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Back in the day we used to pass a quaint little church not far from us on our way to our home church at the time. They didn’t seem flashy or over the top nor old school and set in their ways. Occasional advertisements of VBS or a special series let us know they weren’t completely dead. It seemed like it was worth a shot, so i managed to find the website via google. Their web presence matched their physical representation: clean design with updated content, but nothing showy or screaming “we’re the best church ever!” Of all the possibilities, this had the most promise so far.

We arrived at the orange-brick building to an onslaught of “who are you here for?” questions and looks that said “we know you’re a visitor, but that doesn’t surprise us this week, so we’ll smile, but no need to make a big deal about it.” … Ah, yes… The week when family and friends from all over show up to your local church to partake in a ritual found in churches all across the nation: Graduation sunday.

Have I told you yet that there is usually ZERO point in visiting a church on a special service? Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and Graduation Sunday… What is the point? Thankfully there were only two students graduating and the pastor did his normal thing, so I think we got a good taste of what to expect.

Everything edged on “decent” on our mental checklist, wavering slightly to one side or the other. Worship and the communion on the high side, kids program and preaching on the low side, atmosphere, friendliness, and everything else right in the middle. And lets rename this “Church of the Sons of the Nephilim” … seriously, i’ve never seen so many tall people in my life!

We planned on going back, but excuses kept coming up, then came vacation and father’s day and we found ourselves nearly a month removed from going to any church. The overall “average” impression of the church coupled with general apathy doesn’t preclude another visit to the church in the near future. Which brings us to Church 4, which we visited last week… but that’s for a new post at some point soon…

thanks for listening…

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We had another church picked out with an amazing location… only about 2 blocks from our house! Wouldn’t that be great! So I checked out the website on Saturday night and found a few snippets of the message… I listened to about five minutes of it and it was evident that this was not the place for us…

The next morning, we headed to another church that was close by. We had actually been to the church several times before, but never for a service. For a while, they held concerts showcasing local bands (with the occasional national act) every weekend. We knew a little history of the church and knew the basics of what to expect. I honestly did not think it would be a match for us, but since we had to change our plans last minute it was at least worth a shot.

The people were much more welcoming and even talkative at times! They were not shocked at having visitors and they handled themselves nicely. We did feel a bit under-dressed ( i wear jeans and a casual button-down un-tucked every Sunday), but no one made mention of it. The first thing that we really enjoyed is the pre-service worship. About 5 minutes before service officially started, the worship leader took his spot at his keyboard and just started playing / improvising. It was nice. Slowly the rest of the band made their way to the stage… all 13 of them (4 singers, 2 percussionist, 2 guitars, 1 additional keyboardist, 1 upright bass, 1 electric bass, 1 drummer +leader = 13). It was a strange dynamic/ratio since only about 25 people found there way into the auditorium at the start and maybe 35-40 by the end of worship.

The worship experience exceeded typical Charismatic standards, all it lacked was a prophet with a SHOFAR (see pic). The set went on for a long time and there was plenty of room for “flowing in the Spirit” … i.e. - Extending songs far longer than necessary and improving lots of verses. A few older youth and younger adults congregated on the far side of the auditorium and danced elegantly as to make any born and bred charismatic woman proud… my legs started hurting…

The message was… i have no idea. I don’t remember what it was about. Something in psalms and eagles. But it was very energetic. The music team still hadn’t stopped yet, but at least we were sitting.

There really isn’t much else to say nor much else we needed to see. We saw no signs of the majority of things we are looking for… Family, Community, Missions focus were not evident on first visit; nor was there any inkling of a discipleship / Christian education program. They may very well have had them, but nothing was apparent.

Despite the length of the music portion, we enjoyed being a part of a worship set where at least people seemed interested. But the atmosphere, comfort level, and over-the-top spiritualism is not where we want to be nor where we want to raise our kids. Dionna put it best as soon as we were back at the car: “Just because we know that a place isn’t right for us doesn’t mean I didn’t get anything out of it. I really needed the worship [music] that we got today, but there’s no need for us to come back.”

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Category : Church, Culture, Empyreal, Family, Sundays

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(As i wrote today I couldn’t help but feel it would seem as if I was writing a review or critique of a church, which doesn’t exactly leave a good taste in my mouth. However, I am hoping to invite you along and delve into the same conversations we’d have if you joined us physically at these churches. Please feel free to ask specific questions, clarify, or call me stupid throughout this process.)

