Playing Catch-up

I can't believe that it is already the ninth day of May. Where does the time go? It's strange that over the last six days or so I have observed different events, said, "I need to get that on the blog," and now I can't remember a blasted thing! I am getting old(er) and struggling to remember.

There are many things happening right now. Tomorrow several of us from City-Wide Redeemer will join other volunteers at this year's Las Vegas Special Olympics for school children. I can't wait to get there in the morning. I think that our daughter is going to join me for the event. I hope that I can keep her from joining in the races. She makes a race out of everything these days. At this point if we can keep her from racing through her bath and brushing her teeth we consider it a victory. And after all, is it really such a bad thing if she wants to race her brother to see who gets to sleep the fastest? That is our favorite race as parents!

A few new families have begun to join us for worship on Sundays, or have begun to attend our community groups or women's study. They are all dear people. I'm looking forward to getting to know them more personally. That, though, becomes increasingly difficult as we grow in size. It has been very gratifying to see how well the people of CWR take initiative to welcome and get to know newcomers. Everybody has a story and they seem to recognize how important it is to hear that story even as we seek to share the good news of the gospel with our lives and our words.

I've been thinking much lately about the importance of making disciples. I don't know how it is that we have reduced the work of the church to filling up more chairs on Sunday mornings. Every time I ask another church planter how things are going it seems like that is the measure of data that most explains their progress. It seems like that is what people want to hear when they ask me the same question. It seems like that is all outsiders to the church know to ask about too. They hear that we are part of a church and the first question is, "Where do you meet?"

That is an important question. And maybe it makes the most sense to ask that question. But do they observe any other fabric that holds together Christ's church? Do they observe transformation taking place in the homes of their neighbors to such an extent that "Where do you meet?" becomes a secondary question. I am convinced more and more that the Sunday service of worship should be seen as something that is flowing out of what is happening in our lives throughout the week. It should be a continuation of worship that happened Monday through Saturday. What does all of this mean? It means that I have to grow in my own view of worship. It points me back again to the importance of making disciples too. If I go any further it will just take us all to needless rambling. I'll write more once I have more crystallized thoughts on the matter.

We have had three new neighbors move in on our street this week too. Very cool! In the midst of this current housing slump I didn't expect to see any new neighbors for a while. But, people are still moving into Las Vegas by the thousands each month. Thousands are leaving too. A mortgage broker told me that February saw 8,000 move in and 5,200 move out for a net gain of 2,800. That is still a lot of people. That is a 1% population increase each month.

The pizza I just ordered is here. Angie is reposing with a killer migraine. That meant that I had to "cook."