Scott Bartchy is a scholar, professor, writer and historian. He has spent a lot of time studying the early Christian Church. His studies have resulted in a personal paradigm shift that has impacted the way he personally looks at Jesus, the Church, and the practice of the Christian faith.

Having spent several years on the conference speaking circuit, Bartchy soon abandoned the business of faith for the more practical, and appealing, practice of the faith.

i’ve been thinking a lot about the felt needs of christians in North America. at least in the circles i run in, deeper community is one of these felt needs. another is more active engagement in the harvest. the two are deeply related.

there is no doubt that the need for deeper community is huge for many. the proliferation of small groups and cell churches and simple churches marks the need well. unfortunately, these attempts at intimacy are marked by a decided lack of imagination. they are plagued with a need to follow the only agenda we really know. and so our ideas about worship and true intimacy with God and each other go unchallenged and every iteration of community leaves us wanting because its just a newer model of the same old vehicle.

This is the first post in a series called Following Jesus.

There is a 500-pound gorilla in the room. Can you feel him? He lurks in the shadows of our churches. When we look in our rear view mirrors on the way to work, he stares back. We can hear him give the occasional bored grunt from the next cubicle over at work. From sidewalks and grocery lines he glares accusingly, menacingly. He stubbornly takes up half the couch at home. You can almost feel his hot breath on your shoulder as you read this.