In the Waiting

In the Waiting

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 7
March 24, 2026

Acts 1:1-14

While he was going away and they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two people dressed in white stood beside them.

They said, "Galileans, why are you standing here looking up at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven.

~ Acts 1:10-11

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Craig J. Sefa In the Waiting

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Quite frankly, we were tired of waiting. Jesus had spent three years telling us the Kingdom of God was at hand. We didn’t know exactly what he meant, but we had some pretty good ideas. No more Roman soldiers. No more poverty. No more suffering. With Jesus on the throne, there would be no more tears, no more pain.

After everything we had seen — his death, his resurrection — this Kingdom couldn’t come soon enough.

He told us to wait in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father was fulfilled. We had been with Jesus long enough to know that his definition of “soon” was often very different than ours.

So we asked him, “Lord, is this the time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said it wasn’t for us to know the times. What mattered was that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon us, and we would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

We didn’t understand. We thought the world would come to us. We didn’t yet know how wrong we were.

After he reminded us to wait, we watched him ascend into heaven. We stood there, staring into the sky, hearts aching. What now?

Two messengers said, “Why are you standing around staring at the sky?”

We were dumbfounded. What else were we supposed to do?

So we went back to Jerusalem and gathered in the upper room.

We waited…

And waited…

And waited some more…

But we had no idea what we were actually waiting for.

The room grew thick with silence. Some paced. Others prayed. The boards creaked under shifting feet.

We remembered the night in the garden when we failed to stay awake and pray. “We were too tired,” Peter said. “And our faith suffered for it.”

This time, there was only one thing to do.

We devoted ourselves to prayer.

We remembered the prophet: those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint.

None of us likes waiting. We are always looking ahead.

But waiting helps us see beyond ourselves.

Silence…      

Stillness…         

Waiting…

We were ready to build the Kingdom, but that was never his plan. If we hadn’t waited, we would have missed everything. When the Holy Spirit came, the world didn’t come to us. We were sent out.

We will spend much of our lives waiting whether we like it or not.  The least we can do is worship while we wait.

Devote yourselves to prayer.

Devote yourselves to worship.

Hurry up and wait on the Lord.

Blind, But Now I See

Blind, But Now I See

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 6
March 17, 2026

Acts 9:1-22

Ananias went to the house. He placed his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see. He got up and was baptized. After eating, his strength returned.

~ Acts 9:17-19

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Craig J. Sefa Blind, But Now I See

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To my sisters and brothers who now share in Christ’s suffering and joy: I write to you concerning the hope of resurrection, a hope rooted in the traditions of our people and written on the pages of my own life.

I am a child of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin. A Pharisee, blameless according to the law. Like many of my people, I built my life on the conviction that God is righteous and just. Without resurrection, how can that be true? There must be hope for all who have suffered injustice.

I did not persecute the followers of Jesus for believing in resurrection. I shared in their hope. But resurrection had not yet come. Their proclamation was premature. One person cannot rise from the dead. Resurrection is a promise for all creation.

Yet on the road to Damascus, a light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” I asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus.”

I had never met him, yet he spoke with authority. I looked up but saw nothing. Darkness. They led me by the hand to Damascus. I sat as though dead. I refused food and drink. The darkness consumed me.

“All I could pray was: ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.’” Everything I thought I knew was undone.

After three days, a man named Ananias came. “Brother Saul,” he said, “the Lord sent me so that you could see again.” It was as though scales fell from my eyes. I was baptized—buried with Christ, raised to walk in new life.

Was this resurrection?

To live anew, here and now?

I went into the wilderness. I prayed. I wrestled with theScriptures. “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone… by his wounds we are healed.” I had been looking for power, but the prophets spoke of suffering.

What if the cross was not his curse, but God’s vindication? What if resurrection had already begun?

I returned and proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God. Some believed; others plotted against me. I who once came with strength now fled in weakness, lowered in a basket.

Grace broke me and grace remade me.

For years I lived in obscurity. I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God’s church. Yet my life is a testimony to grace. I died on that road to Damascus. And yet, in Christ, I live.

In Antioch I saw it: Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, one in Christ. This is new creation.

Resurrection is not merely hope for life after death. It is the power by which I now live.

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

And so, I press on.

Doubt & Devotion

Doubt & Devotion

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 5
March 10, 2026

John 20:19-29

After eight days, his disciples were again in a house, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here. Look at my hands. Put your hand into my side. Don't be faithless but believe."

Thomas responded to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!"

~ John 20:19-29

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Craig J. Sefa Doubt & Devotion

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I’m a bit skeptical. Is that so wrong? I call it being realistic, and so far, it’s worked out pretty well for me.

