Visiting church

my wife and i visited a couple of church services last week. we don't get to do this very often, so we were more than interested in the kind of experience we would have. its been over 30 years since we visited a church to see if we would like to make it our church home. (side note: in the past 30 years, i've been a pastor in three churches...)

when we walked in the door of the first church building...actually, it was the front door of a middle school cafeteria...we were greeted by a really friendly woman. she was obviously the designated greeter. outgoing, gregarious, huge smile, syrupy sweet, over-the-top chipper. i was still trying to figure out if i was fully awake... oh, well.

she did everything right...at least according to what the training manual for church greeters mandates. firm handshake and good eye contact. she introduced herself and paused appropriately to let us introduce ourselves. she asked us what brought us to their church that morning and told us how glad she was that we had chosen their church to come to. she pointed us to the auditorium and wished us a good morning experience. as we parted, she told us that she hoped to see us again.

like i said, she did everything the way the book says. but for me, it didn't seem particularly real. it felt like she was doing her job. don't get me wrong. i think we need people to welcome new people and try to make a good first impression and give them a warm introduction and all that. but it was what i didn't get that made the biggest impact on me.

after the initial greeting from the designated handshaker, nobody said much of anything to us. people walked right by us to talk to their friends, catch up on the past week, and make plans for where they were going for lunch after the service. it was a church of about 150, so it wasn't like we were lost in the crowd.

they had a nice service. the band wasn't slick, but they were well prepared. the worship leader was sincere. they lead four or five songs. they had communion and offering. they had a sermon that was understandable and challenging. even tho he was a guest preacher, i got the feeling that it was similar to what the regular guy was like. like i said...it was a nice service. the people obviously liked each other. it was casual. it wasn't real churchy.

if i lived there, i don't think i would choose to make it my church home. i'm not too sure i would even give it a second chance. i know this sounds critical, but it just felt like everybody was going through the motions...letting the designated people do their designated responsibilities. the greeter, the children's pastor, the worship leader, the preacher. i didn't sense anything particularly real.

i don't think i was looking for friendly. i was looking for friends. i was looking for genuine connection. or at least the potential for that kind of connection to happen. i wasn't looking for a friendly designated greeter. i was looking for undesignated, genuine people who would really show an interest in me and who really...i mean really... loved their church. i found neither.

i know people ought to be coming to worship god. trust me, i can worship god anywhere. it's just that i would choose to go anywhere else to do it.

any thoughts? does this sound like any church you are familiar with?

My love affair with music

for my birthday this summer, my son decided to give me his ipod...the one that i had given to him last christmas. he says its too big and he'd rather have a smaller one. i'm ok with the deal.
over the past month, i've grown more fond of it everyday.

i love music. in my freshman year of college, back in the dark ages, i was a music major. i started playing a trumpet when i was in fourth grade and kept playing it all the way through high school. in college, my original dream was to be a concert french horn player. no joke.

in my second year of college, god really got ahold of my heart and things began to change. one of those changes had to do with music. it was the early seventies, and rock and roll was changing the landscape where young people were living. that included me.

in the midst of my personal spiritual journey, i began to be captured by the new music styles that were creeping into my traditional church experience. my life was a fixture in the worship wars that were beginning to be fought in sanctuaries around the country. i didn't mean to cause problems, but i'm sure my love of new music (and its entrance into the worship experience of my home church) was very threatening and extremely uncomfortable to the older folks.

anyway, i quickly learned that it was a whole lot easier to lead worship around a campfire with a guitar, instead of a trumpet. so i eschewed my beloved olds recorder (trumpet) and purchased my first guitar and began my lifelong process of teaching myself how to play it.

there's a lot more to this story. a lot.

