Easter Weekend

Easter is a favorite holiday of mine:

• It brings back memories of my amazing childhood. Egg-hunts always seemed to include finding at least one egg from the year before - and yes, they were REAL eggs!
  
• Springtime ROCKS!
• Summer is coming!
• And most of all... It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ

Rock Bridge Chatsworth is celebrating in grand fashion this year. We have three service options:

• Saturday at 5:00pm - with a cookout to follow
• Sunday at 9:15am and 11:00am

Join us for whichever service works best for you and celebrate this amazing holiday.

Too Young To Die

I was trolling along Facebook yesterday when the cryptic post of an old friend from High School caught my eye. It was filled with gloom and doom about someone in her life and the name she mentioned was unique in nature, I've known of only a few people that carried it and it made me wonder if it was someone from our graduating class.

Then this morning I had a voice-mail from what can best be described as 'one of the best friends I've ever had'. John had left the message last night while I was in small-group so I didn't even know it was there until this am and sadly, the unique name mentioned in a cryptic post was indeed that of a classmate from the class of 1983. He had come down with bacterial meningitis a few days ago and last night his much too young body lost this terrible battle and he passed away.

For history sake... I began my career in that school system as a ninth grader and a significant number of the kids had been together since kindergarten so it was hard for me to fit in; a fact that was made worse by my less than pleasant attitude about moving to Irvington New York from Southern California.

That said, I didn't know this man very well. We walked in different circles in our small school and if I'm totally honest, we didn't like each other. In fact, we haven't spoken since graduating and I doubt we spoke that day. Recently we had a few pleasant Facebook moments but 850 miles and 27 years were no match for the four years we spent living in different worlds in the same place.

Stupid.

Even amid all that honesty however, I find my world reeling a little. He was too young to die and I feel enormous sorrow for his wife and three young kids and for his close friends. I spoke with another 'best friend I've ever had' this morning and he was really hurting. He was at the hospital for the final moments and he shuddered as he shared what he saw. I ache for his pain.

With so many years and so much mileage between me and this situation I can only pray for those involved that they find the now elusive peace... and that is exactly what I am doing.

Thoughts about 'Portable Church'

I get a lot of questions about portable church and I want to take some time to answer a few:

What is portable church?

• For us, being a portable church means that we rent a facility, in our case North Murray High School and transform that space from its 'everyday' use to a church for the weekend.
  

Is being portable a Biblical concept?

• There is more to talk about here than I can answer in one blog but the short answer is yes. Consider the Gospels and where Jesus preached. The Temple courts; the sermon on the mount; by the lake. The church was not a building then and it is not now.
  

How do you feel about Rock Bridge Chatsworth being portable?

• This one is asked a lot, and almost always by someone presuming that I hate it so my answer almost always raises eyebrows... I like it. It's true, I like it, in some ways I LOVE it.
• I like that we get to partner with a local school - giving the school money helps our community and that works for me.
• I like that we take a building that sits vacant on weekends and put it to use. It saves money and natural resources.
• I like the location - easy to find, center of the community, good parking and it has a cool local history. I regularly hear folks talk about great, life shaping memories at the school. That tradition continues.
• I LOVE that I get to spend incredible time with amazing people every week to set it up and break it down.
• I freely acknowledge that it is work; hard work, but it is good work and it's work that unites us in a way that simply cannot be matched in a 'permanent' site.
• I like it because, to quote a church leader at a portable church of 4000+ in a school in Charlotte, 'it gives us an edge'. The energy that portability generates is unmatched. We walk the halls of NMHS before we start and the end result is absolutely amazing. It is very satisfying and I always have fun.
  

Is Rock Bridge Chatsworth looking for a more permanent site?

• This one is asked most often of all. It's asked by folks helping set up, it's asked by people breaking it down, by guests and it's asked by friends from other churches.
  
• Another short answer... no. [but keep reading]
  
• It's not that we don't want a permanent site; we looked at a ton of available spaces around town but found nothing that worked. Too much space... not enough... bad parking... too expensive to make safe and usable for church... you get the point. We looked and looked and simply found ONE open door and North Murray is it.
  
• I pray that we will end up in a debt-free [or at least a short term debt-free plan] permanent site. My top prayer however, is to simply follow as God leads and He has led us here and therefore... I like it.
  

Rock Bridge Week 2

We're setting up the church this Friday and Saturday.

Friday: 4:00pm - 8:00pm
Saturday: 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Please join us and be part of this!

Rock Bridge Chatsworth services this Sunday at 9:15 & 11:00am

The launch - Complete Rundown

The Rock Bridge Chatsworth launch was amazing and I am, for one of the VERY few times in my life... speechless[ish]. So here are a few thoughts:

• The setup team made the space look AMAZING
• The breakfast team absolutely SPOILS us - incredible food for our volunteers
• The Dalton team that came to help was inspiring!
• Our guests represented Murray County like champions!
  
• The tech team ROCKED! It was like we were in a million-dollar theater!
• The band was INCREDIBLE
• The Message about not running from God ROCKED me to consider the big fish a place of grace!
• The Kids team was THE BEST! I heard kids AND volunteers RAVING about how awesome it was!
  
• The Break-down team BLEW my mind! Only our second time and it was faster, easier and still fun to be part of! And most of the crew was doing it for the first time!

I am having too much fun, can't wait for the weekend!

Setup for this week is the same as last week:

• Saturday 9am - 12pm
• Saturday 2pm - 6pm