so, i mentioned it in the previous post, but you have to have the top entry be the big news.

we've moved. been tinkering with squarespace and have found much joy.

please change your links to:

http://tribalicious.squarespace.com

we love you. don't hate us because we are beautiful.

the weekend was great. much clarity and defining of direction. oddly enough, i noticed a difference in the teaching time on sunday night as well... hmm, ya think?

today is my day off from the CU and this morning i was able to have great breakfast with rick. he and his wife are steeping out and moving to california with no promise of work, no promise of a place to stay and only the promise from several prophetic words that God is calling them. talk about trust. incredible.

just picked up kimball's Emerging Church and doug's Reimagining Spiritual Formation. i know "you are sooo last month..." just alittle behind on the purchasing schedule. budgets are budgets.
also reading Second Reformation by william beckham. cell church guy, interesting ideas. liking it so far with a brief, oversimplified view of church history for a foundation on what the next steps in the churhc's transformation should be.

last, we're moving. to Squarespace. i know it's a pain, but if you could change your links, that would WROCK!

new home= http://tribalicious.squarespace.com

Heading out tonight.
If you read this before Sunday morning, I've got a quick request.
I could benenfit from your intercession for:
wisdom in direction
wisdom in connections
insight into current situations
rest
rest
rest.

Thanks...

Last weekend was a blast. Beer and rest, worship and chillin', new songs and new memories.

I'll leave tomorrow night for a personal prayer retreat with Jeff to seek wisdom for Mars and the direction we should go in.

We are having a great discussion right now about the way the ministry is shared. Organic vs. Synthetic. What naturally happens over and against what needs to be structured. That has led to a question about the way we share the gospel. Do we make a program, do we push 'relational evangelism' only? I'm thinking that, while we should never be driven r led by the culture, the culture you live in obviously dictates the way you handle the ministry God has given us to carry out. One nation calls for this, another city calls for that, and still another house calls for something entirely different.

When he spoke, Ben mentioned that in order to be 'successful' in anything you must determine who it is that you love. When you have that nailed, methods come next. Who do we love? How can we reach them?

Sunday's scripture at Stephen's was a challenge to reflect on what our story would be to those who were watching. Paul saw that the Epehesian's story was one of love for all the saints, so the question for us would be, "If someone wrote us a letter, what would we be known for?" Ideas were tossed around on how we could be known as a community with a love for "all the saints." One suggestion was to connect with Voice of the Martyrs to see how we can be an encouragement to Family under intense persecution. Another , courtesy of Kelly and I, was to gather as a community to write letters of encouragement to the orphans connected to Children's Hope Chest. The final idea we brewed on for a while was one that will connect us with the Family locally. Basically it entails us as a community connecting with pastors in other communites to discover some of the needs in their communities that they may have not been able to address, whether financial, spiritual, whatever. Then, we as a community pull together to help take care of the need.
I'll be meeting with Joseph from Simple Church tomorrow (Tuesday) to get in contact with some local pastors and share our heart with them. Please pray for us.

sick. yuck.

spoke with don last night. discussed support and missions and overseeing and general Body stuff. he has some interesting points, alot of which Mars is experimenting with. the ideas of missional communities, pastoral ministry, and the combining of the two are thoughts we have tinkered with trying to work out an effective and balanced ecclisiology for the emerging generation.

also emailed ben about doing EWC concerts to raise support for Kelly and i. i mean, it's not like we didn't have some input. will keep ya posted on the outcome.

sick. ugh.

Tinkering with some settings. Got rid of "recent posts" 'cause they annoyed me. Still working on "links" though.

Enjoyed what Josh had to say to Scotty about "churchians," strategies, and overstructuring in the church.
Mars faces some interesting decisions in the days to come. How much structure is too much? How "loose" do you go, how close do you hold the reigns? If it's ultimately Jesus' church and not ours, how much of a role do we play in putting things into place? Do we got the Baptist route and seek majority rule? Do we wait for unanimous decisions alone? If so, who is involved in those decisions? Everyone? The elder (wink wink)? An inner core? Who is the core picked by? The elder? The community? Leaders of the network?
Then, what are the decision makers making decisions about? Strategies? ugh.
Welcome to the next level!

yesterday was the first of the new part time experience. i was able to take a bro to lunch for his bday and get some time talking about his upcoming move to california. he and his wife (and 2 little ones) have taken a leap and are going out there to help plant a new work in ventura. it was good to get time investing in his life. i sense that this is the reason for getting financial support, to be free to do this thing called "teaching them to obey everything i commanded you..."

afterwards we got the spark plug replaced in the super scoot and resurrected it from the place of the dead. zoom zoom...

got saturday off... surprising kelly (shhh, don't tell her) with some "away" time.

next saturday taking time to pray, far away, about mars and her direction.

frustrated. underwhelmed. not sure if i like the new blogger.

going to take this template for a spin. it's free from blogger and their new found life. way to go!
comments will be back up soon. not going to get too built up with links until i think this is where i'll stay for a while.

life notes: mars decided to support k&i on a part time basis. i'll be scaling back work at the CU and devoting more time to heading out and equipping. talk about an answered prayer.

played EWC with Ben Saturday nite in Denison and made new friends. Ben spoke at mars sunday and hit the nail on the head proclaiming "man, you would be a bitch at scrabble" to one who would quote much greek in the community. lunch of bbq chicken pizza and a fine shiraz topped the afternoon. dinner and gathinrg with resonance to share about russia excursions. good times. busy time. interesting times.