tammymelchien.com

Caravaggio

Special treat today. My friend, Jo, and I went to Chicago to see a special exhibit of Carvaggio's paintings. Actually they were digital recreations of his paintings that were displayed with backlighting. Pretty cool. A few years ago when Jo was a missionary in Ethiopia, we had the chance to meet in Rome and spent a week together as the ultimate tourists.

I fell in love with Caravaggio's Biblical paintings while we were there. The realism and dramatic lighting are stunning. Some of my favorites ('The Calling of St. Matthew', 'The Conversion of Saul') were not in the exhibit, but there were definitely enough cool ones to satisfy.

If you're in downtown Chicago anytime before February 11th, the display at the Loyala University Museum of Art located right next to the Watertower is worth the $6 admission.

Work Redeemed

Do you love what you do for a living? I mentioned a couple posts ago that this week someone asked me what I do for fun and the first word that came to my mind was "work." Today I read a post written by our church's lead pastor, Dave. He's writing a series of posts on the secrets of great leadership teams and in today's post he talked about how much fun great teams have working together. He said he can't tell the difference between working and playing...they feel the same when you are part of a great leadership team.

I commented: "So is it OK then that when I think of 'fun' I think of 'work?'" I just love Dave's reply:

"I not only think it is ok, I think it is a glimpse of eternity and God redeeming work to the way he originally dreamed it would be - purposeful and enjoyable! Part of the curse of the fall was that our work would not be fun, but painful - "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground." (Genesis 3:17ff) You and I are experiencing a part of God's redemptive work in our jobs!!"

I've never thought about the joy and satisfaction I feel in my job being part of God's redemptive work. I usually think of it as evidence of his goodness...a blessing to enjoy here on earth. I think it is that, but through Dave's words I began to see it as more. A glimpse of eternity. A fraction of the passion and purpose and pleasure that we'll one day know in full. I hope at some point in your life you get to experience this redemptive work in your occupation if you aren't already.

Some of the CCC staff performing our version of the Superbowl Shuffle.

(I hear #35 really had some moves.)

Down Time

See what some down time over Christmas can do? I'm teaching myself some basic HTML (thanks, Shawanda, for getting me started). New templates for blogger and myspace! Merry Christmas!

Narnia

Rarely do I ever like the movie more than the book. This was an exception. Have you all seen this flick? I took Andrew to see it this afternoon, and I think if he hadn't been with me I would have cried like a baby. I knew the story, but I was so moved by the storytelling.

I have to say that I think I'm one of the only Christians I know who didn't like 'The Passion of the Christ' movie. I won't go into the reasons here even though I know some of you are ready to slap me. But today I experienced a bit of worship in a movie theater. Today my spirit connected with something enriching. I'm glad they made this film.

Reflection

Christmas always puts me in a reflective mood. It seems like a good time to step back and take a breath and think back in order to prepare for thinking forward. I usually take time over the Christmas holiday to read through the past year's journals. I think about the goals I had for this year and whether or not I took steps in their direction. And I think about themes. What strands seem to be running through life pretty consistently?

One strand...I am so in love with God. I can't get over how amazing he is. I can't get enough of him. He is everything...don't you agree? No matter how life evolves, "home" is always a quiet place with him.

Another strand...forming and chasing a vision is a blast. Someone asked me this week what I do for fun and the first word that came to my mind was "work." Is that pathetic? Maybe it sounds so, but I'm having the time of my life.

A third strand...I am surrounded by amazing people. There are friends who have been so good to me...far better than I've deserved. There are co-workers who challenge, inspire, and teach me every day. And I've fallen in love with people this year that I never would have expected to become close friends...slowly God is growing my heart.

Those seem to be the major themes for me in 2005. Looking back I realize it has been a great year...a year of blessing. I'd love to hear what your strands looked like this past year. Have you identified any?

Not Cool

I'm having one of those moments when I suddenly realize I'm no longer cool. I've been browsing through a series of hyperlinks in the blog world finding more and more sites of people I know. Most are former campus ministry students who are now in their mid-to-late 20's. I love catching up on pieces of their lives and trying to deduce how they have changed and how they have remained the same since I last knew them.

What has struck me is how different I feel than their worlds. I don't know most of the bands they rave about. I never attend parties that start at 11pm. I can't think of the last time I took a road trip just for the heck of it.

I was starting to fret over it until I realized... I'm not sure I ever was cool. So now that I realize there's no love lost I'll go off on my merry way. Tonight I get to tell an auditorium full of kids and their parents about the wise men. It will be a rush that suits me just fine.

