Mind Dump

Several things are beating around in my head this morning.

One – We have an amazing collection of people that serve as the lead team of UCF. This morning we just had an incredible conversation about trust, accountability and mission. I love how God has molded this group into a subtly powerful force for the kingdom. Not in the normal sense that you might think of from other church leadership groups, but in a serving, giving, not-settling-for-the-status-quo kind of way that is very energizing and challenging to me. We meet every Thursday at 6 AM to continue a dialogue about what God is doing in us personally and collectively in this spiritual community called University City Fellowship. I am simply amazed at how the individual gifts of each person combine to form a very effective serving group. This was the hardest part of planting a church. Our first run at forming a lead team was a complete disaster. We had the wrong people with the wrong idea of what we were trying to create and form. I learned a ton from this failure and because of it I am that much more grateful for what God has formed over the last five years.

Two – I love the conversations that usually take place after our lead team even more. Mostly because these people are aware of and respond to the activity of God in their own lives and wonder out loud what it means for our community. I know God is birthing something very transformational. I have prayed for it and I have sensed it for a year or two, but now he is beginning to awaken others and call them to the same transformational pursuit. I cannot express the form that it will take, I only know that this morning’s conversations with Todd and Gray put me on a whole new level. After those conversations, I felt a lot less pressure to try to communicate what I think God wants us to do, because He is already preparing these guys for what is next. (And by the way, God has a way of communicating that is just a whole lot better than what I would come up with.) There is a burden to make sure our lives live up to their full redemptive potential that God had planned for us all. To be all in and go all out. To not let anything stand in the way of God’s full reign in us, so that He can lead us easily into the next opportunity. It is happening and it is humbling to feel like I am supposed to be the one leading this thing from a human perspective.

Three – I am reading and re-reading a book that resonates so deeply within my soul, that I can’t wait to get to the next page, but I keep finding myself re-reading pages because they so clearly express things that God has been building in my heart for years. I will try to write some of them down here so hopefully you can join the journey. The book is The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. Some of this stuff describes our community to a T and other parts of it challenge us to become something different – never settling for the safety and security of what we have done in the last 8 years. Get ready for a wild ride.