We Can’t Come Down

Life is beginning to speed up again. A dip in both my attitude and my real-time schedule gave me a bit of a break for about three weeks – but things are amping up, and I find myself waking up each day with a long list of stuff on my mind. Most of it is work related – we are close to moving our church services into our first permanent facility, and with that comes many changes and decisions. At the same time, we plan to launch a second site – to reproduce ourselves – just a few weeks after The Big Move. It sounds insane – and it feels insane – but it’s truly what we feel called to do.

If it was easy, I’d be worried. It’s not easy. It’s challenging and confusing and overwhelming. We – our staff – finding ourselves freaking out at various times during the day. With just cause.

It’s challenging because it’s new and fresh, unlike anything we’ve ever done. Everything in our future as an organization seems discombobulated – service schedules, office locations, signage, set-up, service length, leadership teams. We have no idea how to do church at a movie theater, which is where our second location will be.

Everything seems discombobulated, with more unanswered questions than any of us are comfortable with.

And yet….it’s in wrestling with the questions that we find answers, and discover more about ourselves, and – most importantly – redefine just why in the world we are in the middle of such a chaotic and challenging mess.

We know why we do this.

We are called. Our church is a living organism that breathes the truth of this one thing: God loves people. Many people are very far from him. We want to help. And this mission – this holy discontent – drives us to our knees begging for guidance, and draws us up to the challenge of – again, again and again – doing whatever it takes.

So – crazy times for us. We can’t even decide what to call the church(es) in their new, separate locations. As my coworker Susan said today, we are having a bit of an identity crisis.

But it’s only regarding the external. We know who we are. We know why we’re here.

We’re doing a good work. We can’t come down.

We’re getting ‘er done.

Must-See TV

This is pretty much my favorite tv show now.  And ‘The Biggest Loser’.  Love that, too.  Makes me cry.

But ‘The Office’ has become a favorite, simply because of the unbelieveably painful humor to be found in real, live humans.  I can laugh at those characters, surrogates for some of the strange situations we encounter in real life.  The tv situation depicts a weirder workplace situation than I have ever encountered.  It’s sort of refreshing to be able to watch from afar and laugh a bit without hurting anybody’s feelings.  Loved the new episode tonight, when Angela’s two-timing is revealed and we get to witness Andy and Dwight work through their reactions.  It was so fitting to see the chickens come home to roost as they each symbolically cut their ties to the woman who betrayed both of them.

Our staff at church all received word this week of some pretty harsh pay cuts.  Everybody’s hurting – some more deeply than others.  It’s a lot to process, but a great opportunity for growth.  Our workplace situation is full of some amazing characters – some with interesting personality perks, quirky habits and interesting passions.  But every one of them is good and decent.  I trust them all and care for them deeply.  I think we all ache for one another as we each navigate the change in our paychecks.

It’s not ‘The Office’, but at times it’s just as entertaining.  And, in the end, it’s a lot more rewarding.

I love my job.

My Workday

I’m whipped.

But in a good way.

We kicked off a new series at church today, and everybody was back in the saddle after all the Christmas breaks and vacations and whatnot.  It felt the same, and yet it was different.  We are tackling 2009 with purpose and intention, as we prepare to move into our first permanent facility and continue to follow God’s leading.  It’s very cool.  Our pastor was bold today, at one point stating that we were going to do some things that might upset some people, make others uncomfortable; but that we were commited to God’s vision for this church and planned to focus exclusively on that.  And we had to realize that “it’s not about you.”  And if you have a problem with that, maybe you should find another church.

Whoa.

Brian is able to deliver these sorts of messages with a gentleness mixed in with his passion; he really loves people and he loves God’s church.  So I don’t think it’s really offensive to many people.  In fact, it might be a welcome release to some.

It feels good to feel momentum.

I’m transitioning into a communications role coupled with my music/production/programming role.  It’s fun and I love it, although I seem to find something every day that I didn’t do correctly or forgot or overlooked.  It’s so hard being human….

My biggest venture in the past few days has been finishing work on our new website.  We purchased it from Clover and so far have been pleased with how easy it’s been to navigate.  A few of us on staff have put most of the new site together and I’ve been heavily involved.  I’ve enjoyed learning something new.  Check it out here – hopefully the link will work, as we announced that we’d launch Monday, January 12.

I’m tired.  Looking forward to an easier day tomorrow.  Hoping to get the Christmas tree down (yes, seriously) and tidy up the house before next week explodes into activity.