“Doubting Thomas.” That’s what they call me. But it was just as hard for the others to believe. And what about you? Did you believe the first time you heard that somebody had come back to life after three days in the grave? Call me what you want, but I say, who wouldn’t doubt that?

Like I said, my skepticism has served me well. It’s easy to be devoted when everything is going well. But how long do you stick with something when times get tough? Why doesn’t anybody remember that I’m also “Devoted Thomas?”

We followed Jesus through Galilee. People were being fed and healed, and we hung on his every word. When a messenger came saying Lazarus was dying, Jesus decided to go to Bethany, even though it was dangerous. We told him he was crazy. But he wouldn’t hear it.

I knew there was no way to turn him back. So I said, “Let us go… that we may die with him.”

Even in my doubt, I was determined to follow.

You know what happened. Jesus raised Lazarus. But the tension grew. The leaders plotted to kill him. At the Passover meal, he spoke of leaving us. I asked, “Lord, how can we know the way?” He said he was the way. I didn’t understand, but I was determined to follow him.

Then they arrested him. The rest of us fled. After he died, I was paralyzed by grief.

Mary said the tomb was empty. The others said they had seen him. I couldn’t believe it. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands… I will not believe.”

I wasn’t trying to be difficult. I was trying to survive the grief.

A week later, we were together behind locked doors. Suddenly, he was there.

“Peace be with you.”

He turned to me. He told me to see his hands, to touch his side. I didn’t even have to.

“My Lord and my God!”

In that moment, everything changed. I saw God in him. The one who had walked with us, wept with us, and now stood before us bearing his scars. He didn’t come to shame me for my doubt, but to show me how much I was loved.

Jesus loved me. He loves me. God loves me.

And somehow, that love was stronger than my doubt.

Sometimes it’s still hard to believe, but nothing is ever the same after that.

My doubt didn’t disqualify me. It made me stronger. It taught me the true meaning of faith: to keep showing up even when it doesn’t make sense.

Faith isn’t the opposite of doubt.
Faith carries us through it.

The Stranger Who Walked with Us

The Stranger Who Walked with Us

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 4
May 3, 2026

Luke 24:13-35

After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.

They said to each other, "Weren't our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?"

~ Luke 24:30-32

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Craig J. Sefa The Stranger Who Walked With Us

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Cleopas and I had followed Jesus for a while now. We heard about his miracles, so we went to hear him teach for ourselves. There were thousands gathered on the hill. By the time it was over, he was passing around bread and fish for everybody. I don’t know where he got it all. The supply was endless. That was our first meal with Jesus, before he even knew us, and it definitely would not be our last.

We knew about Jesus.  We saw his works and heard his teachings. We called him a prophet and believed he was sent by God to redeem and restore Israel. He talked about the Kingdom of God, how even now it was in our midst. We heard his words, but we didn’t understand.

After he was crucified, we were all in shock. We didn’t know what to do or where to go. We vaguely remembered him saying that he would rise from the dead, but we weren’t really sure what he meant. On the morning of the third day, the women said the tomb was empty, that Jesus was alive. We didn’t know what to make of it.

That morning, our last shred of hope died. Cleopas and I left Jerusalem for Emmaus. It was a seven-mile walk, but that morning it might as well have been a hundred. We walked slowly, shuffling our feet in the dust, utterly lost in grief.

A stranger joined us on the road. He asked what we were discussing. We told him everything, how Jesus was crucified, how we had hoped he would redeem Israel, and how the tomb was now empty.

The stranger listened, then began explaining the scriptures, quoting Moses and the prophets. As he spoke, something stirred deep within me.

When we reached the village, we asked him to stay. We gathered around the table. Suddenly our guest turned host. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to us. In that instant everything became clear.

We knew him.

He had been with us all along. And then he vanished.

Without a second thought, we ran back to Jerusalem. What had been the longest journey of our lives became the fastest. We told the others how he was made known to us in the breaking of the bread.

Even when we did not recognize him, he was walking with us on the road.

At his last meal he said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” but this is more than remembering. He isn’t just a memory. He is alive and with us right now. Even when it seems like all hope is gone, he is walking with us.

We come broken to the table.

He breaks the bread and gives it to us.

And in that moment, we discover that the risen Christ has been with us all along.

Paying Attention

Paying Attention

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 3
April 26, 2026

John 20:1-18

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni” (which means Teacher).

Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold on to me, for I haven’t yet gone up to my Father. Go to my brothers and sisters and tell them, ‘I’m going up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

~ John 20:15-17

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McKenzie M. Sefa Paying Attention

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I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses… and he walks with me, and he talks with me,
and he tells me I am his own…

That sweet, beautiful garden. The quiet. The voice.

