So I knew it was just a matter of time. It's about a 40 mile drive from my doorstep to the highest point in South Dakota. At a little over 7200 feet, Harney Peak rises above the rest of the Black Hills. In fact, I can look out the window of my house and easily make out Harney in the distance. Today was the day to look down on Rapid City, along with a lot of other beautiful terrain.

Brandon Bruce, John Burkart, Matt Burkart, Jay Badura, and Jim Koch were my fellow summiters today. Other than Brandon, I had just met each of these guys in the last few weeks at Fountain Springs Community Church. Certainly one of the highlights of the day was getting to know each of them better and hearing snippets of their story. We negotiated our way down the rock-strewn trail, listened to the rustling leaves, and shared the soaring sights. What a way to spend a Saturday!

So I've taken the next step. The previous phase of my life was primarily one of preparation, formal education, and quite focused on myself. Not that those things aren't still a part of my life, but maybe the emphasis has shifted to practicing over preparing, informal education over formal education, and very much focused on the people around me. Here's some of my initial thoughts on the shift to being a pastor.

1. Ownership - I'm experiencing a heightened level of ownership in my church as well as my community. The former I certainly expected, the latter has somewhat surprised me. Maybe it's part of being an adult too, but I find myself wanting to know the people of the community, particularly the movers & shakers. I want to network with the manager of the rescue mission, the receptionist at the nearby middle school, as well as the regional politicians.

2. Respect - I know that the vast amount of respect and trust in this world is earned. It has to be won over, and it takes time. It certainly can be lost in a moment. However, I am experiencing that there is a percentage of respect that comes with position. I sense more immediate respect and validity as a pastor than I did as a (punk) college kid.

3. Responsibility - Right with that heightened respect comes heightened responsibility. Beyond caring for myself and getting my projects accomplished, I am now expected to care for others and move the community's projects forward. Others are counting on me. People come to me in tough times expecting something. With the heightened respect comes more responsibility.

4. Mission - My life is beginning to center around a driving mission: moving forward the kingdom of God through the life and ministries of Fountain Springs Community Church. I wake up and know what I'm engaging my energy into. I have an overriding drive that is exciting and fulfilling. My life is focused around a mission.

-- So, are you going through shifts in life these days? What are those shifts bringing your way?
-- Have you been in Christian leadership for years? What can I expect in the coming years?

Have you ever been simultaneously excited and demoralized? That's where I am right now. There is a wave of excitement, enthusiasm, and sense of purpose surrounding being a part of the ministries of Fountain Springs Community Church. One microcosm of that is the success of securing a new church logo. It was designed by Kory Pence (hire him, he's the best!). Check it out:





Why demoralized you ask? I was just crushed in the game of Risk. You know, one of those games that went on for hours, packed full of emotions, late into the night, with much invested in the outcome. And though I had the upperhand a vast majority of the way, things just didn't turn out well in the end. In fact, I saw a tidal wave of red sweep over me until the entire world was flooded with my enemy's color. And I was so demoralized I could barely get out a "Good game" for my opponent. Why invest so much into something so trivial?

At least I can take solace in the fact that the root of the former emotion (of excitement) is a bit more long-term then the cause of the latter emotion (demoralization). I am glad to be investing all of myself into the advancing of the Kingdom of God and the spreading of the message of reconciliation and life to the full.

The U-haul(s) made it to Rapid City, SD. My folks have been a great help in this move and Brandon & Jenn have been amazing as well. I can't wait to fill you in more and post some pictures.

I am aware that complacency toward the unknown (sometimes bleeding into fear of the unknown) is a widespread phenomenon. I'd much rather give $100 to my best friend than $5 to a stranger on the street, even though the stranger might legitimately need the money more. There's just something in me (us?) that would rather be generous to those I know and love and am in proximity to. I think this is natural.

But what is unnatural is God's all-inclusive, ever-reaching love, of which I am striving - alongside many of you - to emulate. I am struck by Jesus' teaching about our Heavenly Father. "He sends rain on the just and the unjust." In other words, bad stuff happens to good people and bad people, right? Wrong (okay, it's a true statement but that's not what this teaching is getting at). Rain in the 1st century and still today is a very, very good thing! People need to eat, eating requires crops, crops require rain, and there we are. So Jesus is telling us that our Heavenly Father sends rain, provides for, cares about, communicates grace to, and loves the just and the unjust. So if I'm going to go beyond my natural tendancies and emulate our Heavenly Father's unnatural propensity to love all, I guess that means I want to be unnatural.

One way (among thousands of ways) that you can be unnatural with me is to give a rip about Niger, Africa for just one day. Famine has turned a normally hungry time of year into a dying time of year for many, many children. We can help. Now, I realize that there's also hungry people in Mali, Burkina Faso, India, and even your local city. Great, let's find meaningful and significant ways to help them too. Or at least do what we can in one part of the world. Anything but inaction would be good. I've given you some resources below that should make it accessible. World Vision is doing some great stuff. I think they realize that throwing aid at a crisis is not good enough; they are committed to making a difference long-term.

