Haven’t been blogging because we had a staff retreat Sunday through yesterday. It was totally unplugged…did not check my email for essentially 3 days.
I’ll have good stuff to reflect on this week about the retreat and about the election yesterday. Fascinating time in our country, isn’t it?
Oh yeah…and the 5-3 Bears play an undefeated team on Sunday. I’ll have lots to write about if I can get ahead ina week where I am already behind.
We had a great time trick or treating tonight with the kids. We really like our neighborhood and it was a great night to be out. Jack had decided long ago he wanted to be a friendly ghost.
Abby…the first thing she said was that she wanted to be was a TOASTER! She even said, “I’ll be the waffle in the toaster!” She cracks me up. But once she caught wind Jack was going to be a ghost that settled it for her too. She wanted to be like her big brother.
Aunt Bethy sent them fun eyes and ears and such to put on their pumpkins…along with way too much candy.
I’ve posted here before about how it feels like my life has become and endless series of meetings where I have just enough time in between them to check email, return phone calls, and work on a sermon. No doubt, I sit in some meetings and feel my productivity become dreadfully slow (those are the times I check email, return phone calls, and work on sermons DURING my meetings!)
Truth is, most of my meetings are energizing because directly or indirectly, the agenda is advancing God’s kingdom. How could that be boring? It’s the most important task on Planet Earth!
Monday…I already posted below about my meetings in Boston.
Tuesday…I had lunch with Bob Bouwer, the pastor of Faith Church in Dyer. This friendship is flourishing. I have such respect for him and love working on the same team to bring the hope of Christ to our region. (We also are starting to plan something really exciting together, but I’ll hold off talking about it until we can firm it up.)
Wednesday…I was in Naperville all day for meetings with the leadership group of the NewThing Network. This group is all about helping churches REPRODUCE. The big picture focus is on reproducing campuses and starting new churches, but it also includes the foundations of reproducing leaders and artists and small groups. When Suncrest aligned with the network less than 2 years ago, there were only a handful of churches. Today, there are about 20. (I guess that is what happens when a network focuses on reproducing!)
Thursday…a meeting with Rex Johnson, team leader of our Business Management Team. I also had a pastoral meeting with a long-time attender and friend to talk about life and it’s challenges. I do less of that than ever, but as time allows I still love it.
Friday…have an early morning breakfast in South Holland with Steve Hoekstra of Refuge Christian Counseling. I refer people to professional counseling a lot and 90% of the time it is to Steve or someone in his counseling practice. I’m thankful for his partnership and expertise.
I’d like to think the Bears will have an easy time with the Lions again. It may not be as easy as the first, but I’m confident they will win.
This is a rematch of the only game I’ve picked correctly this season, so I’ll keep reserving my commentary until my track record improves.
Bears 31 Lions 16
(The picture at left is Mike Singletary…love those eyes. I’m posting it in honor of becoming the SF 49ers head coach. For video of his “dynamic” news conference after the game, click here.)
Lynn Barbee has a great post over on her suncrest prayer blog today about the influence of fathers and an encouragement to pray for us. You should read it and pray accordingly (click here).
I’m personally thankful for Lynn’s prayers for me as a dad.
Jack and Abby don’t have a perfect father, but more than anything I want (1) for them to know Jesus personally as they grow up and (2) for it to be undeniable to them that I love them. Those may seem simple sentences as you read them, but if I could sit down with you, It would take some time to unpack them.
This life I lead is crazy-full of good things. But I never want the good things to get in the way of the God things. And being a dad ranks #3 on the list of things I know God wants me to get right before he cares one bit about my ministry.
Had a great meeting in Boston today with our church plant out there, Reunion Christian Church. I usually get to worship with them the day before the meeting, but this one became a quick 24 hour trip.
Hank Wilson (Reunion’s Lead Pastor) lived next door to me in our college dorm and we played together on the basketball team, but that’s not why we support this plant. We made a commitment to support a church plant in Boston and then I helped connect Hank with the plant. My friends, that turned out to be a God-Thing.
Hank has a great team and some wonderful partnerships. Here’s the highlights of Reunion…now about a year and a half old worshipping in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston.
-attendence pushing over 300. (49% growth from last year to this year comparing same seasons!)
-heard some staggering stats…over 100 churches planted in Boston over the last 10 years…about 1/2 survive, most struggle to ever make it beyond the 100-200 in attendence spot. Only a few evangelical churches in Boston are larger than REUNION, even though it is so young.
-The way this church serves the city is amzing. They are living out the gospel serving the poor, mentoring at-risk junior high students, supplying artists and volunteers for a mission church in town.
-We talked about developing internal leadership (I’m the team leader of our “external” partnership team). We also discussed finances, the bandwidth of the team, the possibility of launching a second campus, the 15 baptisms they had in August and the 4 they had during a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with 25 people.
-We talked about their facility challenge. They have not been able to meet at their “regular” location for 3 of the last 4 weeks. Ouch. I’m actually learning this should be considered normal in planting in an urban area, but it shure does make for quite a challenge.
I love this church and that Suncrest has had a signficiant hand in launching it.
Sunday was a long one, but a really, really good one.
6:00am – sitting at Starbucks by the mall going over sermon…going to teach in person at East Campus
6:15 – The couple pulling the trailer for east campus stops in at Starbucks…very cool surprise.
6:30 – help with set-up at east campus..Showplace 12 right by the mall
6:35 – realize I’m useless to them after pulling some carts in. I kindly get out of their way and take some pictures. (among other things, there are kids helping set-up at 6:30…and very cool temporary door handles for doors that are normally “exit only”).
8:30 & 10:00 – get to experience my first east campus worship services…I’m so inspired by the team that is launching this. I meet all kinds of new people…Felt like teaching went OK 1st service and good second service.
Noon – Took Chris Hall and fiance Ashley Leep to lunch. Jeff Sanford was able to join us too. I’m telling you…I love this launch team. And Chili’s is SO close. A great lunch with good friends.
2:00pm – A brief nap interupptted by Jack, who didn’t want to take a nap as badly as me.
3:00 — pumpkin carving with Jack …designed by Jack. He was totally disgusted by using his hands to get the “gunk” out of the pumpkin.
4:00 – Abby wakes up from her nap and joins the carving fun.
5:00 — pack and prep for my New England trip
6:00 – head to airport…fly to New Hampshire
Midnight – get settled in at Restoration House
Tomorrow…Meeting about our church plant in Boston, Reunion Christian Church
I’m giddy about tomorrow. I’m teaching at East Campus in person, which means I actually get to attend this campus we launched 5 weeks ago.
I’m looking forward to:
-meeting dozens of new people for the first time and re-connecting with the launch team that we are indebted to.
-going early (6:30am) to say thanks to the set-up teams and give them a hand.
-worshipping a the same campus as Jenny and the kids. We’ve been apart most weeks as Jenny has served at east campus.
And…
-Getting home just after noon…before 3rd service is out at West Campus! I should have scheduled myself there on a day the Bears didn’t have a bye-week!
.Real.Greg.Lee. 
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