Thursday, September 30, 2010

56359

miracles


the theme of our semester is discipleship: becoming compelling disciples of Jesus. in order to lead others into this kind of discipleship we need to be followers first. first followers...compelling disciples...major goals for the next several months.


last friday i did a short case study for our leaders on peter as a first follower who became a compelling disciple (did you know people lined up the sick next to where he walked to try to get them healed...crazy...acts 5:5). one of the things that stood out to me (again) with peter/the disciples in acts is all the miracles that are going on. sometimes i think we get bummed out because we don't see these kinds of miracles going on today, but i also wonder if we don't know how to accurately label miracles either. 


with that in mind, i've been feeling a lot of weirdness at UMASS Boston recently. weird conversations with other groups, one-on-ones that fell through at the last minute, even a crazy preacher who yelled at people for six straight hours last week. weird spiritual stuff.


and yet, i continue to feel strongly that this is an important campus in the city and an important campus for us to invest in, especially if we say we want to care about the neighborhoods of boston (lots of kids from these neighborhoods go to umass...for example in our core group right now we have two kids from dorchester, one from eastie, and one from cambridge...all local kids). furthermore, last week i had great meetings with two students that affirmed how good it is for us to be at UMB.


so, late monday when i checked my email and discovered a paperwork miscommunication that threatened to dissolve our organization on campus at UMASS I freaked out, but i also saw pretty clearly that, indeed, there is some spiritual stuff going on here. i am always hesitant to play the "spiritual warfare" card, but sometimes it is undeniable. 


we needed to prove in less than 24 hours that we had an accurate number of people connected to our group. at umass this involves an incredibly un-user friendly website that very few students use. before getting in to bed for an unrestful night of sleep I prayed, "the only way this happens tomorrow God is if you come through in a big way." it seems dumb because all we were asking people to do was get on their computers and press a button. and yet, i cannot understate what a difficult task this can be given the culture and nature of the school and the software.


most of tuesday was spent furiously writing emails, texting, making phone calls, praying, brainstorming names, facebooking, and worrying.  at 3, two hours before the deadline, we were still several names short.


somehow by 20 after 5 we were one over! people i hadn't been able to get in contact with for weeks suddenly were returning messages and following through. tim remembered a nursing student, tony, that we had forgotten about and tony came through with several people and is now one of my hero's. i was checking my email at one point and a confused student happened to be on g-chat and i was able to walk him through the registration process.  


in the end it all worked out. somehow. on the one hand it's such a simple thing, but given the context this was nothing short of a miracle. 


thanks to all of you who prayed for us throughout the day. miracles happen more often then we think, i think. maybe we just lack the courage to call them what they are. 

Saturday, September 25, 2010

56259

trails


i got into trail running a bit when i lived in colorado. while there is nothing like running to the top of animas mountain (see pic below) on a crisp october morning, there are plenty of great state parks (they call them reservations out here...not to be confused with "rez"ervations) that are a short drive from our house. today we headed out to topsfield and ran their crazy, non-sensically numbered trails. something about running on a trail is so good for my soul...

56159

clc


i love leadership community.  this semester we are focusing on discipleship.  other topics covered: leadership starts with being a follower first...overcoming our fears...case study of peter...shirtless dancing guys. good stuff!  plus it's just great to get all of our leaders in the same room and catch up stories and the excitement of the new semester.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

56059

tribes

some thoughts from seth godin:

"we chose not to be remarkable because we're worried about criticism. we hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a menu that makes dinners take notice, or give an audacious sermon because we are worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.

the lesson here is this: if i had written a boring book, there'd be no criticism. no conversation. the products and services that get talked about are the one that are worth talking about.

how was your day today? if your answer is 'fine,' then i don't think you were leading."

Sunday, September 19, 2010

55959

kings_bowl


so we like to bowl. so it seems from our kick-off-the-year events. today was our annual city-wide bowling and pizza extravaganza. tons of fun and totally great to see new students connecting and friendships forming. i was reminded the other how important these kinds of events are when i saw some kids who met at this event last year all sitting next to each other on a sunday morning!



