Sonship Week Went Great!

Thanks to all of you who prayed for us this last week!!  Sonship Week went very, very well.  The World Harvest team did a great job of teaching, mentoring and overseeing details, Keith and Jamie provided wonderful worship, and Asheville was beautiful, as always.  It truly was an honor for me to work with such gifted and dedicated staff and I could not be more proud of them.

Jennifer and I are particularly grateful for your prayers since she ended up being sick at the beginning of the week when we told our story together and we were fighting off sore throats the rest of the time.  We had many, many couples come up to us throughout the retreat and tell us how much they appreciated our honesty.  To tell you the truth, it felt a little bit like answering the door for a dinner party in your swimsuit, but once I got over my pride, I sensed that we were talking about just the right things for starting off the week.

And... I was again reminded of just how much I need the gospel.  Hearing excellent Christ centered and grace motivated teaching, the stress of trying to stay on top of details, and the way my anger and selfishness kept erupting with Jennifer all served to again show me just how desperately my heart needs Jesus.  

I'll post a few more "windows into the week" a little later.  Thank you again for your love and prayers.

Pray for Us!!

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.  This is cannot be happening to me!"

The words of a CIA operative as his cover is blown in dangerous enemy territory?  No, not really. They are the words of my tiny, sin soaked heart, that is so "unfull" of faith right now.  

And what has brought about this state of angst?  Terminal illness?  Financial disaster?  Abject moral failure?  No.   Having my idols challenged and exposed--such a little thing when you think about it!

Next week is Sonship Week, the major conference that our team puts on each year.  It was at Sonship Week 6 years ago that Jennifer and I first got hooked up with World Harvest.  And it was one of the few, truly life shaping events of our lives.  And now... now I have done a very, very stupid thing.  I've signed up to be in charge of it this year.

Now don't get me wrong.  We've been working hard, planing well, making appropriate changes, finding the best folks we can to speak, and lead worship, and do the personal mentoring.  It will be a great conference, especially because I believe it delights God to work in the lives of his people so powerfully.  But my heart is very (very) far from believing that my contributions to the week are going to do anything but be a disappointment.  I've been trying to iron out the final edits for my teaching, and as I look the material it just seems so... puny, small, incredibly non-transformative.  

So if you think about it, will you please pray for us (Jennifer is speaking too!).  Pray that in the midst of my unbelief I'll again turn to Jesus.  Pray that I will rest confidently in the fact that it is the Spirits work, not my skills or abilities, that cause transformation to happen.  And pray that I'll again find tenderness and nourishment at the table of my heavenly Dad,  instead of trying to go off on my own, feast on the ashes of idolatry, and then pretend that I've had a really satisfying meal.