It's Friday!

Day two in Grand Rapids went well. Started the day with a great service and a speaker who reminded me that Christianity is not about us, it is about God. She admonished the modern church movement for self obsessing by letting our differences on how we should worship (style) get in the way of whether we worship at all.

She also used a great illustration to point out the interaction that should be going on amongst Christians. She said it should be like rocks sitting on each other: None of them the same, not fitting perfectly together and sometimes grinding abrasively against each other. She went on to admonish the "lone ranger" Christian mentality saying that if we are rocks building on each other, if one of us decides to do his/her own thing, they compromise the integrity of the whole.

I thought that was really cool and well put. Her point was this, "We must be before we can do." That is, everything we do must flow from the very core of who we are. We shouldn't be engaging the world because we have or because "that's what we're called to," it is who we are. You and I are the very presence of the living God on this earth today. So all we do must flow from that.

Since it got me thinking so much, this talk reminded me about an article I wrote a while ago which I'll put here soon.

Other than that, I got to spend some time with my wonderful team on the beach of Lake Michigan in a town called Holland. Bren you'll be happy to know that this town is the home of the largest tulip festival and largest parade in the country (besides the Rose Bowl Parade). It was beautiful out there.

Have a great day!