No Words

One of my friends from high school posted this on their Facebook page. She shares that Oprah recently had the parents on her show. Eliot's brave parents spoke about their precious gift from God. His mother said as she was living through this she "would be sad later" because she was going to enjoy her baby every second.

There are simply no words for the thoughts and emotion this video brings. We should be thankful every single day without question.

Love Jesus, Hate Church?

The following is a video that I found on You Tube pertaining to the Hate Church idea. I started a comment on the page to Chris, the guy that recorded the video, but ran out of space because I have more to say than You Tube allows. Check out the video and then read the rest of the post.



Chris, I can totally identify with the things you are saying. I too grew up in church. It seemed like the older I got, the more disillusioned I became with the entire idea of being part of a church. When you feel like all you are is a number or a check in the offering plate, it tends to take a toll. And church leadership is just as bad - about the most you get is their big ol' preacher smile and if you're lucky a "good to see you".

Roll back to December 2007. I received a door hanger from a church for it's public launch in January 2008. Usually stuff like that, whether for pizza, yard service, painting, etc. goes directly in the trash at my house. But for some reason, this one stayed on my kitchen counter. At the time, it had been about 4 years since I had been a part of a church, and even as good as I thought the last one was, they too failed me during one of the most painful times of my life. Needless to say, I was not too interested in throwing myself into another one of those situations and facing the distinct possibility of being disappointed again. So the door hanger lived on the counter for 6 months. And then, for whatever reason, I decided that I needed to explore the church's website and figure out whether I wanted to give it a try. One year ago today I got up, showered, and made my way to this new place feeling extremely vulnerable and with defenses high. I decided that morning that if no one spoke to me, introduced themselves, and made me feel welcome that I would not return and probably would be finished with church. You see, church never really failed me as far as the core of what I believed. But it did fail me when it came to people being real with each other and the church being focused on things other than it's buildings and money and status in the community.

God knows and feels our pain, and He knew that I was on the verge of slipping away. As I sat there taking everything in and reading the announcements on the screen, I felt a hand on my shoulder and a warm friendly face appeared followed with an introduction, "Hi, I'm ______. Welcome to The River." I specifically remember this person and always will. It was at that moment I knew that God was fighting for me; He was reminding me of His promise to never leave us or forsake us.

I continued attending this church and it makes me happy to say that this is now my church home. It's hard to believe it's been a year. Everything that church was about before, all of the failures, the cliques, the wrongs, are not present in this church. Every church has it's challenges - that's just what happens when a group of messed up people get together and realize that they can't do it on their own while seeking God's help.

In your video, you mentioned finding a church that is outwardly focused - one that meets in a park or a coffee shop and is concerned about more than just what's inside it's walls; a church that is about the community. In an effort to give you a glimmer of hope about church, I want to share with you that our church strives to be what you described - community focused and non-judging, loving people for who they are and where they are. We strive to be outwardly focused on the community around us and the world. We strive to use resources effectively. The church originally began meeting in a school and when they reached a point where they needed to move, they rented a building. But it was much more space than what could ever be used for church. Plus, the vision was not to have a building that would sit empty all week. If the space was going to exist, then it needed to be used for something productive. Thus the vision of Confluence Coffee - where coffee and life collide. Why such a strange name like Confluence? The word means the joining of two rivers - and people should be like a river, ever flowing and changing the landscape. It also happens to tie in nicely with the church's name and mission - The River Church. We built Confluence to be a place where the community can come together and "do life", have meetings, play music, enjoy each other's company. While the shop is owned and operated by the church, it is not marketed as a "Christian" coffee shop. Anyone and everyone are welcome. And so that is how we choose to use the space that God provided - to reach the community - and we borrow a tiny portion of that space on Sundays for our services.

