Brian and all the other Prebymergent folks who continue to put forth a vision for the loyal radicals in the PCUSA!!!!

my ordination, my dad

This past Sunday i was ordained as a minster of word and sacrament in the PCUSA and my dad, Rodger Woodworth gave me my charge and I share it with you:

Thousands of pastors are leaving the ministry each year and 80% of pastor’s wives wish their husbands were doing something else. Discouragement and despair come with the call. Even John the Baptist experienced this. Read Luke 7:18-23

From prison John sends a message to Jesus – are you the one or should we be looking for someone else. While this is surprising from the one who said of Jesus behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and I am not even worthy to carry his sandals – there will come a time (if not already) when from the prison of disappointment and despair you will cry out and ask Jesus are you the one or should I look elsewhere.

Understand John’s pain – pointed thousands to Jesus – given his life to that mission – willing to decrease so Jesus could increase so why the disappointment? He hears from his disciples – Jesus was giving sight to the blind, healing the sick, raising the dead and preaching to the poor (note – right next to giving life to the dead is giving the living a way to live). What bothered John was what Jesus was not doing. He was not fulfilling Johns’ expectations.

Disappointment comes when Jesus doesn’t fill our theological expectations – when he doesn’t act in a way we think God should act (or the way seminary taught us).

John had announced Jesus would come with a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire – expectations form the O.T. prophets. Pour out the Holy Spirit on God’s servants and fire on God’s enemies. Jesus would baptize the righteous with the Holy Spirit and the wicked with fire – baptize the good guys and burn up the bad guys and it would happen all at once. The separation of the wheat and chaff and the chaff would be burned up. But instead Jesus was hanging out with the chaff – the wicked - the bad guys. This didn’t fit John’s turn or burn theology.

BJ, there will come a time when Jesus acts in a way that just doesn’t fit into your theological framework and it will cause you to doubt such promises that his word never returns void or that the already of God’s Kingdom never seems to change into the promised not yet of His kingdom and you will ask with John are you really the one Jesus. This is normal – it comes with the call because you are called to spend most of your time helping people see the not yet of God’s Kingdom – to paint a picture of a preferable future – to give assurance that what is hoped for is going to happen – to provide evidence of things that cannot yet be seen – preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

But John’s disappointment was not just theological it was also personal – disappointment also comes when Jesus doesn’t fill our personal expectations. John was lying in a cold prison cell because King Herod didn’t take kindly to being called an adulterer. And Herod is upstairs getting drunk and still having his affair and Jesus is having dinner with prostitutes and tax collectors. So John has got to be asking Jesus if you‘re King why am I sitting in prison.

The personal questions of faith are never more prevalent then in the pastorate. You and our family have already faced a big one – if you are Lord why did Matt (my brother-in-law) die? Why does someone’s spouse leave, why does a parishioner abuse drugs, why is there not enough money to support the ministry. Below the surface of most theological controversies lies a deep personal disappointment. We know God’s in charge but our personal experience differs. Jesus’ response on the surface wasn’t anything that John didn’t already know but Jesus ties together words and phrases from the prophet Isaiah to say “John I am fulfilling the role of the Messiah, I am just not doing it in the way or time you expected. God has stretched out the already and the not yet of His coming Kingdom.

The journey you will lead people on is like climbing a mountain. You stand at the base and see the peak you’re climbing to and it looks simple. But soon you realize that climbing is a series of ups and downs, peaks and valleys, while often losing sight of the peak. It is a journey of joys and sorrows, of hope and disappointment accompanied by the Holy Spirit and the terrible tares - weeds in your field, people and circumstances that will reject you and hurt you, sin against you and let you down. Tares that you are called to tolerate and not root out because in our attempts to remove the bad we may harm the good. And as Bob Lupton says, “you don’t need to be concerned about how it appears to others that there are tares in your field; the Lord of the harvest can handle his own public relations. You don’t need herbicides that make the fruit appear bigger and the troubles benign.” BJ never let anyone question the validity of your ministry based on the tares in your field. Nor should you begin to ask Jesus if he is really the one when it appears there are more tares then wheat.

