Tonight we celebrated the 5th birthday of Echo Church. As Steve has said, seeing the birth of a congregation and watching it grow is like another child in our lives. Steve posts his thoughts about this endeavor all the time. Now it's my turn!

We had a lot of fun celebrating on 10.10.10. Some great friends came to support us who were there at our very first service. Other visitors came with friends. It was fun to see new faces. And then there were the hard-working, always dependable, set-up and tear-down and bring food and use their talents kind of people who ARE Echo Church. For them, I cannot begin to say thanks enough!

As we got there to begin setting up, three different times I realized I didn't have something we needed. Every single time, I got a text at that very moment from someone who said, "Can I help? What do you need? Yes, I'll bring that." God provides, even in the small ways. And I love knowing there are tons of people at Echo I can count on, call, and they will have my back.

Worship in the stained-glass sanctuary was neat to do again. It made me feel the largeness of God, the largeness of the purpose and responsibility of a church.

What an amazing journey it has been. When it all began, I believed in God, I believed in Steve and Aaron, yet I wondered, "Where do you start? How do you get to be a church?"

Tonight I looked around and thought, "Well, here we are. Somehow, we ARE a church!" It happened, and people have invested in our lives, in the city, in the body of Christ that meets on E. McMillan Street every Sunday night.

Thinking over the five years, they have been the most exciting times of our lives. And seeing the people who have come into our lives through Echo—seeing their talents, their passion for Jesus, their care for us—my heart swells.

How do you get to be a church? You gather. And you pray for people who want to serve Jesus together, who want to live in community together. And when they come, you rejoice and live as the church.

And that's what happened to us.