hello 2008...

The first post of the year is always fun. This will be year 2 of my blogging life! I have enjoyed this during year one. For some reason it helps me to come on this thing and hammer out some thoughts and some memories from my crazy mind. I have enjoyed it, hope to keep it up for year 2. It has reached habit stage! I actually have stuff happen and think...i need to blog that out. HA! Many times it does not make it here as I forget the thought or the idea but hey, forgive me being dad, husband and minister can keep a guys mind hopping. We have enjoyed the first few days of 2008. Spent a few days just hanging out with folks we love and watching football. Go titans and vols, I am so stoked with Tennessee football, it is good to be a titan and vol fan. I also got to play Weii for the first time. OK, I love it, it is a great system. Love tennis! It rocks. Golf is sweet also. Hope to get one of those for our family next Christmas.

Dec. 30 something odd happened in my life...my church...did not GATHER. For one Sunday we actually did not have services. I have never experience this! Let me explain, at Grace Community we have not had services the last Sunday of the year since the launch. It does seem odd to not have services but it has been an amazing time of refreshment for our folks. We had a ton of choices for the day. What would we do with a day with no service at our church. We decided to not go to another church but rather just have some folks over to eat breakfast. It was wild to look around the room on a Sunday ad just BE together with no plan. Yes it was amazing, to have one day for our children and preschool leaders to be able to rest, to relax, to not have to prepare. As I thought about the benefit of the day I could not help but think what a blessing it was for all of us who invest into the lives of kids at our church. We have an amazing group of people who love on kids! it was great to give them one week during the year to REST, to catch a breath, to remember all that God has done. It was so incredible to look around and hang out with people who invest so much during the week. At the end of the day I came away thankful once again for my church family. I can not wait to gather Jan. 6 and see how God works.

One last thing...reading Unchristian right now by Dave Kinneman and Gabe Lyons! WOW, you need to go get this book and do some reading. The book looks at the perception people outside the church have of Christianity and it is blowing me away. To have this kind of research is amazing and eye opening for me as a Christ follower and a leader in a local church. Go get it but be ready to be challenged.