For our first church, we decided to check out a nearby Bible Church referred to us by our bro-in-law. He had only visited and shared his testimony during a youth service, but noticed several things he liked about the small, friendly church. Seeing as we had just left a Bible Church and agreed with the theological foundation they are built on, we thought it was a good place to start.

What we didn’t know is that our previous Bible Church is quite different from the majority of Bible Churches, but i’m not sure who found themselves more in shock: us at the heavy traditional style influence? or the congregation at the fact that visitors walked through the door? … Seriously… it was like that. It was impossible for the members to hide their disbelief. Needless to say, it was very uncomfortable being stared at as if we just crawled out of a swamp.

It wasn’t that we stood out in our attire (it was a fairly casual setting), we were just new. After the initial shock, the atmosphere was nice, and though i wouldn’t say it was necessarily “warm,” the opening experience was not a deal breaker.

The kids program for the main hour was non-existent, so the girls stayed with us. They do have a Sunday School program for children, but as a rule we only go to the main service the first time at a church. Tristen managed nicely, but Mac started getting restless about half way through. While they did have a place for younger children Mac’s age to go, Mac wasn’t terribly interested (a theme we’ve repeatedly encountered). Dionna did get a chance to watch the young’ens in action and she was a bit concerned when two of the toddlers made their way into the parking lot without the workers noticing… (yikes!). But hey, stuff happens.

The service as a whole was tough to sort through because a few internal changes influenced the mood. A long time member passed away the previous week, and this particular Sunday was also the last for a leader who was going on to a different ministry. It was nice to see how the pastor and congregation handled the changes.

But there was a lot of good to be had at this small church. They had a wall dedicated to the missionaries they supported… Such a small church providing financial and spiritual support to four different sets of missionaries is awesome! And I recognized the pastor as the guy who I always saw at Chick Fil A on Saturday morning’s where I also meet with some friends of mine, subtly letting me know that discipleship was on the radar and consistency existed at least in his mind. I also really liked the Pastor’s down to earth approach to the message, which was filled with “I don’t knows” … “here’s some alternate views” and a general tone of “lets discover this together.”

It was also encouraging to see the people as a whole treating each other as one big happy family, despite the difficult times they seemed to be facing… But herein also lies one of the most difficult things about this particular church… They were so close knit that it would take a lot of networking, conversations, and nods of approval before we would feel like this was home. Yes, I know everywhere we visit we will feel like outsiders; it’s natural when trying something new, but there is a difference between feeling like outsiders and being treated like outsiders.

At the end of the day, I have no doubt that the people would love us and let us in to the circle, but “Church 1″ fails to manifest the type of outward faith that I want our family to exude.

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Category : Church, Empyreal, Enabling, Family, Sundays

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With the diverse backgrounds and subsequent experiences, you’d think it would be difficult for us to agree on what is important. Thankfully we’re both level headed and see the flaws in our own background as well as the positive aspects.

I know that the Charismatic scene is not something that makes sense to most people and it often confuses emotional experience with foundational relationship (man do i have some stories, though!). She knows that CoC as a whole is restrictive relationally and a breeding ground for quiet judgmentalism. Both of us see how full of vigor cultural-relevant churches are when it comes to production, but how deflated they can become in the areas of discipleship and strong biblical teaching (ouch).

Jonathan rightly states: “choose not because of labels or styles, but be obedient to His call, for He has a local body that will grow you and that you will help grow.” …

And this is what we’ve been open to and hoping for. Ideally, I would love a place that is modern in style and solid in teaching that is also close to our home so “community” is tangible. In such a highly concentrated area as Garland/DFW, a church even 15 shorts minutes away is a completely different community… standard of living, demographics, everything.

So, this is our checklist of sorts… unofficial and fluid. We don’t put specific numerical values to these or whatever, we just kinda take mental notes or jot down thoughts on the provided bulletin. Most of these cannot be evaluated after one visit or one month of visits, but there are always clues inside the building if you have CSI skills like me. In Alpha Order…

Atmosphere - Am I comfortable? Would the average joe off the street be comfortable? This one is tricky because its not just how it looks, but how people act, the goings on from the pulpit and stage, the literature, the kids area, and everything.

Community Oriented - Is the church going to the community or expecting the community to come to them? Are their outreaches effective in sharing the Love of God or simply clever marketing?

