We dove into our 2nd weekend of our “Dialogue” series this weekend, tackling one of the questions / issues that came up the most on the “Enter the Dialogue” site. It didn’t surprise me that people wanted to talk about the issue of other religions. It seems axiomatic in our culture that spiritual / religious / faith issues are “preference” issues – along the lines of “do you want chicken… or chicken! (Tommy Boy – Chris Farley – reference). It’s critical that we talk about the one true God, revealed in the living Word, Jesus, and the written Word, Scripture & lived out in the community that is His body called the church in a way that makes some sense & seems plausible to our cultural.
Here are a few highlights of the weekend for me.
• ENERGIZED SERVICES – I’m not sure this is always true, in fact I know it’s not, but the weekend services seemed to build momentum with each one. It seemed like people connected worship more each services & the messages felt more connectivity each time.
• CHAT ROOM – I love doing those. They give each service it’s own character. It’s great to know that you are actually dealing with the stuff that some people are thinking about. God is really faithful in coming to my aid in those moments.
• THE BRICK – the part that I liked the best was the BRICK. I felt like the Lord gave me that insight on Wednesday when I was at the gym looking at the people working on the building that is across from the 24 Hour Fitness.
• PARENT SEMINAR – On Saturday our student ministries put together a seminar of parents. I taught a seminar as did Brian Berry & Christina Robertson and my long time friend Mark Oestriecher (check out his blog at http://www.ysmarko.com/). It was great to hang out with some journey people in a more relaxed setting & talk together about the mysterious thing that is parenting as a Christ follower.
• THE GIFT OF SURF – On Saturday after the parent seminar I met some of the guys I surf with for an afternoon session. Usually this means lots of wind & chop. But it was absolute glass when we paddled out & a fun building south swell. We caught a ton of waves (mostly lefts probably b/c of the swell direction).
• MUCHOS DEPORTES – This was a great sports weekend. Larkers beat Dallas today, it was selection Sunday, great LaBron, Koby & D Wade highlights & lots of fun “banter” about the Tournament.
• SPEAKING OF THE TOURNAMENT – I’m annoyed that the Big 10 got 7 teams in when Creighton & St Mary’s got stiffed.
It was a great weekend! I am grateful for all the people that make it happen.
