"Do You Want to Be Well?"

I need to tell you about our next guest speaker at Collective Church because I'm really excited about it. 

Dr. Chris Hawley, MD of the Romeo Clinic in Turlock, California will be speaking this Sunday on the question, "Do You Want to Be Well?" 

For the past several years, I've been fascinated by the connection between the body and the soul--questions about whether or not spirituality actually impacts our physical bodies. Dr. Chris travels all over the country to discuss this question. He even has several short films that explore these themes (click here for links to the films).

We won't have any music for the service, so Chris will have the full hour for his talk and Q&A to follow.

So if you're anywhere near Fort Worth this weekend, don't miss Dr. Chris Hawley at Collective Church. It's going to be great!

What's the Strangest Thing Jesus Did or Said?

I'm currently working on a new Collective Church preaching series for June and July, and I'd love to get your input.

The series will revolve around some of the most confusing things Jesus ever said or did in the New Testament. I have my own opinions on what these things are, but I'm curious about what everybody else thinks.

I would love to hear your suggestions about what passages of Scripture should be covered in this series. If you will go to the poll page on Collective Church's website and submit your answer, I will keep a log of what everybody says. The most popular five or six answers will become the series.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

High & Dry During Lent

This week begins the season of Lent.

I’m relatively new to the church calendar seasons—the first year I ever observed Lent was 2007 (which I wrote about last year). But even in my few years of doing this, I have noticed this: Lent means something different to me every year.

The standard understanding of this season is that it meant to remind us of our need for resurrection. When I give something up—when I fast—during Lent, I am depriving myself of something that I will reintroduce into my life on Easter Sunday. Basically, I am teaching my brain to anticipate Resurrection Sunday. So the idea is that Lent reminds us of our natural longing for renewal. So last year, I preached my first Lent series and called it Without, and we spent six weeks exploring what it means to encounter God in times of absence. The question I was interested in asking was, What do we learn about God in the moments when something we love or rely on has been taken away?

This year, we are asking a similar question but from a slightly different angle.

This Sunday at Collective Church, I’m starting a new series called High & Dry. For the next six weeks, we will spend time exploring darkest parts of the Bible—the passages that were written during the Babylonian Exile, when the people felt as if God had forgotten them—as if they were being punished or forsaken—as if they had been completely abandoned.

It is one thing to find yourself without something; it is a whole other thing to find yourself so completely disoriented—so overwhelmed by loss or sorrow or displacement—that you don’t even know what to do next. That’s what these passages are about, and that’s where we are going for the next six weeks.

Like I said, Lent means something slightly different to each of us during any given year. For something as old as it is, Lent can certainly seem quite relevant and fresh to those of us who are asking questions that feel a bit challenging.

So whatever Lent looks like for you this year, may you experience some kind of renewal during this season.

May you find yourself longing for resurrection and eagerly anticipating Easter Sunday. 

When Brunch Is More Than Brunch

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Here's the thing about being part of a young church with no building: Sometimes you have to improvise.

About two and-a-half weeks ago, I was notified by the hotel where we normally hold our weekend services that we would need to find a different place to meet on January 25. I should say right away that the hotel (the DFW Marriott near Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth) is a phenomenal venue, and their staff is terrific. So please don't read this as a complaint about our regular hosts. They really are the best. It's just that the nature of the hotel business is such that every once in a while they cannot accommodate us because of other commitments. No big deal.

So anyway, we had two weeks to come up with an alternate plan for our Sunday services. Thanks to a specific family in our church (John and Michelle Graham, if you must know), we secured the HOA Clubhouse in one of the local neighborhoods. We decided that we would have our normal gathering times, but we would shorten the length of each service in order to make time for a brunch in between services (the brunch was organized by Julie Le, if you must know). 

While the Clubhouse came with its own set of challenges--not the least of which being that we only had one room for children's ministry, so our elementary-age kids joined us in the services--we had a great Sunday. People who normally attend one service were able to mingle with people who attend the other. The older kids were able to be part of our adult services, which I think is helpful in reminding us all that those kids are part of our church, too. 

