Godgrown

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  Mark 9:45 pm on January 3, 2008 Permalink | Reply  

  Fear of the Future 

  

  Fear of the future. Fear of change. Its easy to get trapped in fear with so much change going on around me. Entering my last semester of school, I’m amazed at how ethereal and theoretical most of my life has become. Now that graduation is in sight, I’m looking into what the future holds, and I have to say that all this practicality is a little unnerving.

  For me, the danger is in finding my freedom from fear in my own prescribed guarantee of the future.

  Prescribing is different than planning, or preparing. Its when I fall into deciding and prescribing who I will work with and what my paycheck will be that missing the mark in even the slightest bit becomes a complete failure in every respect.

  Right now I’m looking for a job. Its my hope that I can get a job that fits in line with what I’ve been trained in and what I’m passionate about. Honestly, that limits my options pretty severely. Most guys with an MDiv are looking into working for a large mega church as a preacher, which regularly pulls 50-100 K a year. DANG.  As hard as this is to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”  Add the fact that I am really interested in Chicago and before you know it I’m SOL.

  Now I know how the guy with a philosophy degree feels.

  There are plenty of other, more exciting jobs out there for me. I’m finding them all the time. I found a few today in fact! The question is not, “Will I find a job?” But rather, “Will I keep my options open while looking for a job that allows for flexibility and God’s guidance?”

  These are very humbling times for me right now. I’m going to be putting myself out there for quite awhile, and might have a stack of rejection letters before its all said and done. I’m not giving up – and at the same time I’m not setting myself up (for failure).

  A future that is completely mapped out (read: wife, 2.3 kids, well-paying job in church planting/mission work right out of school, white picket fence) isn’t realistic at all, and much less fun. If my response to fears of life after graduation is to create a perfect life to fall into, I’m in danger of being rudely awakened.

  

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    miller 1:02 pm on January 4, 2008 Permalink

    i feel ya man!

    peace

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  Mark 6:58 pm on October 4, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

  Retooling, Dreaming Big 

  “So what’s going on with your blog?”  Some have been asking me as of late.  While it is still a work in progress, Curtis, Trina and I are working to recast this blogsite into an honest-to-goodness, true-blue website!

  In hopes of raising awareness of what Trina and I are currently up to, and planning to do up in Chicago, she and I have been thinking (scheming may be a more appropriate word!) about how we might go about telling as many people as possible about our dream.

  What is our dream anyway?  Well, while we’re still getting the kinks worked out, its simply this: We desperately want to see people changed for Jesus – and we want to see these transformed lives in dynamic connection to each other, and in close reach of those who have not yet come into relationship with our Lord, all throughout the great city of Chicago.  An entire metropolitan area of over 3 million people…that’s a dream that will take nothing short of an act from God.  And that’s exactly what we’re praying for.
  We don’t want to be the center of some kind of spiritual food chain or church planting movement.  I don’t even want to think of things in terms of planting churches.  Can I just be faithful with what and who the Lord has given me, and be happy to see him let it grow?

  We don’t want to pass out tracts.  We’re not going to Chicago to preach the same message heard 1,000 times over.  In fact, there may be little to no preaching done at all (much to the chagrin of my homiletics professors!)  Truly, we want our lives to be laid out on the altar for everyone to see – we will NOT live for our own sake, but for Christ’s mission.  Helping the poor, enabling the disabled, fighting for justice…I could spend a lifetime doing just that.

  So…the website…this is a platform for us to stand on.  This is our pulpit.  It is a place to cast the vision.  It is a place to plead for the souls of Chicago, and for every North American. I know there are others already looking for radical, alternative ways to follow Christ’s “Way”.  I want to find them.  I want to learn from them, and I want to show them what I see God already doing  right across this nation.  This is the kind of thing that gives me goosebumps!

  This isn’t about getting funds, though there will be a place on our site to support the work Trina and I will be doing.  We want to intentionally share our vision with anyone who stumbles across our little corner of the web.  More than anything, we beg that you lift us up to God for protection and support.  This is kind of a new step for us.  Please be patient; we’re going to put this site through a couple of face lifts.  Let us know what you think!

  

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    Jess 9:48 pm on October 5, 2006 Permalink

    I did not know that y’all were interested in Chicago. Wow – “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” -Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

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  Mark 11:24 am on September 22, 2006 Permalink | Reply  

  My Life on Fridays 

  

  Friday’s have become a sort of planning and processing day for me. I’m enjoying my classes this semester very much, but I’m becoming increasingly aware that in a year and just a few months I will be finished with school here and be heading off to the distant land of Chicago to live as a missionary. This reality has a deep impact on me for sure, and so I’m putting myself to the task of praying specifically for that city every day, asking the Lord to launch workers into that very ripe harvest field. Fridays then are a day of preparation and dreaming with God – a time to seriously think about life in the city, working and living missionally among the people who call it home.

  And we hope to call it home as well! Trina and I are already brushing up on the Windy City (which actually beats Abilene in terms of wind velocity!) and learning about the festivals, art, and people. Chicago is the blues capital of the world, its got great pizza, great baseball, and did you know that every July the oldest church in the city (Old St. Patrick’s) throws the world’s largest block party? Rock bands, two nights, two stages, “plus all the beer you can drink”. What kind of crazy town is this? The Jazz festivals, the art museums, the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival…it wont be hard to call it home.

  In many ways, we’re experiencing the best community of our lives here in Abilene. We’re also getting to help with the early stages of a prototype of what church might look like in the 21st century. But this town has and always will be a training ground. Almost everyone we talk to reminds us of that. They have been so supportive of us, reminding us that even Jesus went out into the wilderness before he began his ministry. I came to this town for training, and soon God will call us out together in mission.
  The love from the community of friends and family that we are experiencing here is something that we can’t keep to ourselves for much longer. We see family and Sabbath rest as central to the way the Gospel is lived out before isolated, strung out Americans looking for an alternative way of living. Chicago is a city that needs desperately to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by God’s grace to have that Great News transform it into (not a big churchy town but) a place where God is King.