Well, we made it two years...
Do we get a certificate or something? :)
Last night we took Chris/Karli/Ania and Rich/Melanie (our associate and worship pastors and wives) out to dinner to celebrate and say "thank you" for two years of fun and work in putting a community together...
We had a good time just being together... nothing really serious. We couldn't find a babysitter, so Jack was with us, and Jack will do his darndest to keep anything from becoming overly serious. Besides, it was good to have him there, in a way. He was born during our "core group" phase, one month before we launched publically on Sundays. And Chris and Karli's daughter Ania was with us last night, one month old, sleeping in her car seat. Nice symmetry...
Speaking of symmetry, the pastor of the large church where I worked just before planting evergreen was with his wife just a table or two away. We chatted a moment while waiting before dinner and they came over and met everyone, talked a bit on their way out. Dale is a really gracious guy... He and his wife Linda planted Rolling Hills 28 years ago, this month if I'm not mistaken. Wow...
So two years. Not quite 28, but still...
I'm thinking of the people this morning, my little church family. I will marry some of them, bury some of them, pray with most of them, do my best to love all of them. I'll try to teach them and be taught by them, correct them and be corrected by them.
Hopefully, together, we'll continue to strain our ears, hear what the Spirit of God is saying to us... and act on it.
2 years... more than 17,000 forum posts, more than 100 sermons, multiple births and baptisms and lunches at the Lucky Lab... blogs and songs and tears and laughs... New faces come and some old faces go.
And I think my prayer is the same as it was on day one and I hope will still be at 5 years and 10 and however many more God gives us as a community together...
"Jesus, be the center."
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