Sunday Mind Dump

This is the Monday afternoon version of the Sunday Mind Dump....so here goes:

• God's really been dealing with me on some things lately. Most of them are personal and need not be mentioned, but know this. It doesn't matter who you are...your journey in growing in God never ends. As soon as you think you have a handle on something, He rocks your world with something new.
• A decent day playing guitar yesterday. My memory has been not the best lately. If this keeps up I think I might get myself a music stand and some charts. I don't like making mistakes like forgetting words I should be singing.
• 242 is making some progress in terms of hammering down it's mission and values. That's a good and much needed thing. Looking forward to continuing working with Scott on building the ministry. Got a few thoughts about things we need to start planning for so we are ready for launching in the spring.
  
• Vacation coming up. It'll be nice to spend a week with the family with no phones or jobs.
  
• Looking forward to Tuesday night. April and I are going up to Detroit to see Hillsong Live. We haven't been to a concert in ages. I love Hillsong's music so this is going to be awesome.
  

I Understand

Many people in the church just can't figure out why the rest of the world doesn't want anything to do with the church. You have to understand, it's not Jesus they dislike, it's most of us. People like Jesus, he modeled love, he modeled compassion. Jesus understood pain in a way we never will. It's not Jesus people don't like. It's you and it's me.

Why don't people like us? Look at your life. How are you living his love? How are you doing meeting people's needs? How are you loving people most of us wouldn't want to go near? My guess is most of us aren't. If you want proof of why people hate the church take the blinders off and try looking at a few of these things for starters:

• What does your facebook page say about you? Are you spewing hate? Are you bad mouthing politicians and people you don't like? Or are you praying for them as the Bible commands.
• Check your wallet. How much of your money is going to help those in need?
• Check your time. How much time are you giving towards helping people?
• Check your friends. When is the last time you had a friend who is hurting over for dinner and conversation with no strings attached?

I could go on. But each of us needs to take a hard look at our lives and ask ourselves if we are living out what we claim we believe. My guess is most of us aren't.

Sunday Mind Dump

• Great day of worship yesterday. The band was tight, the people sang along, God was blessed.
• Looking forward to vacation in a few weeks with the family. I love getting away with the family.
• I am teaching April to play bass. She's doing well!
• Jake is really kicking butt on the drums.
  
• Still praying about what's next for us in ministry terms. I think I have an idea, but usually when I do God rocks my world and something else happens. So we'll see :)
• Loving my new Taylor guitar. Feels great playing it, and it sounds even better!
• We've been broke all summer....That's right, it's college tuition time...Another $8000 bucks sent off to Huntington.
  
• Table for 10 moves to our house this weekend. Looking forward to it.
• Only 3 weeks of summer classes left. I am ready for that to be over with!
  

Summer

This is the first summer in a few years that I have literally had nothing to do (except a couple of classes I am taking!) It's been nice in some ways. I am enjoying the lack of stress and full schedule. It also feels a little weird as I had been so busy for the last few years I just feel like I should be out doing something.

At some point, we'll most likely be back in full-time ministry and my quiet time will be over. Until then we are relaxing and enjoying it. We're enjoying giving back to God through leading worship at 242 Church and we'll see where God leads. April and I have some things to pray about in terms of where God wants us long term. It's been interesting, we've had a few offers to go back to working in ministry over the last few months, some have been tempting but we're just waiting on God.