Life is unfair

i have a good friend of mine who lost his 40k -plus full benefits job recently. unexpected. unplanned for. no discussion. no debate. no recourse. his place of employment just decided not to renew his contract. severed relationships. broken hearts and broken promises. just cruel business as usual.

he owns a home. drives a car. married. two little boys. food expenses. doctor bills. insurance premiums. utilities. just a normal guy trying to live a normal life. lover of god. lover of people. a huge lover of life.

denial. depression. frustration. anger. retaliation. worry. fear. deep sadness. anxiety. doubt. sarcasm. cynicism. vulnerability. hope. faith. determination. resolve. he's felt it all.

i hurt deeply for him, but i trust god even more. i know he does, also. but it's still tough. i wonder what i would do if that happened to me. i wonder what you would do if it happened to you. would you remain true? would your faith sustain you? would you remain resolved to do the right thing and stay faithful to your commitment to the kingdom?

i'm grateful it didn't happen to me. i'm grateful that i have the example of my friend's life of faithfulness and determination. i still wish this would have never happened to him.

Complaining

there is an interesting side bar to my sermon today. paul wrote to the church in philippi that they were to "do everything without complaining or arguing". everything. not some things. all things. all the time. everywhere. no matter what. no complaining.

now here's what i've been thinking about. we all complain. it's part of our dna. we are descendants of the children of israel. grumblers. complainers. murmurers. doubters. whiners. we're all part of the same family. but that's not what i'm thinking about. what concerns me is our apparent willingness to live in denial over our disobedience.

we all complain and seem to accept it as a natural and unavoidable part of our existence. we do it without thinking and go on as if nothing is wrong with it. and that's what has me bothered. why do we accept this? why do we act like nothings wrong?

more than that, why is it that we are so quick to say that certain things are bad, wrong, sinful, disobedient all the time, and something like complaining is casually overlooked without even an eyebrow being raised? we get up in arms about lying and fighting and cussing and stealing and homosexuality and meanness and a list of other things...but whine away our petty disappointments and frustrations without a confession of the sin or a drop of remorse. worse yet, i'm pretty sure it doesn't even bother us much, now that we know. come on people...

Important questions

i've been thinking a lot about how well we do what God is calling us to do...as a church...as individual parts of the body...and wondering about how we can improve. there is no doubt that God's call is clear. unless you're asleep, the needs of people and systems and organizations and families and culture are screaming out loud and clear. so what will we do?

an area of spiritual formation that we don't spend enough time addressing is the role of spiritual gifts in the life of the believer. here's a starting point: ask yourself the following questions and see what you come up with...

• describe your personal, spiritual pilgrimage. what led to your conversion to christ? what formal and informal training has contributed to your growth? what crises have you weathered? what have been your experiences in ministry? what individuals have influenced you significantly?
• is God "cultivating a concern" in you for ministry? what specific needs, issues, or situations particularly touch your heart? what concerns make you want to roll up your sleeves and go to work?
• up to now, what concrete steps have you taken to address these needs or get involved in these issues?
• specifically identify several things you expect to accomplish through this process.
• set aside these expectations for the moment and dream. assume you had all the resources you wanted and needed, and that God would guarantee your success in anything you wanted to do. describe what your life would look like ten years from now. who would you be? what would you be doing?
• identify several resources God has entrusted to you (spiritual gifts, natural talents, acquired skills, experiences).
• what is your greatest strength?
• are there any present barriers keeping you from living up to your God-given potential? If so, identify them.
• where do you need to grow the most?

(thanks to mark oertli at bear valley church in denver, colorado for these questions)

we'll talk some more about this stuff. it's more important than you realize.

The Big Week

my apologies to the faithful blog readers. i took a hiatus. i hope you understand. the tank was empty, but it's starting to refill. i'll be back.

ok, in the past week, i got to experience my yearly festival of celebration...father's day, my anniversary, and my birthday. think about it. a week that's all about me. here are my numbers:

• 25...years as a dad
• 32...years of marriage
• 53...years inhabiting the planet

i think it's time to break out the party favors.

Pastoral counseling

i really don't want to be insensitive to the deep problems and complicated histories that people have, or to the damaging effects of sinful behavior, but there are some days i feel like the best thing i can say to people is...well, see for yourself:


glumbert.com - Stop It!

Comfort and conviction

i read a quote this afternoon that really made me think...

