Saturday, Here We Come

This coming Sunday will be our last Sunday in the Regal Theaters.  It's a little bittersweet.  We've been in the theaters for 2 and a half years.  We've enjoyed the gummy bears and popcorn on the floor.  We've enjoyed the sticky floor.  We've enjoyed working with the theater schedule especially when movies start before there suppose too.  We've enjoyed the management and custodians.  It has been a great season here.

But...

It's time to move on.  We are changing many things concerning our Sunday morning service.  First off, we are changing locations.  We are moving about 10 minutes north into Ashland and will be using a church building on Saturday evenings.  Yes.  That's right.  Saturdays at 6pm.  

We we be gathering at the Ashland Vineyard Fellowship Church on Saturday nights.  This will be a great change for us in many ways.  A new time means reaching new people.  The sleepy heads.  A new location means reaching Randolph-Macon College more effectively.  Not having to work around the movie schedule will allow us to hang out before and after the service to eat and fellowship.   

All this starts on Jan 16.   I can't wait to experience the new dynamic that this all brings.

Fervently Pray

This Sunday we kick off a new series for a new year. "Fervently Pray" really captures the heart and goal for 2010. I would rather be known for my praying than anything else. And I think God honors that more than any creative element we can come up with.

I'm Back

The fall seemed a little frenetic and the first thing to take the back burner was the blog. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Well call it a 4 month sabbatical. But the new year has given new opportunity to start up the blog.

I am excited about 2010 and can't wait to tell you about it. We will be exploring many changes this year. We will tackle new opportunities of faith. We will pursue God's best for our lives. I am convinced that this year will be the best year yet.

Why the optimism? I'll explain why in the many post to come.

ebay

Call me old school.  Call me early 90s.  But I made my first ebay sale this past week.  I now have a sales rating of 1 positive feedback.  Hows that for a success rating.

I now feel inspired to clean out the attic and increase my rating. :)

Reasons for my absence...

1) I was on vacation, however not the entire time between blog post.  But would that be nice.

2) For the past couple of months now I have transition much of my writing to my Moleskin.

3) Starbucks and Church are a little taxing together and finding time to gather my thoughts for a post is getting harder to come by.

I hope for some improvement from myself in the near future. 

Vacation

I'm signing off for about 10 days.  A little vacation with the family.  3 days in a cabin in West Virginia, 3 days in Pittsburgh, 3 days in Kalamazoo.  Can't wait.  Much needed.  

A worship transition

We will be saying goodbye to a good friend who happens to be our worship leader at the end of the month.  Luke has been leading worship for us ever since the beginning and really made something out of nothing.  He's talented, passionate, and will be missed for sure.

We will be diving into a season of transition in the next couple of months as we explore some next steps in the worship department.  Pray for us.  

If your a worship leader or lead worship for your college ministry and looking for a part-time role in the Richmond area then shoot me an email.  I'd love to chat.  josh [at] crossingschurch.com

Fellowship on the First

Yesterday we debuted a new approach to church that Crossings is taking.  I view Crossings as highly experimental.  We are constantly doing new things and pushing people to experience God is new, fresh, and relevant ways.  

We are starting something called "Fellowship on the First."  

The church is not a building or organization or time clock where we pop in and pop out.  Jesus calls the church in John 10 as "Sheep".  There are not to many similarities between sheep and structure.  The church is not about structure and organization but about community and unity.  

And so to practically experience this we will be meeting on the first Sunday of everything month NOT at the theaters.  But rather at Crump Park where we will have a service followed by a picnic.

And it all starts Sept 6.

Leaders make tough decisions

I grabbed lunch with Mark Batterson last week. A great friend and mentor. He's a guy full of nuggets. Here's one that I walked home with.

"Anyone can make the 90/10 decision. It takes real leaders to make the 49/51 decision."

Well said. Don't you wish every decision was easily decided. But many times it seems like it's split 50/50 and you just got to go with your gut.  Tough but True.

Stations of the Cross

I"m all about trying things new at church so this morning we canned the worship and message again. The only times we'd done this in the past is for our small group kickoff. But this morning it was for an extremely experiential worship experience. We spent about 40 minutes walking through a "stations of the cross". Instead of 14 station we went for 5. We each experienced: communion, prayer, confession, meditation, and praise. What a Sunday. We worked hard on staging and by 10am it looked great. I talked to a handful of people this morning about there experience and heard some great things.

If anyone else has any unique Sunday morning experiences they've done in church they would like the share. Go for it.