Reflecting

Before I get to my thoughts about Thinspace last weekend I just have to share a quick story. Lisa, the girls and I went to a Lenten Fish Fry sponsored by the Church of the Resurrection Catholic church. As we were enjoying our dinner Lisa made a profound observation. Here we were, a new young family, not members of this church and nobody tried to talk us in to joining their church or coming to their service. Everyone was very friendly. Several people stopped by to comment on Clare. The pastor was there having dinner with some people. It was a church community event done for the sake of having a community event & not a covert outreach program. Imagine that.

It's been a week since my trip up north for the feast of St. Patrick. All week. So much was crammed into such a small time I'm still trying to unpack it all in my head (and unpack my suitcase). I think the the most powerful result has been a rekindling of some of the vision & passion that Lisa & I have had for the kind of church we want to build. Over the years we've been so buffeted and banged up by life that we slowly lost sight of the vision God gave us. Seeing the community at Vineyard Central living out a similar calling reminded us of what we once held so dear. Being able to taste & see what God is doing there jogged our memories.

The other big thing I took away from the weekend was a real sense of belonging. It's easy to feel alone & isolated sometimes when you don't have a connection with many others on the same journey going through the same experiences. It's one thing to rely on keeping up with blogs, but it's really something else to gather in one place with fellow sojuorners and share our stories.

The guys at VC recorded all of the sessions and made them available as podcasts. My personal favorite for the weekend was Todd Hunter on Friday night.

Others have had some time to blog about their experiences:

• Alan
• KRains
• Bishops
• Peter White