The Gathering Network: Kansas City

So I had a pretty cool, albeit very brief conversation with my neighbors the other day. It was totally a scene from that sitcom that was popular years ago with that comedian whose last name is Allen, and I can’t remember the name of anything related to that show for the life of me right now…but he used to always have conversations with his neighbor, but as the viewer, you never got to see the neighbors face….this was just like that. 
What I’m trying to say is that I need to trim our trees and the vines on the fence. I digress. 
We were chatting about all kinds of things…small talk mostly…but meaningful still. They just bought a new house, and are moving out this weekend, then we talked about what they do for a living [he edits video for a news station – she is a teacher in KCMO], we were laughing at our ridiculous dogs [ours, as in, Esse and Faye Shirley – not their dog Daisy] and then they asked me the dreaded question – “So, Jon, what do you do – like, for a living?” 
Not a bad question, and I’m proud as ever to do what I do, but it’s just that when you tell people you are a “pastor” it changes everything. Nine times out of ten in a bad way, not to mention that I think the word “pastor” is a not a great description of my actual job. When you tell people you are a pastor you become immediately un-normal. It’s not uncommon for people to apologize for things they’ve said in a conversation, or they might just look at you funny, like you just became an alien right in front of their eyes. 
My Neighbors took it in stride. That might have had something to do with me fumbling all over myself actually trying to describe what it is that I do right now. I started off my answer by saying, “Well, I guess, you might call me a pastor, but that probably doesn’t fit just right…[remember, we are trying to have this conversation through a screen of leaves and can barely see each other]. I went on to say, that “really, I lead an organization of small communities that gather around wrong things that need to be made right in Kansas City”…from there I don’t really remember what I said because I myself had the deer in the headlight look going on. 
Not sure if you have tried to describe what the Gathering is trying to become lately, but it’s not all that easy to do if you start off talking about the form of what we are doing. I’m learning that’s a terribly uninteresting place to start. 
I stumbled along for a while, boring myself, until I just said, “I guess I would describe the people I work with as people who actually want to do the stuff that Jesus did, and not just talk about it [couldn’t believe I said it…felt like the most pretentious thing I’ve said in a year] As soon as it came out of my mouth, she said “GOOD!”, as in, “FINALLY” – or at least that’s how I interpreted it. I’m probably wrong, but regardless, she was excited, and the conversation turned to all the ways that Jesus is using his mom where she lives to take care of refugees by seeing them get settled and placed in the US. 
That one “GOOD!” has been gas in my tank this week, and has made me so proud to be with you, pursuing this dream of missional community. It also made me so proud, because, pretentious or not I know it’s true – you want to be followers of Jesus, and it’s making a difference.