Andrew

My 10-year-old nephew Andrew is getting baptized tomorrow. I hate that I have to miss it, but I am so proud of him. My heart longs to see him grow up to be a man who passionately pursues God. This is a piece in that journey.

Andrew and I have always had a very special relationship. To this day when I go home for a visit you can always find him cuddled up next to me on the couch. We have plans next week to have our annual "Aunt Tammy-Andrew dinner date" (a.k.a. McDonald's and a movie). I love this boy so much.

Some updated pictures...

FamJam Update

Great responses from families to this new service. I think people loved it. I was pretty happy about the way it came together although there are definitely things I'd want to do different next time.

The attendance was good considering we had a snowstorm about an hour before the service and driving conditions were horrible. About 225 people came. The coolest part was quite a few were not from our church...we'd advertised to the surrounding apartment complex and to the families who had participated in a soccer league we held this past fall and some of them came. The Campus Pastor and the Campus Children's Director both told me they had conversations with families who said they wanted to start coming to our church after their experience at FamJam. Helping people find their way back to God. That's what it's all about.

I loved getting to do the 10 minute teaching moment. Of course I aimed it at the kids so I started off talking about how much I loved Christmas. I said, "I love Christmas cookies and bright lights and holiday parties. But I bet one of my favorite parts of Christmas is also one of your favorite parts of Christmas. I LOVE PRESENTS! Do you guys love presents?" I was unprepared for the overwhelming shout of "YES!!!!" that I received. It was one of those great moments for a speaker when you realize your audience is fully engaged and it is going to be a blast walking through the next few minutes of your talk. I loved it.

Still, I'm not sure it got us over the vision hump I talked about in my last post. I know the people who attended loved it, but I'll be anxious to hear how our staff responds in the days ahead. We're doing a repeat of the service this next Saturday at another of our campuses. This one is going to be a challenge because it comes on the heels of a regular adult service so we won't have the chance to do stage run throughs and mic checks like we did this past week. Everyone is freaked out about how we are going to pull that off which unfortunately probably kept people from seeing this one with vision eyes. Most of the lead team of our church should be there this Saturday though. I only want to move forward if God impresses on their hearts that it is something we should do. I know FamJam has potential to catalyze spiritual growth and campus reproduction. But I really think we need to pour our energy into the BEST things...the things we feel have the BEST potential to catalyze spiritual growth and campus reproduction. Is FamJam one of those best things? I think it could be. But I'm feeling the need for God to confirm that. I'm trusting God to make that clear one way or the other.

Simmering Vision

Tomorrow feels like a big day to me. We're trying something new tomorrow called 'FamJam.' It is our first attempt at creating a worship service that is designed for the whole family to attend. It is kid-geared but should be engaging for parents as well. The vision behind the service is two-fold... 1) Create a shared family experience that will generate spiritual conversations and motivate families to take "next steps" in their spiritual formation. We want to create those "riding home from the movie" conversations just instead of talking about The Incredibles or Shrek families will talk about God and how they can better follow Jesus. 2) Create an experience that people will want to invite their unchurched friends to. This service is going to be fast-paced and fun (There are 15 elements in the 50-minute long service). The fact that it is kid and family focused might make it less threatening for an unchurched family than coming to a regular service. We think FamJam could become a key first-step for families to enter into the community of the church.

It has been crazy and chaotic and a bit exhausting putting this thing together but I have no doubt we'll pull it off well tomorrow. It doesn't really feel big to me because of the event. It feels big to me because of the vision. Some of us have been feeling so burdened over this past year to leverage the inherent influence in a family to further the spiritual formation of all of its members (kids, students, and parents). I believe the key to growing up kids and students who love Jesus and follow him relentlessly lies in equipping their parents to guide the spiritual formation of their young hearts. I believe a key to growth and next steps in a parent's life lies in taking responsibility for the spiritual formation of their children. The teacher always learns and grows in the process of teaching.

So tomorrow feels big because I think it has potential to get us over a critical hump. Every vision comes with a cost...time, energy, skill, extra work, inconvenience. The people it will take to pull of future FamJams don't need more to do. But when a vision ignites the cost gets lost in the opportunity. My prayer is if this vision really is what God is leading us to that it will boil over in the hearts of our staff and attenders.

Napping

I did something today I've never done before. I left work early to come home and take a nap. It was a sweet 40 minutes that returned me to normal. I can handle one 12-14 hour work day no problem but the past 2 days I managed to string 2 in a row. Couple that with waking up this morning at 5:30am and not being about to go back to sleep and I was done at about 3pm this afternoon. So I drove home and took a nap.

Just thought I'd share because for some strange reason sometimes we need "permission" to slow down. Do you need a nap? I say go for it!