I love cars. I am completely infatuated with anything that has wheels...not just Ford or Chevy, but everything. A pile of rusted parts on the side of the road is a "classic with potential" in my eyes. So how can it be that a man who deeply loves all things transportation can be in such a constant state of crisis with his vehicles? This doesn't have much to do with our ministry here, except that it proves to be quite a frustrating distration from the task at hand. I'm searching for wisdom on how to solve these problems--especially since they illustrate a principle of balancing/coping with the mundane of life while attempting to dedicate one's existence to something much higher in value and eternal implications.
I have dreams of bringing Christ to people--sharing the hope I have and the vision for God's church I've received. I find myself in the role of leader. My heart is bent on bringing people together in their own circles of influence for the cause of Christ. However, I get this horrible "cut off at the knees" feeling when the greatest obstacle between me and my mission seems to be physically getting the six miles down the hill into town! It has begun to represent to me the paradox of serving a Spirit-God from the confines of the material world. The positive points: I am compelled to be creative, I am forced to look to God for answers to seemingly impossible dilemmas, at every point of provision I experience profound gratitude. The downside: I can't get to town!!! I feel like I'm spending valuable time/energy under a car that has no hope of salvation and only promises to break at the next weak link as soon as I get it back on the road. I am finding it impossible to live on a tight financial budget with the costly repairs.
In conclusion, I feel that all I can do is trust that God has a greater plan for me than isolated shadetree mechanic. I have to submit to the process of allowing God to work in and through me in the midst of the mundane (and enfuriating). I will take the required time prostrate on the pavement scratching my head and express my gratitude to God when yet another solution presents itself. I will ask God to speak through me in spite of the fact that I had to get dropped off at the coffee shop an hour early or ten minutes late with grease under my finger nails and leaves stuck in the back of my hair. I will accept the reality that God does not require these things to fit my standards of order to accomplish what he has in mind on his schedule.
However, it IS raining outside and I still have to crawl under a car! *%^$#*@#!
Friday, October 06, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Sweet Resolution
I've mentioned earlier about the name controversy for CTK. It was difficult for some of the members at CTK Lutheran church to embrace the idea of a CTK Community church moving into Durango. I got calls from several people--my favorite was a woman who said it was a fire hazard to have two churches with the same name because the fire department might not know which place to go to in an emergency.
I called and left a message with the pastor of CTK Lutheran asking if he would be willing to meet with me sometime. Long story short, I went in this week and sat down with Pastor John. The man I met could quite possibly be one of the most gracious and authentic people I have ever met. He was not only supportive of our endeavor, but affirming of our calling and quite willing to share the name. I was impressed with his heart and focus in Durango and imagine that he will be a real resource to us as we begin our work here.
I want to thank those of you who were praying about this specific situation. I am pleased and humbled to see that a situation I thought would be characterized by fear and a "scarcity" mentality was met with grace and generosity. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with God's capacity to do things in ways I could never imagine--especially since, in the words of Han Solo, "I can imagine quite a bit".
I called and left a message with the pastor of CTK Lutheran asking if he would be willing to meet with me sometime. Long story short, I went in this week and sat down with Pastor John. The man I met could quite possibly be one of the most gracious and authentic people I have ever met. He was not only supportive of our endeavor, but affirming of our calling and quite willing to share the name. I was impressed with his heart and focus in Durango and imagine that he will be a real resource to us as we begin our work here.
I want to thank those of you who were praying about this specific situation. I am pleased and humbled to see that a situation I thought would be characterized by fear and a "scarcity" mentality was met with grace and generosity. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with God's capacity to do things in ways I could never imagine--especially since, in the words of Han Solo, "I can imagine quite a bit".
Saturday, September 09, 2006
One person showed up--so, why am I smiling?
I had lunch with Dave Browning, the founder of CTK who is visiting us. We had a conversation about perspective and attitude when it comes to ministry. One way of leading in ministry is to hedge your bets. In this leadership method, you try to anticipate the story God is developing and smooth the road as much as possible by forseeing every contingency or potential interruption and dealing with it ahead of time. I come from a bet-hedging background. I feel immense pressure to anticipate problems and deal with them before they ever become an issue. My natural tendancy is to deal with things as they come--unfortunately I've become convinced that that is the wrong and borderline lazy way of doing business.