I could go on and on about the blessings God has poured out on me since becoming a part of this church. My prayer is that you too will find the place that God would have you, and that you are able to give to them just as much as they give to you, even with the pain of past experiences. I know you live in Nashville, but feel free to check out our site. If you're ever over this way, stop in. Keep praying and keep seeking - your heart is in the right place. God will provide the place for you in His time. Until that time, as our pastor tells us, "be the River". Our church's site is www.riverchurchlive.com and the coffee shop's site is www.confluencecoffee.com.

If you have questions or would like to chat, please let me know. It hasn't been so long that I don't remember what it was like to feel what you are feeling.

Thankful!

This weekend was crazy. I had a Christmas party at my house on Saturday night and had about 38 people there. If you’ve ever been to my house before, you know that it was totally packed! Per the “Party-Goers’ Rule Book”, everyone must congregate in the kitchen or at least near the food for the first half of their attendance. It was like the rest of the house didn’t even exist. It was totally funny to see it happen though. For anyone who has had a large gathering like this, you also know it is very neat to see various aspects of your life come together at one time. There were people representing personal friendships, my family, people from my church who have become awesome friends over the last several months, and people from work that I consider friends before being my co-workers and teammates. It was a huge undertaking and I’m still exhausted but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It was great to see everyone, especially since we’re all going to many different directions this time of year.

As I began to hobble to the bathroom and get ready for church on Sunday, I found myself saying “I sure hope Donnie rocks it out today because I need it.” And guess what? He did! The band was totally awesome and we had a wonderful service. With being sick the last several weeks and only attending once or twice out of the last month, I needed a refreshing of spirit and mind, which I definitely got.

I was also facing an entire week of travel and moving my desk at work to a new location. Sunday morning I called my mom and asked her to please help me do that so it wouldn’t take so long, which she was gracious enough to do. It’s funny how God always knows what you need right when you need it. Not only did I receive what I needed thru worship and Joey’s message and my mom’s help, but about the time I got to the office to start moving the desk I received a phone call from a manager in Charlotte saying that I didn’t need to come down there on Monday. What a blessing! I was so relieved that I could come into the office and focus on getting things in order and wrapping up a few other things before vacation begins next week.

It’s amazing to see and be reminded of God’s promises over and over again. He tells us that He will never give us more than we can handle at one time; and He knew that I was tired and almost at the end of my rope. Look for God’s present of presence in your life this holiday season and praise and thank our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and Prince of Peace.

Wow! Where Does Time Go?

Okay, so you've probably noticed that I've been incredibly SLACK with the blog. It's been over a month since the last post. Let me see if I can catch you up with what has been going on.

For those of you with a Facebook account you probably have seen my status updates showing things about work. In case you don't have a FB account, let met catch you up. About a month ago, my managers came to me and asked me to work with the Wealth Division and manage a project that will develop their entire learning path and certification program. I was a little uncertain about it at first, but it's one of those things that just do because if you don't it's a career move. This project encompasses about 30 job families and a ton of curriculum that utilizes internal sources as well as external vendors. Fun stuff! (Not so much some days.) It's going well so far, but its completely exhausting.

I've also been fighting the various strains of funk that have been going around. I'm just getting over a cold which came on the heels of about 2 days of the flu. Fun stuff! NOT REALLY! I'm not a good sick person. I just sleep and try to avoid the world as much as possible. So I think I'm on the mend now.

Vacation is coming up! Wahooooo!!!!! I haven't been anywhere since summer of last year. We leave on Saturday and will spend a week in St. Augustine with a brief venture to Jacksonville and Hernando (a wide spot in the road north/northwest of Orlando, I think). That's where my uncle and aunt live; so we'll visit them while we're down there.

Overall, things are going pretty well. That is about all I can think of right now. If I come up with something else, I'll post again later.

Now THAT's What I'm Talkin' About. . .

