at home in the city

So, I think we found our new church home this morning. We had been going to a huge church just 2 blocks from our house, and we really enjoyed the extremely structured nursery program (we didn't exactly need beepers at Ruta 3:16 in El Salvador...) and the free tea and coffee after church, and being able to walk to church. However, we knew we would probably just sit on the last row every Sunday and never really meet anyone b/c of the large size. And that's ok too...I think we need a time of rest after a very intensive time of serving at our church in ES. However, we wanted to find a church that represents our heart for serving in the inner-city and to all ethnic groups and I think we found it today: New City Church. It meets in an old historic theater right smack dab in the middle of downtown LA which being there, in the middle of the tall buildings and the central market and the interesting characters on the street, made Elvis and I just feel really alive. The church seems extremely authentic which is what we most appreciate. It is multi-ethnic and multi-socioeconomic and welcomes those straight off the street or straight from a Beverly Hills mansion.  We also liked their small groups which meet to discuss more in-depth the sermon, and then go out into the city to serve in really practical ways.  One of the many new families we met was an interracial family from El Salvador and the US, and we hit it off right on the spot.  There is just something about being with such a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds that makes me feel like we're getting a much better picture of what the body of Christ really should look like.  You realize that maybe you had preconceived thoughts about what that body of Christ was like, like maybe you thought it had your same skin color or spoke only your language or drove a nice car instead of a shopping cart on the street. Anyways, all that to say that we felt very much at home this morning, in this place we had never set foot in before. We are really excited about going back and seeing if this is a place we can call home for a while.