It’s official. Playhouse Merced is the new home of LifeSpring Church. It seats about 200 people and is a warm and intimate space. Some Sundays we’ll have the set of the latest Playhouse production as a back drop. How cool is that?

More and more people have asked me lately, Where is LifeSpring Church going to meet? The last two days I’ve cracked under pressure. “It’s not completely settled yet, but I’m 99% sure it will be Playhouse Merced.” Now I can say it without condition. We are definitely meeting in the Playhouse. Experimental services start in May.

I’ve enjoyed the reaction I get when I say, Playhouse Merced. Almost to a person, I get a response something like, “Cool.” One older person asked me yesterday, Even though you are targeting 20’s/30’s, can someone my age come?

Early in May we are going to start an “experimental service.” It will enable us to start meeting with the bar set really low. We’ll try out different forms, get critique and sand off the rough edges. We think that by early Summer we will be meeting fairly regularly with a congregation of excited and energized people.

Now we can tell everyone that we have a place and a time. Come join us.

Briefings started at 2:00 PM. I got to sit with the officers while they discussed the shift that was just beginning. Among other things they were two cars short, so they had to find replacements at a sub-station in the city.

I rode for four hours with a police officer. He allowed me to stand nearby and listen in as he conducted business: a stolen purse, an illegal muffler, a report of some drug pushing, a stolen credit card, and a group of homeless guys near a city building. Because of a work conflict, I wasn’t able to ride at the most interesting time – night. The officer told me I could call him and ride again, this time at night.

I was impressed by the officer’s professionalism. He was always kind to the people he dealt with, even when he had good reason to suspect they up to no good. A homeless guy he had to frisk got a kind word and a bit of humor.

The police work very hard. The area we covered was huge. I really wondered how he kept from feeling completely overwhelmed by the scope of his work. I appreciated the officer’s sense of humor. I think it is part of what helped him to do his job in the right spirit.

I am gaining immense appreciation for the people in Merced and other cities who give sacrificial service to their fellow citizens. Often without thanks or awareness. And often in spite of thoughtless complaining.

I’ve been reading Bill Easum and Pete Theodore’s excellent book, The Nomadic Church. It is one of the few books written on the subject of being a church without property or a building.

There are definitely challenges, but Easum and Theodore point out that there are also huge advantages. I’m so impressed, I decided to list a few of them for this blog. Enjoy!

Not having a building
…fosters creativity.
…encourages people to trust God.
…builds relational camaraderie, community and intimacy.
…always provides opportunities for every person to be involved.
…permits more focus on people, mission, and ministry.
…diminishes a “come to us” mindset and bolsters a “go to them” mindset.
…forces multiple worship services.
…smothers idolatrous “building worship.”
…encourages purposeful, missional budgeting.
…keeps people praying.
…forces decentralization into the community.
…fosters gratitude for simple things.
…allows money and time that other churches have to spend on buildings.
…allows for faster mulitiplication of churches to saturate a city.
…builds a sense of corporate excitement.

Wow!

I’m looking out the door at a flowering plum. The wind is blowing the petals off like snow. The sun is out, and people are in a decidely better mood after all the rain.

Most of the drinks that are going out the door are iced drinks, unlike the hot coffee that people were drinking last week to stay warm. Three or four people have come by my table. One stayed about an hour. Another by and we talked about leadership for a few minutes. He gave me a good idea for the training class I am writing right now.

I got an invitation to teach a class for a local agency. I’ve also gotten some other opportunities to help folks out. I like these opportunities.

Clouds are blowing in. The forecast is for more rain. God is the one constant through all of life. And life is good.

I’m a member of a business networking group. I am completely fascinated by the process.

The group gets together once a week to talk about each other’s business and provide business referrals to each other. In between meetings the members get together for coffee or lunch. What happens over time is that strangers become friends.

The group is really like a church. They look out for each other. Enjoy each other’s company. And become friends. Before and after the meeting the room is a filled with the noisy din of conversation. “How are you?” “I met someone who needs your services.” Or “How was your trip?”

Really being a part of the group requires making a contribution to the group. People who join just to GET the benefits of membership rather than GIVE to the welfare of others soon lose interest in it. Like the paradox of “Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns,” Ecclesiastes 11:1, receiving the grand benefits of relationships requires personal generosity.

We were greeted this morning with pictures of the flooding that occurred overnight in Merced. Most of this occurred on the west side of Merced, and we live on the east side. Still, it makes you aware of how little control you have when nature runs rampant.

The forecast is for light showers the rest of the week. We pray that the waters will recede, and the poor folks who got chased out of their homes last night will be able to restore some order to their lives.

I’ve been looking over our back fence off and on all day today–at lunch, when I got home from a meeting, and tonight. Merced and the surrounding areas have gotten pounded with rain, and some areas are flooded.

Rascal Creek flows along a paved walking path right behind our house. Most of the time it is a nice place to stroll, but today I wished it wasn’t there.

Actually, the creek has not gotten to a worrisome height, but some Merced residents haven’t been so lucky. Some have been flooded out. Some are sandbagging like crazy. Merced High School is taking overnight evacuees.

Bear Creek, a major waterway flowing through town, is threateningly high. I’m probably going to add flood insurance to my home coverage very soon.

I made a new friend on Friday night. Bev and I were at the Boys and Girls Club annual fundraiser, and he was sitting at the table next to us. It turned out that he was a pastor for a local African-American church.

We chatted for a good while and then exchanged business cards. Bev and I told him that we had been wanting to worship at an African-American church, but didn’t know exactly where to go. But now we did.

Worship started at 11:00 AM. We were there in plenty of time so we got to visit with several of the church members. They were very warm and hospitable to us. During worship the pastor even invited me up to say a word to the church. He said he was going to invite me back to preach.

The service was over two hours long. The preaching was passionate; the fellowship was sweet. We both left feeling very encouraged and have no doubt that when we go back we will be warmly received. Exactly the way being with Christians should affect you.

I hate April 15. It looms over my life like a black cloud. Every year I swear that I am going to get the tax preparation job done in January or February.

I think I broke my promise worse this year than any year before. I mailed a box of documents to my CPA today, and sometime this weekend I will fax the final details that he needs to finish my tax forms. That’s just 2 weeks before the April 15 deadline.

I think what I hate about tax time is the amount of my time I have to devote to something that is utterly worthless to me. I spent the entire day doing nothing but shuffling paper and entering figures into a spreadsheet, all done so that my CPA can figure out how much tax I should pay.

I’ll be glad when the weekend is over. I’ll be done with the taxes, and all the clutter will be gone. I can then return to the things that I think are much more important.

On Thursday I got a call from State Farm announcing that papers were in the mail and that I should sign them and return them along with the car title. The guy also said that I had 5 more days to rent a car.

I hadn’t even begun to look for a new car, so that news was not met with enthusiasm. I told him that the first guy I talked to said my benefits would provide for a car well into April.

So on Friday I began my day complaining to God. “The clock is ticking, God. I’ve got to get a car and soon! I don’t want any car payments either.” I’m not saying this one prayer did the trick, but I got a phone call later that morning.

My new car is a 1985 Honda Accord with 62,000 miles. I have it because a very good friend called me and said, “We’ve bought a new car; would you like our Honda?” By Friday night I had my replacement car in our driveway.

I’m thankful for God’s filling my need. I’m indebted to the generosity of my friend. And I am confident of God’s presence in what I’m doing. I feel great joy.