Yes, I know I’m just back from Kentucky and Ohio, but in a couple of weeks I’ll be off again to South Texas on October 31 and staying in the area until November 9. I spend the first weekend in the Houston area, the week in San Antonio, and the second weekend in Corpus Christi. If you’re nearby and want to join us, please contact my host at any of those locations and they can give you all the details for our get-togethers. See my Travel Page for more information.
I continue to find that the best part of these trips is not the meetings themselves, though I realize they are very helpful to talk about issues on this journey in broad strokes and give people an opportunity to meet others in their area who are crazy enough to attend one of these things. What I love is the personal connections and conversations that open up just because we’re together.
Here are just a few of those meaningful conversations from my last trip:
An old friend with a conscience strong enough to walk away from an incredible offer to be the senior pastor of a group, because he couldn’t live with what the job would turn him into.
- A couple learning to separate approval from affection when as they just discovered her daughter was moving in with her boyfriend.
- A former worship leader feeling her destiny might have been lost when her marriage blew apart, when she really was just beginnning to live it out in an awesomely new way.
- Encouraged a passionate business man as we got together to record an interview about Finding Church on Encouraging Others in Christ Podcast.
- A man with a passion to help others experience the life of his church, just opening to the idea that it isn’t something we can achieve by a set structure, but something we recognize God building by the way we live alongside others.
- A young mother undone by the revelation that God wanted to build a relationship with her much more than she wanted to with him.
- A seminary class discovering that his church is a whole lot bigger than the institutions to which we’ve consigned it.
- A group of people in Southern Ohio, who found each other one evening around a campfire and an environment safe enough to share their hurts and struggles.
- Too many people coming out of abusive environments when headship is placed in a human being other than Jesus.
- And many people disovering how to put the “play” back into their life with God and not take everyhing so seriously. Why wouldn’t he enjoy that aspect of our relationship as much as we enjoy the playful moments in ours?
Those are just the ones I can name off the top of my jet-lagged head this afternoon. More than the meetings I go to, I enjoy being in life with people and see how God makes himself known. Now I’m excited to experience some of that at home before heading out again and see what we can find in Texas!
