Big Meeting About Where To Meet

I am a part of a small fellowship of believers. We are at a cross roads of sorts. We have been meeting at a rented building about 5 miles out of the city limits in a very rural area. This is where the group has met since my wife and I moved into the area. There is a strong consensus that the location of the building is a problem (too far out of town to attract visitors), and the size is a problem (we park on the grass and can only have about 50 chairs set up comfortably in the meeting room - we average 35 people a week, the range is low 20's to low 40's).

We are ready for a change. We are having a congregational meeting on November 6th. At this meeting we will explore alternatives to our current location. The ultimate plan is to buy land and build. The question is what do we do in the mean time. Here are the options as I see them:

1. Continue to meet in same place.
2. Meet in homes for a while.
3. Meet in another building (another faith groups building, school etc...)

I would be interested in any feedback you may have regarding these options. Lessons learned, resources to check out.

Somethings just shouldn't be done

Yesterday, as I was traveling to Knoxville on business, I saw a definate "don't". On the side of the rode broken down was.......

A minivan......with flame decals behind the wheels.

It was good for a laugh. Wish I would have had my camera.

BTW, what is the deal about people putting t-shirts out windows of cars that have broken down? I have noticed this is a trend, is there some memo I missed?

Stranger in a strange land

I am an Auburn fan. I was raised there, and got my undergrad there. But I married outside "our people". My wife is a Bama fan. And I support them when they are not playing Auburn or where their victory will impact Auburn negatively.

This weekend was the big Alabama v Tennessee game. Being just over 1 hour from Neyland Stadium, we were bombarded by visions of garish orange everywhere we looked. This week we have experienced:

The P.E. coach at Grace's school had car pool duty and brandished a stop sign that said "Stop Bama." And said it was for Grace's mom.

Our nieghbors across the street had tickets and as they left for the game yelled "Go Vols" to us.

The 9 year old down the street (really a nice kid) told my wife the game will be over by half time.

Tennessee won. It was a pretty good game. I wonder how Grace will be at school today. She had zealously been recruiting her girlfriends who don't care about football to cheer for Alabama. I am afraid she will get an education in what happens when you make yourself stand out as a stranger in a strange land. I hope they have mercy on her! Beause Auburn did beat TN pretty bad & her daddy won't have a problem reminding them of the score. (34-10 by the way)

Blogger Block

For the last few days, I have wanted to post something on my blog. However, nothing just seems right. But I fear if I don't write something, my loyal readers (all 2 of them) will stop checking to see what I am posting. So I decided to post about having blogger block. Now my two loyal readers will decide they have better things to do with their lives than read drivel like this.

The leaves have peaked here in the hills of east TN. Now the ground is starting to wear the hand me downs of the trees. It is so beautiful. Maybe I will figure out how to post a picture on here soon.

Hard To Get

As I was preparing for my lesson this Sunday, I saw something for the first time. Mark 4. Jesus is standing in a boat with a bunch of fishermen. He procedes to give them agricultural advice. He doesn't preface it by saying "The Kingdom of Heaven is like". He just starts talking about the chances of seed growing in 4 different types of soil. There must have been several confused looks around the group when he finished by "He who has ears let him hear". There had to be many more people than just the disciples who didn't get it. Let's face it there were times Jesus was hard to get. Rich Mullins wrote a great song about this idea. Here are the lyrics to the song from the album The Jesus Record.

Hard To Get

"You who live in heaven
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth
Who are afraid of being left by those we love
And who get hardened by the hurt

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape
To find the faith to ask for daily bread
Did You forget about us after You had flown away
Well I memorized every word You said
Still I'm so scared I'm holding my breath
While You're up there just playing hard to get

You who live in radiance
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin
We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was
Still we do love now and then

Did You ever know loneliness
Did You ever know need
Do You remember just how long a night can get?
When You were barely holding on
And Your friends fall asleep
And don't see the blood that's running in Your sweat
Will those who mourn be left uncomforted
While You're up there just playing hard to get?

And I know you bore our sorrows
And I know you feel our pain
And I know it would not hurt any less
Even if it could be explained
And I know that I am only lashing out
At the One who loves me most
And after I figured this somehow
All I really need to know
Is if You who live in eternity
Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time
We can't see what's ahead
And we can not get free of what we've left behind
I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears
All the words of shame and doubt blame and regret
I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here
Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led
And so You've been here all along I guess
It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get"

I have made a decision

I have not been very vocal about the election this year. Maybe the discomfort I feel about the election is the way of making me appreciate more that my citizenship is in Heaven. But today while reading Greg Newton's blog, I came to a decision. I am not undecided. I am simply disgusted.

I am disgusted by both sides:
Their spin
Their say whatever will help me win
Their deny what ever I said before that isn't convenient now
Their wrapping themselves in faith and the flag

Thanks for the vent. I probably will vote to choose the lesser of evils.

Braves season over

As I sit here, the Braves are down 12 to 3 in the eighth inning. Just a few observations:

1. Why are folks making it sound like the Braves choked, remember this was the year (for the second year in a row) that they weren't supposed to make the play offs.

2. Why don't people complain about running up the score in baseball. In football, if you throw a pass late in the game when you are up by 3 touchdowns, you are considered to be running up the score. Yet no one says that batters should only bunt when they are up by 5 runs. I know that the fact that there is no clock in baseball matters and the game can last as long as there are outs but I think other sports get a bad rap.

3. What does it say when the League Championship Series in both leagues is being played between teams that are from the same divisions?

Now that the Braves are out my heart is pulling for a Astros vs. Red Sox series but my head says it will be Cards vs Sox.

It is all in your perspective

Today my wife spotted our cat playing with a squirrel. I would call the cat by it's name but I don't know what it's name is. You see we had two that were identical. We told them apart by there personalities. Jacob was the more personable one and Esau was the hunter. One of them died due to a reaction to medicine which taught my neighbor a very rough lesson of no good deed goes unpunished. (But that is another blog all together) Now we just have one cat and we think before the cats were just playing with us. They would say "Who do you want to be today the one who rubs all over them or the one who spreads bird feathers all over the driveway?" But now that we have only one I am onto him and have taken to calling him EJ.

Well EJ was noticed playing with the squirrel. My wife seeing a lesson in how nature works says, "Look kids the cat has a squirrel." My almost 8 year old daughter says "Gross". My 4 1/2 year old son says "Cool". I guess it is all in your perspective.

Going Home Again

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in some consulting with the group of agencies I worked with right out of grad school. What an experience.

I was able to see what had become of the program I had been a part of starting. That gave me some pride. I was also able to see how well they had done since I had left with reminded me how replaceable I was.

It was great to see old faces and renew those relationships. I was wondering if the gravitational pull of the relationships would make me regret having left for Tennessee two years ago. I came to the realization that now TN is home and will be until God leads us somewhere else.