Jesus’ response to such a question is simple – he says I know you may be disappointed but I am asking you to trust me. You see even if Jesus had struck Herod with fire, freed John from prison and pulled up the other tares in John’s life, he would never have been truly free apart from a deep trusting relationship with Jesus.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are not offended by me – or stumbling over me”. We may be tempted to stumble over people and circumstances, pain and disappointment but we’re really stumbling over Jesus, offended by Jesus because he’s moving too slowly or because he hasn’t removed the tares in our life and the real temptations to look for something else – a better method, a new program, another seminar or a field with less tares – or even worse, tempted to join the thousands of pastors each year who give upon their call. My son – stay the course – have a burning patience – that quality of faith which keeps you living in the already and not yet – that will give meaning and strength to your ministry. Disappointments and even failures will come but you have a vision of the splendid city – you have hope – and just like the prophet Jeremiah, “before you were born God set you apart and appointed you to be his spokesman to the world.”

Lastly in order to stay the course and to continue knowing Jesus is the promised One:

• Build your identity on Christ and not on His church
• Pursue faithfulness and not success
• Always walk in repentance and faith

And know that you have both a heavenly Father and an earthly father that loves you unconditionally.

hybrids and cross-polinations

I have not read Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren yet but I feel as though our church, the Open Door and my theology is a generously orthodox. This happens in many strands of our life but most often visible in our worship gatherings. This past Sunday I preached a sermon that was rooted in Reformed covenant theology, we had prayer stations that involved interceding for justice in Kenya, lighting prayer candles, meditating on the significance of the civil rights movement as a "church", we sang an 2 old gospel hymns, had an altar call where 3 people renewed our baptismal vows and anointed with oil and served made to order coffee drinks. I think this is a generous orthodoxy. This "third way" community called the Open Door has an important role to play in the PCUSA presbytery . Call it emergent, postmodern, eclectic, contradictory or schizophrenic the realty is that I/we often find ourselves partnering with churches and people who are very different from one another. I think this is part of our calling to bring seemingly divergent folks together around the common mission of the Gospel and making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We are partners with two PCUSA churches in our neighborhood. One is a classic liberal community and the other classically conservative. I am both comfortable and uncomfortable in certain regards with both communities. I find myself in a unique place in a unique time where I tend to embrace this generous orthodoxy which includes all sorts of hybridizations of seemingly contradictory thoughts and practices. I told someone the other day that we practice contemplative activism, denominational/monasticism, reformed/ecumenicalism, conservative/liberalism, liberal/conservatism, ancient/future worship, evangelical/justice, and other such third way cross-pollinations. I see my role as a faithful subversive or a loyal radical within our presbytery/denomination and am still figuring out what that looks like, but am sooo... thankful to have friends who are charting out this new territory with me.

the voices of the others

Over the past three weeks God has been sending his hound of heaven to speak, pursue and convict me of the importance of diversity, plurality, unity, racial reconciliation and multiculturalism in the church. It started as I began preaching through the book of Ephesians and revisited the reality of the Gospel being communal, social and reconciliatory as it torn down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Greek and that Jesus is our peace and creating one new humanity; I then read Anthony Smith's article Practicing Pentecost in Emergent Manifesto of Hope; that some week I want to a seminar on the multicultural church by Rev. Jin Kim who pastors the Church of all Nations; and just his weekend Dr. John Franke talked about how if the PCUSA is going to allow for emergence it will need to continue to reform by listening and learning from the voices of the "other", the minority and realize that there is no culturally free theology and we are in need of hearing from and learning from those who tend to have minority voices; finally at the same Presbymergent conference by my good friend Derrick Weston, I was challenged to reconsider the necessity of reconciliation, relocation and redistribution of the CCDA's vision birthed by John Perkins.

