Q Crashing

So I'm super excited.  I love when God sends people here to Eugene to join us on our journey.  Sometimes it's for a week and sometimes a year and sometimes longer.  Hence the Emanuels.  Me and Erik began talking years ago about being involved in church planting together and now it's happening.  So here is the back story. Erick was on staff at Lifepoint, a church I was one of the plant pastors at.  We dreamed about church plants (especially in Ireland) for months.  I came out to Eugene to start planning and implementing The Crash idea.  He saved up money, found a job, and came out a year later. Nutshell. With what has been going on with The Crash and the planting of The Beautiful Mess this has been such a blessing.  This is the first family other than us who have made the jump into The Crash.  They bring so much gifting and passion to the table.  I can't wait to see how God is going to use them here in Eugene.  Just this m...

Things have been going great with The Beautiful Mess.  God is putting something together that we could only have dreamed of.  It is amazing to watch people from all walks of life coming together and serving and sharing the gospel.  So here is the summer schedule.  June 10: 5pm Gathering 7pm Basketball tournament June 17: 5pm Gathering 7pm Free movie tickets at the Gateway Mall June 24: 5pm Gathering 6pm Potluck Dinner in the basement July 1: 5pm Gathering 7pm Open Mic Night July 8: 5pm Gathering 7pm Basketball tournament July15: 5pm Gathering 7pm Bike Rally.  Give away 100 kid's bikes. July 22: 5pm Gathering 7pm Potluck Dinner in the basement. July 29: 5pm Gathering August 5: 5pm Gathering 7pm Open Mic Night August 12: 5pm Gathering 7pm Basketball tournament August 19: 5pm Gathering 7pm Worlds Largest Water balloon fight August 26: 5pm Gathering 7pm Potluck Dinner in the basement Wow. Full summer and it's going to be so much fun watching God do w...

For some reason I always had this idea that when I turned 30 years of age I would some how magically mature and start the quintessential ministry of my life.  This belief came from the fact that Jesus starts his ministry at 30.  I understand this is failed logic, but it always made me think at thirty I would be doing some of my most amazing ministry,  The natural draw for me was to imagine myself pastoring a large church or leading a huge ministry.  As of yet, that hasn't come to pass.  Consequently, the last two days have been some of the most amazing and fulfilling days of ministry I have had the opportunity to be a part of. Yesterday I took a group of guys from the mission out for coffee.  We just hung out and talked about life and shared where we were struggling with each other.  It was an amazing time of communion with guys who don't have homes at the time, but are in every other way so much like me.  Today an ...