A door closing and another opening

Today is my last day in the office at Evangelical Covenant Church in Helena, where I've been the Associate Pastor for the past five-and-a-half years. Saturday and Sunday will be my last worship services there.

I've spent this week tying up some loose ends, getting musicians scheduled for ECC's services in September, moving boxes of books back to my home office (still lots of books left though!), getting ready for a wedding this weekend, and following up with people from our last open house.

Transitions are always bittersweet. The future is exciting, but I also realize some of the great things that have been easy to take for granted. There are many people that I am certainly going to miss seeing on a weekly basis.

God has often stretched me in times of leaving the safe and known behind to venture into an unknown future. It's exhilarating--and unnerving! Our core team has been having great conversations about what our new church could be like. It's great to dream, to explore the possibilities of what might be.

September will be a time for hammering out what ideas and ideals will look like in actual fact. It will be a season to pray and discern. And for all of our hopes and plans, we're opening a door but don't really know what's on the other side. But what else should we expect? God rarely details what the future will be...

Commitment weekend

We're having our next open house this Sunday night at Grandstreet Theatre. We'll be getting into detail about what the new church will be like and we'll be asking for people to consider committing to joining us on this adventure.

But before that, I'll be focused on a different kind of commitment. I'm headed down to the Big Sky Resort to perform a wedding for a couple making a lifetime commitment to each other.

Life is full of changes and milestones, journeys and adventures. Keep praying for our new church as we embark on the adventure that God has before us.

My amazing (unpaid) photography career

Peacock for dinner
Originally uploaded by vernazzablue

The photography career I never knew I had is about to take off. I got an email from schmap.com, a travel guide site, telling me that they're considering using one of the photos I've posted on flickr for their next guide to Salt Lake City. I haven't used flickr much lately and didn't particularly remember putting any pictures of SLC there. But sure enough, I had posted this photo of a peacock at La Caille, a great restaurant just outside of town.

Schmap doesn't pay anyone for the pictures they use, but they do let you opt out if you don't want them to use your photos. Of course, I can't imaging anyone actually paying me to use my photos, so I'd be happy to see them use it. I'll let you know if they do. Meanwhile, I think I'll check out some of their travel guides. Think they'll have one for Helena? Then I could really hook them up with photos.

More rhythm

Do you like juggling lots of activities, responsibilities, and commitments? Some days it seems like there are no end of meetings, calls to make, and multiple activities for the kids... somehow dinner needs to get made and the house should be cleaned... and wouldn't it be nice to have some peace and quiet to pray, maybe even get eight hours of sleep, maybe enjoy a movie...
Just being an American keeps us plenty busy. And then try following Jesus. Attend worship services. Go to small group. Volunteer. Serve. Go on that retreat, attend that seminar, lead that committee.

Pretty soon life is hectic. The rhythm is more complex than something from an avant-garde Elliott Carter string quartet (which is some pretty crazy, chaotic stuff). Pretty soon you want things to just slow down, you just want a break.

As we embark on this journey of starting a new church, we want to develop a rhythm that is life-giving, not crazy and demanding. So we've been talking about creative ways to incorporate all that God calls us to--worship, growing in faith, serving others, reaching out to the community, prayer, celebration, rest, and so on--into a healthy rhythm. We can't do everything every day. We can't even do it all every week! Our ideas are still a work in progress, but soon I'll be going into more detail about what we think this rhythm will actually look like.

But now it's Friday afternoon and we're ready for the getting-a-relaxing-dinner part of the rhythm...

Rhythm

I’ve been thinking a lot about rhythm lately. Not musical rhythm, but life rhythm and especially church rhythm. I grew up in a church that celebrated communion on the first Sunday of the month. In college my church had communion every week. Different rhythms.

My first experience with small group Bible studies was a weekly commitment. When I came to Helena I met people whose groups met every other week. Different rhythms.

Some churches follow what is called the church year, beginning with Advent, then Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension Sunday, Pentecost, and so on. Other churches only observe Christmas and Easter. Different rhythms.

In Seattle I met with church planters who are trying out different rhythms. Some are celebrating communion every week. Some aren’t even meeting for worship every week. One church in particular meets for worship monthly and then as smaller houses churches on two of the other weeks and then does community outreach and service on the final week. It’s a different rhythm.

The Bible gives us a lot of leeway here. The book of Acts describes the believers meeting daily together (Acts 2:42-47). The book of Hebrews simply encourages us to not neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). Paul’s instructions about communion in 1 Corinthians 11 give me the impression that communion was something they celebrated quite frequently. Nevertheless, the Bible does not dictate specifically how or how often we are to gather for worship, when to celebrate communion, how to incorporate teaching and outreach and so on.

One of the dangers is thinking that there is only one correct rhythm to all of this. As we establish this church we’ll be thinking about this, talking about this, praying about this. We want to find a rhythm that incorporates worship and outreach, teaching and service, prayer and fun, times of engagement and times of rest.

The future is wide open right now. Pray that we’ll find a rhythm that honors God and gives us life.

Back in the saddle

I got home this week to a mountain of mail--bills, catalogs, magazines I never read, donation requests, and even a couple actual letters. So I just logged on to catalogchoice.org to opt out from the pesky catalogs I don't need (Halloween costumes anyone?). Maybe we'll save a tree or two.

I spent the past week meeting with people involved in church plants out in western Washington, from Poulsbo to Bellingham. It was a great time to see the different things people are doing. It was great to see how God is inspiring people. And it was great to hear people saying the same kind of things that we've been talking about here. God is truly at work in his church.

I'll be posting more now that I'm back in action. It was a bit strange to get away from the computer for three weeks--now it's a challenge to get back into it!