If I'm not careful, I might just turn out to be a bike mechanic

Last night was a fun night at work for me. There hasn't been a lot to do with the gap between cycling season and snow season in the shop, but we had a guy stop in wanting us to check out a bike he bought from us six months ago. Rob talked with the guy at the counter while I was busy doing something else, but I overheard enough of the conversation to know that his bike was creaking when he really pounded the pedals and another shop told him that the pedals were the problem.

I started in on the bike about ten minutes after the guy left and gave it the once over. Everything seemed to be working okay, but when I rode the bike in our freight room, it creaked anytime I stood on the pedals and really cranked on them. I showed Rob how easy it was to make the sound and we were both pretty convinced that it probably had something to do with his bottom bracket.

Now, normally my tendency would have been to ask one of the more experienced mechanics for their opinion. Only problem was, I was the most experienced mechanic. I decided to take the crank arms off and remove the bottom bracket to see what we'd find. It took a little doing to remove everything, but once we did, we found several metal shavings in the bottom bracket shell which would easily be enough to make the noise we were hearing.

We cleaned things out, regreased the bottom bracket and threw everything back together. I hopped on and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the bike to creak. It was a more invasive surgery on a bike than I normally get to do, so there was definitely a sense of accomplishment. I figured, at the very least, Rob and I could claim to be smarter than the guys at the other shop that thought it was the pedals.

If I'm not careful, I might just turn out to be a bike mechanic.

A New Start

This week is our first week as part time staff at Mercy Church. I keep getting asked if I'm excited and I'm not sure exactly how to answer. There is certainly a sense of excitement in stepping into something new that seems such an answer to prayer. There is also a certain sense of apprehension. I think the best comparison I've been able to come up with so far is that it's kind of like meeting members of your spouse's family for the first time after the wedding. There's a sense of understanding that we are joining a family and the usual concerns about what they will think of us and how well we will get along.

There's also the initial unease, mostly on my part, of giving structure to the ministry and setting up routines that will help us communicate with volunteers and other staff so that we're not always living this week to week, moment by moment existence where ministry is concerned. I'm all for flexibility, but a healthy framework allows for greater freedom to be flexible. Right now we aren't aware of what processes are already in place and so it's hard for us to just step into the flow of things this week and feel as though we are on top of things. I know this will get better, but I'd like to make a good first impression.

This change for us is a bit different in one other way; nothing else is changing. Since God called us into ministry, it has been a central focus for us. Ministry change has, to this point, meant greater changes (a move to Indiana, a move to South Dakota). This time, nothing else changes. We are living in the same house, working in the same places for our primary sources of income, Xander will be going to the same school... The only difference is in the area of our greatest passion and purpose.

I'm sure that my apprehensions and feelings about transition will be resolved shortly as we begin to enter into the life flow of a new Church family. More than anything, I feel grateful to God for helping us tread water for the last two years in sometimes choppy seas so that we could come to the point where we feel as though we are taking the first steps into why we were called here in the first place. I feel like our feet have just hit the sandy sea bed and we're making our way to the shore, a few awkward steps at a time. Soon we'll be on dry land and can begin to explore our new surroundings.

Too Nice to Work

I took a half day of vacation today since there was nothing to do in the shop and it was too beautiful a day to not spend at least part of it on the bike. I knocked out 22 miles with a fairly decent average speed on a day where the standard geek/chic bike jersey and shorts combo was sufficient apparel for the elements. Not a long way, but enough to get the blood pumping and dislodge some of the Halloween chocolate from my system. In actuality, I needed to get back fairly quickly so Amy could pick Xander up from school and play for a departmental recital at USF without the kids in tow.

I love having a job where needing to go for a bike ride is a legit excuse for leaving early. The fact that I could still get paid the time that I was gone was just icing.

Free Derek Webb

I have been meaning to write about this for weeks! Derek Webb, formerly of Caedmon's Call and one of the most honest songwriters that I have encountered is offering his latest album Mockingbird for FREE download here.

I downloaded this album as soon as it was released last year (for full price) because I believe Derek to be a great example of artistry in his desire to explore his craft as well as being a prophetic voice to the Church. You may not agree with everything that he says, but I would highly encourage you to download the album for free and spend a few weeks listening to it and see if it doesn't challenge you to think more critically about your faith and the state of faith in sub-cultural American Christianity.

There but by the grace of God...

I have to admit that I was stunned when I first read the accusations against Ted Haggard the last few days and have been online regularly to follow the story. If you aren't aware of it, Haggard was the pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs who was accused this week of hiring a male prostitute among other things outlined here. I don't know that we'll ever know the full extent of the truth of the accusations brought against him or whether a full, honest admission will be forthcoming, but my heart breaks for him, his family and New Life Church.

More than anything, this has had me reflecting on how desperate our need of God actually is. I may not suffer the same afflictions as Ted Haggard, but I am just as capable of pursuing sin to the point of self destruction. "There but by the grace of God go I" is the first thing that pops into my head when I hear about the failings of other Christians. These are moments when I pray more desperately for the filling of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of self control and the wisdom to avoid the snares of the enemy.

My prayer is that Haggard will be restored to his family and in his relationship with God. I also pray that this situation will cause more of us to seek genuine accountability where our sinful desires can die early deaths as we share our struggles in loving community. Being honest about our sin is one of our best tools to overcoming it.