Dave and I talked about approaching things differently--his point was that maybe we should allow God's story to unfold as we participate and respond as opposed to trying to "steer" history toward what we guess God is doing. I found this conversation profoundly fascinating and curiously validating. Not only was it validating, but a concept-come-to-life within hours.
I talked to Vi on the phone about a week ago. She was the one person who answered our CTK ad in the paper who wasn't upset about our name. Instead, we had a lengthy (and fairly one-sided) conversation about everything from how political a church should be to why the NIV Bible translation is evil. She promised to be at our information meeting so she could deliver an article on the evils of NIV, but I half hoped she wouldn't show. I never thought (even with all the potential tragic contingencies that kept me up all night all week) that she would be the one and only person to show up to our information meeting last night.
I knew it was her the minute she walked in the door. She had that look of "I'm coming to a meeting, but I have a mission" on her face. She walked directly up to Dave Browning (I guess he looked more like a pastor than anyone in the room) and introduced herself. When all was said and done, without question, we had ourselves an information meeting last night! It was CTK Durango, however, that was being informed. We decided to forego the planned presentation and the ten of us (our team and Vi) sat in a circle.
On the surface, Vi is an abrupt and fairly abrasive person. She talked a lot about all the evil in town and how she hasn't been able to get the church involved. Her vocabulary and methods were what I would expect from a narrow-minded conservative Christian. As we talked, however, I began to realize that Vi has a heart of gold. Better than that, she authentically loves people--all people. When I asked her what she thought should be done with regards to the people she was mentioning (mostly homosexuals and drug dealers), her response was that we should love them, care for them, and most importantly pray for them. My assessment of Vi is that she has Christ's heart for the lost, but all her vocabulary and equipment is all wrong. I came away from last night's meeting with clearer insight and vision for the direction of our church.
We were suspicious from the beginning that information meetings and newspaper ads might not be the best way to bring CTK to the light in Durango. This is a small town driven by word of mouth and a "show me who you are, don't tell me" attitude. I have a feeling it will be the slower (by my preference) relational path to church growth for CTK Durango. In the mean time, I got a kick out of Vi and every person on our team agrees we were exactly where God intended us to be.
Dave and I talked about approaching things differently--his point was that maybe we should allow God's story to unfold as we participate and respond as opposed to trying to "steer" history toward what we guess God is doing. I found this conversation profoundly fascinating and curiously validating. Not only was it validating, but a concept-come-to-life within hours.
I talked to Vi on the phone about a week ago. She was the one person who answered our CTK ad in the paper who wasn't upset about our name. Instead, we had a lengthy (and fairly one-sided) conversation about everything from how political a church should be to why the NIV Bible translation is evil. She promised to be at our information meeting so she could deliver an article on the evils of NIV, but I half hoped she wouldn't show. I never thought (even with all the potential tragic contingencies that kept me up all night all week) that she would be the one and only person to show up to our information meeting last night.
I knew it was her the minute she walked in the door. She had that look of "I'm coming to a meeting, but I have a mission" on her face. She walked directly up to Dave Browning (I guess he looked more like a pastor than anyone in the room) and introduced herself. When all was said and done, without question, we had ourselves an information meeting last night! It was CTK Durango, however, that was being informed. We decided to forego the planned presentation and the ten of us (our team and Vi) sat in a circle.
On the surface, Vi is an abrupt and fairly abrasive person. She talked a lot about all the evil in town and how she hasn't been able to get the church involved. Her vocabulary and methods were what I would expect from a narrow-minded conservative Christian. As we talked, however, I began to realize that Vi has a heart of gold. Better than that, she authentically loves people--all people. When I asked her what she thought should be done with regards to the people she was mentioning (mostly homosexuals and drug dealers), her response was that we should love them, care for them, and most importantly pray for them. My assessment of Vi is that she has Christ's heart for the lost, but all her vocabulary and equipment is all wrong. I came away from last night's meeting with clearer insight and vision for the direction of our church.
