"Well, it's not that I see anything wrong with the church; I just don't like the conventionality of it all. I mean, I feel like I can worship God just as effectively during a walk through the woods on Sunday afternoon as I can sitting in a pew in a building on Sunday mornings. I just think the way we do church is stale and antiquated."

I can often feel the inevitable question. It usually occurs at night when we've finally gotten the children to bed and are left with a few quiet minutes to ourselves, reading or watching television. She will be lightly flipping through one of the seven catalogues that arrived in the mail today when she'll turn to me and say, "What do you think about this color here for our bathroom? Would this be a good one for us?"

There is an odd moment that occurs early on in the book of Genesis, at the creation of all things, actually. For the whole of chapter one, God conducts the symphony of creation, forming glory from nothing by the sheer force of his declared word. With each new explosion of creative wonders, God's summary of his work is simply stated: it was good. But abruptly, just after his creation reaches its apex with a creature made "in his image," God pronounces something to be "not good."