Greetings Friends!
I trust that tonight was a meaningful worship experience for you as we continue to explore the One Anothers. Take the challenge seriously to know one another's names, look for the good, and call it out! Don't go to bed tonight without calling or emailing a word of encouragement to someone in your world!
Whenever I am away from you, I find myself story-telling about you. I cannot tell you how encouraging it is to me when people hear the stories and respond with statements like, "That sounds really refreshing!" or "That's the type of church I am looking for!" or my favorite, "I didn't think God really did things like that!" The truth is, the more I storytell about what God is doing through Open Door, the more convinced I am that He is doing something fresh and unique with us. The more I storytell, the more I long to see God reimagine through us what it means to be ekklesia--the enhancing community--for the good of the world! I am encouraged!
The next five days for me--and hopefully for us--are going to be full, rich, challenging, invigorating, exhausting... I will be studying alongside other leaders under a man named Alan Hirsch, author of an undoing, irritating book called The Shaping of the Things to Come. If you have a book budget, or even if you don't--GET THIS BOOK! I will be reading six other books throughout the week that are going to radically push my and our thinking about what the church was designed to be and what it means for us, Open Door, in our local context.
In an effort to bring you in on what I am learning, I will post on this blog every single evening. My hope is to summarize the dialogue of the day while bringing you in on how I am processing it. I long to dialogue with you along the way. I cannot imagine a more holistic approach to learning than this--being in the classroom with leaders down here will simultaneously being "in the classroom" with my church family. Please read and respond to what you hear. What sticks out to you? What thoughts do you have to add to the conversation--nothing is unimportant--everything is valuable.
Please pray for me along the way. My prayer is that God would continue to reimagine inside of me--that He would continue to reimagine inside of you. My prayer is that we would fall deeper in love with His Son as we know Him more. My prayer is that we would see Walnut Creek and beyond come to know and follow Him.
Blessings on the Journey!
1 comment:
Unconventional,
I do pray that God will transform you more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank you that that is your prayer for me as well.
The message on Sunday evening was especially meaningful to me. You and many others at Open Door have been very encouraging to me during a very difficult season in my life - filled with remorse, doubt, guilt and fear.
T's message and my own situation has caused me to think about what it means for us to encourage one another. How is it, for example,that you are able to encourage me? I think it has to do with trust, truth, prayers and faithfulness. I trust you, because you know me and you still love me. Knowing my name is a start, but you know much more about me - my hurts, being lonely and neglected growing up, my sins, my weaknesses and failures, my fears and yet you love me. You listened to me carefully, you did not judge me, you accepted me as I am.
From what you have taught and how you have lived, I believe that God's truth is in you and that that is what you share with me. Your prayers to God hold me up and open the way for me to persevere and to change. I believe that you are a faithful friend, that I can come to you for encouragement, and that you will continue to encourage me as long as God leads you to do so. That is why I am encouraged by your words and by your prayers. I think the same is true about a number of my other friends at Open Door and elsewhere.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement. They are such a blessing and such a help. I have at times been pretty desperate.
Wasabi
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