A Snowy Tree Date

Leaza and I went on a date yesterday. Seeing as though it snowed a few more inches the night before, we didn’t have much hope of going too far. Nonetheless, we were determined to check off one of my greatest desires, to cut down our own Christmas tree. So, we suited up in our winter gear and grabbed the chains for the car. Leaza shoveled and I strapped on the chains and we took off for the Woodbury Family Christmas Tree Farm just outside of town. Below you’ll find in picture form our little adventure. Super fun date. Last night, we topped it off with Harry Potter #4, a decent fire, popcorn, and hot chocolate–my fifth of the season.

Also, this past week our team took a 1720 mile jaunt over to Oregon (#ORtour) to visit a few potential plant cities. The trip is certainly worthy of its own post, which I will write and post to our team blog (located to the right under “friends”) this Wednesday, God willing. Gig ‘Em.

Photo Gallery: Our Journey and Home

Here we go slideshow. Sadly, I didn’t get photos with my family. Totally lame. We will do this at Christmas times. Yippee. Maybe you took some more Jody?

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As you know our duplex is teal on the outside, in true south of the border fashion. Leaza worked really hard to make it homey! She did a great job. Then, after that, I built a fire and smoked everything out…oops.

Please continue to pray for our team and our progress, because we don’t know much, but we are excited to learn. Things have started so well, and we are blessed with community. We will begin chewing on some of the overload of information that we gathered from our conference last week and it will surely be a trying, but potentially very fruitful for the health and growth of our future plant.

Again, thank you so much for your love and support.

We love you all.

Lewisville, TX->Moscow, ID (unpack)->Seattle, WA

We made it! Thanks to the help of amazing family and friends. The journey was long and we were sleepy, but we made it from Lewisville to Moscow in three days and two nights! Just in time to see the Rangers close out the Yankees.

The crew up here (Mikey, Laura, Colby, Mackenzie, and D.O.) helped us unload the truck in about 45 minutes and we even got to sleep in our own bed on Friday night. We went to the last farmers market of the season the next morning and are still benefiting from tasty produce! We spent the next 3 days unpacking and fixing up the little things around the house that were either broken or ugly. Then the real work began…

We had a church planting “Basic Training” with our team, that started on Wednesday, October 27th-Saturday October 30th. It lasted from early morning and usually went until after dinner, so needless to say we slept hard. “Basic” is a program put on by the North American Mission Board, SBC, and the Northwest Baptist Convention in conjunction with a few other wild hairs. Therefore, we came into the week with several stereotypes in full working order. We left the weekend with several of those stereotypes broken and feeling convicted by our tendency to judge those we don’t know. Our training with the SBC doesn’t necessarily mean that we will plant with them, but it is a great way to make some connections up here and learn a ton.

The conference was held for about 10 church planting teams, 3 of which were couples and a few that were only attended by one of the planters of a larger team. So, our team of 7 (still missing Blake and Mere!) was at times a bit of a distraction, but that was kind of fun. During the conference we discussed several major themes like prayer, worship, administration, partnerships, small groups, team development, leadership, outreach, etc…

We got the chance to talk for real about vision, values, strategy, discipleship, which was so great. While the days were long and some of the sessions were a struggle, it was still very effective and meaningful for us all. During the week we met several people who totally smashed our foolish stereotypes.

Kinne is a “roper” by the looks of things. Red top Anderson Bean boots, leather belt, Wranglers, and a mustache that is not bad. He is tan and short both in stature and in speech. And, normally I would think, “He’s legit,” but at an SBC church planting conference, automatically, I thought, “he’s gonna be hard core, stuck in his ways, and probably won’t like many of our ideas at all.” Wrong. He was awesome. Kinne is planting a church among Harley riders in Bend, OR. Ha. We got a chance to connect and pray together and I was just blown away by his heart and his desire to know us and to point others to Christ. This was only day 1 of breaking down our immaturity. We had several more just like that. The week was a very defining time for everyone, and we look forward to hashing out a lot of the questions that it stirred up.

We are taking a few more trips this month to scout out some possible plant cities and we’ll be meeting with Resonate staff weekly to discuss our progress.

So much more to say. Leaza and I will be developing and sending out a newsletter this next week, so keep checking your inbox! We can’t thank you enough for your prayers, cards, and support. Y’all are great!

A Lesson from Grandpa

“according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us…”  Eph. 1.7-8

“It’s ‘Big L’ to you little people”  -Grandpa

There are some words that are best defined in story. My Grandpa was a rough man. He preferred coarse things over smooth, and black coffee with grounds in the bottom. He was quick-witted and often demanding, and he didn’t require respect, but by default he commanded it. He experienced more hardship than I’ll ever know, and he saw more working days than my hands will ever know. He was not a rich man by the world’s standards. He lived in a trailer on a little country lake and worked in the oil field until a couple of months before he died. Most of his life he was a prodigal.

My brother, Jody, and I went on our first, unsupervised campout not too long before my 13th birthday. Jody and I had built a little fort (picture a beaver’s dam) in a shallow, empty tank on some property Grandpa’s company owned. We created a city boy’s paradise, complete with a .410 shotgun, more shells than we could ever shoot, and a whole lot of camo. It was getting dark, so we set up our tent (which later caught on fire) and built our fire.

Clad in our camo, we ran up the bank towards the unmistakable, white Mercury Grand Marquis, retro-fitted with air shocks on the rear suspension for pasture clearance and oil field travel. It was Grandpa.

