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."

MISC.

Hey everyone, gosh, its been three weeks, sorry about that. I promise I wasn't just waiting on comments to post a new blog. I turned in my last assignment for seminary yesterday and went to youth camp the week before last, so it has been a little busy, but also I have just been a bit beat down with that stuff and I got a little cold last week. Anyway, I know you all don't set your watches by my blog posts, but I do want to be more consistent.

Those were some great thoughts on the last post though. Jessica, you blogged exactly how you are supposed to. We just want a way we can exchange ideas and that is what you did, so if it feels like rambling, you are probably doing it right. And I know exactly how you feel about serving somewhere when you feel called elsewhere later, it is tough. And I really agree with you about helping young couples to strengthen their relationships. I would really love to have regular marriage retreats at our church. I think it will be really good for those of us who are still young and will also help older couples to strengthen relationships.

Tanner, I really like the way you are thinking about things like that. I hope we can have some "seeker Bible studies" at some point. Right now I am kind of thinking of having one once a month. Andy told me there is a really good book about them so I think I will try to find it soon and work on that. It would be a really good ministry in Boulder, I agree with you on that. I also think finding a way to serve the homeless would be really great.

Bethany, I hope you are feeling better. I think the part about habit is true in a lot of our lives. I get comfortable doing the same thing every day, and then when I know I want and need change it gets tough sometimes. Also, I am really excited you have friends that may think about coming too. Especially if one is a musician. I have been praying that God will send us a musician soon, because it would be really good to have one or two around....

Anyway, I met with Dr. Cook and we talked some about our training plan. He said it was really ambitious, but we may want to extend the time period. I agree with that. I think we can get overwhelmed because I put a lot in there. If you haven't had a chance to look it over, just let me know and I will email it to you. If there is something you want to add in, just let me know. Some things I really want to do is to think through some issues well in advance so that we won't be surprised or caught off guard if and when they occur, so if you think of somethings, post em on here.

I have also talked with Andy quite a bit about focusing really hard on the first few months when Robin and I move. I really want to try to get a core group of native Denver people to join our vision when we get there, so I think it will be really important for us to work hard when we move and find connections with people. If we could have 15-20 people in addition to you guys who will be moving next summer, then I think we would have a really great beginning core of people. So pray for that. There are also some people that I have talked to who are thinking about coming and are not sure. Pray that God will guide all those who are considering it. I think it would be wonderful if all the people I have talked to come, but I also know if they are not passionate about this, then they could be miserable. And the last thing I would ask you all to pray for is some church to give us their old facilities. I am praying that either a church has outgrown facilities and will be moving, or that the church is dying and wants to give their facilities to a new work of God in the area.

I hope you are all getting some good rest and doing some good reading. I would recommend "They like Jesus but not the Church" if you don't have anything right now. Great book. Let me know if you need anything, and if you have any thoughts on this stuff.

Is this thing on?

Seriously, where is everyone? Well, last week I put together a tentative core training plan. Sounds kind of intense, but I don't think it will be. I think it should be a really good time for us to sit down as a community and figure out whats going on in our world, what we believe and what we want to do. I plan on us getting into that next fall, 2009. Obviously projections don't always work out, so I know we will have to adjust it.

Last week I read "Sexual Ethics" by Stan Grenz. It wasn't really a delight to read, but it was good. I think his attitudes can really help us to minister to the homosexual community. I was also thinking I want us to have a really strong singles ministry. I think that is a group that is really under-appreciated by many churches today. One thing I have also been thinking through is a ministry to parents that we try to give them time every month or every couple weeks to be by themselves. I know it is hard these days to get that chance, but I think it would really help strengthen marriages and I think that is something I want us to be about as a church.

Basically, I laid out five major purposes that I think we should have as a church. I know these aren't ground breaking, but I think they are the Biblical purposes for the church. Mission is the main one, all the rest fall under it. By mission I mean helping the world to know Christ and helping the church to know him better. Service, worship, community and discipleship are the other four. I think you can see how they fall under mission but are distinct in their own right. I think most would agree that those should be the main purposes of church. What do you guys think? I want us to try to make everything we do be represented by those things. So, something like a parent's night out ministry could fall under community, because the couple is developing community and the kids and the people watching them are developing community. It could also fall under service because it is a service to the families to have a strong marital bond. Anyway, I could go on but you get it. We can express this in another way, that is just the way I am thinking about it right now, hopefully it evolves some and becomes better. You guys have any thoughts on all that?

We are trying to get together in August. Anyone up for that?

Proverb of the week: "Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Proverbs 3.3

August and Everything After

Hey guys, sorry about the delay in updating. I wanted to leave the trip story on a little longer, but then when I planned on updating on Friday, the week caught up to me. Anyway, first thing is first, lets try to have a get-together in August. I have said on facebook that we are good to go for any Friday or Saturday except the 2nd or the 15th. I prefer a Saturday, but if Friday is best for everyone else then that will work. I will have some things to discuss, and we can hopefully make some solid plans at this meeting.

I read "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places," by Eugene Peterson this past week. It was an excellent book, I would highly recommend it. It gets a bit wordy, and it reads more like a sermon than a book, but I would recommend it nonetheless. It is basically saying that Christ plays in each of us that have trusted and decided to follow him. There are three different ways he looks at how Christ plays, in creation, in history and in community. The first two we can observe but not really participate in. Christ playing in community, however, we can have a direct hand in. Part of our job as a church, I believe, is to help people be a part of a community. That community can help them to become what they were born to be. Peterson states the need like this "Life was at stake- their lives, their souls, their souls in community. People can live correctly and behave rightly and worship politely and still live badly- live anemically, live individualistically self-enclosed lives, live bored and insipid and trivial lives." Hopefully we can help people move beyond trivial lives to lives that matter. Lives that effect the universe, the lives of others. Christ promised we would do greater things than he did, and we can. This is part of my prayer for our church.

