Saturday: salt, light and a BBQ

Because I was retreating last week, I ended up in the office today trying to get ready for tomorrow.
I was struggling with it all. My spirit felt fresher, rested, and I don't want just a regular service. I think that week after week of the same format or structure allows you to slip into neutral mode. You know, you go to church and you know exactly when to look at the screen and sing and when to pray and when to sit nicely and listen to the knowledgeable preacher. It just enters and exits you without any thought or interaction.

That's why, sometimes I will change it up, to get people interacting with what's going on around them.

Well, God's been doing something in me about salt and light and the deeds God is looking for when he asks us to be salt and light. Leighton's got me thinking about the value of a regular salt or light kind of activity in your community, as a regular part of church life. I think God wants to challenge us to get involved in some things bigger than our own churches and worlds. To have friends who don't know Him. To care for the lost, and broken, and as Linsay Martens puts it, "to plant seeds of hope in fields of despair." So, tomorrow we're talking about what it would look like to be salt and light in Prince Albert, today.

That in itself, isn't much of a change. But did I mention that we're moving church out of the sanctuary and into the basement? I didn't mention it? Well there you go!

Micah and I (mostly him!) set up tables and chairs for people in the church basement. We are going to worship God and have Communion without staring at the back of the heads in front of us. We are going to worship God while looking into the faces of those we love (or should love!), across the tables from each other. It will be great.

"Father, make us able and willing to think outside of our normal routines. Show us the brokeness, the darkness and flavorlessness of this world we live in.  Move us into the places of greatest need, and release us, to plant those seeds of hope, in the fields of despair."

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Tonight R and T and their kids came over. They're friends from church.

We sat outside and ate barbequed hamburgers and salads and chips and bread with tomato spread. We ate Dad's Cookies (The rings ones, not the other, yucky ones!!) and drank floats and pop and coffee, and we let the evening drift away in the gentle breeze.
It was lots of fun.
Lauralea outdid herself again, and she enjoyed it. I can tell by the smile on her face and her excitement at being able to care for others. She's really good at that.

I gotta shut it down for tonight. Tomorrow will be long and fun, and God will visit us. So I better get some sleep.

Blessings on you all.
g'night.