ebay

Call me old school.  Call me early 90s.  But I made my first ebay sale this past week.  I now have a sales rating of 1 positive feedback.  Hows that for a success rating.

I now feel inspired to clean out the attic and increase my rating. :)

Reasons for my absence...

1) I was on vacation, however not the entire time between blog post.  But would that be nice.

2) For the past couple of months now I have transition much of my writing to my Moleskin.

3) Starbucks and Church are a little taxing together and finding time to gather my thoughts for a post is getting harder to come by.

I hope for some improvement from myself in the near future. 

Vacation

I'm signing off for about 10 days.  A little vacation with the family.  3 days in a cabin in West Virginia, 3 days in Pittsburgh, 3 days in Kalamazoo.  Can't wait.  Much needed.  

A worship transition

We will be saying goodbye to a good friend who happens to be our worship leader at the end of the month.  Luke has been leading worship for us ever since the beginning and really made something out of nothing.  He's talented, passionate, and will be missed for sure.

We will be diving into a season of transition in the next couple of months as we explore some next steps in the worship department.  Pray for us.  

If your a worship leader or lead worship for your college ministry and looking for a part-time role in the Richmond area then shoot me an email.  I'd love to chat.  josh [at] crossingschurch.com

Fellowship on the First

Yesterday we debuted a new approach to church that Crossings is taking.  I view Crossings as highly experimental.  We are constantly doing new things and pushing people to experience God is new, fresh, and relevant ways.  

We are starting something called "Fellowship on the First."  

The church is not a building or organization or time clock where we pop in and pop out.  Jesus calls the church in John 10 as "Sheep".  There are not to many similarities between sheep and structure.  The church is not about structure and organization but about community and unity.  

And so to practically experience this we will be meeting on the first Sunday of everything month NOT at the theaters.  But rather at Crump Park where we will have a service followed by a picnic.

And it all starts Sept 6.

Leaders make tough decisions

I grabbed lunch with Mark Batterson last week. A great friend and mentor. He's a guy full of nuggets. Here's one that I walked home with.

"Anyone can make the 90/10 decision. It takes real leaders to make the 49/51 decision."

Well said. Don't you wish every decision was easily decided. But many times it seems like it's split 50/50 and you just got to go with your gut.  Tough but True.

Stations of the Cross

I"m all about trying things new at church so this morning we canned the worship and message again. The only times we'd done this in the past is for our small group kickoff. But this morning it was for an extremely experiential worship experience. We spent about 40 minutes walking through a "stations of the cross". Instead of 14 station we went for 5. We each experienced: communion, prayer, confession, meditation, and praise. What a Sunday. We worked hard on staging and by 10am it looked great. I talked to a handful of people this morning about there experience and heard some great things.

If anyone else has any unique Sunday morning experiences they've done in church they would like the share. Go for it.

Summer Baptism via video

A couple of weeks ago a bunch of us headed up to Lake Anna State Park for our summer baptism.  Here's a short video of the baptism.  Enjoy

Psalms 33

Something about reading the Bible in an unfamilier transalation that makes the passage so much more meaningful.  I was reading and praying this chapter for quite a while today.  Each time I read it, it became more and more meaningful.  Here's a few of the highlights.

1. Good people, cheer God! 
5. Earth is drenched in God's affectionate satisfaction.
8. Earth-creatures, bow before God;  world-dwellers—down on your knees!
18. Watch this: God's eye is on those who respect him, the ones who are looking for his love.
20. We're depending on God; he's everything we need.
22. Love us, God, with all you've got— that's what we're depending on.

Pull out the Message translation the next time you want to read the Bible.  I guarantee you will see the Bible in a new light.

Financial Balance

The one thing we are not good at is living balanced lives.  We always gravitate to the poles.  The poles are extreme and are never healthy.  We started a new series of messages yesterday focusing on balance.  But more spesifically, financial balance.  We either save and don't give, or we give and don't save.  And very few of us have found the joy of living in the middle.  

Join us as we explore the balanced financial life.