Well, first for the nuts and bolt. I stayed in a yurt on Friday night with 6 other guys from the church. We had a great time talking, playing Yahtzee, and blowing things up in the fire. Saturday was more work on the church in the morning - only a couple more weeks of that I pray, followed by driving to Lapine, a little town south of Bend, to watch one of the teenagers in 'A Christmas Carol'. Sunday was business as usual, church at 10:30, home for lunch and football, but we did FINALLY decorate our tree. Getting time when all three of us were home, and awake, has not been easy lately. We got some great pictures of Levi decorating the tree...he really doesn't know what to think about having a tree inside the house. We woke up to a little snow this morning, but nothing to get too worked up about.
So, onto the fun stuff. I am going to be buying a book (or hopefully getting it for Christmas) by Andy Stanley named 'Visioneering'. He explains it as the engineering of a vision. I don't know much about it, but I read this quote on the back that finally set the hook after a friend recommended it to me "Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that is should be." That explains so precisely what I feel about my calling. I have an incredibly clear dream or vision about what could be in Boise, and the passion to see it happen. I do realize too, however, that in order for it to be, I need to have a more clear understanding of what it is 1)to be a senior pastor at all, and 2) what it means to plant a church.
I think in the COG we've confused starting a church with planting a church - and they are different. Starting a church, to me, can be done by anyone. It consists only of throwing the doors open and having church. Planting, in my opinion, speaks of preparation. A good farmer doesn't just walk out to a field and throw seed down, the prepare the ground to receive it. I think this is the disconnect right now for us. We want to start churches so badly, and so quickly that we forget about all the tilling, and turning of the ground. We forget, too, that we must know the ground, and know what kinds of seeds will grow there. It would be foolish to plant oranges in Idaho, and it would be equally as foolish to plant spuds in southern California. Corn works in Nebraska - so leave it there. We need to know the ground, know the climate, invest in the property, till the ground, and then plant our garden. Only then can we EXPECT our garden to grow and prosper. To carry the analogy one step further, by doing this preparation we can expect for the plants to bear fruit - fruits of the spirit specifically.
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