"If you have courage, you will influence people based on your convictions. If you lack courage, you will influence people based on your comfort zones. Courage will take you anywhere you believe God is leading you. Without courage, you will go where you are comfortable."

courage is a virtue that i want to have. i know that i have convictions. i know that i want to influence people. i know that influencing people is a difficult road...if i stick to my convictions. the problem is that i will frequently run back to my comfort zones of wanting people to like me or wanting to stay out of conflict or not wanting people to be hurt.

if i really believe that god is leading me, courage is the only thing that will allow me to follow... because when god is leading, he is never concerned with my comfort. he is only concerned with truth and what is best for his kingdom.

that should be a comforting thought...

Ability quotients

alan nelson is a writer with group publishing and he posted an article about healthy churches recently:

One goal of healthy churches is to maximize people’s strengths and to minimize their weaknesses, and it’s best accomplished by matching people with jobs that take full advantage of their strengths. This goal requires leaders to be excellent judges of their churches’ needs as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their people. I have found the following seven ability quotients to be helpful in aligning people’s strengths with organizational needs.

1) Intelligence quotient. People with high IQs enjoy complex, conceptual projects, whereas those with lower IQs are best suited for concrete, task-oriented roles.
2) People quotient. Folks with high PQs are good with others, excel in customer service, and enjoy highly visible roles. Those with low PQs work best behind the scenes, often at task-oriented jobs.
3) Energy quotient. People with high EQs (rabbits) enjoy having plenty to do. Those with low EQs (turtles) are not necessarily lazy, but they resist being pressured or asked to do more.
4) Resource quotient. People with high RQs generously give their time, talent, or treasure. Those with low RQs may be sincere and dedicated, but they aren’t eager to share their personal resources.
5) Attitude quotient. Attitudes are contagious, so put people with positive AQs where they’ll influence others. Steer those with negative AQ’s away from influential roles.
6) Motivational quotient. Motivation is the engine that drives all the other quotients. People with high MQs are eager to commit to organizational goals, whereas those with low MQs resist. (Leaders are MQ raisers.)
7) Spirituality quotient. It should go without saying that churches must be lead by folks who have achieved high levels of spiritual maturity. People with high SQs are solid and mature. Those with low SQs often vacillate in their spiritual commitments and become defeated quickly.

Many, if not most, organizational problems arise when people are placed in positions that demand more than their quotients allow. A careful evaluation of both people and expectations is therefore critical to the success of any church.

i'm curious. are you where you need to be? are you doing what you should be doing? what quotients do you excel in? which ones do you feel are holding you back? what should you be doing about it?

The pain of leadership

i read an article this morning that challenged me to evaluate my leadership by asking the question, “what do i need to stop doing?”. this is a good question. the worth of our leadership (maybe our entire lives, also) is defined not just by what we do, but also by what we don’t do.

as i read about the lives and impact of great men and women throughout the ages, especially great leaders, one of the characteristics they share is the ability to stay focused on the goal…to strip away the things that keep them from achieving their dreams and forge ahead with singlemindedness.

the apostle paul lived this kind of life.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

now, here’s where my struggle is this morning… great leaders, in order to achieve great outcomes, must make difficult decisions where relationships (sometimes significant relationships) are the casualties.

this is obvious in the corporate world. ceo’s are hired for their ability to make strong and swift assessments and are rewarded for their resolve and determination to be decisive when it comes to the success of the organization. a company that exceeds expectations and rises above the riff raff of mediocrity almost always points to leadership that has had to come in and make the “tough decisions”.

in my experience, that means people are hurt, relationships are severed, dreams are squashed, and friendships are sent packing…all for the good of the corporation.

don’t get me wrong. i understand the need. baseball coaches have to cut players that are not good enough and replace them with better ones if they want to win. businesses must get rid of poor producers and raise up more successful sales people if they want to turn a profit. bosses need to be bosses…and employees need to know that their jobs are not safe just because their superiors are “nice guys” or “nice women”. i get it.

but what is supposed to happen in the church? what are we to do when the workers are late or sloppy or ineffective or careless or thoughtless or inconsiderate or unconcerned? what are we to do when the product we present is second-rate or offensive? what if the ministry we perform is substandard or even harmful to the mission? what if there is disagreement with the direction of organization or a challenge to the leadership position?

what if, in our effort to fix the problem, people get hurt and relationships get torn and friendships get shattered? what if, in spite of our best effort, decisions result in people leaving?

apparently, a strong leader says that the greater good has been served. what do you say?

