At the close of the service this past Sunday, I challenged the congregation with two next steps. 

First, to join with others in prayer for Columbia Ridge, Mhlosheni, and The Infrastructure Project. You have responded! We had so many sign up to pray throughout the week. Additionally, I want to remind you that we are opening the Ministry Center (map) for drop-in, guided prayer during the hours of 6-9am on Wednesday morning and 6-9pm on Thursday evening. If you are able, please stop by, go downstairs, pick up a prayer sheet, and spend a few minutes praying. Remember, The Infrastructure Project first and foremost is about building what matters from the inside out and from the ground up. What matters inside is our heart and times of prayer begin to shape our heart more than anything else. Not only that, but times of prayer make a real difference in the material world, too, as such they will provide a foundation for the "ground up" infrastructure in Mhlosheni and on our church property.

Second, I asked for your questions about The Infrastructure Project or about the church in general and promised to respond to them via my blog. However, I only received one this week and it was one that comes about as a result of a failure on my part to communicate completely about my brother. If you were there on Sunday, you know that my brother Bruce entered hospice early in May. You also know that the doctors told us that he likely had less than two weeks to live. However, he is still alive and enjoying his time with his wife and four children! Additionally, his pain has been controlled well of late, which is a great blessing. Thank you for your interest in his condition and your prayers for Bruce and his family.

Tomorrow I'll write on some questions about The Infrastructure Project that came in from life group gatherings. In those gatherings, people had a chance to share what they appreciate about Columbia Ridge and also what concerns they had. There were many, many positive comments and several well thought out concerns and questions. I'll begin a conversation about those concerns in my next blog update. 

Traveling with you...

Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives? - Henri Nouwe Community is a place of pain, of the death of ego. In community, we are sacrificing independence and the pseudo-security of being closed up. We can only live this pain if we are certain that for us being in community is our response to a call from God. If we do not have this certitude, then we won't be able to stay in community. - Jean Vanier [emphasis mine]

There are many things which a person can do alone, but being a Christian is not one of them. As the Christian life is, above all things, a state of union with Christ, and of union of his followers with one another, love of the brethren is inseparable from love of God. Resentment toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart with love to God. The personal relation to Christ can only be realized when one has "come to himself" as a member of His Body, the Christian fellowship. - William T. Ham, "Candles of the Lord" (via CQOD) Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when He called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If you refuse to be alone, you are rejecting Christ's call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called... Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into the community you were called--the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. You are not alone even in death, and on the Last Day you will be only one member of the great congregation of Jesus Christ. If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together