Family Ministry

We are trying something new at our church on Wed nights. We are intentionally trying to create environments where moms, dads and kids are TOGETHER. Sometimes it's for worship, sometimes to serve others, other times to just play together. As a dad of young children, this makes sense to me. We all know they grow up fast, but we rarely do much to capture the time we have with them. I want my family time to be much more than an occasional event or vacation. I want a rhythm of quality time together. And I want it for other parents as well...even if they don't see the need for it.

Tonight was good. It was simple. Families bringing and preparing gifts for the teachers who teach in the school near our church building. It's worth it for the time with our kids, and it's worth it for application of thinking outside of ourselves. It's one thing to talk about blessing others, and it's another thing to do it.

College Ministry Restart

The last few weeks have had me working hard on resurrecting the college ministry at our church. One of the coolest things about that has been working with a great team of like-minded leaders. The picture to the right of this is some of our team meeting students out at LSU. I'm excited to see how God is going to work through all of us.

Smack

We recently went on a trip to Destin, FL which is about 5 1/2 hours from home. We stayed with some friends who have a great house there with really tall glass doors that overlook the swimming pool in the back.

Excited to be at the beach and not driving anymore, Michael (my 7 year old son) was running from the back yard back into the house to get his swimsuit, when SMACK, he ran right into one of the very clean glass doors. His excitement turned to tears as his nose bled for the next 45 minutes.

The reality of ministry and the reality of much of life, is that those glass doors seem to pop up all over the place. You get really excited about some really cool things God is doing, and SMACK, excitement gets turned on its head. You run into people who don't understand, who don't care, who can not or will not celebrate with you, who have a vision that doesn't extend past themselves, and the list goes on.

The unseen glass doors are everywhere. They're good in that they make us stronger. Sometimes we even realize that after we stop bleeding. They are dangerous in that they have a tendency to make us hesitate, to run more cautiously. Over time, cautious running debilitates us.

Circle Time

One of the coolest things God has done in our lives is place us on the end of a great street, right off the edge of a cul-de-sac. It's not the place to live if you want to be isolated from others. We've lived here now for a year, and we've gotten to know our neighbors pretty well. Everyone around the circle comes from different backgrounds and belief systems. It is an honor to be here.

We just found out that the circle was leery of a pastor from a Baptist church moving into their midst. No explanation needed. I understand their apprehension completely. Thankfully, we were all able to push past all of that and good friendships and trust developed.

Last night, we had what is called "circle time", where some from the circle gather to talk and lend support to one another. The conversation moved "beneath the surface", and I was asked to answer lots of questions...about God, Christianity, Catholicism, sin, heaven, hell, homosexuality, divorce, the Bible and faith. After much good conversation, our relationships with each other are stronger, and it is evident that God is doing BIG things in our midst.