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.
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...
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.
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."
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!
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.
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!
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!
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:
here's the top ten posts from the last six months of project_365 Day 182/203some highlights from BU this spring Day 189/217 some highlights from UMASS this spring Day 219 another great fundraising story Day 258 graduation! Day 266/315two posts about our move to east boston Day 286/307opportunities to speak at two of our partner/supporting churches Day 290/343two of amy's big accomplishments Day 306vacation in acadia! Day 311flying with nate Day 364good gifts
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!
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.
i'm old. just past 30 to be exact. being that old means that a good portion of my life has been recorded on film and stored in a medium known as "slides". to see my life from the age of 0 to about 14 (and even beyond that to a point) requires lugging out a screen and a projector and then clicking away (which is actually really fun to do when all the equipment works).
a couple weeks ago i posted about some old journals and items from the past i discovered. going through that stuff made me regret a little bit not having access to those slides, especially since my wife has not been able to see a lot of the pictures (the projector broke around age 3, if i remember correctly).
well, little did i know, my mother was hard at work for the last seven months archiving well over a thousand slides in a digital format, and today i got the final product: a flash drive with all the pics and a cool book with about 300 of the highlights. amazing!
between new people at reunion and yesterday's freshman splash event at boston university, we have somewhere between 75-100 new students to connect with...and that's with a lot of folks not back in town yet and several campuses yet to get started! but it is a great problem to have...we're going to be meeting a ton of people this year and that is a fantastic thing!
said goodbye to our old friend (and old roommate) seth robins today. seth has always been a very tangible reminder of my time in durango and the awesomeness that was my experience with CTK. so, in some ways seeing seth leave boston is the final step in being fully integrated to life here. however you look at it, it is pretty hard to see him go (especially since he is going to california!). we'll miss you seth!
my wonderful friend, the great steve comer, has been working on various tours with musicians for years...so it's always exciting when he comes to town and we can catch up with him (and enjoy a free concert!). a couple summers ago we got to catch jack johnson...this year: jackson browne. great show, old crowd =)
picture of me rocking out on the tour bus.
picture of me with some of jackson's guitars (he brings over 60 on tour with him!)
my brother-in-law's sister, anna, used to work in slovenia with the josiah venture. one of the girls she got to know over there is now going to BU and will be staying with us for a few days while she finds a place to live.
(ps we have had a lot of people stay with us since moving to eastie...must be our awesome house...or maybe the proximity to the airport).
anyway, good to be a home for ziva while she makes her transition to boston.
