Next Gen

GOD TRAVELS WITH US

As old routines beckon, we should remember the Spirit is with us and present in any space we enter.

By Brook O’Keefe Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

As my slightly sunburned feet wrapped in strappy black Chacos hang off the sides of my paddleboard, I realize I haven’t been feeling very “churchy” lately. I have regularly skipped online worship and ignored Facebook invites to young adult gatherings or mission center events.

Instead, I often find myself floating above resilient 3,000-year-old trees that still stand under clear water or hiking through forestgreen mountain trails on Sunday mornings. In their own way, these adventures have satisfied my spiritual hunger.

This is not to say that I have not felt spiritual lately, that I have not missed the people who gather on Sunday mornings, or that there is no value in organized worship. Being able to converse and worship with the people we love each Sunday is a blessing of stability and community. Rather, it is to say that God and the divine love that he has for each of us does not reside solely within the Zoom worship space or even within our church buildings.

Our God is not a recluse who lives tucked in the walls of our buildings. Our God travels with us!

The mobility of the Spirit and the overwhelming presence of God’s love in every aspect of our lives is something I am often guilty of forgetting. In this busy world, it becomes easy to fall into a Sunday morning routine, going through the motions and claiming it as the spiritual center of our week:

9:45 a.m. Wake up late, exhausted from the week

9:50 a.m. Chug scalding hot coffee 10:00 a.m. Dress in my Sunday best 10:15 a.m. Scurry off to church 10:30 a.m. Sing, listen, and pray while barely awake

Noon Go to lunch with dear friends, who have become family over years of sharing in this routine 2:00 p.m. Return to my busy life

Because this simple routine revolves primarily around a church building, it becomes easy to forget that God and church buildings are not synonymous. Again, our God travels with us! The Spirit is not trapped behind the heavy doors that separate our church from our reality. The Spirit, like Jesus’s ministry on Earth, does not rely on a location. Rather, the Spirit is with us as we walk down Main Street to grab a coffee or dinner with friends, when we are doing dishes, and when we are hiking mountains or walking along the beach.

As we begin to make our way back into our church buildings, I hope that we all find ways to satisfy our spiritual hunger outside of those doors as well. We can utilize pizza parlors or lakes or malls or the homes of friends and church family as venues for our spiritual conversations and interactions, whether through planned worship, a conversation with a stranger, or simply being together in the same space.

My prayer for the future of Community of Christ is that we not only open our doors to others but also move outside our walls to spaces where everyone is comfortable.

GET TO KNOW

Brook O’Keefe

Pronouns: she/her Age: 21

Home Congregation:

Redmond, Oregon, USA Currently Studying: Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, working toward a master’s degree

Favorite Place to Paddleboard:

Any of the Cascade Lakes or Clear Lake in Oregon