Having just arrived in a new city, one of the first tasks at hand is finding a new body of believers to worship and fellowship with.  This can be a little intimidating, and in fact, this will be the first time that my wife and I can literally “go anywhere we want” (meaning, we have no prior connections or obligations to any particular body of believers here).

Since early in my life, I’ve been a member of the PCA and have attended PCA churches.  There’s many things that I really love about the PCA and their style of worship.  I am thankful for the gospel-centered focus that every PCA church I’ve attended has had (which, unfortunately, is often neglected in favor of “relevance” and “accessibility” by many mainstream churches today).  While there is a large amount of diversity within PCA churches, they tend to be generally more liturgical, formal, and theological.  So, this is, of course, the form of worship that I feel most comfortable and at home with.  Of the three PCA churches I’ve attended in my life, I think that each one has been progressively slightly more formal than the previous.  When I say formal I’m talking about things like; use of responsive readings, hymns vs. contemporary music, style of preaching, church architecture, etc.

This most recent Sunday I was invited by some good friends to visit their church with them and share lunch together afterwords.  I enjoyed attending a small, local Bible church with them on Sunday morning.  The music was contemporary, the setting was informal and small, they had a multimedia presentation, drums, guitar, the whole bit.  I loved it.

I think that part of why I enjoyed the service so much was because it was so different from what I’ve had previously.  I know that my heart is sinful and so can become dead to any form of worship given long enough exposure to it.  I have no doubt that after participating in this style of worship for any length of time I would become lazy and apathetic in my worship, and that a highly structured, liturgical, formal service would likely be a balm to my soul.

Following the service I was talking with my friends over lunch about worship and the church.  I was only half joking when I said I wished that I could attend a church where they radically altered their style of worship every six months!  I’m not sure where my wife and I will end up attending church (and I must wait for her to return home from international travel before we make any kind of decision anyway), but wherever we go, we will be part of the body of Christ and enjoy fellowship with believers, and that’s an amazing thing!

Not sure how many people are familiar with the band Superchick.  I remember seeing them play at the Door back in the day.  Myself and many of my friends really enjoyed their debut CD, Karaoke Superstars - haven’t really kept up with them since then.  Anyway, I was re-listening to this CD the other day while unpacking kitchen boxes and part of the chorus from the song Super Trooper made me laugh/think.

And I’m sorry that I’m getting on your case
But true friends, they stab you in the face

I thought it was pretty clever.  In all seriousness though, the point (I suppose) is that people who actually care about you tell it to you straight.

Wow.  So, it’s been awhile.  I’ve been silent the past few weeks as a result of some major life changes as well as some major laziness.  Let me shed some light on both of these.

Major life changes - my wife and I have just finished moving cross-country.  I’ve been busy packing, driving, unpacking, and job hunting.  I think I’m pretty close to securing some exciting employment, but I’ll hold off on saying anything until it’s certain.  Thankfully my wife’s job is already lined up, so we’re not necessarily worried, but I will definitely breathe easier when I’m officially employed as well.  My dad helped me drive all of our stuff across the country, and I really appreciated his help and getting to spend some time with him.

So…all that to say, it’s been a very busy past month.  I’ve got a couple of exciting ideas bouncing around for the site and hopefully we’ll be seeing much more activity here in the coming weeks.

Now then, in regard to laziness.  Let me share a story to begin with.

I really love soccer.  It’s probably not my favorite sport but it’s close.  I’m not really that good at soccer, nor do I follow it closely - but I love playing and watching it.  A few years back I had the opportunity to play soccer on a cool Sunday night with a really diverse, really interesting group of college international students.  I think we probably had at least six or seven different languages represented in our game.  We had students from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latina America, and of course, North America - it was great!

Since I was one of the weaker players, I hung back and played defense.  I was playing pretty decently - making a few good passes here, making some poor passes there.  Now then - in comes the opposing team’s offense, barreling hard down my side of the field.  I attack (too aggressive), miss, and the ball rolls past me.  Frustrated, I started to get up slowly, seeing the play already past me and thinking I didn’t have anything else to contribute.  As I’m rising to my feet, one of my team-mates, a large Eastern European man, runs past me shouting in a thick (Russian maybe?) accent, “Get up!  Keep going!”  He wasn’t angry, nor dissapointed even in my sloppy play - he was just so into the game and he was encouraging me to get back into it too.

Ok…so that’s sort of a random story, but for some reason this memory is sharp, crisp, and clear in my mind.  Often times when I am discouraged by my failure this memory serves to comfort me and reminds me of the Gospel.  We fail and fall down, and are hesitant to rise for fear of failure again, but there is Jesus yelling at us, “Get up!  Keep going!”

So - am I little dissapointed in my ability to contribute to this blog regularly?  Absolutely.  Am I going to quit?  Nope.  Stick around - good things coming.

Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”  And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”  Then He said to me, “It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”