The Denver Blizzard of 2006

Living in Denver does has its advantages!  I’ve spent the last few days holed up in my home office as life slowly returns to normal in the Mile High City after Wednesday’s blizzard that dumped over two feet of snow in the metropolitan areas and closer to four feet in the mountains.  The picture above is one I found as I was browsing this evening and shows one of our local churches with some heavy icicles not to mention that deep snow drifting nearly up to the window.  The Denver airport reopened this afternoon and my family and I were actually able to dig a trench wide enough for my wife to get her van out of the garage so she could get to work this evening after her workplace shut down for two days due to the storm’s effects.

The past few days have given me some time to reflect.  It seems I’m always on my way to somewhere but with my travels bluntly put to a halt by the storm, I was actually able to spend some quality time with the kids playing a few board games (Aggravation is still fun after all these years), doing a little work on my sermon for Sunday, and thinking back about all that we’ve accomplished as a church in 2006.  For those who don’t know much about me, we started in a small building badly in need of repair.  In a few years, we were able to remodel the building and sell it in 2005.  In January of this year, we made the move to a local charter school in our area which was located in a growing area of our region.  I felt we could make some great headway here and in some respects we have.  We’ve put together what I believe is one of the best sound systems and video displays of any church in our region, especially those in rented facilities.  It’s been hard though because we’ve not added many new families this first year.  I’m not sure if God was just wanting us to get used to our new location and all that goes into a set up and tear down church but I must admit, I was a bit depressed that we hadn’t grown significantly more than what we did but I look forward to 2007 and what lies ahead.

As I’ve stated before, we have to be careful as church planters that we don’t get caught up in the worldly ways we equate success.  I admit at times I have because I’ve wondered why one church seems to be growing and one doesn’t.  I’m not the only one with this dilemma.  On the other hand, I see many churches that seem to compromise in areas where I feel we have to be solid with the life-giving power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That can’t be us.  I know what we’ve been called to and I’m more committed than ever to continue to build a strong church on the foundation of scripture, the grace of Jesus, and the love of our people towards newcomers.

Perhaps it’s late and I’m just rambling.  Perhaps you’ve felt that way at times too.  Whatever it is, will you pray for me as we move forward with a bold plan of outreach for our community in 2007?  Thanks!