We were suspicious from the beginning that information meetings and newspaper ads might not be the best way to bring CTK to the light in Durango. This is a small town driven by word of mouth and a "show me who you are, don't tell me" attitude. I have a feeling it will be the slower (by my preference) relational path to church growth for CTK Durango. In the mean time, I got a kick out of Vi and every person on our team agrees we were exactly where God intended us to be.
Friday, September 08, 2006
A Big Night
Tonight is our first informational meeting for CTK Durango! I am really excited about this moment, even though I have no idea what to expect. I don't know if a ton of people will show up or none--I have plenty of coffee and pens, though! I'm mostly looking forward to an opportunity to communicate our vision for communicating God's good news to people in Durango. I desperately want people in this town to see our heart. I'm anxious to get past name trauma, arguing about what version of the Bible we use, and tracking down sound systems. I cannot wait to see small groups begin to grow and hear stories of people who have been unable to worship God for whatever internal or external reasons and find their place in our community. I'm confident all these things will happen--we just have to get through tonight first!
We've come to this point with interesting opposition. I don't know what to label spiritual opposition or simply life as usual, but it's been an interesting week. Within one 24 hour period this week Jenn's car broke down with a cracked head (the one we just bought three weeks ago to replace the Suburban that broke down three weeks before that), I bought some expensive software that didn't work on my computer and can't be returned, people were telling me I couldn't call the church Christ the King, and Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter) died--not to mention anxiety about tonight's meeting and our difficulties finding a permanent place to meet for church stewing in the back of my mind! Looking at these calamities from this distance, they don't seem unmanageable, but let me tell you, it was heavy load to bear in the moment.
My goal right now is to try and focus all this energy toward being authentic and clear at this meeting tonight. This is what we came to do and it will play itself out one way or another.
Some things I'm excited about this coming week are a couple of meetings with local pastors (no, the CTK Lutheran pastor has not called me back yet) who I've met along the way. One of them is Joe Beckler who was key in our process of moving here--very encouraging and enthusiastic about the potential for ministry in Durango. I am hoping these meetings will be the beginning of solid "other pastor-type" relationships that I am really missing right now.
We've come to this point with interesting opposition. I don't know what to label spiritual opposition or simply life as usual, but it's been an interesting week. Within one 24 hour period this week Jenn's car broke down with a cracked head (the one we just bought three weeks ago to replace the Suburban that broke down three weeks before that), I bought some expensive software that didn't work on my computer and can't be returned, people were telling me I couldn't call the church Christ the King, and Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter) died--not to mention anxiety about tonight's meeting and our difficulties finding a permanent place to meet for church stewing in the back of my mind! Looking at these calamities from this distance, they don't seem unmanageable, but let me tell you, it was heavy load to bear in the moment.
My goal right now is to try and focus all this energy toward being authentic and clear at this meeting tonight. This is what we came to do and it will play itself out one way or another.
Some things I'm excited about this coming week are a couple of meetings with local pastors (no, the CTK Lutheran pastor has not called me back yet) who I've met along the way. One of them is Joe Beckler who was key in our process of moving here--very encouraging and enthusiastic about the potential for ministry in Durango. I am hoping these meetings will be the beginning of solid "other pastor-type" relationships that I am really missing right now.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
What's in a name?
Friday is on the horizon--newspaper ads have been published, I have boxes of coffe mugs in my hallway, our plan has been set--we are anxiously awaiting our opportunity to introduce our new community to Durango. The phone calls and emails are starting to come in...one problem, though...the phone calls and emails I'm receiving are not curious locals, but patrons of another church. Apparently, there is another Christ the King Church in Durango--a Lutheran church. They have been around for 42 years and have built a good reputation as a place of worship as well as making their facility available to the public. I noticed this church in the phone book a year ago and (perhaps naively) decided it would not be that big of a deal--since, we are part of an organization, we don't have a lot of choice in the name selection. If we were operating on our own, I would be more inclined to try and choose a different name for the sake of distinquishing oursleves, but the nature of our organization is that we are a campus (albeit several states away) of Christ the King Community Church in Washington.
