Welcome to Better Than We Thought
Welcome to Better Than We Thought. My name is David, and I’m a Fellow Rethinker. Over the years, I have written this blog with varying degrees of consistency. There have been seasons when I wrote faithfully and regularly, and other seasons when months passed without anything new.
But in many ways, the blog itself has reflected my journey.
Since I first began writing, I have been on what I would call a rethinking journey. As my understanding has grown and changed, so has the focus of what I write—and, more than once, the name of the blog itself.
It began with my growing understanding of Ekklesia and the realization that much of what we commonly call “church” looks very different from what I believe Jesus intended His Body to be.
From there, I began to see the Kingdom of God differently. The gospel was not simply about getting people saved so they could someday die and go to heaven. Jesus announced a Kingdom. His followers were called to live as citizens of that Kingdom and to participate in bringing the reality of heaven into the earth.
As I continued to rethink church, I began recognizing how much of the modern church system operates more like an organization or business than a family. Instead of primarily equipping every believer to grow, mature, and fulfill the ministry God has placed within them, much of the system seems designed to sustain the institution itself.
Eventually, my journey moved into what many people call deconstruction.
I still don’t particularly like that word.
My intention was never to destroy my faith. In fact, I believe the opposite has happened. I began questioning things because I wanted to know what was actually true. Some beliefs became stronger. Others changed. Some ideas I once considered unquestionable had to be examined again.
And I discovered that questioning what I had been taught was not the same thing as walking away from Jesus.
In many ways, it has caused me to see Him more clearly.
Through all of this, the name of this blog has changed several times.
At one point it was Unchurching, but that became too narrow.
Then there was a Kingdom-focused title.
Later, Empowering the Saints.
Most recently, it became Dechurching.
Each name described something important I was discovering at the time. But eventually each one began to feel like a box.
And I don’t want this blog to live inside a box anymore.
So today begins another chapter.
Better Than We Thought
The more I have walked this journey, the more I have come to believe something very simple:
God is better than we thought.
His love is better than we thought.
His goodness is better than we thought.
His kindness is better than we thought.
His compassion is better than we thought.
His grace is better than we thought.
His Kingdom is better than we thought.
His provision is better than we thought.
His healing and restoration are better than we thought.
And the good news of Jesus is far better than many of us have ever dared to imagine.
I am beginning to realize how often I have limited God because my thinking about Him was too small.
I limited what I believed He wanted to do in me because I didn’t trust Him for more.
I limited His goodness because I was afraid there might be a catch.
I even limited His love because somewhere inside I wasn’t convinced I was worthy of being loved that much.
But His love was never dependent upon my ability to earn it.
My performance may be less than stellar at times. My understanding may be incomplete. My theology may still need adjusting. I will certainly continue discovering things I didn’t know before.
But His love for me is greater than my performance, my talents, my abilities, my failures, or my understanding.
And that changes everything.
So, partly in an effort to avoid renaming this blog again twelve months from now, I have chosen a name broad enough to allow this journey to continue:
Better Than We Thought.
I may write about reforming churchianity.
I may write about the Kingdom of God.
I may write about deconstruction, reconstruction, and spiritual maturity.
I may write about something I have newly discovered about God’s goodness.
I may challenge a theological idea I have believed for forty years.
I may simply write about Jesus.
I don’t know where this journey will take me.
But I am increasingly convinced of one thing:
Whatever I discover about God, His Kingdom, the gospel, and this life we have been invited into—
it will probably be better than I thought.
Maybe even immeasurably better.