Hello, church. What are you up to?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the church. Wondering where we are spending our time and energy and wondering even more about where we are not spending our time and energy.

I have interviewed almost 70 college-age students over the past month, all applying to work on our summer camp staff. And I feel like I have gained so much insight from these pretty candid conversations with men and women from many different denominations who are committed to follow Jesus.

So I’m going to take some time on this blog to flesh out some of these things I’m thinking about. Because at the same time I’ve been doing these interviews, I’ve been sharing a facebook conversation with a long-time family friend who started our conversation by asking me three questions:

- What about organized religion or orthodoxy intimidates some people? Small house churches are becoming popular, mainly lead by lay people, which can have real positives as well as sketchy theology…what scares people away from organized religion?

-How do we draw people into the doors of the church?

-How do we make the worship appealing and relevant to all ages?

I’m ready to dive into this conversation. And I’d love for you to join me!

Hello, church. What are you up to?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the church. Wondering where we are spending our time and energy and wondering even more about where we are not spending our time and energy.

I have interviewed almost 70 college-age students over the past month, all applying to work on our summer camp staff. And I feel like I have gained so much insight from these pretty candid conversations with men and women from many different denominations who are committed to follow Jesus.

So I’m going to take some time on this blog to flesh out some of these things I’m thinking about. Because at the same time I’ve been doing these interviews, I’ve been sharing a facebook conversation with a long-time family friend who started our conversation by asking me three questions:

- What about organized religion or orthodoxy intimidates some people? Small house churches are becoming popular, mainly lead by lay people, which can have real positives as well as sketchy theology...what scares people away from organized religion?
-How do we draw people into the doors of the church?
-How do we make the worship appealing and relevant to all ages?

I’m ready to dive into this conversation. And I’d love for you to join me!

A fabulous family weekend in Minnesota

We are driving back from Minnesota right now, after soaking up a whole weekend of family love. We went home to celebrate Rory’s mom’s birthday and celebrate we did!

I just have to say that I have the best family-in-law. And I fully recognize how fortunate this is. The three Groves boys are so great. Marlene and Madison raised three sons who grew into faithful husbands, all active in their faith and living their life out loud. And it is so fun to be a part of this! Lisa and Sara and I all married into this clan, and I am so proud to call them my sisters. I love every family get together and this weekend was full of them!

The cutting board of love.

We’ve got friends who absolutely embody the word hospitality. Whenever we show up to their place we sit ourselves down at their counter and watch them make some unbelievable meal for us. They love to cook, and we love to eat and this seems to work well for everyone.

As we sit at the counter and catch up, this magical cutting board ALWAYS appears with the most incredible cheeses, dates, figs and raisons. I tend to squeal when John lays it on the counter.

The meal they were preparing this night was Short Ribs in a red wine sauce. Come now. Just look at this meal we ate. (Completely worth of getting my camera out to document.) I’ve got a great story that goes along with this evening of eating, but it’s a good one to tell in person…so ask me about the short rib night sometime. You’ll be glad you did. We love you John and Shannon!

A conversation between Rory and his Papa

Rory: Papa, how many years were you married to Nana again?

Papa: Oh, now that I don’t know. But I can tell you they were good years. (pause) Excellent years. (longer pause) Well no, not excellent. But good years. They were good years and we loved each other well.

Rory looked at me and we smiled big. We got in the car and made a toast to many good years ahead. Not excellent, but good ones.