Urban Renewal

So tonight "Urban Renewal" starts. It is a conference that Southlands is hosting. Alan Frow is leading it, and bringing in people from all over to look at and discuss what it means to be a people of the word and Spirit.

Not sure what I think/feel/am expecting. There is a lot about church right now that is dry and hard and frustrating...and it is not just me...lots of people that I talk to are in a similar place. Some of it is exhaustion, but there is something else there. When I look at it out of the corner of my eye, it seems that the mindset shifting that is going on in the leadership is not happening at the same rate in everyone...so there is a bit of being "out of sink" that flavoring the air with tension. So anybody the least bit spiritually sensitive is feeling it, and it is amplifying their own stuff...

Erica and I were talking about UR earlier this week...one of the things that we talked about is how for us this thing of "needing to be people who both love and understand the word, and have a relationship with the Holy Spirit" is so natural, it was we have grown up with, and have had modeled for us. We have never really been around people that are in either of the extremes of word only or spirit only. So for us it is not about coming to the middle or balance...it is THE ONLY WAY. How can you do anything without the Holy Spirit? He is the one who empowers us and illuminates Scripture. How can not love the scripture? It is the WORD of God. Both things are so unified in me...Erica's point was the people that are genuinely mature are going to have both in their lives naturally. We don't need to be taught it...

So I am going into the weekend doing my best to say "God I want to be open to anything and everything you have for me this weekend. I know that you can teach me anything, anytime, anyway, so I want to hear what you have to say. I want to be open to give what ever you have for me to give."