The people I have talked to seem nice enough, but extremely concerned that our presence might be confusing to the people of Durango. My initial thoughts are these:
1. I'm pretty sure someone looking for a Lutheran church will find CTK Lutheran church easily in the phone book and be able to distinguish between it and CTK Community church.
2. Someone looking for a facility to rent called Christ the King will find the correct address since we will most likely never have a facility of our own and CTK Lutheran does.
3. I am confident that our basic mode of operation--worship, small groups, and service will not tarnish the reputation of any church--if anything it will enhance the standing of all churches in Durango to have a community of people pouring their lives into any cause which promotes and serves Durango.
4. Reversing roles in my head, if I were to notice a church start up with the name Christ the King I would, in fact, be interested to see that they were interested in "keeping the main the the main thing" in terms of their faith and mission--that settled, I would want to welcome and promote them as much as possible, not pressure them to change their name.
Something I may regret in this process: as naive as I am, I wonder if I still should have forseen this and contacted the pastor of the Lutheran church before hand to, at least, explain who we are and possibly forgoe some of this awkwardness. I plan to contact him now, anyway--I just hope it doesn't amount to too much too late in his/his congregation's eyes.
My worst nightmare is that this would become such an obstacle to our counterparts in Durango that a God-seeking and upstanding church becomes distracted from their mission (one we share, by the way) by the likes of us.
Time will tell. My goal at this point is to do whatever I can to guide this small community of believers in such a way so as to please and delight Christ the King--oh, and Christ the King Lutheran too.
The people I have talked to seem nice enough, but extremely concerned that our presence might be confusing to the people of Durango. My initial thoughts are these:
1. I'm pretty sure someone looking for a Lutheran church will find CTK Lutheran church easily in the phone book and be able to distinguish between it and CTK Community church.
2. Someone looking for a facility to rent called Christ the King will find the correct address since we will most likely never have a facility of our own and CTK Lutheran does.
3. I am confident that our basic mode of operation--worship, small groups, and service will not tarnish the reputation of any church--if anything it will enhance the standing of all churches in Durango to have a community of people pouring their lives into any cause which promotes and serves Durango.
4. Reversing roles in my head, if I were to notice a church start up with the name Christ the King I would, in fact, be interested to see that they were interested in "keeping the main the the main thing" in terms of their faith and mission--that settled, I would want to welcome and promote them as much as possible, not pressure them to change their name.
Something I may regret in this process: as naive as I am, I wonder if I still should have forseen this and contacted the pastor of the Lutheran church before hand to, at least, explain who we are and possibly forgoe some of this awkwardness. I plan to contact him now, anyway--I just hope it doesn't amount to too much too late in his/his congregation's eyes.
My worst nightmare is that this would become such an obstacle to our counterparts in Durango that a God-seeking and upstanding church becomes distracted from their mission (one we share, by the way) by the likes of us.
Time will tell. My goal at this point is to do whatever I can to guide this small community of believers in such a way so as to please and delight Christ the King--oh, and Christ the King Lutheran too.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
September 8th is closing fast!
Life seems to be developing nicely in Durango. Our relaxed "vacation" schedule is coming to an end as we get busier and find more to do. Jenn has taken on the role of assistant cheerleading coach at the high school. She coached at Watsonville High for several years in California and is looking forward to developing a new group of girls here. I have been busy managing the Hummer tour business. I started a couple weeks ago as a part-time driver and now I am answering the phone and working on strategies to finish this season (through October) and prepare for next Spring. The guy who owns the business moved to Utah a year ago and has been trying to manage from a distance. The most exciting part of this job is it's potential for partnership and perhaps eventually a buyout situation. Someday, this would be a good business to own because it requires most of the work during the summer and then the rest of the year is background work developing relationships in the community--I think I would enjoy it and it would work well with the schedule of CTK Durango.
Steve is having a similar experience at the local soccer shop--meeting a ton of people in town and finding himself more of a commodity than he initially thought. The rest of our group are getting established as well...Heidi is generating work with mortgages, Daena got hired in her position of choice working with special needs kids at a local school...even my mom, who doesn't officially move here until mid-September has leads on a couple jobs.
