01559

when i was in college an involved with intervarsity we used to do testimony times with the leadership team...after a person talked about what was going on in their life the rest of the team would ask them questions. without fail this one guy would ask everyone the same question: "do you have a heart for a specific people group." it always got a laugh, and after a while people got creative with their answers. i used to think it was kind of a dumb question.

now, here i am, about to speak at pastor's conference on how to reach specific groups of people (evangelizing the subcultures). suddenly that's not such a bad question.

other than that, this weekend should be a good time for chip and i to connect with some key CTK people...put some faces with some emails and phone calls.

i recently read david crowder's new book: "everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." the guy continues to put out stuff that is not only quality work in the christian world, but good art period. there is a section of the book called "columns" that really makes the book in my opinion. it is a bit of fiction in the magical-realism genre (ala jonathan safran foer) and it is awesome. i'm still waiting for crowder to do something that does not impress me.

if you haven't watched the video in the link from the last blog, you need to!

01459

my first summer at mount hermon, rmac introduced me to the concept of the density of time...time is much more than a measure of the passing of moments. there is mass and volume to it...this weekend was a good example of dense time.

congrats to bruce and connie on becoming one...you have marked my life figuratively and literally =)

it was also fun to be with the old crew again...a shout out to mdh, h squared, vivie, b_lum, LG, glee, kdub, big al, drewyap, peter the great, and all the other fabulous people i got to spend time with.

major thanks to mdh for the suggestion of brett dennen...this guy is going to be huge soon we both believe. check him out...it will change your life.

finally, if you haven't seen this, you must:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ovJ5nWwF5k

01359

have i mentioned that i love living in colorado? i do...i have to go back to california this weekend for a wedding. i'm stoked about the wedding and sharing a huge moment with my friends and seeing a lot of people i haven't seen for a while, but i am going to miss my mountains!

in two weeks chip and i get to go to the annual CTK pastor's conference...where we have been asked to present some stuff about our story and what we are doing here in durango. it seems a little weird to be "teaching" people stuff when i've only been doing this for six weeks, but i think this will be a great opportunity for chip and i to pause and really think about what it is we are doing (and then talk about it too). so i am excited about that, but again i'll have to leave my mountains!

the final big news is that we have found a meeting place for sunday mornings...park elementary (a school we hoped to be investing a lot in anyway) appears to be our landing place. i've loved meeting in chip's living room but this is another one of those threshold steps for our church and i'm exciting to get in there and start worshipping with more people!

01259

first off, thanks to everyone who has been praying for us and also thank you to those who have been posting comments on the blog!

the last few days have been interesting and amazing. we had our first information meeting on friday and one person showed up! this could have been a huge bummer for our team, but the conversation that emerged answered so many of our questions (where can we serve, who is being overlooked by the churches, etc) that everyone was pretty stoked when it was all said and done.

then, last night we had our first (4) durango people come. what a huge moment for our team to finally welcome new people into our community. i was really proud of the way everyone interacted with our visitors and really made them feel welcome. i'm pretty sure we'll be seeing more of them in the future.

finally, this weekend was also a great time to hang out with dave browning the founding pastor of the Christ the King movement. (hopefully, most of you know that we are not just here doing this thing on our own, but are a part of the Christ the King network or churches). dave was really encouraging to us and also very excited by what he sees happening here.

dave has a book out now, titled Deliberate Simplicity, which outlines what CTK is all about. it can be purchased from amazon or barnes and noble. i highly recommend in general, but especially if you are interested in finding out more about what we are attempting to do here in durango.

thanks again everyone!

01159

check this out...

http://web.mac.com/ryanmcrae/iWeb/Colorado/Durango.html

01059

there are moments or phases of life that sometimes have to pass before you can say "yeah, that was a real good time." usually i need some time to pass to have the proper perspective.

then there are times when you know, during every single moment, that this is about as good as it gets. this weekend was one of those moments.

rmac and i packed about as much into one weekend as is possible. we cleaned up at the sky ute casino, we got kicked out of the telluride film festival (where we met many cool people, award winning directors, scored free stuff, and even had time to ride the gondola), participated in an ultimate frisbee tournament (which nearly killed me), ate some of joe's amazing barbecue, and pretty much dominated the entire southwest. lives were changed, ladies swooned, and legends were born. it was that kind of a weekend.

now it is back to work...the next 14 days being important days in the life of CTK Durango. these are exciting times...