God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. - Ephesians 2:20-22 (The Message)

God is building something and, if you have faith in Jesus, you are a part of it. I am a part of it. Your friends here at La Croix and your friends in other Christian churches are part of it. So are the people with faith in Jesus who disagree with you about issues or generally drive you bonkers. God is building something from these various raw materials; setting them on the cornerstone of Jesus and the foundation of the apostles and prophets; the Holy Spirit acting as the mortar that holds it all together.

How do you see the church? As a gigantic, God-residing, metaphorical structure with you as one of many, many, many bricks? This is the "construction" view. Or do you see it as a brick...your brick...surrounded by a bunch of other individual bricks? This is the "deconstruction" view. I say deconstruction rather than destruction because tearing something apart is never my intent when I do this. Rather, I deconstruct the whole into the parts...with my part being the most important.

I ask that question because too often I see the church through deconstuctionist eyes. Though I would never SAY that, I behave exactly that way. When I do this, I crack the mortar and create a small hole. When a bunch of people do this, an entire section of what God is building can become destabilized and vulnerable. Destruction, though never intended, is the outcome.

I pray that God continues to show me where I'm deconstructing rather than cooperating with his construction. I pray that he reveal the same to you.

- Rob Mehner