I chose a Seventh Day Adventist church for several reasons:
1 – They meet on Shabbat. Like Jewish Shabbat. Like they are Christians who follow Old Testament. I liked the parallelism of this as a starting point.
2 – Their former pastor, Ryan Bell, began a blog “yearwithoutgod.com” as he explores being an atheist. I liked the apposite nature of our journeys.
3 – They appeared unassuming and authentic in their community. I didn’t want to start this journey with a charismatic leader like a Rick Warren or a Michael Beckwith (more on them later this year…); I just wanted to start somewhere where people show up just because they are seeking something…
And so, my friend Ari and I showed up at Hollywood Adventist Church Saturday morning and this is what we saw:
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