December Update

O Come, O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appears. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

This is one of my favorite songs and favorite times of year. I think what I love most about Christmas time (actually, the Advent season) is the anticipation. So often our life is simply the never-ending list of things to get done, bills to pay and problems to solve. Each day looks suspiciously like the one before and there isn’t much to look forward to beyond the weekend.

But Advent cultivates a much more appropriate attitude. Everywhere we look people, including many who have no idea why, seem to be waiting for something to happen.

For some it might simply be longing for the next shiny gadget or useless doodad. BUT, I think that even in the hearts of the most consumeristic and self-centered person, it is the Holy Spirit who is fanning the flames of anticipation.

The past couple months have been a challenge for our family and the Christ Journey community. Many of you know that I’ve had to take on another part-time job in order to make ends meet. I’ve been substitute teaching anywhere from 3-5 days/week in Mansfield. Adding this 25-40 hour/week job to my full schedule has not been easy, but it hasn’t been all bad either. I’ve been able to develop some friendships among teachers and students, particularly at Legacy High School where I try to do most of my subbing.

While the added work load has made family time a little more difficult, we’re slowly starting to develop some rhythms. The boys are all growing and doing well. The most life changing development has been Josiah’s decision to pursue a career as a super-villain. We are convinced that God blessed us with this talented and energetic mastermind to keep us from feeling too confident about our parenting skills!

Since my last update I’ve lead a Sabbath retreat for about 25 youth ministers, finished my CoachNet/Mission Alive certification as a ministry/missionary coach, completed another course for my D.Min. at SMU Perkins and applied for the emergency teacher certification program with iteachTEXAS.

Each of these play an important role in our process of working toward being self-supporting for the long-term. Retreats and coaching are important for work here in Burleson with Christ Journey and new house churches. However, they also provide an opportunity for some additional income from time to time and are a part of the leadership program I’m developing through SMU.

This spring I’ll be working with my project advisor on a guided study/reading course to dive deeper into issues of new monasticism and will write my first draft attempt at a 2 year proposed curriculum for training “lay leaders” in a new monastic/missional ministry context.

This will be the first concrete step toward launching what we hope will be both an accredited program for affordable missional/monastic leadership training within SMU/Perkins and also will serve the Christ Journey and Mission Alive communities as a residency program for church planting and missional leadership training.

The iteachTEXAS thing...well, we do what we must to continue living out this calling. We are very grateful for our friends and family who’ve supported us financially and for those who continue to do so. However, as we’ve begun year two of our work in this area, the reality of our financial situation has been less than optimum. The church that had partnered with us during year one was not able to renew this year. We were blessed last year with some substantial special one-time gifts and one year commitments. And as we continue to mourn the passing of some very special people in our lives, the pain and regret of not seeing their name on an envelope each month goes well beyond finances.

We rejoice that several more friends and family have teamed up with us financially However, we have not, as of yet, been able to connect with enough new partners for the upcoming year. Part-time jobs have filled in the gaps so far, but unless we have some unexpected breakthroughs in fundraising, we are going to need something more substantial.

I would not consider teaching high school to be my life’s calling and do not plan to make a long-term career out of it. With that said, I do have a deep love for teaching, a heart for connecting with teenagers and (I believe) a certain level of giftedness in both. The teaching schedule should allow me the flexibility to finish my work at SMU, continue worshipping with and serving the Christ Journey community on Sundays, and connecting (albeit less than I would like) with our friends in Shenandoah and other areas.

If I am able to find a job teaching this next fall, we will still have 9 months to cover financially. I hope to lead retreats and do some coaching this spring/summer, but as of right now we are in need of around $11,000 to make up the shortfall of our current support level and expected income from subbing (those summer months are a big question mark!)

We count on your prayers and we continue to ask (as a friend of ours is known to say) that, “the God who owns the cattle on all those hills will sell a few for us.”

In addition to our personal family struggles, the Christ Journey family has experienced some serious challenges due to finances as well.

Our desire is to emulate Christ - The One who ate with everyone, offered compassion and company to sinners and the broken but who issued a very strong challenge to those who would be called disciples. We are seeking to function as a community - involved and invested in one another beyond scheduled worship times. And we are truly concerned about connecting with those who do not know about the Community of God which is available through Christ.

We are connecting with people in racquetball courts, restaurants, classrooms and front yards. The development of relationships based on love for others is powerful. No one is required to get their act together before they’re welcome to share a meal. But the call to follow Jesus is still an invitation to “come and die.” And this message has always received a mixed response.

Make no mistake, ministry is happening, the good news is being proclaimed to those who haven’t heard and hurting people are finding a place of healing in the Body of Christ, but that doesn’t always translate into money in a bank account.

Because of our financial struggles Christ Journey is no longer gathering in Old Town on Sundays - currently we are meeting together at the home of Mike and Pam Toole, who have a wonderful house that was literally built for such hospitality. Also it has become necessary for Chris to take on a bi-vocational approach. In addition to a couple part-time jobs, he too is getting emergency teacher certification.

While our current situation may leave some things to be desired, we believe that this is a tremendous opportunity for the work of planting churches in this area. Christ Journey is being forced to think seriously about what it means to live out our faith in community; the opportunities for shared leadership abound and we have a perfect setting in which to imagine together.

I leave you with a condensed snippet from a book I read recently which heightens my excitement about what we’re experiencing together:

“[The desert monastics] knew something was wrong with the Church, but they couldn’t see any alternatives from where they were. Their location blinded them, holding their imagination captive...

Why does God call the people of Israel out into the desert to receive the Law and learn a new way of life?...I think it’s because God wanted Israel to learn to see something that they could not see from Egypt. They had been blinded and held captive by Pharaoh’s dominant system...

They needed to go into exile, to live as aliens and strangers in a land that didn’t belong to them so they could remember who God had called them to be...In a land that they did not own and where they were not in control, God’s people remembered the desert vision and imagined new ways of living it out in all the world.” From Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s New Monasticism, pg 77-80.

May the Lord expand our ability to both anticipate and experience life in the renewed Kingdom!