community is

For the first time in several years I am getting excited for ministry again. If you have read more than one post of this blog you realize that we (my family and I) have just come through a very strange part of our spiritual journeys. So I don't bore you with details, over the past few months, I have started to practice the spiritual disciplines that I counted on for the first few years of my walk with God. I have gotten back into a great Life Group, begun again to pray on a daily basis(most times), and try to spend time with God each day in study. Plus we are now worshipping, on a regular basis, in a place which feels like home, and is a place we truely belong in community with others. Notice what is missing from this list.....

I have just finished my commitment to the worship team at Cornerstone for June, and will gladly play with them in August, and possibly October if they need me. But for some reason when we finished our second set last Sunday, I felt motivated to dip my feet into service at New Hope. I say dip, because I'll never dive into any ministry again unless God is pounding my head with a hammer.

Steps in the right direction.

Posted by Bigsun at 1:26 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

Today was our daughter's last day of school for the year. She has a completely filled summer. In fact I am convinced there are times where she will only come home to sleep. Anyway, her report card came home today. straight A's. This is a huge accomplishment. She had been teetering on the A/B line in several classes throughout the year. The past marking period our mantra with her has been "Pay attention to the details". And it paid off. On to 5th Grade.

Now some of you are probably scratching your head over this. Our daughter is capable of straight A's, all the time. In fact she can acheive at any level set for her. However, if she is allowed to slack off she will. Keeping her motivated to acheive is our biggest challenge, she has the talent.

Anyway, I am really proud of her. I am struggling a little with next year being her last year of elementary school. She has had such a magical 4 years so far, and middle school is so tough. For the first time in my time as a Dad, I have started to pay attention to the stuff I need to educate her about in terms of youth culture. I have always thought she was so much younger than she really is.

I also struggle because we don't have the life we had a few years ago. We are not nearly as emmersed in church life as we were. I know, I know, before Barber chimes in and says that growing up in a church doesn't mean beans. What I mean here is she needs more church than I can give her, she needs more community than I know how to give. She needs a little of what we used to have. Again, I am convinced that paying attention to the details, on my part, matters too. I need to invest more in her walk with God. Thats my goal this summer.

Posted by Bigsun at 1:45 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

The Worship team played Micah 6:8 by Charlie Hall this weekend. Awesome song, quite hard to play.

Here is a LINK to the words.

An interesting approach by Charlie Hall to songwriting. I would like to ask him if I ever meet him if he intentionally wrote the song in a 6/8 time signature. I don't know why I think it would be cool if he did.


Here is a updated link to the song (Thanks Ed) LINK

Posted by Bigsun at 3:57 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

I had some spiritual daggers thrown at me over the weekend over a seemingly meaningles issue. I don't really want to rehash the details, or who the conversation was with, thats not important.

But it seems that there is a instatiable urge for all of us, myself included, to disagree for disagrements sake when it comes to differences in cultural and scriptual heritage. Why?

When denominational lines are crossed, the Brotherhood of Saints goes out the window in todays Christian conversation. Too bad, imagine the community we could build if we did not disagree for disagreement sake.

Posted by Bigsun at 3:23 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

Last night at New Hope Paul, our small group leader, told me this weeks small group meeting would consist of going to see the DaVinci Code. Oh joy.

For whatever reason, I am not really all that motivated to see this movie in the theatre. In fact I would almost prefer to wait for it's HBO debut, when that happens. I think we, myself and fellow christians, get a little too tied up in stuff like this. What I mean is, I think there are far more productive conversations we can have with non-beleivers, than to debate the theology of fiction. In fact, part of me thinks that doing so is really a step back. Daggers are always ready to be thrown, and not knowing how to properly discuss the theological implications of the DaVinci code, a task I know I am not all that equipped, will place more distance between Christians and non-christians.

I'll gladly go to the movie because I enjoy the community of my small group, but I think I'll be looking for ways to build community with non-beleivers before debating them about fiction.

Posted by Bigsun at 5:38 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

Its been a stressful week and I can kinda mad at myself. I skipped out on my small group meeting last night. I claimed I had a too busy of a week, and needed to head home early. And, thats the truth. However, I feel it'll come back to haunt me. Isn't it funny how we wander from Community when we probably needed it most. I think I will think harder before skipping again.

I have a quite busy weekend. We have a friends birthday party tomorrow, followed by church. Sunday, I play drums. Monday will be here before I know it.

Posted by Bigsun at 5:13 PM | Permalink | | links to this post