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Church Hopping

Just came across this interesting blog called Church Hopping.  The tagline reads: "Documenting the Adventures of Two Agnostic Church Hoppers."  From what I can gather this is a sister-brother team (and occasionally a few friends) who visit a different church each week and then blog about their experience.  I think it's great they are taking this journey and an interesting read for those of us in ministry.  I'm sure there are quite a few things we could learn from this duo.

Random Stuff

Spent the past week at the Exponential Conference in Orlando.  I'm in a bit of a blogging rut so here are some random things about my week that don't warrant an entire post on their own...

• I saw the Detroit Pistons on Thursday.  Not at a game, at the mall.  We went to have lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and when I looked out the window next to our table I saw Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince talking to some of their pals.  If only I liked the Pistons.
• Due to some scheduling mishaps, I got to pick up Nancy Beach at the airport and drive her to the conference for her session.  Nancy has led the Creative Arts ministry at Willow Creek for many years.  I really enjoyed chatting with her for 30 minutes or so.  You can tell she's the real deal.
• I asked God to give me one thing at the conference he wanted me to pay attention to and he did through Wayne Cordeiro's talk.  It simply reminded me that the most important thing in ministry is a having a heart intimately connected to God.  OK, this point might warrant its own post.
• I hate automatic flush toilets.  They are the worst modern invention I can think of.  They never flush at the right time.  They irritate me.
• Got to spend some time with my friends Erika and Phil Huenke and my cousins Mark and Heidi Cahill while I was in town.  Always great to connect with people you don't get to see very often.
• Every time I travel with my CCC co-workers I'm reminded what an incredible opportunity and blessing it is to get to work and play with this fabulous group of people.  I can imagine myself attached to them and the mission God's given us for the rest of my life.
• 85 degree weather is nicer than 45 degree weather.

Fighting Jackaway

For all you CCC staffers...  Here is a bit of video from the Exponential Conference.  Josh Jackaway (purple gloves) is trying to win about $5000 in free stuff for the Kansas City church plant.  Yes, he's fighting in front of about 1800 people.  Unfortunately, Josh lost the bout, but he gave a valiant effort!

Forgetting

"Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."  Philippians 3:13b-14

I've been thinking a lot about these verses over the past few days.  I love the freedom they express.  They communicate that it is possible to break free from the past.  They suggest a deliberate decision of the will to look forward...to set one's heart, mind, energy, effort, and hope on the future.  They promise that what we hope for lies ahead not behind.

It's a tricky thing, forgetting the past.  Whether the past holds a painful memory, a stupid mistake, or something wonderful that's been lost to us...it can be hard to forget.  I tend to be a person that lives far more in the future than the past, but at times I discover a thread of the past still fastened tightly around my heart.  As it yanks on me, it stings.  Sometimes the pull feels like regret, sometimes pain, and sometimes simply sadness.

But Paul suggests we have a choice.  A choice to look ahead.  Forgetting is not an act of the mind as if we could really erase memories from our recollection.  Forgetting is an act of the will.  When we choose to look forward, we forget.  When we choose to press on, we forget.  When we follow the voice that is calling us, we forget.

I want to live in the freedom of forgetfulness. 

Measuring Time

I've noticed something about the way I measure time.  Sure there are the standard increments of hours, days, weeks, months, and years.  But I'm talking about something different.  I think we all have cyclical markers that seem to communicate something to us about the passing of time.  Markers can be major events that pop up once a year like birthdays or Christmas.  Or they can be part of a regular routine like garbage collection day or going to church.  These markers seem to mark the beginning and end of something.  They communicate a message to us about time...specifically the nature of the time we've spent in between them.  Sometimes these markers seem long in coming which gives us the feeling that time is moving slow.  Often these markers pop up unexpected creating the sense that time is moving faster than we've accounted for. 

For me, time is measured in haircuts. 

I pretty much get a haircut every 4 weeks to the day and I always find myself having one of two thoughts as I'm driving to the salon.  Either, "My bangs are driving me nuts...I thought this appointment would never come," or "I can't believe it's time for a haircut already...I feel like I was just there."  The 4 week time increment never changes, but my experience of it does.

It bothers me that lately my haircuts feel like they are coming every 2 weeks.  I know they aren't.  The calendar tells me it's been 4.  But it feels like 2.  It bothers me because I know this sense is indicative of the fact that I'm always rushing.  And when I'm rushing I don't think I'm completely available to the present moment.  And I want to be the kind of person who is alive in the now.

It's making me want to create more margin in my life.  More time to be unplugged, to think, to have mindless fun.  More space to let my bangs grow long. 

Riverdance

My mom is in town for the Easter weekend.  My dad's been in Germany for the past week and a half visiting his relatives there so I flew my mom out here for Easter.  Yesterday I picked her up from the airport and we went downtown to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!) and then went to see Riverdance in the historic Auditorium Theatre.  I love being in old, impressive buildings.  This one was built in the 1880's.  I'd never seen Riverdance before and it was quite impressive.  For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about Stephanie Henry though.

"Jesus is Coming"

I just love it when God shows up.  I feel like I'm seeing such clear evidence of his working in one area of my job right now.  About 4 months ago I took on a new challenge at work which was, quite frankly,  overwhelming.  I stepped in to be the interim Kids' City Director at our largest campus.  It's the kind of challenge I love, but adding it to what already felt like a full plate left my head spinning for most of January and February.

One day in early March I was feeling the weight of the responsibility when I felt God whisper these words to my soul: "Jesus is coming."  I wrote about that experience in a previous post.  In that moment I knew everything was going to be alright.  Jesus was going to show up.  We just had to wait for him.

And I can see him now.

You may have to be in children's ministry to fully appreciate this, but over the past month 18 people have stepped up to join our Kids' City team and we have another 5 we're following up with.  I've specifically been focusing on building the teams for our Saturday night services and 11 of those 18 have joined our Saturday night teams where we desperately needed them.  We've had a huge void in the senior leadership of our ministry at this campus...a role called Service Coordinator...and this month we have 2 top-notch people stepping into those crucial roles on Saturday night.  They are going to be dynamite.  I had dinner with one of them tonight and she said, "Thanks for finding me.  This was meant to be."

Watching Jesus show up like this and seeing evidence of his passion working in the people who are joining our team is so encouraging.  My head is still spinning from the pace of life, but everytime I get a glimpse of myself in the mirror I notice I am smiling.  I love being on the front lines of what God is doing...so much so that a couple weeks ago we decided to remove the "interim" from my title.  Like those other 18 people, I don't want to miss out on what God is doing here.

SIDE NOTE:  We do have an opening on our children's ministry staff.  It's a newly created position called Director of Curriculum and Training.  You can read about the position on churchstaffing.com.  If you know anyone who might be interested, send them our way!