A busy week

It's been a great week so far. Monday night I got to do a ride-along with the Durham PD. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. We responded to calls about shots fired, hit and run, and a home invasion robbery. The officer was very helpful to me as he took me on a tour of some of the worst areas of Durham. He introduced me to some people who are seeking to make a difference there as well, and I look forward to how that relationship might grow. I had a lot of fun though, and I hope to do it again sometime.

On Tuesday I had lunch with a pastor in Cary who is leading a really cool church over there. We had a lot in common, and it was an encouraging time for me.

Then Wednesday I had coffee at a cool little place in Raleigh with Bill Cummings of Lemonade International. I encourage you to follow the link to his organization and read about what they are doing in Guatemala. We had a really great conversation and I hope to have many more with him. I'm looking forward to how Story Church might play a role in what is happening among the poor of Guatemala.

Today we'll head over to Duke Chapel and take part in a candle light celebration of Christmas.

Then on Saturday, we're having a Christmas party at our house and inviting a ton of people. So I'm looking forward to that!

I've been using Twitter for a while now as sort of a test to see if it's worth using and I've really enjoyed it. It's been another tool that allows me to get to know people and to stay connected with others. If you have any desire to know more about what I'm doing on a day to day basis, you can follow me by clicking on the Twitter link on the right.

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Acts

I've been reading through the book of Acts. I figured that's it a good thing to be doing seeing as how we're trying to start a church here in Durham. It's amazing to me the way things were happening in the early church. Entire paradigms were being shifted. There is the shift from Old covenant to New, the extension of God's grace from the Jewish people to include even Gentiles. There's the shift in dietary rules, the movement of the Holy Spirit, a well known terrorist becoming one of the apostles. Wow. Why do we tend to think that all the cool stuff happened way back then? I mean seriously - is God still moving and active or isn't He? Didn't Jesus say that the gates of hell would not be able to hold back the church? Didn't Jesus say that we would do even greater things that He did? It sure doesn't feel like it most of the time does it? I want to believe that Jesus meant those things. I want to believe that its possible for a church to exist that is literally transforming the culture around it through the power of the gospel.

Along with Acts, I've been reading Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution. You need to read it. I'm warning you though. Don't read it unless you are willing to have some of your foundations rocked. You won't be able to read it and continue on with life as usual - let's put it that way. I'll give a more full review of it in a couple of days. I'm still digesting and wrestling with it. The cool thing is that Shane will be in Durham in January to speak at Duke's chapel. So I'm looking forward to that.

It's been interesting to read about the early church, and then read one person's perspective on where we've gone wrong between then and now. Shane is living out the kingdom like no one else I've heard of and there is such power in it. It's the kind of power that makes you really believe the things Jesus said.

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