August 3, 2008, marks the final meeting of the West Campus at McAnally Intermediate School. Thank you to each of you who have been a part of the West Campus and to those of you who have taken the time to read and make comments on this blog.
If you’d like to continue the conversation, Kyle plans to continue blogging at kylesrandom.com.
This has been a very emotional week. On the way to church in the morning, I got a call from my dad, letting me know that Grandmomma (my mom’s mother) had a massive heart attack and a stroke. So on top of the gut-wrenching heaviness of working through what’s happening on the West Campus, I also had great concern for the well being of my Grandma.
Regarding my Grandma: The last week has mostly been spent at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock. It’s been a good time - visiting with family and providing care to my Grandma - and we’ve had a bunch of laughs. My Grandmomma is one of my heroes, and she’s also quite a character. Despite the fact that she can barely talk now, and half of her body isn’t able to move yet, the hospital room has been full of joy, laughter, and hope.
Regarding the West Campus: These past two years have been a dream. Things haven’t been perfect, and we’ve come against many challenges, but this has been the greatest ministry experience I’ve ever been a part of. Despite the fact that this congregation didn’t grow like we all hoped it would, we’ve all been changed. I’ll never see ministry, church, fellowship, and discipleship the same again.
I couldn’t be more proud of the West Campus congregation. People have served with faithfulness and excellence, and they’ve put their hearts into this, letting it all be an act of worship. What a privilege it has been to pastor and lead this congregation!
I desire authenticity in my life, and I tend to be pretty transparent, but I hesitate to post this because it is so raw and real in my life right now. It is a post from LifeChurch’s Swerve Blog:
Do you truly want to make a difference in this world? Do you want generations to be different because you knew Christ? Do you want to lead a church that will impact your city, state, and the world? Do you want your preaching to awaken dormant spirits, stir complacent hearts, convict wayward sinners?
Then pray this prayer: “God, please break me.”
He will.
And when He does, you’ll be ruined-in the best sort of way.
- Your heart will ache for those without Christ.
- You’ll despise spiritual complacency.
- You’ll see the darkness of your heart clearly.
- You’ll be bothered deeply by things you used to easily overlook.
- You’ll cry often and easily.
- You’ll know Jesus more intimately.
“Break us… Oh, Lord! Break us!”
Occasionally I read something that really stirs my heart and my mind. Today it was the following paragraphs:
“The idea of relationships is simply about connecting or more importantly finding a connection. The implication is that we must be proactive—we must find these points of connection and common ground. Then we need to go a step further and bear with one another instead of checking out or running when things get too personal….
Our life depends on being found. You cannot be fully loved if you are not fully known. Your life, and most importantly your relationship with God, hinges on whether you decide to be part of community.”
What do you think? Is the writer correct, or is he overstating the situation? Have you ever been tempted to run from community? Are you still running from community?
For the full context of the quote above and an excellent read, please see My One Word.
It’s amazing how ministry has changed over the past few years. Things like websites, database management, compelling children’s programs, slick marketing, facility management, staff meetings, event planning, and program communication now take up a huge part of the work that happens in the church office.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand the importance of these things and how they are useful in spreading the news of Christ’s kingdom (after all, I am a graphic and website designer), but what’s been bugging me lately is that these things seem to clamor for first priority. It makes me wonder how many churches have been sidetracked from their real focus.
Could it be possible that we can become so busy doing church that we don’t even notice that we’re no longer doing what Christ called us to do? What does that say about our dependence on God?
May God give us grace as we seek to focus on his kingdom instead of our own.
It’s confession time.
Have you ever felt like life is flying by so quickly that you’re just hanging on for dear life? Or, to put it another way, do the pages of your life ever feel like there are no margins? That’s how I feel today, and that’s where I’ve been for a while now. Life at work and at home has become so hurried and frantic that every moment seems like a chore, and I stay up too late at night trying to get things done. Christmas vacation was a nice break, but now I find myself right back in the middle of all the rush.
