So we had an elder meeting last night.

See... when I say that, I know that many of you pastoral types experience the sensation of sphincter tightening...

But you have to believe me- there are elder meetings that aren't grueling, that aren't contests, that don't leave you drained and frustrated and wanting to quit.

In fact, I'm finding our elder meetings particularly encouraging lately.

We sat out on my new back deck last night, and I fired up the brand new fire pit for the first time, we read some Scripture (I usually start with a Scriptural admonition to elders), and we talked. We talked about the space issue, about where and what and how, some jive about money, and about people- who we are connecting with, who we need to connect with, who's missing (read: "missed"), who's really stepping up... Just people/shepherding stuff. That's mostly what we do.

about 4/5ths of the way through the night, as we reflected on this last year and a half and God's goodness to us, I had the realization that this community has become something different than I originally envisioned. Different and better.

This is the beauty of organic church.

Imagine if everything turned out exactly the way you had envisioned... I think there would be some satisfaction in that, but certainly no surprise. Nothing to take your breathe away. Nothing to fill you with gratitude for the above and beyond .

I confess... for all our talk of "doing church differently", I really had some old school thoughts and plans and even desires. How could I not? Do we ever really imagine something different? Or do we just recognize it when by the grace of God it shows up...

Less structured, quieter, more slowly moving than I had imagined. More welcoming, more caring, more safe than I had imagined possible.

Anyway, I stepped out on the ledge last night and asked the elders that most scary of pastoral questions: "How are we doing?" And by that, I didn't mean numbers, budget, all that jive. We'd covered that. I was talking about us as a community being the people of God. Were we soft-selling it on Sundays? Was I pushing it too hard? Or were we somehow hitting that sweet spot of true-to-the-Gospel and accesible to those coming from a variety of different places...

I won't go into who said what... but suffice it to say, I've been worried about this, and last night at elders... I was encouraged.

So, I'll just come right out and say it. I love our elder meetings :)

I'm glad to be at a place in life when I can actually say that... when I look forward to hanging again with these fellow-shepherds and talking about how we can better love the people of God, the people not-yet-His that God has given us, and those that we have yet to even meet.

Good, good stuff.