When Meetings Are Cool

This morning, we had our first staff meeting in a few weeks due to VBS, Road Trip, traveling, etc. I was reminded why I love getting to do what I get to do. There were four things that jumped up and screamed their presence in that room:

I was surrounded by incredibly passionate people. Passion--when it's well directed and properly channeled--is a powerful contagion. Everyone in that room this morning is passionate about their personal faith and relationship with Christ. Now, not everyone is always at mountaintop moment in our faith. We have periods of drought just like everyone. But, we get to partner with the Holy Spirit in seeing lives touched, redeemed, and impacted for eternity every day.

But, they're not just passionate people. They are hungry for the Word of God and they go after it. They don't sit back and say, "Feed me! Feed me!" They take responsibility for feeding themselves and they serve other people and each other out of their spiritual diet. There is no religious flab on any of them.

Also, every person on our staff carries a burning torch for people who don't yet know how extravagantly God loves them. You can hear it in their voices and see it in their eyes when they talk about friends they have who aren't Christ-followers or when we talk about opening our downtown campus this fall; there's an urgency and a concern that flows out of Christ's heart.

And, maybe most infectious of all, they are joyful. For every one of them, ministry isn't a burden; it's a blessing. It's a gift to get to do what we get to do every day. Sure, we have bad days and meetings that don't go the way we want them to with people who are hurting or hurtful. But, all in all, serving Christ and serving and leading his church is a joy and a privilege that we wouldn't trade for anything else.

All of that, and Craig Ihlefeld killed a rattlesnake outside the worship center this morning that we got to see when we came out of the meeting. (Sorry no pictures were taken!)