OK I get it Lord! I feel as though God is reminding me a vision that he planted in my heart many years ago. And yet at the same time it is new and fresh. God is renewing in me a passion for justice, peace, a visible multicultural church and the passion to pursue it. I have shed many tears these past weeks. Tears for forsaking the call of the Gospel. Tears for the broken relationships, alienation and injustice among people of different cultures in the church. Tears for the forthcoming struggle of what it will mean to shift, change, let go and surrender to the Holy spirit who is calling the Open Door to more explicitly and actively engage the whole gospel of human reconciliation, justice, peace and the celebrating the marginal voices of the 'others" in our midst. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ empower me to lead and surround me with others who share the vision of every tribe tongue and nation gathered before the throne of the Lamb. May I have the courage to use my white privilege to be a prophetic voice, casting a picture of the shalom of God in our church and city.

I am going to do my best to begin to reflect on some of these thoughts over the next week or two so stay tuned.

presbymergent preaching

This weekend I will be participating in a Presbymergent conversation at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and leading a seminar on Presbymergent preaching. I am looking forward to hanging out with and talking with some old local Emergent Pittsburgh folk and making some new friends from the national conversation among Presbymergent folk. check out Adam Walker Cleveland's and Karen Sloan's blogs.

For my seminar I am resurrecting a homelitic paper i wrote last year where I tried to synthesize some Reformed perspectives on the Word of God and more postmodern epistemological practices of communal, innovative and dialogical forms of preaching. Here is the description.

Is the preaching of the Word of God, as the Second Helvetic Confession states simply and by default the Word of God or is it more dynamic than that? Drawing upon the work of Reformed and emerging theologians and practioners we will engage in a conversation about how we can experience and practice the preaching of the Word that is an artistic, dynamic and Spirit guided contextual engagement of gospel and culture; rooted in the story of scripture with varying forms seeking to prophetically imagine an alternative story that will transform local communities of faith.

I hope you can join us!

Why I am Presbyterian/Reformed

Recently I had to write a statement of what it means to be Presbyterian. So here is what I said.

To me, to be Presbyterian means to be connected with the Reformed tradition which holds a high view of the authority of scripture, the sovereignty of God over all of life, a belief in the priesthood of all believers, justification by faith in Christ alone, practices a representative form of church government and its theology is continually reforming. I agree with both the historical development of these beliefs and practices as well as their Biblical soundness.

The Heart of Presbyterianism and the Reformed tradition is its perspective on the theology of the church, that is, ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei - the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the word of God. The spirit that birthed the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition (though largely lost now) is that he church must always be being reformed by the Word and the Holy Spirit. This belief allows local churches to evolve and emerge in a variety of changing cultural contexts. This is so important in the life of the local church because every local congregation must answer the question, what is God calling us to do in our missional context?” This may require the shape and form of the church to change and morph into something new and different. It may even require a shift in theology in order to incarnate the Gospel in that unique missional context. The idea that the church is always reforming is essential in every age but I think it to be particularly important as we shift form a modern to postmodern culture.

Finally Presbyterianism holds to a representative form of church polity, which I believe to be the most Biblical model of church government. It guards against a pure democracy where the pastor is at the mercy of any tangential disagreement in the congregation as well as the abuse of authoritarianism in a hierarchical model of church government. It places appropriative power and authority in the congregation through its elected elders and the pastor gives leadership and oversight to them while still being only one voice among the other elders.

What do you think?

Calling, vocation and ordination

This past week I have finally finished answering some questions that will (hopefully) enable me to move from one who is inquiring about ordination in the PCUSA to one who is a candidate in the PCUSA. So I thought I would share some of my journey with you over the next few posts. I would love to hear your feedback.

I was asked to write a statement of my understanding of Christian vocation and calling in the reformed tradition and how it relates to my own sense of call. Here it is...

