Leaving behind our normal routine forced me to confront how deeply we compartmentalize faith, testimony and unity to a building versus living it out in daily life.
What started as a step into the unknown became a profound realization: we are putting far too much weight on traditional buildings for teaching and missing the greatest Teacher, Jesus, out in the wild in daily living.
And honestly, it grieves me. In the religious church building paradigm, we look for reasons to be separate, to be above one another or better, judging ourselves and others based on our human standards... but when the building is taken away, you realize we are a lot more alike than we are different: we all need each other in our graces and giftings, and we all have nothing to boast in except Jesus.
As the Lord has continued to bring these mindsets to light, I’ve felt His presence gently encourage me to look at my own integrity. Not integrity as I had measured it by the Western Church standards of look, do, be the part on a Sunday, but whether the way I was actually living my faith Monday–Saturday matched what I gave myself to on Sunday. Maybe it’s just me..
Sunday had become the place where I poured myself out, lovingly and willingly. Leading the congregation in praise and worship, prophesying, prayer ministry… but what about my other six days of ministry to the Lord that also mattered... a LOT? I have to be honest with you, I didn’t really look much into all that. If I got out of the house, my earphones were in and I was listening to the next greatest podcast to learn something new instead of looking out to my current reality of the people all around me.
What is wild is that God has completely turned this mindset upside down the moment we left the region and no longer had a church building to call “home”.. Out here, the Lord has so generously opened my heart to shift my perspective from a 1:6 Perspective to a 6:1.
Here’s what I mean.
Indeed, Sunday was where I gave my all. It was my 1 day of ministry to the Lord. The other six days became my Sabbath days from ministry. With this way of thinking, I didn't need to do anything outside the church because I’ve already served! I checked that box! (I’m cringing as I’m ripping opening my heart for all of you to see LOL) The Lord, within the last 3 months, has invited me to flip that ratio on itself.
Specifically, there was one moment I remember early on in our traveling journey. We had googled the nearest Costco because … well it’s Costco and we love Costco. We didn’t really need anything in particular except maybe a few chicken bakes. It was so crowded because it was a Sunday, I believe. And everyone goes to Costco after church, apparently! We got our little lunch and found a tiny little red table in the middle of a huge group of more hungry shoppers. And because Jesus loves us so much, he had the guys sitting at the table next to us strike up a conversation with us. We tell them about our decision to travel the country and see what we see. One of them was a younger man, maybe early 20s. He notices Jared’s lion tattoo on his arm. “Whoa, man. That’s a nice tattoo there on your arm. Is that the Lion of Judah!?”
I mean, talk about boldness. I was in shock. Because who in the world talks about Jesus as the Lion of Judah?! Only people in our church community really rally around Jesus as the Lion of Judah and the high praise that Judah symbolizes. I excitedly said… “well, it definitely could be! JESUS!” and He was also like, “JESUS!” And it was funny and weird but instantly we were unified in the Spirit.
Why? Because we both now know that we carry the revelation of Jesus as Lion of Judah and that unifies us! We continued to talk and have conversations about his family, hobbies amongst other things and ended by encouraging one another. I asked Jared in the car on the way back to our camper... Did God just give us “church” in Costco? Right there, the Lord was beginning to teach me in real time that I have no choice but to shift my perspective: My greatest ministry opportunity is now officially outside the confinements of modern day church and out in the wild of everyday living.
After that experience, living in over ten different campsites now and meeting a variety of people, the Lord hilariously and continuously seems to line us up with people for just the right purpose. Someday, maybe I'll tell you about "The Creamer Lady" or the "Meth Guy". But I can tell you for sure now I practice looking up and out more than ever as earphones are no longer an option and neither is alone time. There’s a sense of urgency I carry in me now that we’re traveling. I know I’m only in one place for a certain amount of time, meaning my path may never again cross with the people I make eye contact with or talk to. This mindset affords me the boldness to share openly and trust that people really do care about our stories.
In my short experience so far, all it has taken is me casually mentioning that we left everything to follow Jesus into the country in a camper, and I can pretty easily read people’s faces if they “get it” or not. Within seconds, the conversation changes and now we have this unspoken yet fully known unity, camaraderie and friendship. This is the power of testimony! The speaking up of our story and testimony is how we overcome the divisive nature of the enemy. If we can take the time to speak up and share our personal experience of Jesus, I bet that you will find more people care than those who don’t.
Every single day of the week, I have a chance to say yes to testify of Jesus. Whether it’s when someone interrupts our grocery shopping, or stops by our campsite while we are outside, this is now my 6. This is what I’ve decided in my heart I will give lovingly and willing without reluctancy or compulsion.
6 days of ministry. 1 day of Sabbath rest. Instead of 1 day of ministry and 6 days of Sabbath rest.
I am the bearer of Christ everywhere! Not only inside a safe building that we have buffed and polished up and called it “church.” The ministry looks different for every person based upon the measure of grace given by Christ. You will not have the same grace as I do. I won’t have the same measure as you! But I do believe we can still all learn from one another as we work to bring unity and maturity to the body of Christ.
