A Place at the Table, feast day 5/an ending

It's going to be hard to sum up yesterday in one blog post.  I'll either ramble on for paragraph after paragraph or I'll cut things too short and leave way too much out.  But it was an important day, and as such I feel like I ought to devote a whole blog post to it.  So here we go . . .

Yesterday marked the end of an ebb-and-flow 10-year ministry with Raintree Christian Church here in Lubbock.  I have officially been on staff since January 1, 2003, but I began leading worship on a consistent basis almost the moment that I stepped out of the moving van from Martha's Vineyard, MA.  I've seen some unbelievable things in my 10 years here -- both ministerially and personally.  We as a church have absolutely been through the highs and lows of life together.  I have connected with some of the most amazing people I have ever met.  I have grown from a punk 27-year-old youth minister into a punk 37-year-old associate minister.  I have started two new and distinctly different services -- the River and raintree pm -- and led countless others.  I have preached sermons, taught lessons, sung songs, written articles, made CDs and DVDs, made copies, moved offices (I ended up having 5 different offices in that building).  I spent years as the youth minister, the college minister, the worship minister, and even a few days as the children's minister (not our brightest idea).  I have seen marriages stay together that I thought were doomed, and I've seen marriages that had no reason to end head that way.  I've run sound for funerals and weddings and even performed a wedding or two.  I have welcomed two beautiful girls into the world (Gracie was born in MV), and I have placed a precious son in the ground.  It has been quite a ride!

Often in the midst of the busyness of ministry, people get lost.  We become about running around doing programs and lose sight of the fact that ministry is, first and foremost, about people and connecting people to Jesus and one another.  In my worst days, that has been me.  I was reminded of the fact that I almost alienated one of my best friends, Dusty Milner, before our friendship ever got started because of my flaw of putting programs over people.  I've had my moments of greatness and many more moments of humanness.

For our last Sunday, the leadership of Raintree encouraged the people to write out for us their memories of our family.  The responses were varied, but I saw one theme emerging as what people remembered about me.  More than anything else, people appreciated how real I was.  Not how well I sang; not how well I preached; not how well I ministered; not how well I . . .  And what was amazing to me was that many of the notes referenced what were the lowlights of my 10 years.  Those of us who follow Christ spend so much time worrying about how this will appear or what people will think of that action.  All that people want is for us to be real in our relationship with Jesus -- good, bad, and ugly.  Especially the ugly.

I want to share something from an unnamed friend that challenged me to continue to be very intentional about living out the Jesus way in the midst of the stuff of life.  I share this, not because I want to puff myself up, but because I want to challenge you to live out the life of Christ in your own context.  I think this person has some rose-colored glasses when it comes to my failings, but it challenges me to live like Jesus did.

"I can count on one hand the people who I have truly seen God in, and you are one of those people.  You are an example of Christ's love and He shines through you.  You will be missed and loved always.  Go shine."

Friends, whether in this church or that, in this place or that, in this way or that, let's go shine.  That's when kingdom breaks out among us, within us, and around us.