In Stanly Grenz's book "Theology for the Community of God" he states, “As Daniel Migliore noted, ordination is properly understood missiologically rather than ontologically.’ Ordination does not facilitate an ontological change in the clergy, elevating them above other Christians. Instead, the act commissions a person into leadership for the sake of the mission of the entire people of God." The reformed sense of calling is that all are called to ministry. Since all of creation is Gods and Christ is Lord over all and the Spirit gives gifts to everyone in the church then each person ought to have a sense of call to exercise dominion and stewardship as a co-heir with Christ, in the world. There is no one inch of creation that God does not claim as his one and therefore each follower of Christ is called to exercise sovereignty over that sphere of life, be it, politics, medicine, education, family or the church. The particular call to ordained ministry in the church of Jesus Christ is to equip and empower the priesthood of ALL believers to exercise their authority and rule in God’s good creation. I am called to the pastoral work of equipping others for the work of ministry in the church and in the world. One of my greatest joys in life is seeing people begin to understand the connection that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has in their vocations and callings. I am an encourager and take great pride in pointing out the strengths, gifts and passions of others so that they might use them in service to the King and the kingdom. Secondly my sense of call to professional ministry has been affirmed in my teaching and preaching gifts. I love to unpack and relate the story of scripture to the life of our community. It is an aspect of my call where I clearly experience God’s pleasure. I feel like Jeremiah who stated, “His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot (20:9). My call is confirmed by the continual desire to teach and equip others to be faithful followers of Jesus in word and deed.

I am excited to begin to practice this perspective in our community, The Open Door, as we begin to regulaly bless, pray for and comission people in their respective callings. Tomorrow night we will be comission our teachers to exercise their gifts in the sphere of education, from pre-school to master level TA's.

above-the-line solutions

Brain McLaren has done it again. In his most recent post he is calling the Church to live "above-the-line" instead of mapping out a position at either end of us/them or either/or conflicts, or even choosing some moderate point in between poles. Instead he pushes for a humble recognition that we are all journeying together with faith that continues to seek understanding. It is helpful to no one to define ones self or ones community by where they are on some spectrum (theological, political or otherwise). Nor is it constructive to define ones self or ones community by what we are opposed to or against. Brian says these positions "tend to polarize people into binary positions" on a continuum of sorts. So what if we sought above-the-line solutions attempting to affirm honor the good on both extremes while seeking to avoid at least some of the problems bifircation creates. In reality some of what Brain has suggested is just good contextualization. In some communities and cultures a certian ethic, theology, action, ritual, structure, politic etc... will be emphasized and others deemphasized.

Anyway... I just wanted to get you to read it... so check it out if you are at all intrigued.

You can find it here.

a living tradition innovatively rooted

Two more values of the Open Door:
Innovation: We value creativity because we believe that God is creative and that being made in God's likeness means we are creative beings as well. We celebrate the goodness and beauty of God’s creation. We express imagination is expressed in a variety of forms that inspire and reflect the beauty of God.

Rootedness: We honor the historic Judeo-Christian Church, and have a desire to root our vision and beliefs in scripture and the creeds of the Church. We seek to cultivate a deep and intimate relationship with God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in all we do.

To value innovation and rootedness may seem to some like a postmodern paradoxical contradiction but I think they are keys to the faithfulness of the church throughout time and in particular this post modern time. I read an article today about being a part of a Living Tradition I like that phrase and think it speaks of being part of innovatively rooted tradition. A community with a living tradition has as John Calvin says, “the constant endeavor, day and night, is not just to transmit the tradition faithfully, but also to put it in a form we think will prove best.” That is rooted inovation and a living tradition. Here are some selctions from the article entitled, What it means to Stand in a Livng Tadition by Douglas F. Ottati, from Jesus Christ and Christian Vision.

