Coming Alive

3-02-08

That’s the date!  Book it.  The Patio is having the first official Sunday morning worship gathering that day.  We’ve come a long way baby!  There is still a lot we will need. 

Volunteers – Supplies – Encouragement – A few more churches to jump on board with us – $$$$ – and some things I’m sure haven’t even occurred to me yet.

The waiting game can be hard.  But man, those of you who have been with us are CHAMPS!  I haven’t heard one complaint in the last year about the process we are going through.  I can’t tell you how much that rocks.  At church conferences pastors brag about their numbers…I’ll brag about your commitment! 

3-02-08

It’s not too late!   How can you help?

Too much of life is lived fearing the consequences of our actions.  Sure I don’t promote blindfolding yourself and rollerblading down I-40, but there is a big difference between responsibility and cowardice.  Responsibility looks both ways before crossing a street, but cowardice paralyzes would be heros from saving some kid about to be hit by a car.  Point being, there is a time in life that its best not to look both ways. 

My brother in law is a thrill seeking nut!  Since I have known him he has broken his nose kayaking, repelled down the 9 floors of his college dorm, and torn his acl doing something that we still don’t know the whole story of.  This dude is having some fun with life.  Most of the time I am really inspired by Karey, but sometimes I can feel myself condescendingly thinking how irresponsible that lifestyle is. 

Boring lives are always tearing down thrilling lives!  I bet the soldiers sent home by Gideon were telling everyone who would listen how irresponsible he was being. 
“That Gideon is going to hurt more people than just himself”
“That Gideon is so arrogant to think he can lead an army with his background”
“You know, the person I am really worried for is Gideon’s wife”
“Calling is great, but what he really needs is some leadership training”

“We should get all the other tribes together and talk some more about Gideon…you know, since we aren’t too busy trying to follow God or anything”

Training, logic, manpower, mentors, and education are all awesome tools!  I love that we live in an age where so much is available for us.  Really there is no excuse for us, as church planters or Christians for that matter, to not take advantage of everything God has provided.  God, however, often times chooses the weak to shame the strong and the foolish to shame the wise.  Don’t be the stupid wise guy telling the foolish guy he can’t do something.  

Our calling, like Gideon’s calling, is both our comfort and our thrill.   We may look irresponsible.  We may not be great leaders all the time.  But we are in the business of following God and trusting Him to make us the men and women we ought to be.

Check out this blog by Perry Noble.  Jason, Will and Stephanie I want you guys to reply to this post with your thoughts. 

Today while I was playing golf with some awesome guys one of them joked about the “Choose your own adventure” books from way back when.  I immidiately remembered a blog that I wrote last October, and made the mental note to come home and read it.  Man, its so encouraging to see where God had me, has me, and is taking me since writing that!  In hindsight it might be kind of cheesy, but it psyches me up so back off.  Anyway, I copied it below:

Choose Your Own Adventure

This blog is about the young adult book series by Edward Packard, “Choose your own adventure”.

If you decide to read this blog, continue below
If you decide to go back, hit the green arrow button at the top left hand of your page

When I was younger I read many of Packard’s books.  They were a lot of fun even though I never found out who killed Harlowe Thrombay nor solved the mystery of the secret room.  Instead I often times found myself getting stabbed in the back or being responsible for the death of one of my partners as the villain learned of my investigation. 

If you would like to continue the trip down memory lane, continue below
If you would like to take the exit ramp now, click the “block buddy” option under my picture on the homepage.

10 year old sleuths everywhere began their crime fighting by making the rookie mistake of starting at the beginning.  All the while you could pick out the real Hardy Boy apprenti by the technique of searching for the desired result and working backwards.  One of Packard’s books was especially troublesome upon realization that the destination of the fantastical island we were searching for was in fact a page that no “path” led to*!   Talk about art imitating life.

At this point the blog will turn serious and spiritual, if you would like to come along, continue below.
If you would like to stay in the kiddie pool, then stick your head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend to be invisible.

Recently Kristan and I were thrust back into Packard’s world of choosing our adventure.  God, opposing forces of logic and “counsel”* called us to church plant.  I sat in my study in my home and travelled from fear to excitement to a weird blend of the two that brought about the commencement of crying* and just knew.  I hate that it started so mystical like, but God has confirmed this call through so much over the past 6 months.  More on this in another blog. 

The beautiful thing about the choice before us is that we are not called to it alone.  Unlike the young adult book series we live within a community of faith and love that calls us to make decisions and journeys together.  So…

If you would like to join Kristan and I on this journey of church planting…  (maybe its not church planting for you.  Maybe its a job, or a relationship, or a commitment to Christ or ministry)…step out on faith now and believe that God is going to do something amazing.
If you would like to play it safe, reject that which flies in the face of logic, and follow the crowd…pick up a new book b/c you arent choosing any adventure at all. 

*The Island of Time (1997) – The page existed for the hero to find the island and live happily ever after, but there was no succession of choices to get there.  This book, possibly the first one some kids ever read, served to send a powerful, and terribly tragic message to the audiance!  Oh well, sono afterwards the internet gained noteriety and nobody read anymore anyway.

*”Counsel” is not in opposition of God of course, however, like the words of Peter to Jesus that earned the response, “get behind me Satan” we sometimes need to reject the words of those who are confident in their opinions.  Wise counsel, from those who know our hearts, has been a great comfort to Kristan and I the past few months (even when we disagree with it).

*Im not really sure of the emotion I felt at this time.  It was a real one though and worth mentioning.