Musings from Staff Conference

First of all, I'm cold. I'm wearing long trousers and a jacket, and still a little chilly. It is heavenly. Exactly the break from Madrid that I needed.

I'm really resonating with some of the stuff that we're talking about at the conference--the speakers, Al and Debrah Hirsch, are super cool people and just ooze a love for Jesus and for the people around them. I would love to sit down with them for some hours and pick their brains.

Here are some thoughts that have been going through my mind and some thoughts from the conference. A lot of stuff about God's mission, caring for the people around us, and reaching out to marginalized people. No conclusions here, just some things I'm chewing on:

1) For the past few months this thought has been resurfacing in my mind over and over: "The church does not exist for itself."
I have yet to flesh out all that this means.

2) A quote from Al: "It's not so much that the church has a mission, but that the mission has a church."

3) A paraphrase from his session this morning: ----churches focused on ministry/program don't get around to mission, even if they intend to. Their resources are focused on themselves. --------on the other hand, churches that are organized around mission get to mission and ministry, because ministry is the means by which you do mission.

Anyway, I've got a lot to mull over and put into words that I can figure out.