On Sunday, Joey announced two evenings of work - Monday and Tuesday. Honestly, I was not looking forward to it because the tasks seemed overwhelming and my faith in numbers and manpower was little. Before Sunday was even over, we had people mowing and trimming the yard. Monday night we had about fifteen (15) people show up to help with the various things that need to be done in order to make the red room and the big room of The Underground "rent-able." It's a good thing since we have two events booked down there this weekend! Wahoo! It's already being used to bless the community and we haven't even begun to market the space yet. Tonight (Tuesday) we had about six people show up to help. What a blessing. Y'all, Amy can paint some trimwork! So keep that in mind if you need stuff done in your house. :) She'll get me for saying that. And Rita and Lydia are just jacks of all trades - cleaning, organizing, and painting. And that was just tonight. Last night was amazing too and the names and jobs are just too many to list.

With all of that said, things are looking good. But we need to a little more help to push us over the hump. The fire marshall is visiting again on Thursday. So if you can help tomorrow night (Wednesday) please come lend a hand. There are so many little things to do and we can use everyone in some way.

God is good! And GREAT is His Faithfulness just like Meredith said on The Smith's blog this week. Morning by morning, new mercies we see. All that we've needed His hand has provided. And He certainly showed me that I need to have more faith in the challenging times. I can't wait to be back downstairs worshiping and fellowshiping with all of our River friends this week. If you were not there this past Sunday, we are having a church potluck dinner and meeting on Sunday night. Please plan to attend. This will be a great time for us to enjoy each other's company and the space that the Lord has been so gracious to provide for us and the community - even through a few floods. Speaking of which, let's think of ways to Flood the community and share with each other on Sunday night.

Have an awesome week! Looking forward to seeing each one of you soon. Until then, as Joey always says, Be the River!

Random Thoughts

I'll go ahead and tell you. . . these are just my late night ramblings. There's no Jesus point to this post.

This Friday and Saturday brings another weekend of cool music at Confluence. If you haven't been in a few weeks or you've never attended, make plans to join us. You'll really enjoy it. Things get going about 8:00pm and run until close at 11:00pm. And you can try out one of the six (6) new freezer drinks. We have Banana Split, Chai, Garcia's Revenge (sort of like Cherry Garcia), Peppermint Patty, Bahama Mama, and Almond Joy. I've tasted all but one. . . and they're all excellent. So be there! Or else! :~P

It's been a strange week - probably becuase of the holiday and having an extra day off. It was great, but you know how that throws off your entire week. Monday was Sunday all day, so I've been behind a day (or is that, ahead a day) all week.

I've been fighting what I originally thought was a cold coming on. But now I think it was just allergy as I feel much better today. Amazing what some good over the counter drugs and sleep will do for you.

We have had some really crazy days at work lately. Our project was stalled (and still is) and so for about 3 weeks we didn't really do that much. But now it's like they're trying to pay us back all at once. The days are jammed packed and I don't think I've ever had so many voicemails in my life. Every time I turn around that $&#%@ little red light is lit up on my phone again. UGH! Today brought some relief though. We have been working on a blended learning project with a professor at San Diego State University. She's wonderful and provides excellent feedback. But I think the presentation hanging over our heads sort of caused some undue stress. Life is good now though. She loved our presentation and I think we are ahead of the other team that presented today for the ultimate "win."

We have been reading a book titled "Tellin' Ain't Training" as part of the process of forming our new larger team. It's an excellent book and I highly recommend it for anyone in the training field, middle/high school education, or even for college professors. The authors bring out some very good points about how we need to approach adult learners and what types of tactics will really help make our intended points without being the proverbial talking head. The thing to remember is that you want training and the corresponding materials to be "learner centered - performance based." Check it out or borrow my copy!

I think that's about all for right now. . . I do have one other piece of news to share. Our friend JOE OWENS, from The River Church, has a blog. Who knew that quiet Joe had so much to say and was so funny!? It's really cool. Check it out by linking from my Friends and Family section of the left side of this page.

Over and out!
J

My God Is Mighty To Save, Part 2

One of my friends sent this video today. Check it out! Very powerful and it is very appropriate based on my last post. Praise Him that He continues to fight for us regardless of how far we may stray!