Once I heard someone really wise say "Once you stop growing, you start dying."
This past week, I've had the opportunity to learn it all over again.
I wish I could tell you that I enjoyed the opportunity, but I did NOT!
Please don't misunderstand... I NEEDED it. I just didn't LIKE it!
The Bible says that if we chasten ourselves, God won't need to chasten us.
Ummm... Note to self: It is MUCH better to chasten yourself!
Now that I'm this side of the chastening, I am certainly thankful for it because God showed me some things deep within myself that I didn't even know were in me.
And it DESPERATELY needs to come out!
Just because we don't see the ugly doesn't mean it's not there (everyone else sees it, you can be sure). It just sits there beneath the surface, eating away at you... And you're totally oblivious.
Until God--in His mercy--opens your eyes to see what He (& everyone else) sees.
And once you know it's there, you can start to learn from it.
And once you start learning, you stop dying & start living.
Never... Stop... Learning... EVER!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
I L-O-V-E Field Trips!!
Sometimes the hardest thing to get somebody to do is think outside their box.
I know that's true for me!
One of the things I love about traveling around the world is experiencing the nuances of a country & a culture that you didn't know existed til you experience it...
...like the call of bald eagles that fills the Alaskan air (I didn't even know bald eagles made noise!)
...or the traffic in Peru (CRAZY!)
...or the size of the cars in Italy (tiny!)
...or the vending machines in Japan (they outnumbered people when I was there in 1991).
Some things just have to be experienced before we even realize that the way we think isn't the only way things are.
One of the challenges that we face as a functioning church trying to re-launch into our community--starting over, basically--is that we are in a "box".
That's not evil or wrong, it's just human.
The challenge is breaking down the walls of a box when we don't even realize there IS a box, much less that we are inside of it.
This is the main reason we stopped having "services" until we launch (more about that here & here).
Today, we took another HUGE step: we leased a bus & took a field trip to Journey Fellowship where their team SHOWED our team what we've been TALKING about for so long!
And it was GREAT! This was EXACTLY what we needed! The walls came crashing down with a resounding thud & an entirely new perspective was burned into the hearts & minds of our folks!
What was most exciting to me as the leader was the way our team talked about their experience today... Their words prove that they see US doing things this way! They said thing like, "We need to do ______ & we need to do it like this: _______."
Our Launch Team is a pretty amazing & creative group of people, so they probably would've gotten to this point sooner or later (in spite of me), but this field trip was like a shot of steroids to our development!
Yes... I L-O-V-E field trips!
I know that's true for me!
One of the things I love about traveling around the world is experiencing the nuances of a country & a culture that you didn't know existed til you experience it...
...like the call of bald eagles that fills the Alaskan air (I didn't even know bald eagles made noise!)
...or the traffic in Peru (CRAZY!)
...or the size of the cars in Italy (tiny!)
...or the vending machines in Japan (they outnumbered people when I was there in 1991).
Some things just have to be experienced before we even realize that the way we think isn't the only way things are.
One of the challenges that we face as a functioning church trying to re-launch into our community--starting over, basically--is that we are in a "box".
That's not evil or wrong, it's just human.
The challenge is breaking down the walls of a box when we don't even realize there IS a box, much less that we are inside of it.
This is the main reason we stopped having "services" until we launch (more about that here & here).
Today, we took another HUGE step: we leased a bus & took a field trip to Journey Fellowship where their team SHOWED our team what we've been TALKING about for so long!
And it was GREAT! This was EXACTLY what we needed! The walls came crashing down with a resounding thud & an entirely new perspective was burned into the hearts & minds of our folks!
What was most exciting to me as the leader was the way our team talked about their experience today... Their words prove that they see US doing things this way! They said thing like, "We need to do ______ & we need to do it like this: _______."
Our Launch Team is a pretty amazing & creative group of people, so they probably would've gotten to this point sooner or later (in spite of me), but this field trip was like a shot of steroids to our development!
Yes... I L-O-V-E field trips!
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