loretta and the terrific, amazing, real good, very fine day...
This morning I sat in a room full of people who I am getting to know and love on many levels [not to mention the few of them I have known and loved for a long time already...] in what the week's agenda calls a staff meeting. Thing is, it might better be described as a family gathering of sorts, or as today ended up, simply a time of worship. It had the familiar feel of a meeting held in my living room several years ago, when the spirit settled in so closely it gave me goose bumps and tears at the same time. The circle I was part of this morning moved me in a couple ways- I was stoked about the dreams and passions that were shared, about God's mighty hand in all of this, but also by the people included in the circle.
Maintenance. Financial. Secretarial. Janitorial. Not a big stretch for the "staff" folks to be there, but the guy who waxes the floor is sitting across from me. The guy who mows the lawn, sitting four seats down. I don't know. I just kept thinking, how cool is this? How awesome to be able to share the dreams of the spirit with such a cross section of the body in this way? More and more I am falling head over heals for the personality of this church. For the way she's wired. For the way I can relax and just be me and not some expectation of who I think people want me to be. I love that God has challenged every single perception I ever had about this place, about her people. I love that God still loves me in spite of those perceptions. I love that I'm growing and that my faith in what church can be is being restored. I love that I'm feeling those familiar thirsts and hunger pangs again. I love that I spent my afternoon in a creative planning meeting. I've read about them in books. I've heard about them at seminars. I've even known someone who has gotten to be part of something like it. [Ours was in a living room and not the mountains but it's a start Gil...] I've just never experienced it like this before. And today was a whopper. I'm having some difficulty getting in the groove of working again, but I can already feel a difference. My mind won't stop when I hit the pillow, and my breathing is different. There's a definite excitement welling up in me, and I missed it. I missed it a lot.
It's just got God written all over it. Under it. And all the way around it :)
Maintenance. Financial. Secretarial. Janitorial. Not a big stretch for the "staff" folks to be there, but the guy who waxes the floor is sitting across from me. The guy who mows the lawn, sitting four seats down. I don't know. I just kept thinking, how cool is this? How awesome to be able to share the dreams of the spirit with such a cross section of the body in this way? More and more I am falling head over heals for the personality of this church. For the way she's wired. For the way I can relax and just be me and not some expectation of who I think people want me to be. I love that God has challenged every single perception I ever had about this place, about her people. I love that God still loves me in spite of those perceptions. I love that I'm growing and that my faith in what church can be is being restored. I love that I'm feeling those familiar thirsts and hunger pangs again. I love that I spent my afternoon in a creative planning meeting. I've read about them in books. I've heard about them at seminars. I've even known someone who has gotten to be part of something like it. [Ours was in a living room and not the mountains but it's a start Gil...] I've just never experienced it like this before. And today was a whopper. I'm having some difficulty getting in the groove of working again, but I can already feel a difference. My mind won't stop when I hit the pillow, and my breathing is different. There's a definite excitement welling up in me, and I missed it. I missed it a lot.
It's just got God written all over it. Under it. And all the way around it :)
posted by ret at 10:57 PM
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