The time for an update on our most recent adventures is long overdue...
God is good, and if you doubt this, open your eyes! The whole universe screams of His beauty and purpose! I cannot but look at a child (much less my own) without knowing of the purity and hope that God has bathed His world in. Truly, "in Him we live and move and have our being!" As my good friend once told me, we can stand in awe of the God who "invented the color green!" How many other beauties and mysteries are the offspring of His genius?
I continue to be an unfit (and yet grateful) recipient of God's goodness.
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God is bringing us to a place where real depth of relationship is beginning to happen.
We just began a weekly men's meeting. I was greatly encouraged by our first meeting. There seems to be a real desire for deep and encouraging brotherhood amongst the men in our group. We decided to read a book together, "Blue Like Jazz," by Donald Miller. I am looking forward with excitement to the next Tuesday evening meeting...
Many of the people in our group have expressed the sentiments that there is something happening in our little community. I know that I see them as people that I want to grow with, as people that I could spend decades with. It is a blessing that God has gathered these people together. I truly feel honored by their presence in my home...
We are truly at a place where a community exists, and is established, beginning to take on a life of its own...
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We are also coming up against the "church culture" thing. Our team just recently had the opportunity to chew through some issues related to the way church is expected to function versus the way God wants it to function...
...the pressure is to "produce results," we have to "get" people. This is not the picture the Bible gives us, however, of effectiveness in God's Kingdom. Our authority is in our relationship to the King. If I do not speak for Him, then my words lack His power. If I do not know Him, then I cannot speak for Him. The indwelling Spirit carries within His very "DNA" the seeds of the Church, therefore we do not have to plant a Church, but simpy live in obedience to Christ, and watch as the Church springs forth. The Church is God's plan for the redemption of the whole of creation, the Church is God's manifest presence on the earth; we don't make it happen, we allow Him to make it happen through us...
The practical side of this is that God is conveying to us simple, deep truths; He is good (1 John 1:5), He is full of love (1 John 4:7-8), He is more concerned with our relationship to Him than with our outward selves (John 15, Matthew 7:15-29), we don't have to pretend to be something we are not, and we don't need to force His hand, He will establish His Kingdom, our part is simply cooperation (Matthew 16:18).*
As disciples, our part is to seek personal knowlege of God, common life with other faithful members of God's house, service to the community around us, and to effectively train others in this same way of life. God's part is to bring these acts of faith to fruition, guiding and correcting us along the way.
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We are transitioning into looking for a new place to live. Tamy and I are planning on buying a house, we are currently looking, and would love your prayers toward where exactly we should be. We are currently right in the middle of everything, and I love being in the middle of the action. However, there are many other neighborhoods we could see ourselves in. Pray that God would place us right where He wants us all...
*Just to reassure everyone, just in case it sounds like we have given up all our efforts at Church planting...
...quite the opposite. It is in knowing Jesus' heart, and in cooperating with Him, that our efforts are guided effectively toward the successful birthing of a new community of disciples. We have not ceased to reach out to those around us, to do so would be to disobey.
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