Outside of jobs, CTK itself is developing and growing. We have continued to meet in my living room on Sunday evenings. As our relationships expand, we are finding more and more evidence that this is exactly the kind of church this community is looking for. Joe, Steve, and I have been putting the details together for our information meeting on September 8th. We have chosen our advertising and rented a room in the local recreation center where we will most likely meet on Sundays in the future. Our greatest focus right now is praying for people to come to the information meeting who will want to join small groups. I can't wait to see what happens!
Another bit of exciting news is that we will start meeting at the Rec Center for worship on September 10th. We decided that, by meeting on Sunday mornings we would net a greater amount of families who might not be able to meet in the evenings after bed times. We still intend to create a culture where people feel they have permission to "miss church" when being part of the community and people's lives requires it--sounds great in theory, we'll see how it works out!
This is really exciting! The more people we talk to, the more we hear that what this town really needs is a church who genuinely cares about its community and loves people. It seems that many churches use this "community" vocabulary, but turn out to use community action only as a means of pushing an agenda or promoting their programs as opposed to simply loving people. I desperately want to be different from those churches. I long to see a church that promotes its community, takes care of people, and humbly seeks after God.
Steve is having a similar experience at the local soccer shop--meeting a ton of people in town and finding himself more of a commodity than he initially thought. The rest of our group are getting established as well...Heidi is generating work with mortgages, Daena got hired in her position of choice working with special needs kids at a local school...even my mom, who doesn't officially move here until mid-September has leads on a couple jobs.
Outside of jobs, CTK itself is developing and growing. We have continued to meet in my living room on Sunday evenings. As our relationships expand, we are finding more and more evidence that this is exactly the kind of church this community is looking for. Joe, Steve, and I have been putting the details together for our information meeting on September 8th. We have chosen our advertising and rented a room in the local recreation center where we will most likely meet on Sundays in the future. Our greatest focus right now is praying for people to come to the information meeting who will want to join small groups. I can't wait to see what happens!
Another bit of exciting news is that we will start meeting at the Rec Center for worship on September 10th. We decided that, by meeting on Sunday mornings we would net a greater amount of families who might not be able to meet in the evenings after bed times. We still intend to create a culture where people feel they have permission to "miss church" when being part of the community and people's lives requires it--sounds great in theory, we'll see how it works out!
This is really exciting! The more people we talk to, the more we hear that what this town really needs is a church who genuinely cares about its community and loves people. It seems that many churches use this "community" vocabulary, but turn out to use community action only as a means of pushing an agenda or promoting their programs as opposed to simply loving people. I desperately want to be different from those churches. I long to see a church that promotes its community, takes care of people, and humbly seeks after God.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Pulling Through
Good news! We found a vehicle for Jenn to drive. Our 1996 Cherokee has done so well for us (even with the lift, tires, and endless trail beatings in the mountains of CA and CO) that we decided to buy a 1997 Cherokee for Jennifer. It looks like it will be a good vehicle for her and I've logged enough hours under the hood of this type of Jeep to be able to anticipate or fix the majority of problems that come up.
This week also marks the forming of the first small group of CTK Durango. Heidi has put together a group of professional women she has met over the last few weeks. Jenn (my wife) and Daena (who just moved here from Salinas as well) will be joining Heidi and four or five other women every Wednesday night for dinner. It is so exciting to hear the stories of how each of these women, in their own way, has expressed to Heidi that they have yet to find a place in "church" or have not felt comfortable in churches. These same women are now becoming part of CTK Durango!
Please pray for Heidi and the girls as they befriend women in Durango. Pray that God would give them insight and passion for these new friendships and that these women would come to know a relationship with God.
Another piece of good news--Steve (my partner and our small groups pastor) arrives some time this afternoon. He just finished teaching summer school in Salinas and now we're ready to get started here! We need to find him a place to live and some part-time work.
Ever step of the way, so far, proves to be more exhilirating than the last. I am really looking forward to building some momentum with this church. September 8th will be our information meeting where we invite anyone from the community to join our project in Durango--I am anxious to see who God brings to that meeting, especially in light of all that is happenning already without being advertised or promoted publicly.