As I’m walking this road now, I look back at my previous season and I honestly grieve it and repent for my own ideologies of “church”. I must repent for putting too much hope into traditional church services, giving it far too much weight and asking it to hold what it was never meant to hold. I grieve because as I look back into my own home region, my opening conversation starters hardly ever started with testifying of Jesus but rather began with “so what church do you go to now?”
As I ask the Holy Spirit to search my own heart, I propose that we ask these questions for a number of reasons, innocent or not. But in my own transparency, my motives behind these questions simply were to gain a divisive edge in doctrinal beliefs to categorize myself as either more Spirit-led or more mature. (Yikes.)
I grieve this motive. I repented and asked the Holy Spirit to help me put into practice a better way to live: HEART FORWARD. I believe this personal repentance is to be a sign for the body of Christ:
We MUST, and I urge you, MUST get to the point where our questions to get to know another believer goes straight to their heart, their history and their friendship with Jesus instead of .. “so what church do you go to? or, I heard you are leaving xyz. Are you okay?”
See, when you have limited understanding of what the church actually is and its purpose in the earth you begin to first think in terms of a brick and mortar building. In the church building environment, you forget that the church is a body of people whose primary responsibility is to bear Christ’s name and govern in the region, therefore making it obsolete as to which building they attend on a Sunday morning. Each and every single believer including those in "authority" are hearts in need of wholeness and healing through tender ministry and righteous correction of the Holy Spirit.
However, instead of seeing people individually, we make gross overarching judgments about groups of people based on where they attend a building for one day. It is foolishness to use a church name, church building and/or doctrine to compartmentalize, judge and separate ourselves for the purpose of self-righteousness. Instead, we must change our minds and begin to get to the HEART FIRST of both stranger AND friend.
As I can testify to, when the old framework is no longer an option… the heart begins to desperately search to find the Jesus-followers “out in the wild”. And honestly? It doesn't matter if we believe the exact same thing if I’m heart forward. I’m not combing through their theology to determine whether or not I can find unity with them. I’m simply excited to have found another brother or sister in the family! The power of God loves to show up when unity is primary! If I pray for another sister in Christ and the Spirit bears witness to it through healing, deliverance, peace — it will! I don’t have to prove it to people who are dead set on picking it apart like we experienced back home.
It is SO fun, free and wild to live life this way! God's favor will show up in ways you never would've imagined possible! It’s so beautiful to go about my day, minister to the Lord through my testimony and instantly, I have friends, regardless of doctrine. And no one is scared of “being deceived” out here either! The things we come up with to justify our fear-based judgements against each in the family of God are quite foolish and break the Father's Heart.
Right before we left the region, the Lord began to pull a community of people together around Jared & me who were NOT all attending the same church, but we most certainly were unified through the Spirit. He was beginning to prime me for this revelation I’m sharing with you now and I didn’t even realize it! In January of 2025, I felt like I was supposed to bring together people of the region who genuinely cared more about becoming the Word, and minister to the Lord every single day, not just doing church one day a week and call it good. Though I didn’t know why at the time, I knew I was supposed to gather people from outside my own church walls, and that it didn’t matter what church they attended, if any at all. What I was drawn by the Spirit was their own personal hunger for more in their faith and radical obedience no matter what it looked like. This would ultimately lead to discipling and bringing healing to each other, and soon, to others. But it started within that community of about 6 families first. We worshipped in each other’s homes, we feasted together, we prayed, we read scripture. We ministered healing and deliverance. We challenged each other, corrected one another and we kept moving forward as best we could. It was so hard to align schedules, but the key was that we kept moving forward.. Our joy was hilarious, our love was deep and we could enjoy His presence anywhere! THIS IS CHURCH.
Can I encourage you? The Lord WILL bring you the right people to share your story and testimony with. And it will refine and reform you into who you are called to be. If you need boldness, He’ll bring you someone or put you in a situation where you need to practice boldness. Whether it’s being interrupted at Costco even though your earphones are in or the home section at Target. If you really want it, he’ll bring to you the hungry, the searching, the desperate, or simply another friend who is walking like you are. He’ll show you that if you live like the church walls are no longer an issue, then they will no longer be an issue. We can ALL testify to the wonder-working, powerful blood of Jesus! Under THIS banner, we unify and take major steps forward as the body of Christ.
I bring this all before you to challenge you that your most powerful ministry is OUTSIDE the church building services. Your day in and day out living. Your assignment to a church building can shift within a blink of an eye, but your obedience in ministry to Jesus never will. You aren’t on the earth to serve your pastor’s vision, but the BIG VISION of Christ.
So what would it look like in the body if we approached each other with this one Theme? With the identity of ONE? To work diligently in this ministry to see the fullness of Christ in you, in me, in the believers out here in the wild? Where our first question isn't, “So what church do you go to?”
But rather: “Tell me, are you friends with Jesus?”
Because when the building is taken away, you realize the church was never really there in the way you thought. You just finally started seeing her in light of the Truth.
And you see why Jesus loved her so much that He gave up His life for her.
