Just thought I’d share what I’m reading right now…

Just finished Brennan Manning’s The Furious Longing of God. Great read…Brennan Manning never lets down.

Began reading Margaret Feinberg’s Scouting the Divine. Am really loving her writing… we heard her speak at Catalyst, and then they handed out the book to everyone there. The back of the book says it well:

Join Margaret on a spiritual adventure that moves from reading the Bible to entering stories that can be touched, tasted, heard, seen, smelled and savored — and in the process, discover for yourself the beauty and wonder of Scripture all over again.

I’m really looking forward to finishing this one… It will be one a recommend over and over.

Oh my…I can’t believe I’m posting this picture!!!

On November 7, 1999, Brent Storms, Toney Salva and I, along with a dedicated core team, planted Harbor of Hope Christian Church at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Lowell, MA.

This weekend, Lynda and I will be traveling back to MA to attend Harbor’s 10th birthday celebration. We are looking forward to celebrating all that God has done through this great church… I’m so proud of this amazing group of people who love God and love others!

I am thankful to have had the privilege to be a part of planting Harbor and thankful for 10 great years.

If you’re reading this and have been a part of Harbor, I’d love for you to share how God used Harbor in your walk with God.

A couple of weekends ago, Lynda’s brother Eddie came from Dallas for a visit. On Monday, the kids had the day off from school so we all went to St Louis to take Eddie to the airport. But first a stop at the Arch… a first for the kids.

I’m a self-confessed tv addict. I have always loved television. Each fall I eagerly await the new series that will premiere that season. This fall I was excited for Flash Forward… and boy has it lived up to that excitement.

The premise of the show is that for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, all of the world blacked out. This of course had profound and tragic effects. But what the story is centering on is the fact that every person had a ‘flash forward’ and saw a glimpse of themselves six months in the future. For some it was a nice picture. For others is was quite disturbing. And as they piece these pictures together, they are searching for the cause/person responsible for the black outs.

I’m finding myself looking forward to the show each week…how they are unveiling things, how the flash forwards are beginning to unfold. And the question that is repeated over and over is: are you able to change the outcome of the flash-forward you saw?

Makes me think… if I were able to see six months in the future, what would I change right now that I’m doing…or not doing. Am I living each day to become the person that I want to be?

This was by far the most powerful moment of our Catalyst experience last week. This video introduces us to Jimmy Wambua, a seminary student who was once a Compassion child. Take the time to watch this…and oh, grab some tissues!

One of the highlights of attending Catalyst was the opportunity to attend the Bloggers Meetup. Brad Ruggles arranged the place and put out the word, and within a couple of weeks, about a hundred bloggers and twitter users signed up for a night of connection and conversation.

I have to admit I was a bit intimidated as I pulled up to the Loafing Leprechaun restaurant that evening. I was going to be rubbing shoulders with some people that I have followed (or stalked, as Lynda likes to say!) online for quite a while. I didn’t really know what to expect.

What I found was that the conversations were relaxed and easy, that we each have a story to share and that God is doing great things in this world. And for me, it was exciting to meet new people that I may not have had the chance to meet otherwise.

• Matt Appling leads a house church in the Kansas City area.
• D’Art Strickland is making plans to move to Boston to plant a new church (yeah for Boston!)
• Brandon Smith is a campus minister in Missouri…he also blogged Catalyst for the Christian Standard.
• Tim Schrader is the communications director at Park Church in Chicago.

I also had the chance to meet Pete Wilson, Faye Bryant, Tony Steward, Scott Williams, Vince Parker (the last three are all from LifeChurch.tv – doing great things for the Kingdom), Michael Trent and a host of others.

I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with these people for those two hours on that Wednesday evening. Through the power of social media, each of these individuals are sharing their stories…their unique story of what God is doing in their life. What a privilege it was to me to get to meet them face to face.

Yeah, I had a fun time. And I walked away with a great swag bag too! Thanks for a great evening Brad…I’ll look forward to next year.

I had originally planned to blog some from Catalyst, but my MacBook Pro’s wireless connection wouldn’t cooperate the entire time I was gone.

What we experienced at Catalyst can summarized with ‘amazing!’ The speakers (Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, Priscilla Shirer, Chuck Swindoll and lots of others) and the worship (Fee, Aaron Keyes, Todd Fields, Christy Nockels and again some others) both challenged and encouraged me as a leader.

I took some good notes, had some great conversations about what we heard and saw and have walked away with a renewed sense of mission. What a great experience…I’m so glad that the four of us went. I’m ready to sign up for next year!

update: Tim Schraeder did an amazing job taking notes from the sessions. Take a peek…

tomorrow David, Mike, Dustin and I make our way to Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference 2009. I’ve been looking forward to this conference for a long while. I hope to post some great stuff while we’re there… I’m taking along my new Flip video camera that I won from Catalyst!

And really excited about hitting this on Wednesday night! Should be a fun time…

We recently began reading a devotional book with Colin & Aubrey. The Kids’ Book of Devotions has been pretty good bedtime reading and discussion. Love to hear them talk about what they think about scripture…

But with Ethan & Addison, we read different books each night. One that we’ve had since Colin was a toddler is called Thank You Dear God. I love to read it… it’s sing-song rhthym is fun. And each phrasing ends with “Thank you, dear God.” What’s been fun this week is that Ethan has started saying as I finish each page, “Thank you God.”

It reminds me that it’s never too early to begin these spiritual practices with our kids. Many times it’s often Ethan or Addison that remind us at dinner to pray just as Lynda and I are taking our seats!

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6