Leading a Home Group... and other updates.

For our friends and family that track us here and have not yet found the joys / pains/ and distration that others call facebook, I apologize for the lack of posts.
We are totally moved into our new home and new roles as a CARES team at Coldwater Springs apartments. Leah is literally days away from completing school. We are hoping and pushing for an Oct. 15th graduation. Septemeber has been very overwhelming with moving and a trip to CA to celebrate with Leah's brother who got married. We have a string of flu like viruses through our little family which I am currently trying to see through...


Last Night we had a great homegroup with folks from our church. I find great value in God's people meeting in homes, with food, and discussing the scriptures, sharing life together, and impacting each other's stories. I think everyone should do it. Its just not that easy...

Who's house will we meet at? Who will provide the food? What about kids? pets? football? curriculum? These are just the easy questions. Put together a diverse group of people from different traditions, cultures, and point of views and ask questions like "what do you think?". Oh My! On top of those you have to navigate both the "babbling brooks" (those who talk to much) and also the "dead seas" (those who don't talk at all). You navigate those who think every question is "too personal" and those with PHD's in TMI... either could potentialy sabotage healthy discussion. As a leader I struggle with gently steering the conversation. It might be easier to be hands off, watch the sparks and ignorance fly and then call time after 35 minutes. The other easy option would be to script and control the whole thing. Nah. There's something wonderful about the organic process of people learning courtesy, grace, and community together.

I'm getting better at it. It's an interesting skill. I'm just wondering how to put it on a resume.

Small Group Home Fellowships

Our church does these for six weeks twice a year. Once in the spring and again in the fall. I am fairly involved in making sure they happen. The week before we begin I am generally so frustrated with my s.p., fellow staff, and volunteer leaders, that I swear we should never do this again. Then after the first meeting I am reminded of the value of folks in our church doing church "house to house". In our fairly traditional church this is still a new thing and there always seems to be a little resistance to this... "ARE WE CANCELING SUNDAY NIGHT CHURCH?!", "WHAT IF SOMEONE HAS A KEGGER?", "WHAT ARE WE DOING TO CONTROL EVERY MOMENT OF THESE MEETINGS?" I must admit, deep inside, I love the messyness and mystery of people meeting in couches in circles instead of church chairs in rows. I love the organic nature of these times. I love that, even more so then a traditional service, we don't really know what each group, time, or meeting will look like. I love the things about these groups, that freak my pastor out about these groups. I love that this season we will be allowing Chris Seay to speak into the hearts of these group discussions. So, last sunday was the first week of our new fall season.

I was slightly disappointed with the size of our group, but others will be joining us next week. This week we were: my wife and I, Mr and Mrs A (the hosts), Mrs Z (the hosts mom), and Mr and Mrs B ( my back-up back-up leader). We had a fantastic time that began with some grubbin snacks from Trader Joes. Myself and Mrs A discovered we are only 22min apart in age (we have the same birthday). Mr B expressed he is really looking forward to learning more about the life of Noah (Mr B turns 79 tomorrow but comments like this make me so glad he's in our group). How many 79 year olds do you know, that have spent most of their life in church, but are really looking forward to a Chris Seay video series on Noah AND want to see your pimped out Honda civic? Mr B is awesome! The night wrapped up with me and Mr A hanging out on the patio with our kids shooting apples and oranges out of a potato launcher. I laughed everytime. Yes we were using a semi-explosive device, but at least this week no one tapped a keg or anything like that. I really enjoy these groups and feel like just their existence is part of the positive impact I've had here. Did I tell you we were using Chris Seay curriculum? Yes I am excited.