Grateful...

The people of Compass Church are the best! I know I might be accused of superlatives, but I can't help it. So let me list a few:

1) I'm fired about our Local Outreach Team and all the work they've put into Faith in Action Day.

2) Then there's our home group leaders who are bringing people together every week.

3) This week has been fantastic in terms of building momentum for November 1st. We've got too many projects for the amount of people we have, and many people in the community are PUMPED that we're doing this. I'm grateful to EVERYONE who is heading up a project. Here's a cool one that Laura Willard lined up for us: The Buckeye Community Service needs us to clean out a massive amount of weeds all throughout a subdivision that's been abandoned by the builder. The Buckeye people are going door to door telling the residents that we're coming, and asking them to join us and make cookies for us. How cool is that?

4) We've got another guy who has been tracking down where homeless people hang out so he can lead a team to make lunches for them.

5) I also appreciate so much our Children's Ministry volunteers. Week in and week out they do an intensely important job. I see my kids flourishing in that ministry.

6) The Women's Ministry is doing an awesome job getting our women connected and helping them grow.

7) Our Student Ministry had 20 Middle School students last Wednesday night - how awesome is that?

8) And then there's our worship ministry. They put in more hours than I'd ever want to add up!

Anyway, I was just sitting here GRATEFUL for everyone who makes this church happen.

Faith in Action Sunday is Coming Up!

Sunday Evening Reflections

We did an acoustic set this morning that got great feedback from a lot of folks, so thanks to Robin, Robert, Eric, Jim, and Roland for pulling it off! We also had a mob of people signing up for Faith in Action Sunday. I can't wait to see what's going to happen on that day!

We had 9 people in our Discover Compass class today, with one couple who came to church for the first time this morning and came back for the class. There are people who have been at Compass for 4 years who haven't gone to the class yet!

I love teaching the class because it reminds me of what's most important at Compass - our values, our beliefs, and getting new people engaged.

Right now times are challenging. While I absolutely love what I'm doing, I believe that within a year or so there will be a few of us who will look back on October '09 and say, "Wow, I'm glad we got through that!"

This week will be tough, with the funeral on Tuesday and all that goes along with a death of a parent. But we will prevail. That's what I love about the power of the Biblical narrative - it's going somewhere - history has a point, and we can play a role in God's redemptive agenda.

Thanks to all who made another awesome weekend happen!

What a Week

Tomorrow I'm returning on a 6:00 a.m. flight back to the desert. It's been quite a week. As many of you know, yesterday Judi's dad passed away. Of course I hate being 1300 miles away from her during such a time as this, but there were no flights that were realistic for me to take.

Today I finished up my sermon for this weekend, which will allow me to devote my Friday and most of Saturday to Judi and the family. We've got to go up to Payson and make arrangements for the service and begin to go take care of the details that involve wrapping up the life of a man who lived 69 years.

Being a relatively mentally and emotionally draining week, I decided to cut out for the evening and live life on the edge. For me that means a trip to Powell's Books in Portland where I bought an old book by Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume II on The Messiah.

Since I've been up here I've had enough coffee to kill an elephant - but that's what you do in the Great Northwest. After sitting at the coffee shop for a while, I decided it was time to head back to the house (it was getting close to 9:00 p.m.!) and on the way out I watched Toyota Tundra gun it in reverse and slam into an Acura. Right in front me. Thankfully it wasn't a hit and run, so I was able to go about my business and didn't have to open up a can.

In other news, my right foot is giving me some trouble, which I'm pretty sure is from my barefoot running session with Barefoot Ted last Tuesday. His advice to me was to back off on going out too intensely. "We're building an orchard, not getting fast food." I'll have to give a more in-depth update on my time with Barefoot Ted, but for those who are interested here's another article on the trend that is sweeping the nation.

Sunday Evening Reflections

We had a great weekend at Compass! The Worship Team sounded so AWESOME! This was due to several things:

1) Larry's amazing sound board skill.

2) Steph, Robert, and yes, Ed's vocals blending very well!

3) Jim, Mike, Roland, and yes, Ed (again) keeping tight rhythms and great dynamics.

It was encouraging to meet more third and fourth time guests, and if that's you I really hope you're feeling a part of this church!

Honestly, Compass is in one of those best of times/worst of times seasons. On the one hand, our Saturday night services have been a blast even though we're clawing each week for critical mass. At the same time, we're seeing our Sunday morning services slowly begin to fill back up to where they were before we started Saturdays.

Also, we're seeing a lot of new people show up and they're excited about the church. People are stepping up like never before and each weekend Jesus is being glorified.