That wondrous morning began as a day of sorrow, a day of sadness. As I walked to the tomb, my heart was heavy.

I walked slowly, under the cover of darkness. My sandals crunched softly on the gravel path. All else was eerily quiet. The birds had not yet awakened. The sound of the crickets was fading as dawn approached.

I wrapped my cloak more tightly to block out the chill, and I could feel the dew on my feet as I stepped through the patches of grass near the tomb.

When I arrived, the stone had been moved. The tomb was wide open.

I felt it in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong.

I ran back to the disciples. “You’re not going to believe this. The stone is gone!”

Peter said he wouldn’t believe it until he saw it. He and another disciple ran to the tomb. When they arrived, they looked in and saw the same thing I had.

I couldn’t leave. I needed to know where he was. So I stayed and wept. I didn’t understand. The uncertainty was unbearable.

“Why are you crying?” he asked.

“They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know wherethey’ve put him.”

I turned to follow their gaze. There was a man standing there. I assumed he was the gardener.

“Woman,” he said, “why are you weeping?”

“I just want to see Jesus.”

Instead, he offered only a single word… “Mary.”

That’s all it took. Just that one word.

He knew me. He saw me. I was no longer alone.

In that instant, everything changed. The grief, the confusion, the aching emptiness… all of it went away.

He didn’t rise with loud thunder or angels singing from the skies. He came with a quiet, comforting whisper… a voice I knew so well… “Mary.”

Before Jesus, my life was wrapped in darkness. I was tormented by darkness that would not let me go. People avoided me. I was feared, shunned, cast aside.  He stepped into my life, right where I was, and cast out every demon with the light of love.  He made me new.  He is still making me new.  And he sent me to share it with everyone.

But in that moment, I was there. I showed up. I stayed. But love would not let me hide. And because I was there, he once again led me into joy.  And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.

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This week’s reflection is an excerpt from my new book, Real Life Resurrection.

For more information, purchase links and study guides, click here.

The Rooster Crows

The Rooster Crows

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 2
April 19, 2026

John 21:4-19

Jesus asked a third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was sad that Jesus asked him a third time, "Do you love me?" He replied, "Lord, you know everything; you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."

~ John 21:17

Craig J. Sefa The Rooster Crows

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As the others began cleaning up after the meal, Jesus turned to me.  He looked me dead in the eye, called me by name, and asked “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

I froze. 

I knew he had no reason to believe that I loved him after what I had done.

With tears welling in my eyes, I told him, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” 

I couldn’t have been more sincere, but in my heart, I didn’t really expect him to believe me. 

“Feed my lambs.”

His response was not what I expected. 

It was just like the day he first called me.  He wanted me to take care of his people.  Why me?  How could he trust me with such an enormous task? 

Then he asked again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 

I knew it.  He didn’t really trust me.  I responded more urgently this time, and I couldn’t hold back the tears.  “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”  And again, he said, “Tend my sheep.”

We just stared at each other for a moment.  Even through the blurriness of my tears I could see the gentleness in his eyes. 

He asked a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 

This was harder than anything I could have imagined.  My mind kept reliving those moments in the courtyard the day he died.  “You were with Jesus,” someone said pointing at me.  “No, no I wasn’t.  You must be mistaken.”  Three different people.  Three times I said I didn’t know him.  And now for a third time, Jesus questioned me.  How could I convince him that I loved him when I had denied even knowing him?  How could I ever expect him to trust me again? 

I wasn’t even sure I believed it myself anymore.  Did I really love him?

I just sat there sobbing, knowing my words couldn’t possibly have any meaning to him, but I responded anyway.   My voice cracked with desperation.

“Lord, you know everything, you know I love you.” 

This time my answer felt more like a question. 

Lord, you know me better than I know myself… you tell me, do I love you? I think I do… I want to love you more than anything… but I failed you, I doubted you, I turned my back on you?  You knew I would deny you.  Will I do it again?  I can’t stand the thought of letting you down again. 

He had to know that I was doubting myself more than I had ever doubted him. 

He answered gently, “Feed my sheep.” 

Then he told me to follow him. 

Jesus still wanted me by his side.  I don’t think I’ll ever understand it.  There are many days I don’t feel forgiven, but that’s exactly what he did.  Jesus forgave me. 

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This week’s reflection is an excerpt from my new book, Real Life Resurrection.

For more information, purchase links and study guides, click here.

Son of God?

Son of God?