Discipleship/Mentorship - Does it exist? is it payed lip service or is there something legit about it? Is there something in place that will enable (haven’t used that word in a while) others to become who God intends us to be? Is there freedom in the general membership to take initiative and enable others for His service?

Family Oriented - Usually tough to tell after one visit. Are the kid-workers responsible and pleasing? What do my children think after service? Can they remember anything? Does the handout/literature lend to the idea that family is important or is the youth/children’s ministry basically ignored? Does the youth section (c’mon every church has one) seem alive and friendly? or bored? From experience, the more youth feel they are a part of the church as a whole, the more lively they are in “big” service (there’s some CSI skills for you)…

Missions Oriented - Similar to discipleship, is it lip service or legit? Can i find any literature on their missions focus or do i have to search high and low? Does the speaker ever even mention anything remotely missions related? Do they financially support any missionaries, home or abroad?

Preaching - Is it style over substance? Is it thought out or thrown together? Does the Spirit change direction so often in one sermon that you’d think He’s got a split personality (okay, thats a charismatic reference for you…)? Does it bring solid truth in a convicting, encouraging, and challenging way, or does relevancy take precedent over growth?

Theological Foundation - This is where it gets difficult and where denominations become an issue. For the most part, I adhere to the now famous “In essentials- unity; in non-essentials - liberty; in all things, love” but the question becomes “what is essential and what is not?” Its a difficult question to answer. While some would argue only that which directly effects your salvation is essential, that which directly effects salvation is greatly debated! Theological foundation is by far the most difficult piece to gauge after a visit or a month simply because there is so much that goes into the discussion.

Worship Music - I love all sorts of music and worship, so its less about style and more about authenticity, which is hard to judge. Does it seem thrown together and haphazard? Is it showy? Does the production aspect overwhelm the spiritual aspect? Is it restricted to music or are alternative worship elements available (communion, etc)?

So I think that pretty much sums it up, but since its fluid sometimes we think of other things. Yeah, it all sounds “duh” obvious, but if we’re honest I think most people find a church that stirs them emotionally and immediately fits their personality, then they make everything else fit into their justification. What doesn’t fit, they write off as a non-essential. And thats alright, it works for some, but not for us. I really want the next church that we call home to become our home for a long time. I’m not into switching churches every few years… Notice I didn’t mention anything about finances, tithes or offerings… i think someone once said something to the effect of “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The money will show itself (eventually), and thus show me the heart of the church.

I’ve got 4.5 churches to catch you up on, so i’ll start this afternoon and go through Friday, then add churches as we visit more.

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(part one: here)

Church should not be the fulfillment of ministry in your life, rather it should be an extension of your lifestyle of ministry.

If I’m going to “live by” certain maxims, I have to at least mull over what it means for various areas of my life. Its fine and dandy to say something to encourage or challenge others, but if I don’t run with and own it, I’m a hypocrite. If I am adamant in my belief in the value of the statement, I must move beyond pulling it out of my back pocket only when it is convenient to make a point or justify a thought process. There must be some level of commitment or change.

So how should this particular personal-adage manifest in my life?

Church-Leaving: Over the last several months we have watched as our personality and that of our “home” church has slowly drifted in different directions. I think the church we were attending does a good job at several things, but lacks in the areas that are most important to us. We have served faithfully, but we are moving on.

The difficulty in leaving a church lies at the very heart of the fulfillment/extension relationship. If church is only one singular avenue by which I minister, then anything short of heresy or blatant disregard for the foundations of the Christian faith is acceptable. Living so that my life fulfills the ministry He lays on my heart means that I do not wait for the local church to provide an opportunity nor do I need their approval of outpouring of His ministry in my personal life. Obviously the time I spend ministering within the local church is subject to the local church’s guidelines, but anything beyond is governed directly by God, His Word, and those in my life that He uses to keep me in check.

The implications, then, are that I do not have to seek a church that falls completely in line with my personality or style preferences. Using the previous parental analogy, I do not enjoy ballet, but if any of my daughters decide they want to pursue dance as an extra-curricular activity and it turns into a passion of theirs, then it becomes a big part of my life. I may not enjoy the actual experience, but I take joy in their fulfillment. Suddenly, style does not matter. Tradition does not matter. Programs do not matter. Musical tastes do not matter. Demographics do not matter.