Prayer

this past sunday, i talked about prayer. even doing my post-sunday, armchair-quarterback analysis of the event is still difficult. prayer is the most dramatic, intimate, mysterious, and defining moment in a disciple's life. it says more about who we are and about who god is (to us) than anything else we do on our journey. prayer is hallowed ground. prayer is the secret place.

• prayer is an act of remembrance...
• prayer is refocus...
• prayer is an expression of faith...that which i cannot see (or feel) is non-the-less real...
• prayer is realignment...
• prayer is a command...it puts me in the right place!
• prayer reprioritizes...it puts my issues in the right place...underneath the umbrella of god's greater issues.

more than anything else, prayer is recognizing that i am not in control. no matter how hard i try, i can’t do it! prayer is acknowledging that i cannot do it on my own…no matter what “it” is. prayer is where i willingly admit that i don’t know what’s best for my life (or anybody else’s life, for that matter), but god does. prayer is admitting that am human, that am weak, and that i’m really not too bright.

i am reminded, everyday, that people make bad decisions. decisions that hurt others and mess up lives and make mockery of god's grace and god's law. i see the effects of people living "out of control". god help us. amen.

Giving our money 4

here's another thought about giving money from paul's second letter to the christians in corinth...

the churches in macedonia had collected money to give to struggling christians in jersusalem. in this passage, paul expresses what the real motive is for giving money:

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little." 2 Corinthians 8:13-15

as foreign as it sounds, the desire is for equality among believers. sometimes, god blesses people with a great deal of resources...while at the same time, there may be others that are in great need. the goal is for everybody to have their needs met (equality). sometimes, you will give out of your supply. sometimes, others will give out of their supply...maybe even to you!

it's kind of fascinating to me that paul's first goal is not to meet needs, but to experience equality. do you realize that the great "equalizer" is not what you make, but what you give?

Giving our money 3

i hear he's a free agent...

Giving our money 2

the apostle paul writes some amazing things about generosity in his second letter to the followers of christ in corinth. the macedonian churches had stepped up to financially provide for the church in jerusalem. paul uses that situation to teach us about giving in chapters eight and nine. here's one of his lessons:

Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. 2 Corinthians 8:10-12

wow! can you imagine being the first one to give? and not just to do it, but to really want to do it? more than anything else, giving is a matter of the heart. but it isn't just a good intention or a willingness to do it, but it is actually the completion of it. we aren't to talk about giving. we aren't to hope to give. it's not enough to want to do it. we've got to do it!

the cool part about giving, though, is that it is to be done according to our means. god doesn't ask us to give what we don't have. he doesn't ask us to give above our income. he just says to do it in relationship to what we do have. if there is good heart, the worth of gift is judged by what we have...not by what we don't have or what our neighbors have or by what the person sitting next to you in worship has.

i think it's pretty comforting to know that, even though giving is required, it is never burdensome, never unfair, never taxing, and never unrealistic. god would never do it that way.

Giving our money

This past Sunday, I talked about why giving my money matters to me. Here's a look back...

It’s part of our heritage. God’s people have always taken care of God’s business. In the OT, God required it. In the NT, Jesus modeled it. I am a direct descendant of a giving God. I am related to those who left all behind to follow. I pursue the path of those who lived lives of generosity.

It reaffirms that it’s all God’s anyway. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:11

It has always been a tangible way to teach our kids (and anyone else’s) where our priorities really are. It put our money where our mouth was. We showed them that our faith meant business. When we said that we would seek God’s Kingdom first, they knew what that meant, because they saw how we directed our money. Giving our money showed them one of the most important ways we shared in the responsibility of being part of the family!

It has trained us to live on less…and put us in a place to give more. Giving our money to God (through the ministry of our church family) has always been a planned decision. Often, we have had to go without things we wanted, because we made a commitment. But, because it was planned, we did it. And we've always been able to give beyond…and God has always taken care of us!

Giving our money puts us in a place where we have to trust God. We (all of us)are an educated, talented, privileged people. It is easy to trust our ingenuity, our hard work, our training, our instincts, our experience, our abilities. But we are to trust God. One of the most tangible and life-changing ways to do that is to give enough of our money that we really have to trust God for something!

