We all see something from our own somewhere. My primary perspective of the church is from within the context of contemporary evangelicalism. More specifically, a church set across two campuses in one of the most conservative counties in southeast Michigan. While there is some diversity of culture and thought, the body is overwhelmingly White, middle-class, and faithfully conservative (both in terms of theology and politics - two things, at times, troublingly indistinguishable).

While I grew up Catholic, I have been here for 37 years. The lead pastor is a lifelong friend and a genuinely good and wise man. He is righteous and faithful.  All things considered, I am blessed to be in a comparatively healthy church.

Nevertheless, a shadow creeps upon us that has been well-documented across the broader whole of White, American evangelicalism. There is an air of nationalistic, politically co-opted theology leaching in. Much of what has been recently said (or posted), among congregants, echoes the separatist, "othering" of fundamentalism. 

I know without question, my leadership wants to be a "true gospel community." My uncertainty, which is at the heart of this project, lays in whether that desire is enough to counteract the gravitational forces among us, hell bent on pulling it all to the other extreme.