Journey now has a home! Our search for a permanent location was completed today when we signed a lease for a building that is a mix of office and warehouse space.
My feelings are mixed. On one hand, we have a place where we can worship and do many kinds of mission and service work in this world. On the other hand, we have taken another step towards attachment to material things as a driver of our faith. We will inevitably create all kinds of emotional ties to the warehouse. We will call it our own and feel that it somehow makes us more faithful. In the end, it is up to us to remember that warehouse is not imbued with any special mechanism to dispense faith. It is only a tool that God has loaned us for a time to do his work.
Next, we have to make changes to the building to make it 'suitable'. We will try very hard to make this process and its results the minimum possible to serve God's plan for us. We are not here to make this into a monument to ourselves and our pocketbooks, but to make sure the building is capable of fulfilling God's plan. I love Habitat's approach to building: to provide an affordable and well-built home to a deserving family. We would do well to remember this goal in building our own home.
I am asking all of you to join me in a prayer that our community will remember its faithful roots as it moves into the warehouse. That we stay focused on God's plans for the warehouse and not our own. That we use it as his tool.
Only time will tell how faithful we will be to God's purpose.
I will continue to blog this process as it moves forward. It will be an important, valuable, and very public lesson in church and human dynamics. I look forward to others thoughts on the warehouse, its finishout, and its use during the next year or two. It should be interesting!!!!
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Church Structure and ordination thoughts
I should have known that everything would go smoothly. After all the worrying, emails, and last minute discussions, we handed the election of our Minitry leaders and Shepherd's over to God (where it really had always been) and it went so smoothly. It was a reminder to me of my days on the board of the local Habitat for Humanity when we would do the same thing. Discuss, plan, worry, give to it God, and everything works out in perfection.
Now we will see how our leaders learn to trust God. The next year will be a time when our community will probably grow more in its faith then anyone can possibly imagine. It will be an amazing process to see unfold. My own Journey, I suspect, will be very similar as I work toward being ordained in our Church.
The beginning of the discernment process has already shown this to be true. I really started in prayer and contemplation about taking on this process in early December. Through the loss of a young relative, my 10 month old son having surgery, my business slowing down, and all the drama of the by-laws being completed, the warehouse being approved, and the leadership being selected, I have found that the decision to seek ordination has been strong and only grew stronger.
The new year brings new opportunities in business and selection to be a Shepherd of our church community. Along with the normal family pressures, both of these will test my intent. I will have to stay strong in my commitment to prayer, discernment, study, and listening for "God's voice" in my daily life. It is wonderful challenge to have!
To close my first entry, I want to say that I truly look forward to this challenge and the opportunity to step ever deeper into God's vision for this world. I relish the opportunity to speak with and listen to all of you throughout this process. Your input, observations, questions, comments, prayers, etc. are welcome to encourage learning and growth together. I hope that this blog will provide a lens to view more closely the growth of a new church, a new christian, and a new way to view God's work in his/her world.
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Now we will see how our leaders learn to trust God. The next year will be a time when our community will probably grow more in its faith then anyone can possibly imagine. It will be an amazing process to see unfold. My own Journey, I suspect, will be very similar as I work toward being ordained in our Church.
The beginning of the discernment process has already shown this to be true. I really started in prayer and contemplation about taking on this process in early December. Through the loss of a young relative, my 10 month old son having surgery, my business slowing down, and all the drama of the by-laws being completed, the warehouse being approved, and the leadership being selected, I have found that the decision to seek ordination has been strong and only grew stronger.
The new year brings new opportunities in business and selection to be a Shepherd of our church community. Along with the normal family pressures, both of these will test my intent. I will have to stay strong in my commitment to prayer, discernment, study, and listening for "God's voice" in my daily life. It is wonderful challenge to have!
To close my first entry, I want to say that I truly look forward to this challenge and the opportunity to step ever deeper into God's vision for this world. I relish the opportunity to speak with and listen to all of you throughout this process. Your input, observations, questions, comments, prayers, etc. are welcome to encourage learning and growth together. I hope that this blog will provide a lens to view more closely the growth of a new church, a new christian, and a new way to view God's work in his/her world.
With blessings to all, good night and good luck!
Friday, January 13, 2006
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