The happiest season of all...

I am talking, of course, about football season. If you do not share my love, I feel sorry for you... and maybe you feel sorry for me. Anyway, wanted to give everyone a few updates about what is going on, and see what you think.

We met together last Saturday at Tanner and Jessica's place and we had a great time. We had some delicious spaghetti and Dr. Pepper. Then there were some primary things we talked about.

The first is we tossed some names around. It looks like "Refuge Community Church" was the consensus favorite of everyone at the meeting. That isn't set in stone, but I like it and so I think it will be our working name for awhile. There were some other great ideas, and I think we should continue to toss them around, but for now I think Refuge works well. I liked "Levi's table" and "Koinonia" so I was thinking we could find a way to integrate those into ministries at the church. Like maybe we can call seeker Bible studies "Levi's table" or something, and church fellowship times "Koinonia" or something. Anyway, something to think about.

Second, we talked some about leadership in the church. I think most of you have looked some at bylaws, but basically the plan is to do away with committees and elders and whatnot, and just have deacons. I think this will take some red-tape out of it all, and will also help us to be able to have high standards for our leadership. We can talk more about that later.

Then the last big thing we discussed was the fact that we cannot be a church running around aimlessly, trying to fulfill every desire at once. There are a lot of large groups we would really like to reach, such as gay/lesbian, homeless, college students, and single mothers. However, those are pretty different groups. We need to be intentional about which groups we really try to reach first. I think we talked about trying to really reach out to college students and singles at first. If we can somehow help those groups feel needed and wanted, then they will also be good groups to use in ministries to those other groups. This is not set in stone either, but I think we need to beware of trying to do too many good things at once, and sucking at them. For those of you that were there, what do you think or remember?

For the rest of you, what are your thoughts? The proverb of the week: Proverbs 11.2 "When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble."

Colorado crazies!

Haha. I know that's a ridiculous title, but it just popped into my head. Anyway, as most of you know, Robin and I recently decided to just sell and or give away most everything we own. If we can't fit it into our two compact cars, we are gonna get rid of it. So, if you are in need of something, we may be getting rid of it. I have a lot of books, if you guys that are coming this weekend would like to rifle through them and pick some out, they will be free for one night only! We have some furniture, a fairly nice TV, 32" for 100 bucks, and a nice TV stand, one year old originally 200 bucks, now on sale for 50. And some DVDs that I would probably just give away. So let me know if you have been envying our couch or blender or something.

Now that I have shamelessly peddled our stuff on the blog... about the meeting on Saturday. There are a few things I would like us to discuss in some detail, and I may think of a few more before then, but I wanted to give you the head's up now.

Church name: this would make some things easier for all of us, so that instead of just saying Denver, we could say the actual name. There have been some suggestions, and some ideas. Grant likes "Levi's Table" Robin likes "Refuge" I have tossed around "Hesed" (which is the Hebrew word for covenant love) and there are probably some more that I am forgetting. Let me encourage you to really try to think of some original ideas and we can toss some around at the meeting. I would like to try to have a name by January or so.

Leadership: This will be an ongoing discussion, but I think it is something we should try to really get a hold on quickly and work together to have a healthy leadership in our church. This is a place a lot of churches and church starts specifically fail.

Reaching the Lost: We need to come to the table together and try to have a good strategy (I hate the word) for reaching those who do not know Christ. We need to be a church on a mission. In addition to that, we need to be sure that we do not have two hundred different missions going on at the same time. We need to pick a few things, especially at first, and do them well.

Those are the three major things right now, I will have a few more by Saturday. Any thoughts?
Proverbs 15.7 "Better is a little with fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble without it."