So sure, needing to change venues and improvise can be stressful and inconvenient, but it can also remind us that what we are doing is supposed to be fun and exciting. It reminds us that our community is not dependent on a building or a set routine; it is dependent on the people within it and the community we are all trying to build. 

It reminds us that we are part of something that matters.

So once again, I am overcome with gratitude for this group of people who call Collective Church their home. I never imagined that church could be this much fun.

The Best of 2014

I wasn't planning to do a "Best of 2014" post, but my life somehow felt incomplete without it.

The truth is that the two most significant things that happened in my own life were the beginning of Collective Church and the publication of my first eBook, Lost in the Flood. However, I still enjoyed lots of things as well. There were books, movies, and music albums that will continue to endure for me when 2014 is far, far behind me. So I thought I'd share some of those things with you, just in case you missed them.

 

Books

Girl at the End of the World by Elizabeth Esther

I've written elsewhere about how much I loved this book, so I won't repeat all of that here. However, I will say that Elizabeth has a powerful story to tell, and she tells it fearlessly. I responded so strongly to this book that, after I read it, I contacted Elizabeth to ask if she would be willing to come share her story to our church, and I'm grateful that she did. 

This book is important. It matters. Stories like this need to be told, and the people who tell them need to be honored for their courage. If you haven't read Girl at the End of the World, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed by Austin Fischer

If you've ever wondered about the paradox of free will versus divine predestination, this book is an essential part of that conversation.

 

Movies

I won't comment on all of these movies, but I will say that they were all really good and interesting. I think I've gone on record as saying that Boyhood is my favorite movie of 2014. However, I also wanted to point out that a very close second is a film called Whiplash. It is scheduled for DVD release on February 24. 

Here are my seven (because, why not?) favorite movies of 2014:

Boyhood

Whiplash

Chef

Birdman

Frank

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Mistaken for Strangers (Documentary)

(*Note: As of the writing of this list, I have not seen Selma or The Overnighters, both of which I have very high hopes for. So I may amend this list later)

 

Music

Not surprisingly, Bruce Springsteen's High Hopes is my favorite album of 2014. I know this largely due to bias, but I don't care. When Bruce releases something new, it's noteworthy. 

High Hopes - Bruce Springsteen

After the Disco - Broken Bells

Somewhere Under Wonderland - Counting Crows

They Want My Soul - Spoon

Lost in the Dream - The War on Drugs

And that was 2014 in stuff I read/watched/listened to.

Year One of Collective Church

I wrote a pretty thorough history of Collective Church's first year on the church website (along with help from a few people). It's been an amazing experience so far, and I wanted to share it with you. Here's the first bit. If you want to read the whole thing, click here.

* * * * *

In the fall of 2013 I had no idea what I was going to do next. I found myself with no job, no church, and (worst of all) no plan. At various points during that time, several friends of ours came alongside my wife and me and said, “If you started a church, we would go.”

Starting a new church was not something I set out to do. Not at first, anyway. But I thought about all of the things I would have wanted from a church, and I realized there wasn’t really anybody doing those things.

So when our friends said they would attend a church if we started it, I thought to myself, If I’m going to start a church, it’s going to feel like a different kind of conversation. It will be simple and honest and safe for people with all kinds of stories and backgrounds.

At first, I imagined that "the church" would simply be us and a few friends hanging out at our house on Sunday mornings—sitting in our living room, drinking coffee and talking about faith. But when we had an informational meeting in an airplane hangar in December 2013, it became quite clear that our house would not be big enough for this group.

That was a year ago.

Now we are at the end of our first year as a church, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the past twelve months and how meaningful they have been for my family and me.

One of the most common commands in the Old Testament to the people of Israel is to “Remember.” The people are told to remember their story because within that story they will find themselves, their calling, and their connection with God.

I believe we are still called to remember—to tell our stories and to celebrate what has happened so far on the journey. That's why I'm writing this (with a little help from my friends). If we are to remember who we are and why we do what we do, we need to tell our story.

As we begin, I just want to say that if you are part of Collective Church or have been involved in any way—from attending on a single Sunday morning to arriving an hour and-a-half early every week to prepare the children’s rooms (shout out to Daniel and Lauren Mitchell!), then you are part of this story, and I am thrilled to share it with you.

Let’s get started, shall we?

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