From Stanley Hauerwas:

I am a theologian with a theological position that makes no sense unless a church actually exists that is capable of embodying the practices of perfection. In effect, since my own Methodist church is seldom capable of being such a community, though individual Methodist churches manage to be quite impressive, I live off communities that for varieties of reasons find themselves stuck with strong practices and convictions that they cannot leave behind and remain who they claim to be.

In Good Company: The Church as Polis, p. 67

This is where I find myself floating these days. It seems the only church structure that really makes sense to me is a 12 hour drive away from here (The Church of the Saviour). This is not to impune the practices and communities that no doubt exist in places much closer —(hopefully, a lot closer than I imagine), but it nevertheless adds to my restlessness, and the lack of rootedness in A community that I am convinced is vital, and also convinced that my wanderlust in this area has turned out to be a disservice to my wife and kids that I find hard to bear in these past few months.

We’re taking a spring break trip in a few weeks (all of us this time) during the school’s weeklong break, and we’re heading back to DC (I was there in November). My wife’s parents have a time-share arrangement in which they can trade for “other locations” for a small fee, a nd they were not going to be using up their time for this year, so they found a place in middle Virgina just west of the Shanendoah National Park, and about 100 miles from DC, 100 miles from Williamsburg/Jamestown, and 100 miles from my friend Bob’s place near Harper’s Ferry (Rolling Ridge Retreat) where we will stay one night in the Retreat House they have there for various groups that come in to do retreat-like programs. Of course, we’ll be taking in some of the sights of DC for the sake of my by-then 8 year old daughter Kelli, and just the second time for my by-then 17-year old son (who was there ten years ago , just as wide-eyed as his sister is now).

I hope there will be opportunities for some “wide-eyed” obeservance of some of the life and practice of some of the various Church of the Saviour church communities while we are hanging around the area.

I am contemplating how I might, on this blog, review and/or revisit and re-contemplate the issues raised in the “Becoming the Authentic Church” series I posted here when I returned from DC this past November.

There apparently is a CD-set of Gordon Cosby sermons that I want to acquire to play in the car on the way there in about 3 weeks.