This week also marks the forming of the first small group of CTK Durango. Heidi has put together a group of professional women she has met over the last few weeks. Jenn (my wife) and Daena (who just moved here from Salinas as well) will be joining Heidi and four or five other women every Wednesday night for dinner. It is so exciting to hear the stories of how each of these women, in their own way, has expressed to Heidi that they have yet to find a place in "church" or have not felt comfortable in churches. These same women are now becoming part of CTK Durango!
Please pray for Heidi and the girls as they befriend women in Durango. Pray that God would give them insight and passion for these new friendships and that these women would come to know a relationship with God.
Another piece of good news--Steve (my partner and our small groups pastor) arrives some time this afternoon. He just finished teaching summer school in Salinas and now we're ready to get started here! We need to find him a place to live and some part-time work.
Ever step of the way, so far, proves to be more exhilirating than the last. I am really looking forward to building some momentum with this church. September 8th will be our information meeting where we invite anyone from the community to join our project in Durango--I am anxious to see who God brings to that meeting, especially in light of all that is happenning already without being advertised or promoted publicly.
Monday, July 24, 2006
The Road Gets Bumpy
This past week was a tough one. We're still trying to flesh out the details of our finances which is working, but an arduous process for an extreme non-detail person like myself. To add to the financial melee, Jenn's Suburban threw a rod on Thursday requiring a new motor (the one I sold for $200 before we left Salinas because I didn't want to haul it to CO would have worked fine). Friday night, since we were down to one car, I thought I would do a little work on the Jeep so it would be easier for Jenn to drive and I broke more parts trying to fix it--barely getting it together in time to drive to work the next morning. We're trying to keep our composure, but these events have been frustrating to say the least. Church last night was good for me as we are talking about provision and the reality that God's provision does not depend on my capacity to make the right choices so much as it relies on my faith in the God who has put us here and promised to care for his children and his church.
For those of you praying for us, we are trying to figure out how to replace Jenn's car for the moment balancing price and reliability. Mostly, I would appreciate your prayer for our perspective...for grace...for wisdom...for faith.
For those of you praying for us, we are trying to figure out how to replace Jenn's car for the moment balancing price and reliability. Mostly, I would appreciate your prayer for our perspective...for grace...for wisdom...for faith.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Ready to Go!
Well, I'm back in Durango! The time has come to actually do what we came here to do. My first good news is that I got a part time job driving tourists through the mountains in a Hummer. I can't think of a better way to earn money than off-roading in someone else's $100k vehicle! I'm looking forward to learning all the trails around here and getting to know the guys I work with.
Last night CTK Durango met at our house-it was the Daniels, us, and my parents who were visiting (considering a move to Durango). It was the first time I tried to include a teaching and worship element into our meeting (we've been having dinner together and just hanging out so far). It was good. I think we are all feeling a sort of "worship vaccuum" even though we've been visiting churches in the mornings. I enjoyed the time to reflect on God's Word and share with each other.
Last night CTK Durango met at our house-it was the Daniels, us, and my parents who were visiting (considering a move to Durango). It was the first time I tried to include a teaching and worship element into our meeting (we've been having dinner together and just hanging out so far). It was good. I think we are all feeling a sort of "worship vaccuum" even though we've been visiting churches in the mornings. I enjoyed the time to reflect on God's Word and share with each other.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Back from Mexico
I just got back from Mexico. It was a great trip! We finished the house we set out to build and the kids did great. My favorite part of the trip was when I was able to have the students commission Silver (Joe and Heidi's daughter who has been one of my high school students) to our mission in Durango. It was a precious moment to have kids pray for their friend who was moving away to be part of this church. I can't help but wonder what this is all going to look like to Silver and her brothers (and my kids, for that matter) years from now. Church, to them, will be something very different than what I grew up with. I'm so excited to have these young people with us to see what they eventually do with what we are only beginning to build now.
On Wednesday, Silver and I fly out to Durango. I really miss Jenn and the kids who I will not have seen for two weeks and I know Silver is looking forward to seeing her family who she hasn't seen for almost six weeks.
On Wednesday, Silver and I fly out to Durango. I really miss Jenn and the kids who I will not have seen for two weeks and I know Silver is looking forward to seeing her family who she hasn't seen for almost six weeks.
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