The worst thing about living this way is that the things that are most important tend to get the least amount of attention. For instance, this week, Keri and I celebrated nine years of marriage, and I’ve been so consumed with everything else, that I didn’t focus any creative attention on her and showing her how much I love her. We went to dinner, saw a movie, and spent some time together, but I didn’t carve out any time to really express my love for her in a lavish way. I hate that.
When life gets this way, I feel like I lose some of my ability to cope. I become more irritable, more distractible, and easily discouraged. The most frustrating part is that, for the most part, I’ve brought this upon myself by the choices I’ve made.
I’ve also discovered that when I operate without margins, the little joys of life - like going to the park with my family or reading a book to my daughter or even reading the Bible - become an unwanted distraction from the tyranny of the urgent. And when joy becomes a distraction, you know you’ve worked yourself into a bad situation.
So in light of the New Year, I’m committing once again to reestablish daily and weekly margins into my life. I recommit to the daily practice of solitude and silence and working towards the elimination of hurry from my life.
Given my personality and current responsibilities, I’m not exactly sure how to get there. Any advice?
And how about you? How are you doing with the margins of your life? What practices have you established to keep things in check?
Those of you who were in attendance this past Sunday know that the morning was anything but normal, and Jordan DeWald, our keyboardist and the wife of our Worship Leader, posted this great post on her blog about the morning.
This is another “I love my church” post…
A little background information on the church I am a part of: we are a regional campus of a church which simply means that we are a part of that church but meet in a different location. We have a live worship team but the sermon is from the pastor of the main campus and it is a video. We are a young group and have been meeting for about a year and a half at a school. Meeting at a school means that we must set up a church every Sunday morning. All of it- chairs, sound system, nursery and children’s rooms, etc. A group of faithful guys meets early every Sunday morning to set it all up and then pretty much the whole congregation helps to take it all down after the service. It has been done that way for each Sunday for the last year and a half. Everything we have is transported to the school in a large box truck.
So begins Sunday’s adventure…
My husband is the worship pastor of the campus. As we were on our way to church early Sunday morning, he gets a call from the campus pastor saying that the truck’s batteries are completely dead. This was at the time the truck should have arrived at the school so that the setup could begin and all would be ready for a proper sound check and in plenty of time for everything to be worked out. The truck not starting means that everything we need to set up for a service will possibly be stuck in a storage spot 30 minutes from the school.Of course there are back up plans. First, the main campus got to work in finding us new batteries. That didn’t work though so they continued to jump the dead batteries, bringing in a larger vehicle to jump it. So, we gathered the main campus’ portable sound system and headed out to the school while the campus pastor began to prepare a sermon in record time. We were still hoping that the batteries would charge but were planning for alternatives, just in case.
This could have been very stressful but that was not the atmosphere we arrived to when we reached the main campus. There was a group that had already been there for almost an hour, waiting to set up. But there was no grumbling, no complaining, just a group of people ready to do whatever needed to be done. We set up what was there and the praise team warmed up with just the guitar. My husband and the campus pastor spoke and decided if they did not get word in the next 10 minutes that the truck was started then they would go to plan B. This meant that they would use a very basic sound setup with a portable system, my husband and his guitar and with the pastor preaching his recently penned sermon. As for the kids, well, God bless the teachers! Soon after that though, they got a phone call that the truck had started and they were making the drive that would still take about 30 minutes.
At 10:25 the truck pulled into the parking lot. Our service begins at 11:00! What happened when the truck arrived was pretty incredible. Everyone who was there immediately went into action unloading and setting up. People who have never helped set up were pulling carts, setting up the children’s rooms, unloading cables and doing whatever needed to be done. One gentleman, who normally vacuums, had already been on his hands and knees to clean the carpet so that we wouldn’t have to wait for the rooms to be vacuumed. I never heard someone say “would you please help us.” There wasn’t a need because everyone participated willingly. It was down to the wire but at 11:00, we were ready to begin! It was unbelievable.
