post-Sunday reflections

Last night, we did a new song to the Crash community, entitled “Run” from Hillsong United out of Australia. Check it out below.

Also, in the middle of my talk, David Ellis, Danny Ortega and Rocky Searan performed “Don’t Say That” by the PawnShop Kings. One of my favorite songs. Also, check it below.

Last night, we wrapped up our Home series. Gotta be honest – I really struggled last night. One, I was running on fumes. Had some bad food at the Dbacks game over the weekend, so was still coming back energy wise. Two, it hit me about mid-afternoon what a huge ASK last night was. For so many people, communities of faith like Crash and North Phoenix have not been places of “home” because vulnerability has not received a proper response.

But I got two responses that were meaningful to me. A friend emailed me about a newcomer that has been coming to Crash this summer. This person shared that they like Crash because they “enjoy the fact that the pastor is human.” The person shared that many times the pastor/speaker seems superhuman and where they live is “unattainable”. This was a very humbling and encouraging message. If anyone needs to know how NOT superhuman I am, please talk to Dani (my wife) or anyone who serves on one of our leadership teams. I am NOT.

The other response I got was from someone who said that sensed my tension when my big idea (We must become a community that allows vulnerability to result in transformation and restoration) wasn’t the most memorable idea of the night. That person said the quote from Philo of Alexandria (Be kind, because everyone you meet is in the midst of a great battle) seemed to be the big idea. This person went to share that I seemed to be really pulling together all of the Scripture passages, illustrations, and personal elaborations together to focus on the fact that none of us can know what “great courage” looks like in the life of someone else because we do not often know what their “great battle” is. So, my response was “so you are saying I had an intellectual big idea and an emotional big idea.”

Either way, it was a challenging evening for me, but an enjoyable one nevertheless. Got to have more conversations with new and newer people to Crash and I remembered why I love being a part of this community. Also looking forward to our new series, Tension, which begins next Sunday.