The challenge right now more than anything else is our finances. People like to say, "Don't worry, God's going to work it out." Yes, that's true. And I'm really not worried, as in, afraid. But we still as a leadership team must manage the situation and we've come to the point where some tough decisions are going to need to be made.

"Tough decisions" is usually code for layoffs and salary cuts. That's not necessarily what I mean at this point, although that does loom on the horizon. But even more important than that, its hard to see aspects of our ministry that take money have to be shelved because its just not there right now.

But we'll do what we have to do. I'm well aware that the people who are committed to Compass are doing all they can, and for that I'm grateful. God always provides and he will now.

The whole point is that it's such a strange contrast - awesome ministry momentum and yet lagging resources. But that's where faith on our part comes in!

I can't wait to hear how our Student Ministries Magic Mountain trip went this weekend. They had 20 or so students and another 8 adults take a luxury bus and head out to "Cali" (as they like to say here). Mike is doing a fabulous job and its great to see our students connecting so well with him.

I'm looking forward to a week of long range sermon planning. I'm grateful to Judi for encouraging me to get away for most of the week. I don't know about you, but I've learned that when the circumstances of life start to control me, it's time to pull away and get some perspective! That way I can re-engage a little sharper and more purpose-driven (no, I didn't coin that term, some other guy made it up).

Cha Cha Wrap Up

Here are my meditations on the Cactus Cha-Cha run this morning:

1) My goal was to finish in 1 hour or less with no injuries - I finished in 1:02:07 AND with no injuries! The race results are here. Look for #63 in the "Full Cha-Cha" category!

2) This was a hard race, the hardest 7 miles I've ever done. They told me there were two hill sections, one that was very steep. At one point, just when I thought I had seen the worst of it, we came around the corner and saw this very steep set of switchbacks. The guy behind me saw it and swore.

3) The thing that killed me toward the end was all the gulleys that littered what otherwise would have been 3 miles of straightaways. It's nice to go downhill, but not when every single step is placed with as much precision as you can muster.

UPDATE: As of 4:00 p.m. Sunday, my feet feel FINE. This is significant because I was one of only two guys who ran the race in VFFs. I got a lot of attention, even on the run. I passed one guy and I heard him say behind me, "So, you're a barefoot trailrunner?"

In an earlier life those would have been fighting words. But it was the first time I had ever been referred to that way. I was sort of proud of that description. Wow, me, a barefoot trail runner.

For some reason I've never felt worthy of titles like that unless I'm one of the really hard core guys. Gosh, I should be running every weekend 20+ miles and placing in the top 10 to be worthy of that title.

But, as far as that guy was concerned, a barefoot trail runner I was. So I'll take it. :)

Here's the deal, however: While my feet are fine (okay, a little sore), my CALVES are KILLING ME. I'm at the SLC airport waiting to board a flight to Portland and I've had old ladies passing me all day. People are looking at me with that look that says, "I know I shouldn't stare, but I wonder what happened to that poor man!"

But the point is, I've become somewhat of a barefoot running evangelist, at least in my circles. I didn't set out for this, and my guess is that soon barefoot running will be just as common as "shod" running. But for now, I'm the raving lunatic on the fringe, and I'm FINE with that!

Thoughts on the Cactus Cha Cha tomorrow

Tomorrow morning I am running the Cactus Cha Cha, a 7-mile trail run in the White Tank Mountains. Normally I wouldn't think much about it, because 7 miles is a normal distance for me during the week, and even though the "trail" aspect of the run will make it harder, I'm pretty confident in my abilities for that type of run.

The challenge, however, is that it will be my first race in my Vibram Five Fingers. I've had them for two weeks and have put 63 miles on them, the longest jaunt being 13 miles that I did on Wednesday.

My understanding is this is quite a rocky course. So I went up to the top of Lost Creek in Verrado earlier and did a little bit on a trail that I thought was pretty rocky and I did okay. I took a few sharp rocks right in the middle of my foot, and if I'm honest the top of my right foot is giving me a little trouble.

Yet at the same time I am FIRED UP about doing this course with minimalist footwear. Running in that type of environment is much more proactive because you're navigating every step, trying to land in the best spot possible seeing as how you have zero support and the bottom is tough but very thin!

I'm not looking to set any land speed records tomorrow. The way I figure it, if I can finish in an hour with no injuries I'll be happy! I've got my appointment with Barefoot Ted at Volunteer Park in Seattle on Tuesday, and I don't want to do anything to mess that up.

Can't wait to post the outcome tomorrow morning!