A living tradition is a primary source for a community’s distinctive identity. It is ‘the story’ of community transmitted for reappropriation in each generation by means of varied artifacts and activities. A living tradition shapes the present life by furnishing a common memory or heritage that, in turn yeilds a guiding orientation… The vitality of a community depends upon the continuing viability of its tradition [rootedness]. When the tradition ceases to be reappropriated and extended, the characteristric orientation of the community dies [innovation]… A living tradition enters into the constituion of meaningful life because by persistent questioning and interpretation, it continues to yeild an orientation that makes sense of the conuing expereinces of a society of persons… To stand in a living tradition, then, is to participate in a dynamic process of interpretation – one that moves between received heritage [rootedness] and the realities and chalenges of the present world in order to express a continuing and vital orientation or identity [innovation]… [We must] prize both the cloud of witnesses from other times and places available in books and libraries and close relationships within present Christian congregations for these provide critical avenues towards one’s own judgement about the distinctive past, the vital present, and the beckoning future of the Christian movement…

To stand in a living tradition is to participate in a community that is consciously informed by its common memory, actively engaged in the realities of the present, vitally concerned about its future direction and genuinely repsonsive to personally creative acts of appropriation… it is to recognize that the historical tradition although indespensible is not an exclusive source for a communitiy’s present identity. Vital contributions are made by other resources as well.

Thanks be to God for the Open Door missional community that is striving to“consciously be informed by its common memory, actively engaged in the realities of the present, vitally concerned about its future direction and genuinely repsonsive to personally creative acts of appropriation."

Homeless at home

I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be "at home" with yourself, with others, with the world and with God. I just finished Henri Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal and it talks a lot about being at home. It seems to me that their is a constant longing for home in my life. I experience moments of being at home yet never fully content and satisfied. There is an angst, a longing and a desire for more. I remember this in the movie Garden State (one of the best of the year in my opinion) when Zach Braff's character Andrew Largeman is talking with his Sam (Natalie Portman) about he feels homeless upon coming home to his childhood house after a long time away. He says,

You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of the sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone... It just sort of happens one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for you kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place.

I think he captures the tension of being a sojourner, a pilgrim and living in exile where we are not completely at home. Family are those people longing for a place to call home. We all have a longing a homesickness to be at home with ourselves, others, the world and God.

I started looking into this idea of home and dwelling in the Bible. We were created at home in the garden where it was good (not perfect or complete, but good) and then we ran away from home. We in turn became homeless wanderers. The whole story of Israel is one of wandering and looking for home, being sojourners, living in exile... The promise of the prophets was that God would once again make his home with us (Ezekiel 37:27; Jeremiah 31:1). And finally God does make his home with us once again by moving into the neighborhood and dwelling among us in Jesus (John 1:14). Jesus not only makes his home among us he IS/WAS the home or dwelling place of God. Jesus then promises that once he leaves that he will send another to make His dwelling in all who follow after him. We become the home of God in and through his Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).

And yet we like those who have come before us, the communion of saints, are never fully at home; we are aliens and strangers looking for our home. Yet the promise is that this will be our home in the new heavens and the new EARTH. In fact God promises once again to make his home and dwelling place among his people (Revelation 21:3) which means that the glimpses of home we experience are just that - glimpses and that there is more to come. So we are stuck in between homes, in the here but not yet, at home but still homeless.

What if home is where the longing is. OR as Bono puts it, Home... I can’t say where it is but I know I'm going home - that's where the hurt is. What if the longing for home is there intentionally. What if the longing for home is what drives closer to home? Didn't the prophets tell Israel while in exile to make their home in a land that was not their own? What if the homesickness and the hurt is to further the search for home? Can we be at home when we are homeless sojourners? Jesus was, wasn't he? What do you think?

I am becoming thankful that my home is in the city which is not quite home and it keeps me longing and striving for a better home. Iam thankfull that I am learning to be at home with myself with all the brokennessand allowingg that to create more space for God to live in me. I am thankful that Jesus said, anyone who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make our home in him. I am thankful that I am God's home yet still longing for God to make his full dwelling in me and on earth as it is in heaven.