Great Gathering

Man...
What an incredible time of connecting at Saddleback in sunny southern California!!! Kay Warren spoke today and had an incredible heart-felt connection. Yesterday Greg Stier (Dare2share- www.dare2share.org) spoke and shared an incredible new student ministry idea for evangelism...

With all that aside... the best part of the whole week was seeing some old faces (not that they are really any older than me... but you know what I mean...) and getting re-connected with them and their lives. Judy Gregory (from Granger) flew on the same flights... talked about volunteers...what we were reading... ect... Reconnecting with Joby... Ben Taylor... Ben Mc... Chris Reed... JG... Fields and others... It's looking these guys (whom I'm known... served with... been encouraged by) in the eyes and finding out what's going on in their lives and in their ministries.

One example: Chris Reed has this way of asking me questions that I don't have ready answers for. Like today on the way back to the airport, he asked me, "Do you and your wife do romantic weekend retreats?" That's a hard question when you aren't doing it and should be. But I need someone to ask me those questions... So, thanks Chris.

What an incredible time of connecting with those who are doing it and are going to be doing it for a while!!! Thanks Neely... Thanks Josh... and Thanks Fields...


Next stop... Chicago: 2:52 am. (UGH!)

the zoo that was last night

Man, I think I have a pretty good idea of what it must have been like to Noah. On that ark with all those different animals, some of which were never met to be put into the same small space for extended periods of time...

Last night's Small groups was kinda like that... not in any way that they are (or were) animals... that's not the illustration. But it was wild and out of control. We've got 9 guys connected in "a" small group on Tuesday nights. That's not a small group... that's a youth group... Half of the group of guys are middle schoolers... The other half of the group are senior highers...

I need two adult leaders!!! Like yesterday!

I just thought I throw these thought out there... I just needed to vent.

The upside of the whole deal is... we've got 9 guys on Tuesday nights!!! That's more guys than we had all of last year, and that's just one night. So, the small groups are growing and taking off... if I could just find caring adult guys who love God and like students to connect with them, this would be awesome. Please God... provide...

JC

pic of my new digs...

Here is a picture of me in my new office!!! I love the four walls and door...

Just thought you might wanna check me out.

It's been a rough couple of months...

It has been a rough couple of months.

At this point, we've moved into our new building. It took many long days and lots of hard work. So much more than I would have ever expected. But we are finally in. In fact, last Friday was our last day in that building and we turned over the keys. Now, we only have to organize the one that we are using.

It's a great building... but as we are finding now, it is way too small. It's hard to imagine that this building is twice the size of our old building, and it's already too small!!!! It's a great problem to have... but it can be a difficult one to deal with.

School is coming along great. In fact, I type this blog during a 10 minute break in my Early Christian Centuries class. ECC is a ton of reading. But ironically (at least as far as I was thinking this summer...), I'm enjoying Hebrew more! Some of what I studied a few years ago at Emmanuel School of Religion is coming back. And I'm starting to get it again. (But we're only up to making syllables... not really anything hard.)

It's my hope that I will begin to blog more often. But what will likely happen is about a month from now I will realize that I haven't done it and I will submit on.

So for now... Take care!

JC