The best of all…When we give, we are blessed. All of those things we talk about and preach about and dream about and wish were happening in our spiritual lives begin to happen. Giving our money is powerful.

Check back in the days ahead. I promise I'll give you more to think about...

Confronting uneasiness

this morning, i read this quote in a daily devotion i subscribe to:

It is not what happens to us in any day that gives content to our lives, but whether or not we let its experience sink into us. ... It is one of the highest powers given to anyone. In reflection I come upon feelings that I had been too afraid to experience in the moment. In the quiet of reflection I take the risk and the time to let censored thoughts as well as feelings into consciousness, to discover what is causing the uneasiness in me. - Elizabeth O' Conner

when she writes that in moments of reflection, she comes upon feelings that she was too afraid to experience in the moment...well, that resonates with me. i think there are things we go through...conflicts, temptations, challenges, memories, or even simple life events...that are overwhelming. sometimes it's just for the moment and other times those feelings seem to linger forever!

have you ever had censored thoughts? those things that you push down and away from your daily consciousness so that you don't have to deal with them. i think we all have. that's why daily quiet and reflection is so important. if we don't slow down, if we don't listen, if we don't take time to stop talking and doing and running and planning and chasing the experience, we will never hear the whisper of god.

it's only in the whisper of god that we can confront the uneasiness we live with. it is only in the quietness of listening that we can truly be honest about what hurts and scares and concerns and belittles and depresses us. and without that honesty, we will never know the joy that god breathes into our existence when he whispers.

why not carve out some time to be quiet so you can listen. i think i will.

Church membership...again

i can't stop thinking about this church membership thing...

on sunday, i said that church membership (at least as we have come to know and love it) is not really talked about in the bible. amazing. something that important and it's not addressed in the book?

well, that's not entirely true. even though church membership is not talked about specifically, there is enough said indirectly that we can get the picture...

when paul says in the roman letter that, as members of one body, we belong to each other, we get our most vivid glimpse of what god intends. we belong to each other. you belong to me and i belong to you. you're mine. i'm yours. we're stuck. or at least we should be if we are members.

i guess that's why the church as a family means so much to me and why we have to get our understanding of church membership from that image. if we don't, we run the risk of creating a faulty expectation for membership. paul talks about the church as a family in his letter to the ephesians:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22

households (or families) are complex, but it doesn't take a degree to understand what god expects! members of families belong to each other. they don't run away. they work out their problems. they share the responsibility. they own up to mistakes. when the dust settles, they are for each other, with each other, and connected to each other.

the church better wake up.

Some more thoughts on college life

we have a really good college group. i am really proud of them. they are hard working and have really begun to understand god's calling to a servant lifestyle. they are spiritually aware and have a deep awareness of god's presence and kingdom priorities. they have had good modeling and are well taught in the fundamentals of christian discipleship. and i like them. but i am painfully aware that they are not necessarily the norm, nor does having a good college group ensure that new kids will follow in their footsteps in years to come.

the college years are difficult and navigating through them is a treacherous journey where many, even most, fall flat on their face after they leave the protective womb of adolescence and the safety of the church youth group they have grown accustomed to. did i say treacherous? yeah.

there are a number of possible reasons for the drop off in church attendance (or the abandoning of christian lifestyle) once a kid enters college:

the new-found freedom is tough to handle... there is no question that adulthood and the post-high school lifestyle is one full of amazing opportunities for both good and danger. with freedom comes responsibility. unfortunately, that new-found freedom usually lacks the component of accountability. nobody even makes you get up on sunday mornings anymore!

new social circles... the high school youth group is a pretty cool entity. you don't have to think much. you don't have to plan much. you don't have to initiate stepping outside your comfort zone. it's full of familiarity, fun, tradition, and a ready-made group of safe, similar friends...even for the most edgy of kids. trips are planned. meetings are planned. friendships are orchestrated. spiritual experiences are blueprinted. life is good. when a kid goes to college, it is full of new possibilities and new friends and new circles. and nobody scripts out spiritual experiences.

