Experiencing Shechinah

  The SHECHINAH Experience

We hope that your experience at Shechinah is a bright one that adds joy, love, and hope to your daily life; hope that there is something out there that the church can obtain.  We can assure you that we will not be perfect; when you take a bunch of imperfect people and stick them together, you are going to get an imperfect organism.  But hopefully something fresh and different shine through our weaknesses – hopefully you see God at work in us. 

 

If this is not what you see, please contact us and dialogue with us about that.

What is Shechinah ?

“Shechinah” is a Hebrew word that was derived from the word “shakar” in the Old Testament.  Shakar was used to refer to the dwelling of a person or being.  It was the word used to refer to the presence of God in the Tabernacle.  The Hebrew rabbis knew that God was omnipresent, but that He was mysteriously present in a special way in the Tabernacle.  So they referred to this spiritual mystery by using the term Shechinah. 

 

It was the Shechinah of God that made Moses’ face shine with God’s glory.  There is also a tight connection with the Shechinah of God and the Holy Spirit (also called the “ruach hakodesh ”).  Many western scholars define “shechinah” as the visible glory of God.  The ancient, eastern, rabbinical definition is the intensified presence of God. 

 

We believe that Jesus came and kept talking in language that suggested that the peace (or Shalom) of God was something that was real, here, and NOW.  In one sense, Jesus was asking His church to bring heaven to earth.  Jesus never referred to heaven as this fuzzy, floaty, far-away place in the clouds.  Jesus asked the church to be the Shechinah of God.

 

Shechinah Outreach

One of the convictions we now have is that God asked us to be salt in a world that lacks flavor and light in a world full of darkness.  We need to do a better job of this. 

 

So, we are seeking to get out into the Southwest Boise community and just show the same kind of love and kindness that Jesus Christ showed to people. We will not go forth with a hidden agenda.  We will not go into the community to help in order to earn a stage to “preach” about Jesus. We will not go out to complain about all the things we do not like in the world.  We will not go out in order to have a chance to throw a bunch of flyers to promote our church.

 

We will go out to love people – period.

Is it gonna be easy?

   No way.

What if it makes us uncomfortable?

   Too bad.

Why would we do that?

   Because LOVE WINS.

   Because we really can make the world a better place.

 

We think the world is tired of listening to a loud church that complains about everything and screams about why the world is wrong and the church is right.  We believe that what the world needs to see is love – isn’t that what Christ asked us to do?  Over and over again? We believe it is.  Hopefully you find that as refreshing as we do. We think it feels good and liberating and full of grace to go out and just be the kinds of people God designed us to be.  We believe our actions can speak louder than any tract or systematic theology.

 

Finally.

And we hope that you’ll join us