It would make Jesus Proud

I came back from a trip today – it was a quick trip, just one day. On this particular trip I was scheduled to meet with a couple of pastors at what would be considered a mega – mega church, the name is not important but the behavior of the guys I met with is very important.  First off – I met the senior pastor, just briefly, but we talked and then he was on his way to his next appointment; next I met with the Executive Pastor and one of the other pastors responsible for planting churches and for a myriad of other equally major responsibilities.  My point, which I am scrambling to get to here . . . is that these guys were living what I am praying will happen in the greater church overall.  They don’t fit the “emergent” model, whatever that might be anyway . . . but they were living kindly, appreciately – they treated every person that I saw them come in contact with, with genuine care and love. These folks loved Jesus and you could observe their love from a distance.  It was like a breath of fresh air to be around people who were not “trying” to be something – they just were.  What a group.  I really enjoyed being with these folks today and I learned more in my two hours on their campus by watching them be themselves, than I have anywhere else in the past three months.  This is quite a sad commentary as everywhere I go, there I am, so I am not learning much from myself either.

I am looking forward to being around these folks in the future . . .they invited me to come to a conference that they are holding to speak to pastors about solitude and retreat.  That should be interesting.  It was a fine day indeed.

Community at its Best

Tonight a bunch of people who call themselves Jesus followers met at the Cottage and worked their little tails off helping to set-up tents and stuff for the massive rummage sale that we are having for the Palmers, Canipes and our dear friend Judi.  We have more stuff that you can imagine . . .beautiful like new furniture, DVDs, books on and on it goes.  Everyone came and worked their hearts out to be ready for the opening morning of the sale (Friday).  One of our friends saw that we were running out of space so she and her husband ran off to buy the most amazingly perfect tent one could imagine so that we could house all the stuff that needs to be protected; Brad and Christy, you guys are wonderful.

This whole event reminds me of a book that Palmer gave me on hospitality – the entire evening was a big circle of communal hospitality, everyone worked for the good of the whole and it came together and it is going to be a good thing.  God was so kind to us as well, we needed a dry spell in what has otherwise been a very rainy forecast and that is just what He provided, while we had stuff all over our yard trying to get things organized, everything was dry -no rain.

If you are reading this anytime on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, please pray for good weather and an awesome turnout. We are hoping to outdo last year when we raised $3500 – prayer is the only hope for doing that.

I love this little community of believers who call themselves The Journey – they are doing well – they are being Jesus to a bunch of families and it is a beautiful thing to be part of  – Goodnight and rich blessings to all who helped.