So learn, pray, and give in a way that marks you as unnatural. If not Niger, then somewhere.

Go here to help - World Vision - Learn a bit about the short & long-term ways that World Vision is helping Niger . . . and how you can partner with them.

Fact Sheet - This page offers a quick look at the situation facing Niger.
CNN Article - One perspective from the ground in Niger.
Map of Niger - For those map prone people like myself.
Niger Country Sketch - Learn about the country itself.

***Thanks Dwayne and Jarod for bringing this situation to my attention.

There was a season in my Christian walk where the goal of being a follower of Jesus was to be a devout and spiritual person. One might even say a pious person. All efforts were geared toward personal intimacy with God. I wanted to be a faithful church attender, certainly spend time alone with God every day, read Scripture, battle in prayer for others, and fast regularly (secretly of course). I knew that if I was really intimate with God I'd care passionately about evangelism. I wanted to do my part in saving others' souls from going to hell, so that they too could be intimate with God. In my view, service toward others, while important, was not as make or break as The Big Two: time alone with God and evangelism. Service opportunities were typically seen as a means of getting someone saved so that they would go to heaven and not hell.

The banner cry was quotes like, "The greatest gift you can share with the world is your intimacy with God" or "If there's one person in our community who hasn't been saved then there's still more work to be done." Scriptures that were often referenced were, "Pray continually," "When you pray (or fast or give), go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you," "Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray," as well as Revelation 4 and 5 which point us to the never-ending worship service in heaven. Simply put, my emphasis was on living heavenly and getting as many others to heaven as possible.

Now I'm on a journey of discovery. I'm trying to discover what it means to have a useful faith. I still desire with all my being to be a devout follower of Jesus Christ, I'm just wondering if that looks more like being fruitful than spiritual. I'm exploring what it looks like to put my effort into living out the Kingdom of God – life to the full. I think I can do this best by immersing myself in the narrative of God and thus learn how to better be a part of God's story. I don't want to do this alone! I desire to do this in community, dialoguing with sisters and brothers every step of the way. The goal is to not only learn about Jesus, but strive to live like him. Rather than living in a dichotomous world where all things are either spiritual or earthly, I'd like to discover what it means to live holistically, loving God with body, mind, soul, and spirit in every situation. As a disciple of Jesus, I want to be marked by the same inclusiveness, hospitality, love, grace, boldness, and sense of justice that he was. I long to see service be a natural response to faith (and be faith-forming) rather than a means to an end. I expect that my words, actions, and demeanor will tune as many people as possible into the reality of a loving God and the community of faith. Not so that they won’t go to hell, but so that they can have life to the full now and forevermore, so that they can experience reconciliation with God and people now.

I’m latching onto quotes like, “If our faith does not make us the kind of people that make this a better world, we really want no part of it” and “The gospel invites us into a future life – not only a future life after this one but also a future life during this one – in which we are to bless the world and make it better.” I feel as though I’m reading the Gospels with new lenses, especially the Kingdom of God passages. I see the incarnation as the ultimate model of communicating grace to the brokenness that surrounds us. I read James saying, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself form being polluted by the world.” I hear Jesus praying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I don’t feel as though I’ve jumped ship or moved from one camp to another camp. However, I do believe there’s been a shift of emphasis. I desire that my faith would be useful as I strive to live the Kingdom of God in the way of Jesus.

I invite you to dialogue with me by commenting.

Among others, I have been profoundly influenced by the thinking of Doug Pagitt, Brian McLaren, and N. T. Wright.

What movies have you gone out and seen on your birthday? I've seen four that I can think of:

• My dad took me to see Dick Tracy on my 8th birthday, the Oscar-winning Warren Beatty film about the comic book detective.
• My dad also took me to see Jurassic Park on my 11th birthday. Written by Michael Crichton and directed by Steven Spielberg, this groundbreaking film also took in a few Oscars.
• After bowling a couple games, I saw Bourne Supremacy a year ago with Craig & Priscilla Coe in Denver.
• Today, on my 23rd birthday, I did something I've never done before. I went to the movies by myself. I had a free pass and a free afternoon so I took in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In agreement with everyone else I've heard talk about this movie in the past couple months, I'd say it was a lot of fun!

I'm thinking about making the birthday movie going experience a tradition. We'll see. However, something that is already a tradition in the Kind family is getting to go out to eat at a restaurant of choice. So tonight my grandparents, my folks, and I are going to eat at Carrabba's Italian Grill. If it's anything like past experiences I'll be delighted (spoiled) in both quality and quantity of the food.