Back in the game...

The school year is beginning to settle into a normal pace, and a few of you have asked me if I plan to keep up my blog. The answer is yes!

What's on my mind recently:
Our church is doing a fall emphasis of family, and so I've begun to think about, what does it mean to be in authentic community with others. Of course we have biblical examples in Acts, but in our world of intense schedules, and busyness, is it possible to have authentic community, and what does it look like?

Secondarily, how do we help teenagers develop authentic community that centers around a relationship with Christ? In two of our ministries, I see two opposites that have developed. One group that has developed a great deal of community both with leaders and students, and the other where authentic community once existed and has been lost for a time (although recently I'm thankful to be able to watch some community redevelop with some of our students).

One quick story to share that still has me thinking about what God might be doing: This past weekend we were at Summit Lake, our annual Northstar association high school retreat. It was an incredible retreat all around. But one thing that has stuck with me this week as I reflect back on it: Some of our students were wrestling with the social justice issues. That's to say we had a lot of great discussion about how they as a group of teenagers can begin to think beyond themselves and begin to help others both locally and globally. It gave me a lot of joy seeing these students wrestle with this issue, AND start to take some leadership in doing something about it, not just wait for someone else to do it. This is a memory that will stick with me for a long time.