Sunday's...

Happy 'bout that one.

You're looking at THE WELL this past Sunday. Yours truly in the foreground, Aaron Weafer leading worship in the background, our very own screen and lighting.

Pretty neat.

Here's why it makes me happy.

1) There was no church called THE WELL in Burlington ON last year. That it exists (and is growing) this year proves to me that faith IS possible and sometimes comes with results.

2) We did the lighting ourselves. Sure it would have been better to hire an expensive lighting designer to come do it but we couldn't afford it. Best we could do was four par cans. Looks pretty dang good though don't it? Yup, sometimes doing the best you can with what you have is good enough.

3) Aaron, leading worship in the background, is a brilliant worship leader. He and his lovely wife and three kids just showed up at THE WELL a couple months ago. My wife and I have been praying for him (and her and them) to show up for a YEAR. This proves to me that sometimes, when God answers prayer, He says 'Sure thing, kid...here you go.' I'm grateful for that.

4) I had a 3.5 year layoff between my last 'ministry context' and this one. Aaron had a 5 year one. This demonstrates mercy to me and reminds me that God loves the journey and that He's faithful to His original calling despite our stupidity.

5) The shot comes from one of the HD cameras that my company owns. We've been able to let THE WELL use it for free. We've been able to self-fund our salary (from my media work meaning the church has had no noose around it's neck--in the form of a salary for the church planter--in the early days) which has made the thing possible in the first place. This is a reminder of God's provision. Even though I sometimes resent the financial stress the wife and I are under as a result of trying to (weakly) obey God's leading I can see, in these moments of clarity, that He is faithful and good things are happening. This gives me hope to continue believing that more good things might be around the bend.

6) The shot was shot by one of our key leaders. He just up and told me last week that he was ready to take responsibility for a particular area of ministry (media) at THE WELL and run with it. I thanked him, told him I'd been hoping he'd feel this way, then stood back and watched him do it. One week later and we're already seeing results.

7) My original Ministry Associate on this thing is behind the frame, stressing out with me over the added complexity we introduced this week and being faithful to do good work in the face of stress and anxiety. I was reminded this week that every time you add a 'piece' to the mix you increase the complexity and difficulty by a factor of (at least) three. This means you're prone to making more mistakes and forgetting things, but if you don't add the complexity you won't grow. Many organizations stop growing 'cause they stop stretching themselves. I'm grateful my man Miki continues to be game for some stretching.

8) We shot my whole sermon. There should be a teaser up this week. I was so afraid it'd look cheesy and know, because my FRIENDS pastor 'em, what the 'cool' and effective churches out there look like in their video sermons and desperately wanted to not look cheesy and bush league. Yes, part of that is MY need to look cool, for which I'm in constant repentance, but the other part is that YOU need your church to look 'cool' so that you can invite your friends out already.

How your church 'looks' and 'feels' is important because it's one of the first 'touches' your people and their people have with the thing which is a key part of their journey towards joy.

It matters.

And this week we got it right.

I'm thankful for that, and eager to keep getting it right.

For King and Kingdom.

T

ps: Oh yeah, and my WIFE likes the church now. It was a stretch to begin with but she's really starting to love the people and, for her, it's not lights and looks that warm her heart but people. Yes, she's a little further along the road than I...