My two signs that this will be a fine year came on consecutive days this weekend.
The first took place on Friday night. I had planned all week to go see the movie Fiddler on the Roof on campus, but a few hours before my friend Jess decided that we should go see improv instead. Up to that point, I thought we had all agreed to spend a quiet evening on campus watching Jewish people sing about tradition (TRAAADITIOOON!). Instead we ended up seeing long form Shakespearean improv which was mind blowingly good. Afterwards we went looking for a good meal. We literally searched for it, getting off the Brown Line at the Belmont stop which we do not know very well.
We eventually found a place called Clark Street Hot Dog's or something like that. The Chicago-style dogs were pretty good, but the best part was sitting in this cruddy looking dining area with Jess, Craig, and Eli (the only people that follow this blog in the most technical sense). We were in a booth, and we just sat and talked. It was really nothing special. We did not end up having some state of the friendship talk, but we enjoyed ourselves and laughed about life and all that stuff. I had this realization that these were the friends that I needed at school. Friends that I could struggle along with in my faith. Friends that I can always have good talks with. Friends that I might be able to have for a long time.
We hung out at the end of last year, but we there we were a month into this year. Already established.
The following night, New Life Lincoln Park had its fall ministry kick-off in gym at church. I really did not know what to expect going into the meeting. I did not expect the surprisingly pervasive football theme, but that is neither here nor there..
The meeting started with everyone eating and Pastor Rick thanking everyone who had been involved in all of their different ministries. It changed gears when Bobby Moss stood up. First, he showed us, most of us for the first time, the new goals for the broader New Life church. For those who don't know, New Life is a network churches in the Chicago area. There are currently 14 campuses and I go the Lincoln Park branch. One of the new goals is to create 40 new churches before 2020. At that news, my jaw literally dropped. It took the church 25 years to create the 14 campuses, so the new idea of making 40 new churches (at a responsible rate) in less than half that time. And the emergence of that idea changed the whole complexion of the meeting. It reminded us that we do not go to some church where we will just be able to attend. New Life was calling all of the churches to aggressively dream, and for every member to help in their mission of spreading Christ. To make this kind of dream happen, they need every person to do their part.
That meeting showed me how great of a church I go to. With the rest of the time, we talked about being more active in Lincoln Park, being more active at Depaul, growing, stabilizing, enriching the spiritual life our congregation, and being able to spawn our own sister church with our own resources. The best thing is that we are not going to let these ideas die with one night of optimistic brainstorming. It is all very possible. It will take more people stepping out, more prayer, and plenty of patience, but I will not take some crazy new way of doing church, we just have to stay faithful.
Things combined made a pretty great weekend. If the job interview that I had Saturday also comes through, then I might be able to look back on it as on of the most important weekends of my life. If not though, it will still rank pretty high.
-Sam
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