So what matters?

Like-mindedness? The vision of every church is based on the Great Commission, or at least, in theory it should be. So like-mindedness isn’t an issue. Execution of the vision? Every church strives to fulfill the vision. Too many go about it the wrong way, but the hearts of leadership are generally in the right place. Besides, if the fulfillment of ministry does not rely on local church leadership, then shortcomings, in-and-of themselves, are not an excuse to leave a church. If we can trace the deficiencies to obvious character flaws, lack of true relationship with Christ, sin-filled lives, and so forth, then yes, they play a role in staying or leaving. But then again leaving over poor-execution means I never gave a damn about the people in the local church in the first place. When a leader falls short, we should be there to help and support him. Not to hide his failure, but to aide in the recovery. Not only his healing, but also in the resolve of other church members. Like-mindedness and execution of the vision, then, cannot be the sole reason for leaving.

We also cannot justify leaving a church based on the opportunities it creates for us to use the gifts God has individually given us. Faithfulness in execution of our gifts must extend beyond the available outlets in our local church. My wife is gifted in helping others learn, specifically as it relates to math. She’s tutored everything from middle school to college and has an unbelievable success rate. I do not know of many local churches who would provide her with a specific “tutoring” ministry, but she would be remiss to allow the lack of opportunity within the church to dictate her usage of the gift.

This shifts everything in my heart. What I used to see as viable reasons for leaving the church, when taken by themselves, are no longer valid. Then again, this is the third church I’ve left since adulthood; the first two were extenuating circumstances so I don’t have a lot of experience in the matter (the first I was asked to leave, the second was a personal sabbatical from ministry that formed much of the internal discussions I’m bringing to light now).

The conundrum created by pursing a lifestyle of ministry that is only extended (rather than fulfilled) via the local church is why we mulled over this decision for several months. But in the end it came down to two very related things: “is it home?” and “are we connected?”

The answer to both, is “no.” We’ve tried to make it feel like home, and we’ve tried to connect, but it hasn’t worked out for us. But how is that answer justifiable as it concerns the fulfillment/extension relationship? … in a word… problematic… at best. Again, that is why it was a several month decision. If we begin to live the way we feel we are intended to live… that is without restrain in the fulfillment of ministry, uncuffed, throwing caution to the wind… it becomes increasingly evident that we must have a home and a church family that supports us in word and helps us find rest for weary legs.

Is it a cop out? maybe on its own merit, just like any of the previously mentioned reasons. But when you combine it all… demographics, execution of vision, dis-connectedness, personalities,  the focus of the ministries available, conflicting areas we respectively hold in high regard… it all points to one thing: it’s time to move on.

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So, it’s been awhile since a real post…

Work suddenly became busy for a couple of weeks… it’s slowed back down, but i tend not to post when work is busy.

School has been a bit of a beating so far this semester, but I must admit that I’ve brought most of the issues on myself.

And finally, sickness decided to camp out at my house. Once again all four of us got nailed with something or other over the last three weeks… Once again, i took the lightest hit and Dionna took the heaviest. Both girls took a hit somewhere in the middle.

Churchis going well. I played some electric guitar last week, but in general i’m heading up the audio/video team for the youth. Things are coming together alright in that respect. But more importantly, the youth as a whole is going well.

And for the record, i was cheering for the Patriots but was very impressed and happy for how Eli played. Six weeks have made me an Eli fan. All to annoy Blake, who lives and works in his college town, but went to his rival college.

Now, tonight i have 100+ pages of history to read and other crap to do before the Mexico v USA Men’s soccer game tomorrow night.

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worship text-fessional for 01/20/08

So the last text-fessional in which I led worship was way back at the end of November. The major reason for this is that it’s been that long since i’ve led worship. We combined our Sr. High and Jr. High services, so Andy LaChance has been leading the worship portion of service. I am a fill in musician / leader whenever he needs me, and will run sound when he does not. So, the worship role has taken a bit of a backseat for now. However, Andy was out this week and I led the following:

Wholly Yours - Crowder - A- It’s like butter… smooth and tasty.

