stuff on the eve of lent

It's been a while so here are some random thoughts for today:

1. I'm looking forward to Lent starting tomorrow. I like the idea of having those 40 days set aside to reset & reboost my spiritual batteries. There's something about having a period of time set aside for some intrspection that can't help but be fruitful.

2. I was invited to share about Lent & Ash Wednesday to a small group from another church in town a couple weeks ago. The family hosting/leading that group was once part of our community. They left us to get involved at another church & we blessed them on their way. It was really neat to see the influence we had on them & how they're influencing others. Their meeting was pretty much a carbon copy of our gatherings: sharing dinner, sharing needs, sharing scripture, sharing communion, and sharing dessert.

3. Speaking of our community, we are no longer associated with the Vineyard. We reached an impasse over the Vineyard's insistance that we sign a trademark agreement to protect the name & brand of the Vineyard. We had some definite philosophical & theological objections. First, it's just flat out wrong to brand or trademark the church. It stinks of consumerism and commercialism. The term "vineyard" has too rich a biblical meaning to try to claim exclusive rights to. Part of the contract would have required us to participate in legal action against other churches or ministries for unauthorized use of "vineyard" in their name. That also flat out wrong. So we stood our ground & were asked to go our way since we didn't want to play nice. Quite frankly, it's a bit of a relief. We feel more free to be who were are now.

4. Thanks to the generosity of our community Lisa & I will be traveling north next month to take part in at Vineyard Central in Norwood, OH. We're really looking forward to that.