My dream for Veritas

As some of the Veritas Team know I happen to love books. I do alot of reading and lately one of my favorite and most challenging books is entitled "The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. This book continues to comfort, challenge, convict, and push me in areas of theology, church, community, and mission. One of the quotes resonates with my hopes and dreams for Veritas. "The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology. By incarnational we mean it does not create sanctified spaces into which unbelievers must come to encounter the gospel. Rather, the missional church disassembles itself and seeps into the cracks and crevices of a society in order to be Christ to those who don't yet know him." As Christ followers in the 21st century, let's work on being a blessing (Genesis 12:1-3) to all people. Let's seep into the cracks and crevices of our society to make a difference in the world. Any one have ideas on how we can do this and continue to do this... especially for someone like me (a Pastor) who spends probably way to much time in the confines of the "Christian" world? Would love your input.

Ryan

Beauty From Pain

This past week has been a rough week.

On Thursday, I found out that a young man from my church - one who I grew up with - died at 20 years old. I was not told how, so my mind was left to race through the possibilities. Of course, the two most common causes of death for young adults are car accidents and suicide - and I was praying it was the former. Later, I got word from friends that the cause of death was the latter - suicide.

Suicide. That word makes me cringe... not only because of its meaning, but because I was so close to committing it myself. This young man's death really hit home with me. It amazes me how many people a suicide - or any death, really - effects. People who didn't know this guy are grieving. It's like Ray posted on September 17th, the effect a death has ripples out to those who didn't even know the person. Sometimes I wonder how life would be different if I was no longer around. Who would my death have effected?

It's sad when any suicide happens, but I think it took one of someone I knew to make me really appreciate the fact that I am alive and those people who helped me through my difficult time.
Val, Josiah, Ryan, Kyle, Rachel, and Greg: Your love and concern for me is what kept me alive, and I am forever grateful to you. I don't know if I will ever be able to thank you guys in person, because I am embarrassed and almost ashamed to have gone through that rough time - but I hope that you all realize how thankful I am to have friends like you.

Psalm 139

Ripples

A young man at my church died this week. He's not someone I knew but, his death is having an effect on me through the lives that touched his. People in my community both in Veritas and outside of it knew him, taught him and grew up with him. Each of them has to deal with the emotions of loss and each of the radiate that loss from within them and all of us in the community are touched by their loss. Like ripples in a pond the loss stretches out. While the pain is so great to those around me right now I know that soon other ripples will spread to these people that I love. The joy of a friend's impending wedding or the growth of our Veritas family

Each ripple good or bad impacts all of us and all we can do is be their to support or celebrate, empathize or encourage and pray that's enough

Finding Community - Rays Story

When my wife and I moved from Central Jersey to Lancaster PA we left all of our friends and family about 2 1/2 hours away. When we arrived we were hungry to meet people and get settle into our new lives.

The problem is that meeting people is hard. We moved so that I could take a job managing a printshop of just 4 people and Diane was taking some time off of work to get us settled in. So we had to make an effort to find groups we had something in common with. This left us with finding hobby groups and a church.

If you think meeting people is hard try finding a church you like ;)

Just the concept of shopping for a church weirded me out. I guess it's the Catholic in me but I always felt like If i can't connect with a church the problem is me (wow you're a really great church but I'm just not good enough for. I hope someday you find that perfect parishioner) . So after consulting with some friends on The Ooze I decided to go the huge local church of nearly 5,000 people. I figured If I couldn't find a community their I was doing something drastically wrong.

Well I couldn't and I Wasn't

A Year ago I would have gone off on a rant about how this church didn't care about people like me looking for a home. Now I know it just wasn't the right place. It was to big for me. It was to easy to get lost and it was to dependent on groups who were going on hiatus the week I moved in. This wasn't a bad church it just wasn't what we needed in our lives. We really did try (For about 6 weeks) Diane attended a new members ladies night and I signed up for doing sound/AV but, we were never able to connect. I am sure some people love this type of church it just wasn't us.

This is where providence begins. About a month after attending I get an email about my post on the Ooze from a guy named Ryan. Ryan had all these crazy ideas about Church and Community and how The Church should be part of the community and not just a place in the community. A lot of the same ideas I had. I met with him and really enjoyed our chat but I begged off for a couple of weeks. I had already committed to the other church. Two weeks later I gave up on the big church and went to see Ryan's place. The service was a typical protestant worship service with a band. In a typical sized church with a typical sized congregation (~500) It was what happened afterwards that blew me away. I was sitting alone (Diane was sick). After the service finished an older woman came over and invited me out to lunch with her family. She saw I was alone and new to the church and wanted me to be treated the way she would want her son to be treated if he was visiting a church. I was floored. I declined because I needed to speak to Ryan and get home to Diane but It really hit me.

Two years later Ryan and the Veritas team are some of our best friends and the lunch invitation marks a turning point in my life. It showed me that community is about people not a person working together to connect.

Prayer

This song really hits a chord with me. This is the kind of prayer we should all hope for and at the same time it's scary because God just might grant you what you ask for.

I will pray for you now
For you have been my faithful friends
While the road we walk is difficult indeed
I could not ask for more
Than what you've already been
Only that you would say these prayers for me

May your heart break enough
That compassion enters in
May your strength all be spent upon the weak
All the castles and crowns you build
And place upon your head
May they all fall, come crashing down
Around your feet

May you find every step
To be harder than the last
So your character grows
Greater each stride
May your company be
Of humble insignificance
May your weakness be
Your only source of pride

What you do unto others
May it all be done to you
May you meet the one who made us
And see Him smile when life if through
May your blessings be many
But not what you'd hope they'd be
When you look upon the broken
May mercy show you
What you could not see

May you never be sure
Of any plans you desire
But you'd learn to trust the plans
He has for you
May your passions be tried and
Tested in the holy fire
May you fight with all your life
For what is true

I have prayed for you now
All of my dear and faithful friends
But what I wish is more
Than I could ever speak
As the way wanders on
I'll long to see you once again
Until then, would you say
These prayers for me?
Oh that you would pray for me...

Why A Blog?

Blogging like other forms of writing combines information and art. What makes blogging unique is the communal aspect. The Veritas blog is not only a place for people to post thoughts, questions and ramblings, it's also a place for the community as a whole to discuss the topics posted. Unfortunately blogs like all human communication are imperfect, words may be taken the wrong way and feelings may be hurt. By using moderators and the community to police itself we feel we can keep this to a minimum. We feel any open, free and creative form of discussion is a risky proposition but we feel it's a risk worth taking.