Week 1

Tuesday morning was my first day in the office. I came in at 9am and we had a staff meeting which means I met the people who I'd be working with over the next 10 weeks. I had already met Doug Bouws and Alex Buttweiler (yes that's his real last name) the intern for the churches youth activities the previous day but Sharon, and Kevin Adams were new to me. Them and Lia (who was not in till a day or two later) make up the staff. Sharon and Lia are secretarial sorts and Kevin is the senior pastor and my second mentor for the summer. We talked about what sorts of things we expected from each other as staff. Stuff like honesty and trust and what not. Then Kevin and Doug grabbed me and some leftovers from the fridge and went out to the back of the church and had lunch and talked about vocation, mine and theirs, and we talked about what sort of things I might be doing over the summer. To be honest it sort of frightened me. They gave me a list of 14 things to do over the summer with the expectation that I would make/fin more opportunities for ministry over the course of these first 14. I do much better with a list of things to get done. It's straight forward I know what to expect and when I'm done I'm done. But I can see the potential blessing of this way of going about things. For one Kevin and Doug have no way of knowing what sort of opportunities will present themselves. It would also be advantageous to me to learn how to look for work to do. Since not only will I need to find work in the future but there may be certain opportunities that present themselves only to me and I need to be ready and learn how to jump on them. Gulp...

We also talked about the vision Kevin and Doug have for Granite Springs. They see as primary in human life the story of the prodigal sons. Yes sons. They have a giant recreation of Rembrandt's depiction of the picture in the greeting area and use it as a talking point, a jumping off point for conversation with people who they call "younger" or "elder" sons. Younger sons are the ones who have been running away form the father. They are obvious and straightforward with their rejection of him, but the elder sons are the ones who run away from him by simply following all the rules. They go to church every Sunday, they pray, they memorize Bible verses, and volunteer for many things in the church but they do it to run away. For Kevin and Doug the point of the church, regardless of where a person starts is for that person to become like the father who runs out to the youngest son to welcome him back after the insult of the younger asking for his inheritance and who goes out even to the eldest son who cannot join in the celebration for the youngest because he has been so distant from the joy of his father. Kevin and Doug seek to emulate the father in the story with what they call relentless hospitality. I think it is a very noble goal they set for themselves.

The main project I have been working on is setting up a booth for our local farmers market in Lincoln. "What would a church want with a farmers market?" you might ask. That is precisely the problem I encountered first, but as I explored the possibilities and asked questions I learned that a farmers market can be a great way for a church to get out into the community. What I will be doing once I get to the farmers market is helping other people set up their booths, hand out water to the people viewing the various produce, give balloons to the kids, and describe Granite Springs to anyone who asks me. In general extend the love of Christ in kindness to anyone I happen to meet. So I've been preparing my booth; putting together posters so that people can SEE what I'm talking about, getting a helium tank, taking pictures, trying to find a kids game that can be played in a 10' by 10' area that allows all the kids to win a prize, and trying to figure out how to get volunteers to join in so that this ministry can continue on when I'm gone. I am a little skeptical about how it will actually affect the community, but all the people who have done it before have commended it. So I'll have to take their word for it till I find out how much of an impact this ministry has.

I'm still a week behind on this. I'm trying to catch up.