Made to Worship - Tomlin - A - Live, Tomlin does this in B (higher than A), on the CD it’s in C (even higher) (all of that is from memory, if i’m wrong, don’t shoot me… the bottom line is that its significantly higher on the CD, and slightly lower than the CD when done live).The verses in A are a little low for my liking. B is doable for me, but probably less enjoyable for anyone who chooses to sing along. I could split the difference and throw it down in Bb, but that throws off the flow of service… So A it was. It went much better than the first time we did it in the Sr. High. In fact, i’d say it went pretty darn well.

Never Let Go - Redman - B- We’ve done this many times. Because both Wholly Yours and Never Let Go can become kinda “epic-ish,” I made conscious effort on both to keep the refrains minimal, but i just can’t help repeating the bridge cause its amazing.

The sound system is improving, but could use some help still. My biggest concern is getting it setup and not jacking with it every week… meaning the actual set up of the system, not the levels, etc, which should be tweaked throughout the day.

Oh, we were missing Josh on electric, but we managed. All in all, it was a good morning of worship.

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worship text-fessional for Sunday, November 25 2007 at Fuel student ministry’s Ignite Senior High service.

Last week (the 18th) was horrid. So I didn’t want to talk about it. Basically the volume in the house was changed from practice and while the stage sounded fine, the mains hummed / distorted the whole time. I was oblivious to it until the last song when it broke down to just acoustic and my vocals. Then i could hear it and i was pissed… so, moving on from that week…

I’ve realized that if I give an inch in volume, things tend to fall apart. Not so much due to any one musician, but due to lack of having someone help control the sound at the board. So until I have someone at the board the set up is as follows:

Me - Acoustic / Vocals
Josh - Acoustic
Travis - Bass
Logan/James - Percussion
Wife - Occasional vocals

No electric, no drums. Percussion = two congas, floor tom, stand tom, and cymbal. I personally like the set up alot (we’ve done it before, now it’s just semi-permanent)… it allows for a lot of freedom musically but is not overpowering. It’s much more controllable, which is needed right now. This has been the most challenging eight months I’ve ever had as a worship leader for a wide variety of reasons, largely due to my own faults… the concept is that I will take some experience out of this and become a better person for it, but it seems every time things start looking like they’re on the right track, something comes along and derails it.

I know I know…. pity me. But that’s not really the point. Leading worship has always been a fairly easy process for me. Not that I’ve always (ever?) been good at it but everything that surrounds it has clicked… equipment, band chemistry, “audience” participation, worshipful hearts all around, etc etc etc… We have had moments of some of this working, but for the most part this has been a whole new monster… anyway, perhaps leadership should take me aside and say “jeremy… that’s it…” and i’ll lay it down, but i’d prefer not to give it up.

so, this week with the new set up seemed to go well. I was losing my voice with all the sudden weather changes, but I fought through it. This was the set:

Here Is Our King - Crowder - G: sounds better in A, but wanted it to transition into…
O Praise Him - Crowder - G: could’ve done this in A… anyone else notice this is pretty much a Christmas song? I like to spring that nugget on the youth every year.
He Knows My Name / How Deep the Father’s Love medley - various people - E: I’ve talked about how much I like this in the past. Search it if you care to know.

Finished by fighting through (voice was really trailing at this point) my favorite contemporary / modern Christmas song “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls. If you watched half-time of the Green Bay / Det game you saw it performed. Song’s been out and one of my favs for over a year, though. On a side note, i’ve noticed that most of the time that a vocalists notices his voice is going, it usually still sounds “okay” to everyone else. I hope that is the case… i hope Better Days wasn’t butchered… but at least I didn’t sound as horrible as Kelly Clarkson did on Thanksgiving (if you can make it to the bridge of this one, you will know the meaning of “bleeding ears”)!

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text-fessional for October 21st at FWBF Fuel Sr. High Ministry.

I started this week off echoing some words I read a few weeks ago that have really stuck with me. Its time we rethink our priorities and stop putting Jesus first in our lives. Often we talk about Jesus first, then family, friends, work, school, etc etc etc… but the problem is it’s a mindset puts Him on a checklist. As with all checklists, when you’re done with item #1, you move on to number 2… so we get through with Jesus and move on with life… this obviously isn’t what Christ intended when he said “seek first the kingdom of God.” We need to put Jesus as the center of our lives so it becomes Jesus IN our family and IN our friendships and IN our social lives and IN our workplace… thanks, steven, for the inspiration… it seemed to hit home with the youth.

