Emergent Brethren

Last night, while waiting for Michael Phelps to swim, we watched 43 year old Dara Torres win her first silver medal. What a race!

One of the reporters asked her what she will tell her two year old daughter about this event (assuming that the daughter won’t remember witnessing it) and Dara said….”You don’t have to put an age limit to your dreams!”

Now that’s the truth! You are never too young or two old to dream dreams and reach toward acheiving them. What are some of your dreams?

Not yet… but it soon will be!

I was offered the opportunity to receive two free copies of Mark Batterson’s new (not yet out, but on Aug. 19) book, Wild Goose Chase and blog a review of the book before August 19. The books just came today… I’ve been anxiously awaiting them and will move it to the top of my “MUST READ” list… actually I will take one on vacation next week. With today being the 13th and getting ready for vacation and the 19th just 6 days away, I am choosing to post a few helpful “one liners” from the book and will blog more about it at a later date.

Here is a summary and bio on Mark as well….

Most of us have no idea where we’re going most of the time. Perfect. “Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh–Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something….Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure.” —from the introduction.

Author Bio:
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, DC’s National Community Church, widely recognized as one of America’s most innovative churches. NCC meets in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the city, as well as in a church-owned coffee house near Union Station. More than seventy percent of NCC’ers are single twentysomethings who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark is the author of the best-selling In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and a widely read blogger (www.markbatterson.com). He lives on Capitol Hill with his wife, Lora, and their three children.

One-liners…

“Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.”

“Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention.”

“Stop repeating the past and start creating the future.”

“Stop playing not to loose and start playing to win”

” Quit putting eight foot ceilings on what God can do.”

I am sure I will blog more later… as Mark is some one that I really appreciate as an author, pastor, and blogger. I read his blog daily, have read his first book twice (In a pit with a lion on a snowy day– HIGHLY recommend it by the way!), and have attended his church twice at their Coffee Shop location in D.C.!

I know it is a rare thing here… but a GOOD thing and a thing I hope happens a LOT more!  Some good dialogue took place under the radar back in July and August… you can find it in the “Third Places” category under Jeff’s “Thanks Starbucks” post.  Jump in…   Thanks Jonathan and Mike for carrying on a bit of a conversation here…  I am interested in hearing other thoughts on the points you raise.  And when I have more time… not sure when that will be!  I will check out Jonathan’s dissertation link!

Last night, I hosted a prayer/worship experience that I called “Passages: Conversations with God.”  My thought was to offer somethinga that would help us connect with God in a variety of ways, using prayer, worship, and some spiritual disciplines.  Last night we used the Jesus Prayer and a passage from Luke 10.  The other thing I wanted to try was the 5 questions that I found in “Tangible Kingdom”… because I am thinking about using them as the framework for “the sermon time” in a new worship experience that I would like to launch this fall.  I was not sure how the questions would go… but it was the best part!   I didn’t want to delve deep into historical analysis of the scripture, etc.   I wanted to engage the Scripture as the Living Word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our conversation.  It was totally awesome how rich and deep that time was.   Here are the questions that we used to guide our conversation.  1. What did you like about what you just read? 2. What didn’t you like? 3. Was there anything you didn’t understand? 4. What did you learn about God? 5. Regardless fo where your faith is at right now, if you were to apply what we learned about God to something in your life this week, what would that look like?

I can’t wait to see how using them goes several weeks running.

It was good to meet many of you at Annual Conference this past week… NOW, PLEASE take some time to post and respond to posts here… it will make this a much richer experience for all of us!

 What’s happening in your context that you are excited about?

What book or books are you reading that you have found helpful and would share a synopsis of here?

What are your dreams for the coming year?

What are the challenges you are facing right now?

When can we meet again?  Where?

 What neat creative worship elements would you share with us?

You get the idea… now let us know!