Experiencing Resurrection: Part 1
April 12, 2026

Matthew 27:62-28:15

When the centurion, who stood facing Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “This man was certainly God’s Son.”

 Mark 15:39

Craig J. Sefa Son of God

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"Even in Israel I haven't found faith like this."

That's what Jesus told the crowds the day he healed a centurion's servant. But the centurion never wanted to be a model of faith (Luke 7:1-10).  He had no interest in Jesus' religion. If anything, what he did that day was a last-ditch hope, an act of sheer desperation. He wasn't interested in the God of Abraham. He just thought if this teacher they called Jesus could heal others, maybe he might just have a little miracle left over for him and his servant.

And yet. Jesus called it faith.

We don’t know if this was the same centurion we see at the cross but imagine for a moment that it was.  He finds himself passing down the order to crucify that same teacher.  
Seeing Jesus carry the cross beam up the hill stops him in his tracks. He feels a knot growing in his stomach. He had never questioned an order before in his life, but this one just didn't feel right.

He couldn't explain what happened next. The tomb was empty. Dead men don't walk again. So he went along with the cover story. After all, the winners always write history. Surely this would all be forgotten in a few years.

Still, he wondered.

What if this man was the Son of God?

He had pledged his allegiance to Caesar, the one his world called Son of God, savior, prince of peace. But that man, that rabbi, died with more dignity than Caesar had ever shown. Jesus faced the weight of the entire Roman military, unarmed and unafraid. He never resisted his fate, no matter how undeserved. Jesus died like a king. Not the kind of king Rome would ever recognize, but maybe the kind of king we still need today.

We are never told if the centurion becomes a follower of Jesus, but I can imagine him whispering Jesus’ name in the darkness, shaken by all he has seen.  His question lingers for all of us: what would it cost to tell the truth about what we've seen? And what loyalties, comforts, or fears keep us from saying it out loud?

Sometimes our dreams are too small. Like the centurion, it's easy to stay focused only on what's right in front of us.  We tend to live in problem-solving mode, survival mode, just doing our jobs.

We don't serve others so that our church will grow, or so that God will bless us. We serve because that's who we are as followers of Christ. We love because God first loved us.

The centurion didn't know it yet, but he had already encountered the kind of king worth giving everything for and the kind of friend who would give his life for him.

Maybe we have too.

• Where do you notice competing loyalties in your own life, whether to systems, expectations, or identities, that make it harder to follow Jesus?

• Reflect on an experience you could not explain but also could not ignore that shifted how you see God.

Resurrection for All

Resurrection for All

Easter Sunday
April 5, 2026

1 Corinthians 15:12-58, Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5

He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the one who is firstborn from among the dead so that he might occupy the first place in everything.

 ~ Colossians 1:18

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Craig J. Sefa Resurrection for All

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We often think of resurrection as a one-time historical event in the life of Jesus. We believe that through the mystery of his death and resurrection we will somehow be welcomed into eternal life. But this individual hope is much smaller than the hope the earliest followers of Jesus carried.

For many first-century Jews who believed in resurrection, it was never imagined as an individual event. Resurrection was communal. It was the hope that God would one day raise all people and finally bring justice to the world. The question was not simply what would happen to one faithful person after death, but whether God’s justice would ultimately prevail for everyone who had suffered under oppression and injustice.

When the apostle Paul proclaimed that Jesus had been raised, some asked, “How can there be resurrection if the dead have not yet been raised?” Paul responded that Christ is the first fruits of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15).    

In other words, Easter is not the end of the story, it is the beginning. Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, the first sign that God’s promised future has already begun to break into the present.

The resurrection is not simply a reward for Jesus’ faithfulness. It is God’s vindication of his life and his way of love.  Resurrection is God’s “yes” to Jesus and God’s “no” to the powers that executed him. Easter reveals something essential about God: the forces of domination, violence, and fear do not have the final word.

Because of this, resurrection is not only something we believe about the past. It reshapes how we live now.

If Easter is God’s “yes” to the way Jesus lived, then those who follow him must learn to live in that same light, refusing the systems of fear and power that once led to his execution.

Resurrection is not only something that happened to Jesus a long time ago.  As Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin puts it:

Resurrection is what happens every time love refuses to stay buried, every time hope rises up out of places everyone else has given up on, every time a community comes back together after being torn apart, every time justice gets back on its feet after being knocked down again.

Look at the world. Everywhere there’s pain, there’s also someone showing up with compassion. Everywhere there’s despair, there’s someone planting seeds anyway. That’s resurrection! That’s new life breaking through the cracks.

Resurrection isn’t magic. It’s movement. It’s love getting up again and again…

If you want to experience resurrection, you just have to pay attention to the ways love keeps choosing to rise right in front of you.