Naturally, this lead perfectly into our first song:

Be The Center (Frye) - D - I loved this song even before the paradigm shift mentioned above. So simple yet can certainly speak so clearly. We keep it pretty laid back with a lot of bass from both the bassist (Travis) and on my acoustic. There was some build each time we got to the chorus but nothing too crazy.

All To You (Brewster) - E - This was probably the weakest song in tonight’s set because it didn’t work well with the new experiment we… uh… experimented with. Instead of having drums, we had a percussion section.Logan set up two floor toms, two congas, a smaller tom and a cymbol, all played with hot rods. Overall tonight I really really liked the outcome of this, but it didn’t work as well with this song as the others. We all agreed, but still made it work. My guitar sounded a little quiet from the stage, so that was another minus on this one. We had a good time with it, but it just didn’t flow as well as it normally does.

Indescribable (Tomlin) - F#m - As we always do, its a full step lower to make it easier on me and the congregation. It went pretty well… During practice, after we realized how weak All To You sounded, I was a bit nervous about how this one would turn out. You’d think such a drum driven song would have suffered with our set up, but it actually worked very nicely. Josh did an excellent job on electric with this one. I’d venture to say this may have been his best over all week, which is really saying something considering he’s got very nice chops. The last two weeks especially, he has really made strides as a worship musician as opposed to just a musician with mad chops that happens to worship.

Surrender (McRoberts (Vineyard)) - G - Again, like Be the Center, this is one of my all time favs. We kinda do a typical acoustic version with a little of the Brewster version mixed in. We had a time of reflection after the normal progression of the song which went nicely. 

We also had the blessing of a recently reorganized sound system that sounded better and was more intuitive to our room. Its something the Jr. High worship leader and I had been trying to get together on for a while, but he gave up trying to get me up there and just did it himself.  So, props to him.

How’d your sunday go? (feel free to link to your confessional in the comments)

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How cliche is that title? sheesh… lets take a worn out Shakespeare quote and manipulate to fit my content.. yah, that’s never been done before…

I know a handful of worship leaders have me on their feed reader, so i’m curious your thoughts on paying musicians a small stipend for their efforts… Or perhaps even bringing in outside musicians in order to ensure quality musicianship?

Here’s the thing, i’ve never been against the first necessarily. I do believe you should recruit from within rather than “hiring” from outside, but lately i’ve been contemplating whether I’m even on board with a small stipend. There are a few problems I’m starting to see with this:

* Potential to develop a sense of entitlement in the musicians. This is not always the case, but as a musician, I can see how this could creep in to a artist’s heart. Time to move to a new church, no problem… “I’m a good enough musician to be paid. Lets find a paying church rather than one where God really needs me to serve.” The heart of a service is not one of entitlement or expectations; it is one of sacrifice and humility found within the willingness to allow God to use the talents He has given you.

* Potentially develops a superiority/inferiority complex amoung volunteers. Think about it. If a church pays the supporting musicians of the main service, but not the ushers, greeting team, children’s workers, youth volunteers, or student worship team then the church’s “org chart” is set. The musicians instantly are far more important to the leadership of the church than any other set of volunteers that are not paid. In fact by definition, the musicians are no longer volunteers at all. Churches avoid the inferior feeling other volunteers may experience by keeping the lid on the fact that the musicians are paid. And if someone does approach leadership about it, they explain the importance of music as it relates to the visitors / de-churched individuals. I’d like to know how a visitor with kids would feel if they heard great music but couldn’t enjoy it because they were busy taking care of their 3 year old daughter and 6 year old son on their own.

* Creates potential logistic issues. Do you pay fill in musicians who volunteer in other areas or choose not to pay so they are ignorant to the practice? When do you begin paying musicians? At the onset? only when the church is financially stable? And then if the church falls into financial hardship do you cut pay? Let those who expendable go in favor of new true volunteer musicians while still paying for the less expendable musicians?

I’m sure there are positives to this, but –and i’m saying this as a worship leader– perhaps we’re putting a little too much emphasis on music and not enough emphasis on servanthood and those who make the church work… The divorced middle-aged woman who greets visitors with a smile… the nurturing empty-nester who watches our kids… the blue-collar-50-hour-per-work-week family man who opens his home to host a lifegroup… the struggling young married couple who are 30 minutes early and leave 30 minutes late to every youth event and spend their gas money lugging teens around just for the sake of building relationships…

Am I missing something here?

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