We’re almost six months into this beautiful new adventure called “Bosque Center for Spiritual Living.”  And for six months, we’ve been intentionally opening up to the sheer possibility of it all, allowing a space for the Infinite to express into our togetherness. 

That’s been really cool.  There is so much about how our community is showing up that just takes my breath away.

And now it feels like time to start naming what’s taking shape.  Of course, we’ll continue to open up to newness and everything we haven’t yet actualized (or even thought of).  AND — we have an opportunity to name and claim and share what we’ve already created.  Let’s start telling our story.

To me, it’s a story of envisioning and creating together a unique way of doing spiritual community.  I’m not saying that everything we’ve done is a reinvention of the wheel, but I think for sure it’s fair to say that Bosque is an original and wondrous creature!

• We’re doing church in a way that is less about a particular building or singular location than anything that I’ve ever been a part of.  In different spaces and multifarious configurations, we’re declaring spiritual community all over the city and beyond, everywhere we gather, in all the ways we gather…

• We have developed a stunningly intimate and participatory music program.  Unplugged and almost entirely a cappella, our Sunday morning worship feels to me like the very best of an old-fashioned revival.  Our voices resonate out into the broader community through our partnerships with Song Spiral Studio and Maple Street Dance Space, through karaoke and monthly evensongs.   To paraphrase Jeff Black: we sing together, dream together, and look to forever as we change the world.  This musical expression is part of what I envision as a larger evolving Arts Ministry which includes dance, theater, visual arts installations, and multi-disciplinary creativity.  Yowza!

• I’m far too humble and shy to write much about myself here, but I believe that I’m offering a fresh approach to the Science of Mind that is bold, honest, and authentic.  I try to bring this to everything we do, including the Sunday service, and I’m really proud of all of us in this conversation.

• I love that our mode is immersive and experiential.  Yeah, we’ve got a philosophy and theology that we’re discovering and exploring, but it’s clear to me that our priority is an experience of togetherness rather than the delivery of a doctrine.  This rocks.

• Which brings me to the thing that most inspires me about our community:  truly, it is a collaborative co-created thing.  This can be a blessing or a challenge for any start-up — a blessing in that there’s an opportunity for everyone to contribute to the foundation upon which everything else is going to be built, and a challenge in that it really requires everyone to contribute to the foundation upon which everything else is going to be built.  It’s not easy to be an invisible sideline observer, because it’s so clear that each and every participant is absolutely essential in generating the experience for everyone else.  I love this so much, even when it’s intense.  It’s real, it’s responsible, it’s rich.  And I deeply appreciate the ways that everyone has stepped up into the Great Unknown of It All.

Absolutely, this is my kind of church.  I don’t mean “my” in a possessive sense, but “my” in that I really dig it.  It’s yours.  It’s ours.  And I extend to one and all, once again, an invitation to bring your whole selves to it — everything you’d like to be, to see, to share, to experience.  It’s already happening, friends.

I can’t wait to be with you again.  XO, Drew

© 2018 Drew Groves