Glorious Mud

We live in a hurried and distracted world.  We are overstimulated and bored.  We are driven to do more, achieve more, schedule more, and yet feel more disconnected, more left out, and more guilty about what we can't be part of.  As a culture, we know how to work hard, play hard, and escape even harder.  But we don't know how to rest. As a result, most of us are running dangerously close to complete melt down.  We are frayed and coming undone.  I think Weezer said it best (well, maybe not the best... but it will work) in their song Undone (better known as the sweater song).  It's a silly little song - but look at the lyrics. If you want to destroy my sweater Hold this thread as I walk away Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I've come undone. How many of us are so frayed that if that one thread were pulled - we would be naked on the floor curled up in the fetal position.  So we spend our time tryi...

Worth a few minutes of your day.  Enjoy.

This last week, Trailhead Church in Edwardville had our first Fight Club big group meeting.  We talked about why it is vital that we fight with each other for the right things.  So, I am going to post the notes from that meeting here in case you were not able to join us.  Read this and fight with us.  (Special thanks to Darrin Patrick for writing his great book Church Planter and to John Bryson for posting his fight club material online!) The Crisis of Manhood Welcome – and good morning Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. (1 Corinthians 16:13) Trailhead’s vision is to create a culture that encourages manhood, not to start another men’s program.  We don't need  – one more thing to do. We need a men’s culture – where men are expected to be men – where we have high standards for ourselves and for each other. This is going to be a huge challenge because we are facing a crisis of manhood in our culture. ...

I know I haven't posted in a while... but I have been a little busy starting a church.  I have one word to describe the last month and a half of labor: Joy.  Seriously.  I can't tell you how thick and rich and deep the experience of God's grace has been in it.  I will post more about that soon. But for now - Lauren posted some thoughts on her blog about being a pastor's wife that I want to share with you.  You can find it here:  Ground of my Own . If you know me - you know that I am not your typical pastor (if there is such a thing, I guess).  I have just kind of tripped through life and God has always directed my stumbling steps to take me where he wants me.  Five years ago, I would have laughed at you if you had said I was going to be a pastor.  Well, Lauren never imagined that she would end up as a pastor's wife.  The experience has been just as rich and encouraging for her as it has been for me - but she comes from a background...

The book of Acts has 28 chapters - and it is the history of the birth and spread of the early church.  The book of Acts ends the only way it could - open-ended.  Acts starts telling us a story that is still going on today - it is the story of God calling lost and broken people to himself to heal them and restore them to hope.  It is the story of God building his church. Acts 29 exists to equip and advance the cause of church planting.  In order for Trailhead to become a member, I had to go through a series of steps (writing position papers, multiple conversations, and a formal interview of both Lauren and myself) in which my character, my calling, and my skill set were examined.  In addition, our church's theology (what we believe about God) and our core missiology (how we live out our faith with those outside the church) were tested to see if they were sound and in line with the Bible. This week, Trailhead formally became a member of the Acts 29 network...

We have a crisis of discontentment today.  We have more than we have ever had - but we are less content that we have ever been. So, here is the deal.  If you want to be content - you have to foster a healthy discontentment. Seriously.  You can't be content without it. A lot of people think of contentment as a passive state of simply being "OK" with your life.  That isn't contentment.  It is denial.  Or worse, it is despair - the loss of hope for something better. Contentment is not a passive acceptance of what is - it is the result of an active pursuit of what is better. We are discontent because have a hunger for something we don't have.  The problem isn't the hunger - the problem is that we try to feed that hunger with the wrong things.  We crave something - so we try to feed it with buying stuff, or with the distraction of entertainment, or with more and greater achievement.  And it doesn't work. You can't satisfy a desire for ...

This last Saturday, The Journey: Metro East (soon to be Trailhead Church) hosted our first Affordable Christmas at our space in Edwardsville, IL. Affordable Christmas was the brain child of Josh Wilson and the crew at Mission St. Louis .  They decided several years ago to try to empower a group of low income parents with a way to shop for their children's Christmas by giving them an event that offered new presents at drastically reduced prices.  This event has proven to be one of the most anticipated events put on by MStL.  So, this year, we jumped in with them (or, I should say they jumped in with us - they brought over a great crew to help us staff and run our event)!  We have been working over the last two years to build relationships with a group of families living at SIUE's family housing, and this even was a great way to empower them and continue to serve them with the love of Christ. It really was a blast.  We had fun.  The parents had fun....