I hope you can all join us in August. It should be a good time. Does anyone have anything they need prayer for? I wrote some tentative bylaws/constitution and emailed it to some of you, if you did not get one and would like to look at it, let me know. It is open to change, so don't think that is the only way everything will go. I know it seems a ways off, but we can begin building community here and now, through this blog, through email and facebook. Not ideal, but it is a start. I look forward to eating, drinking and making a difference for the kingdom with all of you. The proverb of the week is Proverbs 18.1 "the one who lives alone is self-indulgent, showing contempt for all who have sound judgment."

4 people, one minivan, 2500 miles and two hotels

We just got back about two hours ago from the road trip. Some idiot (probably me) turned our AC off before we left so it is really hot in here. So since I won't be able to sleep, I figured I would give the rest of you a trip recap while it was fresh on my mind.

We headed out from Waco at about 6 am on Friday. We were pretty worn out, but the new Weezer album kept me company while Robin slept on the way to Bethany's house. We got in there at about 8.30 and after a brief stop at the golden arches for some health food, we were on our way. I took the first shift, because I like to get the worst over with mostly. So I drove us from Dallas to the motherland (Oklahoma City to the layman) where we stopped for a bite of lunch. We all discovered soon that the land between Oklahoma City and Denver is both humongous and desolate, I hate Kansas.

We finally got into Denver at around 10 or so and made our way to our hotel. If it could be called that. Tanner and I went into the Homestead Suite lobby and began the process of checking in. The woman was busy yelling at someone and telling them that she herself had just gotten in and didn't know why her room door was hanging open. I tried to not laugh too much, but it was pretty funny. After the whole ordeal, we finally got to our rooms. There we discovered that instead of a queen sized bed in each room, we had just one double sized bed. This wasn't acceptable, so I called the front desk. The informed me that the beds were queen, and to make a long story short, I spent more than an hour holding on the hotwire phone line and we moved on to a motel 6, they left the light on for us.

As we began checking in at the motel 6, by this time it was at least midnight, maybe closer to 1 am, the police showed up. The clerk told us he would be right back and proceeded to help the officers, who had showed up just in time apparently. We never found out what happened, but I like to believe we just missed a huge gang fight. Anyway, we finally got to bed late that night, and ended up in a bad hotel thanks to hotwire and my not double checking everything. Note to all of us, be sure to always double check everything.

The next day I woke up a few hours before everyone else because I am such a poor sleeper, so I took the opportunity to drive around a bit. Let me tell you all, the town is beautiful. Just being able to look at the mountains directly ahead of you as you drive down streets is wonderful. The grass was green on each side and a blue bird perched on my shoulder as I drank my coffee, except the part about the blue bird. Anyway, everyone eventually got up and we set about exploring our future home.

The first thing I noticed was how many people just hang out outside during their Saturday mornings. People were bicycling, running, and walking dogs. The first part of our trip was to just look around downtown. We saw the art museum, looked at all the cool architecture, and ate at a cool Philly Cheesesteak place Tanner suggested. It was delicious.

After lunch we decided to go check out the mountains, we drove around and found a little town called Golden just to the West of Denver. Golden was a quaint little town with wonderful architecture and a Coors plant. So we decided that since we were going to plant a church here, we had to take a tour of the Coors plant. It was pretty fascinating actually. They offered us free beer, but we didn't have much. We were all pretty worn out after this, so we went to dinner and then to a coffee shop and chilled for the evening. Tanner and I watched some crazy movie with the Rock and I played my DS.

The next day we started by going to the Red Rocks amphitheatre. This was the coolest part of the trip to me. Willie Nelson apparently prefers this venue to all others in the world, and I can see why. We stayed there awhile, and ton of crazies were there running the stairs and stuff, pretty hardcore since we were all wiped out from walking up once.... Anyway, we eventually got some lunch and went downtown again. This time we checked out the 16th street mall, which was also huge. So big they have a bus that takes people back and forth. This was only after a parking machine stole Tanner's money, it hated Texans...

We ate at a really cool diner and then headed to Boulder. Boulder was really cool. It is full of young people and life. They were having a Jewish festival in the downtown at the time, so I enjoyed seeing the Hebrew shirts etc. This will be a great place for us to hang out, meet people and stuff like that. Then a man from the "Truthians" gave Tanner a brochure about why Jesus is Satan, and I almost talked to him about it all, but really decided against it. Maybe once I live there I can meet some Truthians... Anyway, we headed to the hotel before dinner again.

We got up at 5.15 this morning and headed out. Now I am worn out, as I am sure anyone who tried to read all of that is. I will post pictures soon. Those of you who came, please add your impressions, etc.

The Challenge of Jesus

This past week I read a book called "The Challenge of Jesus" by NT Wright. Basically it was all about how we can affirm who Jesus was an is in our post-modern world. Wright does a very good job of being balanced. He affirms that we should and can affirm the historicity of Jesus Christ, but also that we have to contextualize the story as we retell it. It cannot look the same in every culture.

I don't have a ton to say about all that, maybe because I'm pretty worn out right now. But I did want to check in. Bethany, Robin, Tanner and I are going to Denver this coming weekend. I am really pumped about it. I will give you all updates as we get back. I will post sometime this week before we go. Then pretty soon I will email my book reviews and the other stuff I have been working on. Peace upon you all. Pray for great things.