trip to cali
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This post is a little longer…as it gives an overview of my recent trip and some things I came back with.
So last weekend Steve, Darren and I took a trip to Cali. We stayed in San Jose but went up to San Fran and down to Santa Cruz. The intent of the trip was to meet with some church leaders and visit some church gatherings. We also planned to tour Alcatraz and spend some time working on changes for our Sunday gathering.
So here is a quick update. Overall the trip was great. We visited 3 church leaders for a couple hours each. One was from a church called The Journey in San Jose. They are a newer church and seeking to connect with the unchurched, unchristian in San Jose. It was good to hear their story and how they have gone about connecting with people in the area. They do some community impact days (3 a year) and at least one big outreach with games, food, bands, give-a-ways stuff like that. They constantly communicate & train around their desire of connecting with the lost.
Our time in Santa Cruz was spent visiting with a couple leaders from Vintage Faith. It too was cool to hear their story and changes over the years. They recently went through a merge with another church and it’s sweet to hear how God worked in all that. We heard a lot about their teams and how they go about creating the process for their Sunday gatherings. We were specifically looking for this type of info to help us refocus/revision our Sunday gathering. So the time was well spent in those meetings, inspiring to be a part of their Sunday gatherings and encouraging in various ways. By the way Abbey coffee shop at vintage faith is totally sweet –if you’re ever in the area looking for a coffee shop.
I came back with a few things impressed upon me. First –it’s all about God’s timing. Honesty, I’m not overly happy about this. I really want it to be about my timing…but I have to believe his is best/right. Second –in past years on trips like this I usually come back thinking how to implement the things I saw/learned. This trip I came back with more trust in what we value and our vision for portico. Our vision was different from both of these churches in how we wish to express and live our mission. So instead of wanting to change things with portico to look more like what I saw there, I simply want to pour more energy into living out the dreams God has put in our hearts for portico in this place and time. Third –this is related to the last thing, but I “learned” having the right internal stuff [vision, values, mission, etc.] doesn’t guarantee it will happen. You must fight for it, you must “make it happen”. I still think those things are the starting point and of the utmost importance. But even if they are all well said, understood, owned etc. they won’t just happen without a real working plan to contextualize them and carry them out.
As far as other things we did…we saw Hellboy II one night. It was pretty good –short, fast-paced, some sweet effects –but the guy is just way to red for me. The tour of Alcatraz was really good! This thing sells out a week and a half in advance with some 5,000 people a day going to it. The audio tour was very well done and there is something amazing about walking those halls, experiencing the cells and hearing them tell their stories. We also saw multiple street performers (including a 3 shell game -crazy), sea lions, shops and Angel Island.
But nothing tops the little things: jokes, screwing around, the looks, mishaps & accidents that happen when you go on a trip with friends that you can’t always put into words, you don’t get on film, and it’s hard to recreate because you just had to be there.
I super look forward to moving forward with the vision and mission of Portico. I look forward to September 7th. I look forward to God’s timing (at least I’m surrendering to it). I look forward to our future. I look forward to new faces & friendships. I look forward to seeing more people & our culture redeemed with God and experiencing whole life transformation that reigns in more of God’s kingdom, of heaven here on earth.
pressing on…
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Greg Ness on Aug 14, 2008 7:06pm
Those seacows look lazy.