“Boys, why don’t you drag this down the hill towards the nest ya got there.” We opened the cooler and found it full of more groceries than we could eat in a week. Chips and salsa, Dr. Pepper, beef jerky, a couple gallons of water, sausage links, fajita meat, tortillas, cheese, store brand cookies, and tons of other “necessities”.

Grandpa wanted us to know his love. Sure, he hugged us and spoke those words to us, but he knew junior high boys receive love best through guns,”man food,” and freedom. He was always lavish in his giving towards us. He was over-the-top. He gave “in great amounts and without limit”. A synonym for the word lavish is “wasteful”.

The deep meaning of the word is found in the story of the Prodigal son, and this was sewn into Grandpa’s very being, because God was “wasteful” in His grace towards him. I’m so glad God is “wasteful” in His love towards us!

A House Without A Name

Hey everybody. We wanted to let you know that we’ve got one more thing checked off the to-do list. Thanks to the efforts of our comrades, who braved the wilds of awkward realtors and duplex tours, we secured a nice, little duplex. Seriously, we owe you guys. As of October 24th, this will be our little gem of a home for about 9 months. If you have any name suggestions go ahead and comment.

Yes, we know. It’s teal…good thing it’s pretty much Leaza’s favorite color. Also, we are fortunate to get to live above the landlord (we still use this word?), Joyce. She’s nice (so far) and really vibrant. I’m sure there will be more to be told of her in the future. We are anxious to get to know her and we may even get to help her fix up the place a little. We’re consistently in awe, despite the anxiety of leaving, of how God provides and cares. It’s interesting how our brokenness still questions his proved-ness, after so many years of experience. I am not immune to questioning the God who says, “I knit you together inside your mom.” I don’t like this tendency in me. I do like that he’s patient and kind with me!

Levity…

I’m sitting in a Starbucks in Addison, TX. You may know the one on Beltline Road and the Tollway? If I were to guess, this is the one of the highest grossing Starbucks in this area due to the sheer number of suits & ties I see. The tables are full and the line is pretty long. There are deals being made and interviews taking place right here next to me. Drastic changes are taking place in the direction of peoples lives, and I have sat here for a while thinking about how God knows the thoughts of everyone in this place. And, more than that, he’s orchestrated the movements, however indirectly, of all these humans.

I mean, this lady in front of me is trying to figure out how to “right click” on a Mac. These folks behind me are discussing how the highways connect between Dallas and Ft. Worth. Another older dude (who has definitely completed a triathlon in his younger days), is reading on his iPad. Other snippets of conversation deal with retirements, medical sales, and meeting plans for the end of the week. My point is that God knows all these conversations. What is that? He’s nuts!

For me, there is levity in this. When the weight of life bears down on us, we have this reminder from Peter: “all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass”. Good thing it doesn’t mean that our lives are void of meaning, but the opposite. The good news of Jesus gives a different goal to our medical sales, job offers, and iPad reading. Faith in Christ provides the opportunity for us to live in levity instead of weight. Sure, it doesn’t alleviate responsibility or heartache, but it does allow us to trust in the performance of Someone else for our meaning, and even our direction. Slowly I’m learning that our fear is opportunity for depth and freedom. If we’ll trust.

All that to say, I’m happy about being “grass” today, because leaving a good job, in an economy like this, tries to convince me that my meaning and value is based on my ability to navigate these waters on my own. But God says, “I’ve got this.” Thank you, God.

Is God “always” for us?

“No one is righteous, no, not one (Ps 14).”

But I think I am. With myself as captain, I think we Christians often have this aura about us that sometimes communicates to the world that because we know Jesus, we have the right to diagnose the world, since “already he has made us clean (Jn 15.3)”. There is in my mind a tendency that whispers, “whoa, I’m glad I’ve got Jesus on my side,” when I see someone doing or saying something I think is unlike me, or perhaps, I think it’s ungodly. Do I? What’s behind that assumption?

I believe that at a spiritual (and yes, real) level I do have the prayers, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which consistently screams, “I am for you, who can be against you. (Rms 8.31)” And, I believe that this ought to produce in me a radical gratitude for the grace of God in Jesus. And yes, in relation to freedom, I agree with Luther when he says, “A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to none, a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.” Well, I’ve got the “subject to none” part down, but where I find myself struggling is being a “dutiful servant of all.” I’m so quick to judge those who may think differently. I’m so preoccupied with my nice little theology (riddled with holes) that I often forget that just because I’m a free, follower of Christ, doesn’t always mean that I have His heart. Have we, as the Church, always struggled with this?

Yahweh was more or less consistently upset with his people in the OT for not being about what he was about. Yahweh says things like, “the ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people don’t understand (Isa 1.3).” or “they have forsaken the Lord…they are utterly estranged.” Later in this same section, Yahweh says, “Bring no more vain offerings…I cannot endure the iniquity and solemn assembly…your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates.” He goes on to say, “wash yourselves; make yourselves clean…cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” In short, he says, “I can’t stand your little gatherings that supposedly honor me; get out of my sight and go clean up.” Without too much effort I could draw out at least 50 more passages just like that.

So, I’ve got a few questions that I’ve wrestled with today, and I’d like to hear your thoughts, if you care:

• Does God get angry with the Church? And, if so,
• How does this passage, in Isaiah 1, prod the Church in America today?
• Am I daily “making myself clean,” along with the, “already you are clean” proclamation?
• How do I talk to the one or two friends I have who don’t confess belief in Christ?
  • Am I a servant to them or just a worried judge who kind of prays for them?
• How do I talk about the one or two friends I have who don’t confess belief in Christ?

P.S. I won’t always make serious posts for your sake, and especially for D.O.’s sake.