I am a pastor. My dad is a pastor. My brother-in-law is a pastor. My great-great-grandfather on my dad’s mother’s side was a pastor. I have gone to church my whole life—literally. I have attended a lot of churches, and been the pastor of a few more. Some of those churches I didn’t like. Some of them were good; some not so good. But what makes a church “good” or “not so good”? What does that even mean? I have been hurt by the church, and I have no doubt hurt some people in the church. Does that mean a church is not so good if people get hurt in it?

After many years of full time pastoring, I have shifted gears. God gave me a dream job on the staff/faculty of a small Bible college in Southern California. Part of what I do is connect students with local churches, since each student needs to be part of a local church and have a local church based ministry. Our college is big on the local church, and I am a big part of making that stick. I also teach a class on pastoral ministry, and many other things that go with being in ministry.

So my wife and I attend a different church every Sunday morning, or at least, most Sunday mornings. That allows us to learn about the churches and we are better able to pair up a student and a church. It struck me what a unique opportunity had been handed to us: I get to travel around and witness firsthand this mysterious thing called church, body of Christ, ekklesia, in many different places and expressions. It is an opportunity I don’t want to waste. So I decided to blog our experience of worship each Sunday morning. Join us on this journey through many different houses of worship. Most of them will be in Southern California, but there may be an occasional odd location thrown in here and there. We will attend some good churches, and some not so good churches. But my guess is that God will show up in some pretty mysterious ways in some pretty unexpected places. Can’t wait!