…has taught me something.

Check out my wife’s blog post The picture of discretion.

A fellow church planter in MA asked me how I was doing. Here’s my response:

Good and bad. I’m tired of only 30 people, half 7 and under.

I’m tired of knowing we need more people.

I’m tired of having planned a REALLY bare bones budget for the year, one that we were sure to exceed, and missing even the LOW end month after month.

And I’m tired of feeling like I’m lying when I tell people God’s doing something really cool.

But He is.

People are getting free. The city is experiencing no-strings-attached kindness.

The kingdom is breaking out.

Personally, I’ve been incredibly allergy sick over the weekend. Then yesterday, I woke up with a huge abscess in my neck. Apparently, I have an infected salivary gland. What’s up with that?

Hey, could you pray for our family’s health and for our joy?

Em and I go to Charleston next week. I’m getting to keynote at a conference! (Second time ever, both this year. I could DEFINITELY get used to this!) Check it out: http://www.afplowcountry.com/

Emily and I will go without the kids. (Yay!) And get a day of R&R.

Then I do my first wedding that following Sunday!

Marc

And his reply

I will certainly pray for you. I hope that despite all the frustration and sickness, you’ll be experiencing the living God and seeing his Kingdom breaking in. That’s my hope too — and the only thing that sustains me. Without it, this job sucks. With it, there’s nothing better.

P.S. If you’re one for the 30 regulars at VCW, THANK YOU. I really love you guys. You each deserve more, more people to connect with, more of Jesus, more. And I’m REALLY impressed with your heart for the church plant. You are each an encouragement!!

God’s Kingdom is breaking out through us. And we’re really getting “best in the world” at showing God’s love in creative, tangible ways!!

   
I’m not Dolores Umbridge…or Roz!

But my neck sure feels like it! My salivary glands are currently infected. Swelling is evidently normal!

Personally, I prefer the normal normal!

Ben Arment has a great blog post on what we’re “competing” with when helping people develop a habit of coming to church.

Read the post here: http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2007/06/developing_the_.html

I think our acts of kindness and our 1-hour service/1-hour hanging out are good starts. But we’ve still got a way to go!

I just read this:

It takes warm water, soap, and 20 seconds of scrubbing to rid then of cold and flu germs. PS.: While 95% of people say they wash their hands after using a public restroom, only 67% actually do –yikes! Of that group just 33% use soap, and only 16% wash their hands long enough to make it count.

Only 16% of people that “think” they wash their hands after using a public restroom do it well enough to have any affect.

Maybe Monk’s faniticism makes sense…

Hildy Gottlieb pointed me to this terrific video describing a wiki:

If the embedded video doesn’t show for you, the YouTube link is here.

Here’s another quote from an interview with David Goetz in the latest Cutting Edge magazine on his new book Death by Suburb.

Also, don’t quit too soon. It’s supposed to be hard. Don’t be suprised by it. All good things take time, and all good things are hard. We need to learn to stick with it. And continually seek to be creative—even more creative than you are now.

From an interview with David Goetz in the latest Cutting Edge magazine on his new book Death by Suburb.

The challenge of Christian spirituality is that there is no formula. People like a list of do’s and don’ts, but in reality it’s a life of following Jesus. True Christian sprituality is never a direct route. So instead, you develop a lifestyle of practices that open you up to God so that you can listen to him in the midst of this crazy world and see what happens. We cannot simply use willpower to control our life and our spirituality. It doesn’t work like that. But ongoing practices can open us up to all kinds of unanticipated things in God.

…you’re needed to vote tomorrow, Tuesday June 12.

June 12, 2007 Ballot Questions

Question 1: Bond Issue

Do you favor a $112,975,000 bond issue for improvements to highways and bridges, airports, public transit facilities, ferry and port facilities including port and harbor structures and bicycle and pedestrian trails that makes the State eligible for over $260,525,000 in federal and other matching funds?

Question 2: Bond Issue

Do you favor an $18,300,000 bond issue to support drinking water programs and to support the construction of wastewater treatment facilities that will leverage $49,500,000 in other funds?

Everyone that’s at VCW and reads my blog (both of you?), could you read the four part “Dip” posts here: Church Planting and the Dip. [No, "the Dip" isn't a person. These are based on Seth Godin's new book, The Dip.]

• Part 1: Nobody wants your church
• Part 2: Becoming great in the dip
• Part 3: The dip is your friend
• Part 4: Deciding when to quit

(They’re pretty short.)

We’re at this point at VCW. It’s pretty cool.

What can we be best in the world at?