Great having you with us last weekend bro! Excited to have you come back to The Orchard to teach in July! So thankful for our friendship. Love watching God's hand on your life! SH

Hi Natalie! Stumbled across your site tonight via your Twitter profile. Nice blog by the way! Looks like we've some similar tastes in reading and music. (Love Mumford & Sons!) I just wanted to tell you that I thought this was a great post. I really appreciate your honesty in sharing about some of your own personal struggles with church. All I can say is, "Welcome to the club!" :) Your blog post sounds like many of the conversations our team has about church, consumerism, people's mindsets about church, etc... Believe me, you are not alone in your struggle. Yet...at the same time, I think it's worth mentioning that we're extremely hopeful as well! We believe God is up to something great in our city and we're just trying to find our place in that. I also know it can be somewhat tough trying to connect into a new church community. There are certainly a lot of things we know we can do better to help make those connections happen. Part of the challenge is trying to find the right balance when it comes to all that. (One of our staff, Larry Boatright, is taking a fresh look at how we can do better at this, but we'd love to hear any thoughts or ideas you have!) Anyway, I mainly just wanted to say hello and tell you that I'm glad you've given The Orchard a try. We know that there's no way that one church be the "right" church for everyone, but if this seems like the type of community you believe God is calling you to be a part of, we'd be happy to help you connect and find your place in partnering with the mission of Jesus in Aurora. Hope you have a great week Natalie! -Scott