How did this happen?

I have not posted on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter in over three years. The only reason I did so before was because I had a business and had to advertise. Until three days ago, I always had to google how to take a screenshot on my phone. My faith is something I have struggled with since I was twenty. I am probably the least likely person you would suspect to attempt to start a Christian networking site.

So how did this happen? My wife and I began to look more earnestly for a church around the time we were expecting our first child. We wanted to find a church he could grow up in. Since his birth, we have attended many churches. My wife grew up in a medium sized Baptist church. I grew up in smaller churches of Christ. It was tough to find a church we were both comfortable with and we searched for awhile.  We finally found a church.

But here’s the thing…there are only a handful of kids in our church. None are his age.  He was a big part of the reason we started looking for a church. But we felt if we kept looking, we would just continue church shopping.

We met so many great people along the way. For the most part we did not stay in contact. A large part of that was due to the fact we kind of felt like failures.  I also feel like we (I) had some walls up while we attended other churches. I feel like the people we met were doing there best in the 10 minutes we had after church and I feel like we were trying hard too.

I had grown up in the church but had fallen away. Each Sunday and Wednesday felt like an audition. I don’t follow sports. I worked in the wine industry, so I had no idea what to do with my hands when they didn’t have a wine glass in them. I wasn’t sure how often I should bring up God in any given conversation. An audition is a good way of putting it because I was trying to figure out how I should act.

It hurts when you feel like you don’t belong. It hurts more when you feel like your ability to connect is affecting your kid. A couple weeks ago, we went to see fireworks. My boy found a kid he used to go to school with. My wife and I were sitting on a hillside watching as our son and daughter ran around with his schoolmate and his siblings. It was almost everything I ever wanted.

It reminded me of running around with kids after church services. It reminded me of sleepovers. It reminded me of bonfires and games of jailbreak.  I did these things with my friends growing up. It was reminiscent, but not the same. When I did these things growing up, it was with my church family. My parents were part of the family, my friends were part of the family, my friends’ parents were part of the family.

I want this for my son. And I want this for myself. This just occurred to me. My best friend growing up and I had zero conversations about our convictions. We learned each other’s beliefs on the playground.

Our goal is to create an environment for friendships to spark. We want to Christians to create connections with each other. It’s worth noting in Acts 2, early believers dedicated themselves not only to the apostle’s teachings but to fellowship. It wasn’t always easy but they devoted themselves to fellowship. They wouldn’t have done it, it wouldn’t have been mentioned , if it wasn’t important.

I think as we really examine our lives, as we look at the lives of our kids, it can be easy to see what’s important. It can be easy to see what’s missing.

This is why we’ve decided to start this organization. We want what’s missing. We want others to find what's missing. We want to fellowship. We want to break bread. We want to devote ourselves to the apostle’s teachings. We want the Lord to add to our numbers daily.