Contagion

I know I brag about my team too much on this blog but I can't help it. They seriously are stinkin' amazing. I just can't believe the caliber of people we have in our different areas. I know that Sundays aren't everything but they are a part of who we are and we don't want to be a bunch of hacks trying to point people to Jesus. I know we can't compete with the world with their massive productions and flash and glitter, but we can try to do our best. I think people expect the Sunday part of faith communities to suck. I think they come in expecting to be bored to tears. We don't want that to be the case with TXC. Do we have high standards? Yes. Are they unrealistic? I don't think so.

Every person on our launch team has a critical role to play in how our Sunday gatherings happen. I'm not sure if this is normal for most church plants but it's the case for us. If any of them were to leave, we'd have a huge gaping hole to fill in.

This week's gathering was proof of who we are capable of becoming. We get comment after comment each week of how friendly we are. That is thanks to Charlene and the connections team. They say that they've been to other churches where not one person has said hi to them. We feel that we have one shot to connect with guests and if we blow it, we can't expect them to come back. We want to have an ethos that is warm, friendly, relaxed, relational and open and Charlene is doing a phenomenal job and creating that culture.

This week Tina was away at a camp speaking at a girls' conference (did I mention our team is diverse too?) and while she was gone we had a team from our Bible college helping us out. It's nice having a team of students that are willing and capable of leading Upstream Kids on Sundays. But what's even more amazing is how well everything was organized for them in Tina's absence. They said everything went amazing and that was all thanks to Tina's foresight. That is one thing that I so appreciate about her is that she is always thinking about the future and how to do things better. I am so confident that we have one of the best Kids pastors around and I can't wait to see how things take shape in the coming months.

And then there's Dave. I've already bragged on Dave enough to make his head bigger than it needs to be but I honestly love having him as our lead worshipper. I am so confident when he's leading. I know it's going to be good and I know it's not gonna be a rockshow with a bunch of guys trying to show off. They practice their rear ends off to get as good as they are and that speaks highly to me. We got so many compliments on Sunday about how good they were.

I'm just so stoked about the future it's not even funny. And with the launch of our UnderCurrents in January we will see a much needed element added to our faith community. The possibilites are endless as to what we can do in those undercurrents. We will be able to connect with people on so many different levels that our depth as a faith community will be far greater than it would be with us just having sunday gatherings each week.

So there you have it...yet another bragfest. There are so many other people that do so much but I just thought I'd highlight the ministry leaders for now.