changes-expanded

Ok, we've had two checkups where the dr. is like, "ok, everything looks perfect. Whenever she's ready, we're ready to go..." YIKES!

Not to be downplayed, I know that the life-change of having a little baby girl living in our house sometime in the next few weeks will change everything I've ever known. The weird thing, is that I've already felt some of those changes. People have always said, "Oh, your priorities and goals will be completely different..." and I'd think, "Well, I'm not so sure that I want my priorities and goals to be different..." But, here I am and I've already sensed those changes and it's just like they said. Many of the things that drove me and defined the way I see myself don't seem as important anymore. So, little baby-shack, of course is the biggest change #1.

#2-Our home church of the last 4+ years, is saying goodbye to its founder and minister, M. He's accepted a position at a church in San Diego and will be heading out there after this Sunday. I think it's a good move for him. I'm not as close to him right now as I have been in the past, but I've seen how difficult and bruising this church-planting business can be for him and his family. Honestly, I don't know how he and his family could not be tired and after 6 years, I think they deserve this R&R. I think that spending some time in an established church, where he won't have to deal with the struggles of the new church (attendance, financial struggles, facilities, etc) will be very good for him/them. I haven't talked to him in depth about this, so a lot of this is my own speculations.

But, this is about changes in my life...M leaving is obviously going to be a big change for the church. In a church the size and age of NS, the minister leaving is going to have a huge impact. Some people are frustrated, some people are scared. I'm cautiously hopeful. I really see this as an opportunity for NS to become something more and better than any of us really thought.

It seems like the leaders are really taking their roles seriously, and are trying really hard to do the right things. Not that I really know what the "right things" are, but we'll just have to wait and see if NS can get through this particular season.

Change #3- The other "worship gathering", the Portico, that I've been leading worship for, and been involved with for just under two years, is in the process of launching as an independent church. It was started as a "college ministry" of a large baptist church, but quickly became evident that there weren't that many college people around. However, there were many people just out of college who are just starting their careers (usually somehow related to walmart) and families and who were sick-to-death of the typical church bs. So, it's kind of been functioning as a church for many of its attendees for awhile, it's just that we're now separating from the big baptist church, trying to figure out where we're going to meet, taking on our own finances, etc, etc.

I can get pretty fired up about the Portico. It's all kind of scary, and I think I'm a little gun-shy after dealing with some of the "new-church" struggles of NS, but feel a lot more like-mindedness and unity of vision with many of the people at the Portico. I also feel like this is a group of people who know and want many of the same things that I want out of the "faith community" that I am plugged into. The only struggle is that it's a little bit of a drive to get up there, and it's just enough that it's difficult for us to get up there to spend time with people socially.

Life-change #4- This is probably 2nd in magnitude only to Life-change #1 (baby-shack), but I'm just not quite ready to blog about it. Many who read this already know what's cooking, but if you leave comments, please don't mention it. I'm almost ready to let the cat out of the bag, but just not yet. There's one big thing coming up in the next couple of weeks that I want to get past first, then I'll share.

So, it's just weird. If all goes as planned, my life will look completely different as soon as 6 months from now.

Stay tuned... to see if my head actually explodes...