I’ve been getting more fresh air lately. Normally this time of year I find myself holing up in a library somewhere biting my nails and hoping that I’ll wake up to find finals and papers behind me. But this semester, I’m determined to stay out with my community, so like a crotchety grandpa I sit in a camping chair reading books and saying hello to those that live around me.

It is amazing to see how much life just passes you by when you hide inside your house all the time. Spending more time outside in these cooler days causes me to see just how easy it is to “love your neighbor”, because you are truly creating time to be available to them. As crazy as this sounds, I’m even trying to work my “break time” into “prayer block-walks” where I pray for each family and house around my block as I break from studies.

This new perspective on studying and living life is one of those incentives from the Greenhouse conference last weekend. I hope that my eyes to God’s workings in this neighborhood be opened wider and wider! How do you see God already working in the lives of those you are surrounded with?

A lot has happened in the past 6 hours…

This morning is my usual ministers meeting with HOPE Church of Christ. I’ve enjoyed going there week in, week out discussing our “goings on” in our particular ministries. This morning however, Len, (our worship minister) started the conversation off with a heavy announcement. “This Sunday will be my last Sunday as worship minister at HOPE.” I couldn’t believe my ears. Len had just begun his service with HOPE less than 3 months ago, and already the elders have asked him to step down.

He seemed visibly hurt, and I was honestly feeling for him. I still do not have all the answers, so I have to be careful with my thoughts and words today, but I’m hoping that tonight we will have an elder’s meeting that will explain why they chose this route for him.

I’ve been thinking about this - maybe this is just my mind going bonkers after Len’s confession - I’m thinking about offering my position at HOPE Church to Len. He is gifted in all the areas needed for this ministry, and he has a family of 4 to support, something I won’t be dealing with for a long time (hopefully!). This afternoon I am going to talk with Kent Smith about this decision and make sure I’m not totally off my rocker for thinking this. Who knows, maybe this is God’s impetus for Katrina and I starting our own house church…

Please be in prayer as we seek God’s will and follow after him.

Greenhouse is underway here in Abilene, Texas - and I couldn’t be more excited!

Greenhouse is a conference meeting for all individuals regionally (although we have some who’ve come down from Minnesota) to be introduced to a whole new way of living the Christian life. Organic church is a grassroots movement, always staying simply, and rapidly reproducible. There is no building to pay for, no ministers to staff, no church directory to keep up-to-date. In the words of Paul Kaak and Neil Cole, church is “the presence of Jesus among his people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet.” This is not another “If we build it, they will come” church growth model. It seeps right down to the life that gets lived out Monday thru Sunday, and even some during worship time too!

The best part about Greenhouse so far has been my tablemates (is that a word?). At times during the conference this evening, the presenters invited us to talk to those sitting with us around the table. It has just been such a blessing to hear how each person is catching the vision of how simple church can be, and how FUN it can be to live the Christian life on a mission with God! There are four college students among this group who have been praying for over a year about beginning a church planting movement in North America after they graduate. What is nuts about this is that two of them are interns for the largest megachurch in town! God works in mysterious ways!

I am realizing that all this stuff I’ve been dreaming about is stuff I will actually be living out very soon. That frightens me more than you realize! As if I could actually plant a church! As if I could actually disciple someone into the image of Christ! Who am I? What do I have to bring to the table? Hearing the stories of church planters tonight made me worried that I was not up to the task.

Maybe that is where God wants me.

“If you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section”
– Neil Cole.

Sure am looking foward to getting my hands (lungs) dirty for the sake of the world. I’m tired to living inside the bubble. I’m ready to stop what I had planned to do, in order to meet the world. I’m ready to sit down in places I don’t feel comfortable, just for a chance to share a meal and a conversation with someone who is hungry for God.

This weekend is Abilene’s Greenhouse Conference. I look forward to telling you more about that later!

The Today Show (a current “sacred cow” at my house), has been exposing and interviewing leaders from various “mysterious faiths” (Mormons, Kabbalah, Scientologists, etc). This morning they took a peek into Opus Dei (”The Work of God”). Interesting stuff! Apparently deeply connected with the Catholic Church, they are sometimes labeled a cult because of their propensity to self-mutilation, their secretive tenets and worship practices.

I was honestly intrigued by this faith group. Their goal is to keep every person in their church active and engaged with the culture around them. Any faith that is based of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ is only being truly lived out when its adherents are living a full life of worship and witness. As the Today show described their group, there was background footage of a woman on a treadmill, praying the rosary, others washing dishes and chanting hymns. A holistic life before God - that is what I look forward to living.

Dualism in our culture is rampant. We go to church on Sunday wearing our best dress (look our best for God?), put on our best smile, and do our best to remember the “bible answers” when called on in class. We go to church to “meet God”, but we forget that he does not live in a building made by human hands. Church buildings can get in the way of seeing God everywhere we go. God says in 2 Samuel 7 that his home “is a tent, moving from one place to another”. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that “WE are the temple of the living God,” and that God would walk among us. That he did, as the incarnated Jesus. People didn’t show up to Jesus’ house for an hour and a half on Sundays and Wednesdays. He lived among them, showing them how to live the With-God Life as they walked their camels, brushed their teeth, and shared stories of the faithful with their children.

I believe our biggest challenge we receive from the people in Opus Dei is the challenge to decompartmentalize our humanity. Let everything we do be an act of worship, including our times of corporate worship in song and prayer. What does that look like? Try praising God by seeing his face in the eyes of every person you meet today. Try thanking God for 5 things as you wash your hands before a meal. Allow your conversations to overflow with the details of your personal walk with God as you witness to everyone you have a conversation with.

You might be surprised how challenging; and yet how rewarding the experience could be. All of a sudden you are no longer spiritually drained every time you come to church - rather, you are filled to the brim, exploding with life, like an acorn in the ground. That is the life to the full that Jesus spoke about so long ago. How easy it is to deny ourselves this life by hiding behind the masks we wear.

Thank you Opus Dei for reminding us of something much of the Christian world has forgotten. Christ is LORD of our LIVES!