the tidal wave of education... if high school kids think their faith is challenged now, just wait until their first philosophy or ethics class! or what about the first microbiology lecture? biblical faith is assaulted from the moment a kid sets foot on the campus of most any of our nations institutions of higher learning. defense of the faith can only be done by those that have built a defense. that leads to the next problem:

our youth ministries are not necessarily preparing our young people for what's ahead... kids are all about having fun, hanging out with their friends, pursuing their own dreams, developing strong and nimble digit motor skills (for effective computer gaming), and, did i already say...having fun? it's incredibly easy to play to the lowest common denominator when it comes to attracting a crowd of young people. just ask them what they want to do! often, church youth groups are nothing more than glorified boys and girls clubs with a spiritual veneer...and then they are left to face that reality as they naively wander off to college.

finally, our kids have watched the adults at church for years (often, their own parents) and have concluded "what's the point?"... they see adults who claim allegiance to christ and loyalty to the kingdom and, at a minimum, are confused. they see adults who are consumed with their own lives, their own homes, their own vacations, their own money, their own time, their own reputations, their own rise up the ladder, their own petty jealousies, their own unresolved anger, their own legalism, their own abuse of freedom, their own worries, their own fears, their own inconsistencies, and their own empty spiritual lives. what do we expect our young people to do with that?

what will you do to help change this trend?

Some thoughts on easter sunday

some thoughts on easter 2007...

i really liked the change in our service times! it was awesome to have nearly 70 people in our first service. i think we have something to build on now.

it was great to have my whole family together for easter. even tho wanda couldn't eat (don't ask), we enjoyed our traditional easter foodfest at baja fresh anyway.

i loved seeing all the new faces.

watching the logjam at the rear doors between the two services was very cool.

over $5700 was put in the kingdomsales jar. wow.

i know there are always going to be people that are in a hurry to leave right after the service is over, but they are really missing something by not hanging around and experiencing the expressions of friendship that go on...long after the band has packed it up and the lights have been turned off. even tho it was easter, it was business as usual for a lot of people...

the band sounded really good. and the new song ("by his wounds") is a winner.

there is no topic better to preach on than the resurrection of jesus. nothing.

the warmth of relationship in our building was powerful. i wish you could have seen what i saw during our welcome time. it was genuine. it was moving.

i hope people feel as convicted to invite a friend this coming week as they did yesterday. our responsibility is to offer the invitation. it the holy spirit's job to do the rest.

it was a good easter, but now i am really looking forward to this sunday. and i'm not even going to baja fresh.

Mexico, again

it is good to be home. the older i get, the harder it is to be gone. don't get me wrong, though. there are not a whole lot of things more fun, more fulfilling, more revealing...than spending five days with a bunch of men. really.

i love our men's mission trip to mexico. i'm so impressed with the group of men who choose to take time away from work and family and house chores and making money and recreational pursuits to join with other men to build a house for family in mexico. it's hard work, time consuming, costly, exhausting, and risky.

the work is painful. especially for the old guys. like me. two long days of mixing cement by hand in wheel barrows. sawing lumber with hand saws. gripping twenty-eight ounce hammers and swinging them until our forearms burn. for some of us, that's about fifteen swings and a whack on a thumb. pulling wire. shoveling sand and gravel. lifting plywood on a roof. lifting five gallon buckets of water. stretching chicken wire. mixing and spreading stucco. the hardest physical labor that i do anymore is mowing the lawn and running the snake through my plugged plumbing.

the men have to pay $275 to go on the trip, plus all of their travel money. that's not chump change. i'm sure that money could go for a lot of other things. but it doesn't. it goes to giving a family a new house. amazing. a whole new house. for about the cost of a new car stereo or a new callaway driver or new power spray washer, a family gets a new house. did i say amazing?

the best part of the trip, though, is where the greatest risk is. it's not the long hours of travel. it's not crossing the border. it's not drinking the water. it's being trapped for five days with other men and having to be honest and open and real. and having to talk. oh, there's a lot of groaning and whining and sarcasm and suspicious story telling. but, more importantly, there is good conversation. we get to know each other. we become better friends. we have been in the trenches together and we are deeper and stronger because of it. and god is pleased.

sign me up for next year.