I'm not sure if there will be a part 2, but I did want to post some of the highlights so far.
Our preacher yesterday was Mark Yaconelli, who was simply amazing. He framed the practice of being a Christian as the practice of loving relationship.' Within that, our job is not big picture...it's small picture, very small. As in, love your neighbor. Not every neighbor, just the one right next to you.
He also challenged our concept of success, especially given our cultural bent towards achievement. Looking at Scripture, he said, 'Success is not a name for God. It's not even a category for God.'.
Humorously, he looked at Jesus' ministry to help break us of our concept of success. Jesus had 12 guys. Most of the time the had no idea what he was talking about. And of the 12, Jesus was pretty sure one of them wanted to kill him.
Success for Jesus was not a church of 30,000, but being deserted by his best friends and dying alone. Hmmm. Food for thought.
Mark had many other awesome and challenging things to say, but I'll tell you about them later.
The other incredible thing was worship led by the praise band of 1st Pres, Lake land, FL. Old songs, new songs, joyful expressions of faith among the congregation, all wrapped up in modern bluegrassy gospel goodness!
More to come...possibly. :-)
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