But then again, it was not unbelievable if you know our congregation. I told my husband as we were driving out to the church, not knowing what would happen, that in this kind of event I was so glad to be a part of our congregation because I knew whatever happened would be fine. We have such a great group who are always willing to sacrifice. As everyone was rushing around setting up, the children’s ministry coordinator and I agreed that we were watching the Church in action, as they are supposed to be. I am so grateful to be able to be a part of a church where the congregation has such amazing attitudes. As we were waiting to see what happened with the truck I prayed that in whatever happened God would be glorified in it. I have no doubt that he was. Only he could have allowed us to set up in 30 minutes and for the truck to start when it did. Only he could give a group of people the kind of attitudes that would be so willing to serve and work and do whatever it takes, all with cheerfulness. I believe that the attitude of the group brought him honor and the service was one of worship.
What a great morning!
Thanks, Jordan, for taking the time to write about the morning. You can view Jordan’s blog by going here.
Within two days of this writing, a movie called The Golden Compass will be released in theaters across our nation. As you may be aware, there is much controversy surrounding this movie. I don’t normally take the time to mention movies that I think are problematic (there’s just too many out there), but I want to make an exception here.
My main reason in writing is that from the outside, this movie looks like a great holiday movie for the family – only a bit of fantasy violence, not unlike the first Narnia movie that was released a couple of years ago. That’s simply not the case.
Please know that I have not yet read the books or watched the movie, but I wanted to share a couple of reliable resources that I’ve come across as I’ve researched the topic:
http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=1065
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/fearnotthecompass.html
I love this time of year! The weather is finally beginning to change, and every day feels a little bit like a holiday as we draw near to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Isn’t it weird how the holidays can contain such a striking combination of happiness, joy, pressure, and disappointment? What do you do to help make the holidays a time of celebration and fun rather than a time of stress and frustration? Are there particular traditions your family is involved in? Are there new traditions you’re thinking about trying out for the first time?
For the past several years, we have started a new tradition in the way we exchange gifts. Rather than trying to purchase gifts for every member of both of our families, we now draw names, and each person is secretly paired up with a family member for whom they are responsible to buy gifts. We ask that everyone provide a wish list of items so that we’re not just buying people useless stuff or things they don’t want, and we keep who drew what name a secret until it’s time to exchange gifts. Everyone really seems to enjoy this new approach, and it has removed a large amount of the financial pressure the holidays used to bring.
So what about you? What things do you normally do to celebrate the holidays? Have you heard of any good ideas that you’d like to share with others?
Some of us like to try to stay on the cutting edge of technology, and others of us have a tendency to get dragged along by the technological current. Since I consider myself somewhere in the middle, I thought I’d share a little bit of information that I’ve recently found to be useful.
If you’ve read very many blogs or visited any news sites, you may have noticed a few strange but related words like “RSS”, “Atom”, and “feed” floating around over the past few years. You may have even clicked one of these links only to be taken to a strange looking page. I want to offer a simple explanation of what this feed stuff is all about in hope that you’ll find it useful.
Basically, a feed is a method of getting specific website information (especially blogs and news) to come to you in a variety of ways (to your e-mail, to another website, to a program on your computer, etc.). The major types of feeds include RSS, RDF, Atom, and Feedburner. My preferred method of getting information from these feeds is to have it delivered to my e-mail. So rather than having to check people’s blogs to see if they’ve posted anything new, now I get the information via e-mail whenever they post.
The most flexible option I’ve found is a service called RSSFWD. Another option that’s less flexible but works with Outlook and Outlook Express is called RSS Popper. Either way, you’ll need to copy the feed url address so that you can specify the feed you to which you want to subscribe.
I know it sounds complicated, but it’s really much simpler than it sounds. Basically, copy the link of the feed, paste it into the website when you click on the RSSFWD link, and then enter your e-mail address on the next page.
But here’s the really easy part: I just added a feature on this blog so that all you have to do to subscribe to this feed is to submit your e-mail address in the “subscribe” box on the upper right of this page.
One other noteworthy item: If you want to get the photos included in the post (who wouldn’t?), make sure that you use RSS 2.0 or Atom feeds, not plain RSS, if you have the option.
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