St. Malos

I'm up in St. Malos retreat center outside of Estes Park, CO for the CCC Great Plains Int'l region's director's conference. More than any new knowledge learned is the great camaraderie of leaders and followers of Christ that are brought together. It's the late night discussions about the power of God in our lives, arguing and dreaming about what is church and what is effective ministry and just having fun. Yesterday we golfed in Estes Park. It was awesome, yes in late October it was sunny and beautiful. On the course we were blessed to see over 300 elk roaming around the course. It was good for my soul to herd elk with our golf cart. It felt like a modern version of City Slickers. I also have to confess I hit an elk with a golf ball, going about 100 miles/hour about 75 yards out right on the neck. No, I don't have a freezer full of elk meat because she just looked at me and went back to eating grass. Hmm.

Today we had Jaeson Ma (Campus Church Networks) stir our hearts and minds about the work of Christ around the world as he and others see Church Planting Movements transform lives and cities. I have been reading about Jaeson's ministry and am excited he will be basing his work and ministry out of Long Beach, CA, home of our new Long Beach summer project next summer. His passion to see God move like we have seen in Acts in contagious. I too want to believe that God can and will move supernaturally, exponentially, wildly in our country, on our campuses and in our lives. I'm super excited to be partnering with him and Brad Fieldhouse next summer in planting new church/communities of faith in Long Beach. I have to believe there are 1,000's of not-yet-Christians who are waiting to meet the person of Jesus and see that take over their lives, relationships, families and neighborhoods. I believe this can and will happen in Long Beach, in my own neighborhood in Superior, CO and on our campus (CU Boulder.)

Today was a reminder to me of the power of the movement of God through His Spirit, His desire to transform hearts and minds through Jesus Christ and the spontaneous expansion of the Church. I'm ready to see something new. I'm ready to lead my staff and students to experience something we have never experienced before in our lifetime or on our campus. I'm ready to see God really touch and transform lives, quickly, powerfully, and deeply.