The Pneuma Project

I’ve never started a blog before (or read the first post of a blog for that matter), so I’m not really sure how these things go. Let me introduce myself and fill you in on a little of what makes my heart beat.

My name is Darrin, I’m almost 33 years old. I love Jesus. I live in Reno Nevada, and I recently “left” my youth pastor job at a large local church. I had been working there for over 12 years and over that time I became more and more troubled by the institutional church. It seemed we were really good at providing programs for people “like us”, but making little impact in our overall community. How was I bringing the kingdom of God (His love, grace, forgiveness, joy, and peace) to Reno? If the church disappeared would it make any difference to the people around us that didn’t attend there? Was God’s concept of “church” intended to be a social club or elite society that told outsiders how wrong they were? These questions began to haunt me and so I began to dream….

I dreamt about what our community would look like if followers of Jesus were known by their love. I dreamed about a group of people who were dedicated to living the way of Jesus and impacting the larger community. I dreamed of building bridges between people with different viewpoints and different understandings of God, and I dreamed of moving the concept of “church” away from its association with a building (I go to church) and back to it’s connection with God and His people (We are church together, and when we bring grace, love, and hope we “do” church together). I shared these dreams and frustrations with the leadership at the church I worked at and they listened, agreed, and finally fired me. I don’t blame them. I would of probably fired me too. My dreams didn’t (and don’t) fit in the concept of an institutional church that is focused on attracting people into a building.

This was the best thing that ever happened to me. But that is a different story…