 Where do you see signs of resurrection breaking through — in your life, in your community, or in the world — and how might God be inviting you to join in that rising love?

Filled to Overflowing

Filled to Overflowing

Thirst: Part 6
March 29, 2026

John 4:27-42

The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the people, 'Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?' They left the city and were on their way to see Jesus.

 ~ John 4:28-30

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Craig J. Sefa Filled to Overflowing

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Good News is contagious.  Once we really get it, we can't keep it to ourselves.

Imagine you were cured of cancer by an amazing doctor with a brand-new experimental treatment.  Wouldn't you be telling all your friends with cancer about it, hoping that this doctor could help them too? 

"If our faith is real, if being a Christian makes a deep difference in our own lives, it matters that we be able to talk about that with the people we care about and the people that Christ cares about” (Martha Grace Reese, Unbinding the Gospel, 13).

Many of us as Christians are more likely to invite someone to our new favorite restaurant than we are to invite someone to church, and we are far more likely to introduce someone to our best friend or even to our favorite TV series than we are to introduce them to Jesus. 

For the woman at the well, Jesus was likely one of the first people who ever truly loved and accepted her for who she was, flaws and all.  He knew her better than anybody and yet he didn't judge.  He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan, but that didn't stop him from reaching across the lines.  He was clean and she was unclean, but he wasn't afraid of getting dirty.  Nobody else in her life had ever loved her that much.  Her excitement is overwhelming, and it is contagious.

The people probably think she's crazy.  They know her.  They know her past.  They know she's got no reason to be so joyful.  But they can't help but wonder what has changed inside her, and so they come to meet Jesus for themselves. 

She has no idea how the people will respond, but it doesn't matter.  She's not even certain if Jesus is really the Christ, the Savior, at all?  She's not clear on her beliefs.  She has no religious answers and little to know biblical knowledge.  I'm not even certain we can say that she "got saved," in the way we often think about salvation... at least not yet.  But her encounter with Christ impacted her so much she could not keep it to herself. 

Before we met Jesus personally, each and every one of us saw Jesus alive in someone else.

Who needs to see Jesus alive in you, so that they will come and see the one who knows them and loves them too?

It's Not About the Plumbing

It's Not About the Plumbing

Thirst: Part 5
March 22, 2026

John 4:21-26

The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.”

  ~ John 4:19-20

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Craig J. Sefa It's Not About the Plumbing

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We've all heard it said, "Don't talk about religion or politics in polite company."  On one hand, this kind of social etiquette has resulted in the inability to have rational dialogue and healthy disagreement about anything of great importance.  Simply look at the comment section of any online article or social media post about a religious or political topic and you'll see what I mean.

On the other hand, these topics can easily be used as a distraction from the real issue at hand.  If we don't like something a person is saying, all we have to do is find something about their political views or religious beliefs that we don't agree with, and immediately we are able to brush off anything they say as irrelevant.  When teaching on Jesus' command to love and forgive our enemies, for example, I have been told on more than one occasion that I only believe that stuff because I'm a "liberal."  That assumption has then been used to accuse me of believing many other things which I don't support. 

Many Christians avoid sharing their faith because they fear the response someone might give if they start talking about "religion".  But in his conversation with the woman, Jesus didn't bring up religion at all.  He talked about water and about her family, but not once did he mention church or sin or heaven or hell or any of those other topics we are so uncomfortable bringing up.

It is the woman who brings up both religion and politics, and particularly the hot-button issues that most strongly divided the Jews and the Samaritans.  I'm not convinced she brings it up as a serious inquiry.  She may genuinely have a religious question about the appropriate place to worship, but in this context, it feels more like a distraction.

She doesn't want to talk about her life.  The conversation has gotten too personal.  Solution... let's talk about something else, and not just anything else, but something that will surely offend this Jewish rabbi so much that maybe, just maybe, he'll leave me alone.  Better to get him arguing about where to worship than to let him see me cry over my miserable life.

I have been in more than my share of conversations where a person threw out every theological dilemma they could think of, from the problem of evil to evolution to the hypocrisy of Christians to the beliefs of other religions, etc., just to make it clear why they would never come to church.  The more I can provide "satisfactory scholarly answers," the more irritated they get, until they finally run out of excuses and quickly end the conversation.

They were never really looking for answers.  They just didn't want to talk about the deeper issues.

What if we were more concerned with the heart and soul of a person than about defending our beliefs?

What if we focused less on where people should worship and more on the presence of God already there in our midst?

What if the Spirit of Truth was already speaking into our conversations, just waiting to be heard?