Weekend Reflections
Something clicked this weekend. Maybe it was celebrating communion for the first time at Ebenezers. Maybe I'm just getting into the rhythm of Saturday Night. But it really felt like "church." I feel like we're settling into the new space and turning it into a sanctuary where we meet with God.
We continued the Neos series. I talked about new wineskins in Luke 5. I've spent the last two weeks reflecting on it and it really came to life for me. Wineskins were ancient containers made of goat skins that were sown together to form a watertight bag. As the wine fermented the new wineskins would stretch. That is a picture of the Holy Spirit filling these human containers. As the Spirit of God ferments within us we are stretched in a new shape.
FYI. I got a phone call Saturday Night informing me that the theaters at Union Station were flooded--with sewage :) The good news is that they got plumbers and carpet cleaners to work all night so it was cleaned up by the time Sunday morning rolled around. We did add a little febreeze to the mix :) Craziness. Props to our hospitality crew!
It was also cool to hang out with Brek Cockrell and Daryl Largis from The Chapel at Crosspoint in Buffalo. They were in town doing a little recon at NCC.
One last thing. Someone emailed me saying that they invited an unchurched friend to NCC this weekend. This NCCer asked her what she thought. She said she really enjoyed it. In fact, she said, "I kept thinking, 'When is church going to start'?"
I love it :)
We continued the Neos series. I talked about new wineskins in Luke 5. I've spent the last two weeks reflecting on it and it really came to life for me. Wineskins were ancient containers made of goat skins that were sown together to form a watertight bag. As the wine fermented the new wineskins would stretch. That is a picture of the Holy Spirit filling these human containers. As the Spirit of God ferments within us we are stretched in a new shape.
FYI. I got a phone call Saturday Night informing me that the theaters at Union Station were flooded--with sewage :) The good news is that they got plumbers and carpet cleaners to work all night so it was cleaned up by the time Sunday morning rolled around. We did add a little febreeze to the mix :) Craziness. Props to our hospitality crew!
It was also cool to hang out with Brek Cockrell and Daryl Largis from The Chapel at Crosspoint in Buffalo. They were in town doing a little recon at NCC.
One last thing. Someone emailed me saying that they invited an unchurched friend to NCC this weekend. This NCCer asked her what she thought. She said she really enjoyed it. In fact, she said, "I kept thinking, 'When is church going to start'?"
I love it :)
6 Comments:
Pastor Mark, I'm loving the Neos shirts! Are you going to do shirts for every new series?
Any plans to start making them available online?
Definitely working toward a line of evotional apparel :) We want to get a few shirts under our belt before we really go "live" with it. I'm a fanatic when it comes to fit and feel of a shirt. Once we get the fit and feel we're roll out more designs.
Glad you like the shirt. We've got a very limited number of Neos shirts :)
PM
On getting into the rhythm, that reminds me of the flow theory which I think you've preached on before. The idea that efficient and focused use of time is the ideal. Oftentimes, weekends or "off days" are wasted because we are out of our usual routine. Your weekday flow (focus days Monday and Friday) was very inspiring.
I'm doing some invention workshops for YMCA daycamp staff and YMCA families. The adults need lots of encouragement that they too can rediscover their childlike creativity to invent a crummy prototype of something that they are thinking about. Children cannot wait to get their hands on recyclable materials, masking tape and pipe cleaners. The adults who have not excercised their creativity muscle find the process pretty painful.
Another piece on flow and creativity is the area of where we come up with ideas. The simplicity of the shower or excercise is a major release. One product design inventor keeps a whiteboard in his shower!
These pieces started to come to me as you talked about neos this morning...that God would inspire us to continue to use our creativity and give us God "shower thoughts": moments of clear thinking, problem solving and goal ideas.
Thanks for continuing to encourage with positive challenges that linger in my mind.
Anita
Sewage in the venue?! That kinda puts some of the challenges we've had into perspective.
The theater being knee deep in popcorn because the cleaning crew didn't show over night or breaking in because we were locked out ("really officer, we're a church. Honest") is small potatoes compared to sewage!
Mark,
How do you guys do communion in your services? How often do you do it? When and where do you do baptisms. I'm reading "Free Prize Inside" by Seth Godin right now. Incredible book.
Your church has a lot of buzz right now. What would you say to a church of say 300 that is just beginning to take steps in the buzz area. What are some beginning steps to creating buzz?
Thanks your blog is on of my daily reads.
Chuck Land
Chuck,
Just posted on communion. We do "public baptisms" primarily. We do an annual "Baptism by the Bay" at a public park near the Chesapeake Bay. And we do an ocean baptism.
We're going to experiment with baptisms at Ebenezers as well.
Thanks for reading!
Mark
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