Job Offer

I got a call from Shel from Mercy Church today and they are interested in hiring us for the worship position that we interviewed for over the weekend. It would be about quarter time for a two month trial period after which we would assess whether to continue on or not. I tried to say "yes" but Shel wants me to talk about it with Amy and pray about it. We've been praying for four months, so I suppose a few days more won't hurt.

It's nice to feel like maybe we're at the start of something we've been praying for.

Two Days of Mercy

Amy and I spent the weekend with our new friends at Mercy Church in Sioux Falls to lead worship and discuss the possibility of partnering in ministry. Mercy is a one year old church plant led by Pastor Shel Boese that is affiliated with the Christian Missionary Alliance. The church has grown from a core group of about 15 to about 75-100 in weekly attendance and is a greatly diverse group of people.

I actually came to know a bit about the church from my friend Tory Larson who worked with Shel's mom in Yankton. The more I talked with Tory, the more interested I became in what Mercy was doing. When I saw a part time worship position listed with them this summer, I was definitely interested in starting a conversation to see where it might lead.

Over the past four months I've traded emails with Shel, I visited Mercy for a service, Amy visited Mercy for a service and I had coffee with Shel in August to talk a bit. All of that initial getting to know you led to this past weekend where we had a chance to immerse ourselves in the community for a weekend and interview for the position.

Saturday kicked off with us sending the kids to Yankton with Jim and Marilyn so that Amy and I could head to the church to rehearse with the team. The church actually meets in another church's building and still has some of the tension of needing to set up and tear down a lot so as to coexist with the host congregation, so set up took a bit of time and over the course of about an hour we got to meet team members and get set up. It was nice to be able to hang out with Larry, Bobbie, Nick, Greg and Cory before rehearsal a little and see how they function in getting things set up. Amy and I tried to stay out of the way in order to not complicate matters and after getting some levels set, we were ready to dig in.

Leading a rehearsal with musicians that are used to working together is always a bit tricky since they have already developed their own musical language, but I love to make rehearsals a collaborative effort and was really blessed by the ideas, energy and creativity that the team brought to the table. They are really great musicians and were a joy to play with. We worked through the songs for Sunday's service in pretty short order and I felt solid about where we were at as a team. After rehearsal, Amy and I headed to Chili's with Shel for a late lunch and more conversation.

One of the concerns that I had for the weekend was whether my voice would hold or not. I had picked up a cold earlier in the week and by Saturday I definitely didn't have much strength or endurance. I played it safe in spots in the rehearsal hoping to not overtax things. When I woke up Sunday morning, I felt even worse. Even so, I felt peaceful about everything. In the days leading up, I came to the conclusion that if God was in this, nothing was going to stop it. So, voice or not, we were going to rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal whether or not we were meant to partner together.

We got to the church at 10:00 to set up and sound check for the 10:45 service and again tried to not complicate the set up process too much. It wasn't until we started that I got an idea of how I was going to sound. We started a few songs to set some levels in a truer sound check than we're used to on a Sunday morning. We've always been a little spoiled in that we've been able to use sound checks as last second rehearsals with teams at Hanfield and New Hope. Here we didn't have the time, but we didn't need it either.

Shel provided a welcome and we read a Psalm together as a Call to Worship before Nick started his U2-esque intro to "I am Free". It took no time at all to see that this is a worshipping congregation! They sang and responded enthusiastically throughout the morning and were an active part of every part of the service. Next, we introduced "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman which the church hadn't done before. We sang of God's faithfulness together and by the end of the song, we were deep into worship. At that point, we were supposed to have another Lectionary reading, but Shel signaled that we should just keep going, so we went on to "Come, Thou Fount" with Amy's signature Irish flute introduction giving way to a roaring full band sound. After "Come, Thou Fount" we transitioned into a time of free worship where people could respond to God in spontaneous song. I prayed in song for God to give us a vision of him like that of Isaiah which led into pieces of "Holy, Holy, Holy" before finally landing on "Better is One Day". At that point, Shel transitioned us into a time of spontaneous worship followed by prayer and offering before Shel's message. Shel spoke on Christian decision making and it was really good stuff. We were definitely able to relate a lot of what he said to the journey that we've been on over the last two years and it felt like more confirmation from the Lord that we're on the right track. We closed with a ministry time with prayer counselors available and sang "You Never Let Go" again.

Overall, we had a great time! Musically, things went really well and ministry-wise I felt like things went better than we could have hoped. God moved powerfully through the course of the service and we were just blessed to be a part of it. We got to talk to several folks afterward and it was nice to get to know a little more of the heart and character of the community through conversation.

We headed home for lunch and then back again at 2:00 for a sit down interview with members of the vision team and Shel. It was nice that we were able to do that together because Amy and I definitely are a team in ministry. I was blessed by how she brought clarity to some of my more wordy responses and we had fun playing off of each other in trying to express our hearts.

We headed home feeling good about how the weekend went. Shel and the vision team were going to meet for awhile after we left and then Shel was going to need to talk to other team members that were unable to make the interview session. He said he'll give us a call sometime this week to let us know where we go from here.

God has taught us to hold things loosely over the last two years, so if He calls the whole thing off, we'll accept that and move on. But we would really love to be a part of what Mercy is doing in Sioux Falls and both feel like we're being released into something for the first time since we moved here. Regardless of where this leads, we are grateful for the opportunity that we had this weekend to share in ministry with a great community of believers.