Coming Alive

Last Saturday I laced up my shoes, did some basic stretches, and ran.  It was like 9pm and kind of cold, but I took off out my door determined to run until my body quit on me. 

3 miles.  40 minutes.  An incredible amount of physical pain.

See, I was inspired by Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians that we should “run in such a way that we might win the race”.  He goes onto to emphasize the importance of preparation rather than running aimlessly or without purpose. 

For the last year or so I don’t think I’ve run for exercise once.  I certainly don’t eat like a runner.  And the idea of long-distance running appeals to me about as much as becoming a vegan.  In short, I was totally unprepared to run 3 miles.  At least I beat the projections!  One guy in my church though I only would make it 2 blocks!  Ouch.

“I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others I might not become disqualified”
- Paul (1 Co. 9:27)

In ministry it’s real easy to get so focused on leading, teaching, creating, and developing the church that personal spiritual health is neglected.  In the race of the faith that we are running together (think “relay” rather than individual competition) I am no good long-term if all I do is train others for the race, but fail to prepare myself. 

Tomorrow I am driving down to Charlotte to pick up some worship equipment donated to us by a guy that I went to seminary with.  This guy is helping us out big time and man am I thankful! 

It’s really easy to dwell on the one or two sources of negative criticism in ministry (everyone has one or two…at least) and forget all the praiseworthy stuff going on -

We have some really great supporters here at The Patio. 
We have some new faces around recently which really brings a great level of excitement.
EVERYONE in our church is a giver!  Seriously now, how many churches can say that?
We have a clear vision from God…we know where we are going – that’s pretty huge!
Jason and Stephanie are insanely good at what they do.
We have a great relationship with the community and the developers.  There are a lot of open doors b/c of it.

I could go on and on.  You could too!  You should by the way.  It’s a lot more spiritually benificial than focusing on the little bit of negative stuff that we deal with from time to time. 

Let me just say that Starmount ROCKS!  They seriously have our backs and just stepped up big time to help out The Patio even more. 

This is the company that handles reservations for the community center in Reedy Fork Ranch.  Unfortunately, due to policy and the amount of people in the Ranch we can’t reserve the community center weekly for our Sunday morning gathering.  However, thanks to God smacking us over the head with an idea, and to the graciousness of Starmount; they are going to allow us to use their information center on Sunday mornings!

It actually can hold more people than the community center, has better acoustics, looks nicer, and is in a more prominent location! 

This is still a temporary fix as we are praying for God to work out something after we launch, but we were getting “snug” in the house.