Today was a difficult one for me. Tough day at work. There’s a lot going on now with the church, the tent, and everything else in life. I have felt very busy in my brain trying to think through ideas and I just need to veg out and watch some tv. I recognize when I need to turn my computer off. I’m doing it now……..

Today was the first day that we started meeting on Sunday morning in a tent out in the parking lot of our church. It worked pretty well. Got a little warm in there and at one point there was a swarm of bees that we could see through the tent. But, it worked pretty well. This is one of those situations where we will probably be adding new things each week. Kinda fun. (for now) We’ll have to see if my posts get more negative or positive about it as the months go by.

Tonight Danielle and I are spending the night at a nice hotel in downtown San Diego. This will be the first night we’ve been away from the kids together in about 18months. Meeting some friends for dinner and then sleeping in a big bed. Sleeping in too. Thanks to Danielle’s mom Lesley who just moved to Carlsbad. She’s amazing and we are lucky to have her here.

Many of you know that my church meets in a shopping center. It has been there for at least 12 years. We’re in the process of grading and building a church facility just up the road. Most of our space we own but the one leased room happens to be the room where my youth group meets. We just lost the lease so starting this weekend we are meeting in a giant tent with 70+ chairs in it 2 services on Sunday mornings.

Today I’m moving a bunch of youth group stuff into a storage facility that is between our Church and the beach. Now, I can walk to the beach from Church pretty quick so that means the storage facility is close. It’s also sititng on millions of dollars worth of property. Pretty interesting that someone hasn’t built many homes there. Is storage cheap in Carlsbad? Nope. But we’re paying big bucks to store stuff.

That’s it. Not much else interesting.

Two years ago I bought my first ever new car. It was a sweet little VW Jetta. Leading up to the purchase was a money pit Explorer that continued to fall apart. I was smart and bought the base model Jetta. It was a great car but after I bought my suburban this year it wasn’t practical anymore to own 3 cars. So, we decided to sell the Jetta. It took two months and a couple price drops but Craigslist came through and someone who needed it is now driving my fun little car.

Of course I’m not so sad. I realize that I’m 36 which means in 4 years I get to buy a sports car when I hit my midlife crises. Or, maybe not.

Here’s to my car………

My friend Brian just got married to Steph tonight. I was one of the groomsman. It was at a castle in Ramona and beautiful. I’m stoked for them and a bit envious that they are going to Jamaica. Brian is the Junior High Pastor at my church and Steph works at Forest Home. Good friends we like. I’m proud of them. So tired, funny too I’m old. During picture time the photographer wanted us to all jump off a 3 foot wall while he took a picture. I expressed that I thought it a bad idea but still did it. Hit the ground straight legged because I was focusing on the camera. Jacked my back. Several advil later I am feeling better.

Next week we are about to start our third year of our Core Group Ministry for High School students at my church. This is the year for me when everything “should” come together. The first year we were just setting the model, last year we were gaining consistency and this year we are pushing communication and curriculum. I have done a ton of communicating with parents, students and leaders and we have spent the last three weeks training, praying and preparing.

Tonight I realized that as much as I’m excited about the groups and we’ve done a lot of preparing for them we still have to realize that ultimately God is going to lead these in the direction he wants. I’m just praying that the right students are their on the specific nights when God wants them to learn something. I’m praying that leaders have great answers, compassion and love for students. I’m praying that parents get on board with the vision and commit to getting their students to the 11 sessions this fall.

So that’s it. I’m stressing proabably more than I need to but its becasue I care about these students so much and want them to be in a place where great growth can happen.

Amen.

Thanks to Mike D. for introducing me to the book West of Jesus.  I bought it yesterday and have had a hard time putting it down.  It’s written in a Blue Like Jazz narrative style which is the perfect genre for exploring God and introducing the surfing community to thoughts about him.  I often wonder how something like this might actually be more effective as a too of evangelism than a lot of the things we do to try and reach people.  Now granted I’m not done with the book and can’t vouch for the overal theology of it but I am attracted to its theme of searching for something "bigger than us."   

I know I havn’t posted very much lately. Summer was really a crazy time and I haven’t found much inspiration to write about. Yesterday was a tough day for me. After 3 months of knowing we finally were prepared to let the students know that their morning services times were going to be changed. But, a last minute brainstorming sessions changed that and I’m back to the stress of figuring out what to do. Last night though all the stress caught up to me and I almost fell asleep at the dinner table. I mangaged to get up to bed where I slept from 7pm to 5:30am. I just started reading some new books today and I’m pretty stoked. Check them out on the sidebar.

I’m tired of writing and I don’t feel well. I’ll put together a decent post sometime this week.