Thursday, September 16, 2010

55859

tensions


my old mentor, bob, used to say that we don't choose books they choose us. and it is weird how often i'll be reading something that speaks to the moment. 

i love the church...but i work for a parachurch ministry. on top of that i work for a parachurch ministry that is partnered deeply with a local church. a lot of times we live in some pretty gray areas when it comes to where one ends and the other begins. sometimes in my selfishness and pride i can find myself wanting more: more freedom, more definition, more recognition.

in other words, sometimes, it's hard to build an organization and serve the church too.

but then, that is what we are called to do. here's a string of convicting quotes from christ among the dragons:  

"legitimate or not, parachurch groups are not the church, nor should they become a substitute for the church...

...the church was what christ came to establish as the intended means for ministry in the world. He wanted to change the world and he wanted to do it through the church...

...the 'i/me/mine' mentality leads to a 'culture of narcissism' (what he calls a religion of personal therapy)...the individual needs and desires of the believer have become the center of attention...

...if we are to resurrect the christian 'brand' by resurrecting the church, there is one thing we will have to die to: ourselves...

...the more the church is gathered, the more the church is focused, the more it pulls together the collective energies of God's people, the more powerful and influential it becomes...which is why the church is the most beautiful, the most radical, the most dangerous, the most glorious enterprise on the planet, and there is nothing more worthy of throwing our lives into." 

that's exactly what i needed to read today.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

55759

umass_pics

photos from welcome week at umass-boston.  tabling is never my favorite thing, but we connected with a lot of new students and have over 30 contacts for the start of the year, which is great and makes it all worth it!





Monday, September 13, 2010

55659

getting_started


semester kick-off events are well underway around all around the city...we've had freshman splash at BU, club fairs at MIT, welcome week tables at UMASS, and lots of students showing up at Reunion. In the midst of all that, it was great to get most of our leaders together this weekend to have fun, dream about the semester, and talk about where God is leading Sojourn this year!






Saturday, September 11, 2010

55559

it's a good time to be a giants fan...the team is winning...this pennant race is going to be close all the way to the end...and, for the first time in a while there are a variety of likeable characters.  for example, how do you not love this:

Thursday, September 09, 2010

55459

here's the top ten posts from the last six months of project_365

Day 182/203 some highlights from BU this spring

Day 189/217 some highlights from UMASS this spring

Day 219 another great fundraising story

Day 258 graduation!

Day 266/315 two posts about our move to east boston

Day 286/307 opportunities to speak at two of our partner/supporting churches

Day 290/343 two of amy's big accomplishments

Day 306 vacation in acadia!

Day 311 flying with nate

Day 364 good gifts

Monday, September 06, 2010

55359

i've been going back and looking at all the posts from project_365. i want to share some of the highlights.  here are the top ten posts from the first six months (in chronological order):


Day 24 some early thoughts on fundraising

Day 37/42  processing the loss of the house

Day 54 fall semester Read.Retreat.Serve

Day 85 first go at our influence map

Day 98 my favorite example of unexpected encouragement

Day 105 bragging on amy's fall accomplishments

Day 118 preaching in salinas

Day 140 craziest story of the year...hands down

Day 144 launching our leadership gathering

Day 172 "family" dinner


top ten from the last six months should be up soon...enjoy!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

55259 Day 365

the_end!


well, there you go...i actually did it: a picture and a post every day for one year. i have to say that, overall, this was a fun project...a lot easier to get something down each day than i thought. 

there have been some concerns that the blog is going away now. not so...i still intend to post 3-4 times a week. however, this last year i have felt a lot like a reporter, and i have strayed a bit from the more reflective origins of the blog. it will be good to have a little more space for that reflection now.

take note of the new "pages" as well...a running journal and an archive of project 365.

last, but not least, amy is going to pick up the torch and do her own project 365.