The Small "c" catholic Church

Sabbatical kicked off this past week with a wonderful conference in Indianapolis called "The Gospel Coalition."  We were led in worship by the Gettys, Matt Papa, Matt Boswell, Laura Story and others.  It's a moving experience to have over 7,000 people lifting their voices in praise!  A number of speakers expositionally walked us through the book of Ephesians.  And when there's a bookstore the size of a football field, it's tempting to spend a lot of money on books.

Over the weekend, we spent some time helping out the new homeowners in our family by working on their house, and a few Sterk guys were able to join my Dad for a meal at their place in Holland.

Then this morning we had the opportunity to worship at Christ Church PCA in Grand Rapids reminding us of the gift of the larger church, like we say in the apostle's Creed- "I believe in the holy catholic Church" referring to the universal church.  And in God's providence, there was even a new member transferring into the church from HRC! (They thought I was there just for them :)

I guess it's a good thing that we already miss our church family as we try to find a healthy balance of stepping away from full-time pastoral ministry for a season without isolating ourselves from the body of Christ. (honestly it's kind of a weird dynamic to balance since I am a relational extravert!)  I'm sure I'll have more to report on that in coming weeks.  

This coming week, we will be driving to Gulf Shores for a week of vacation, reading, relaxing and going away with just two of our kids.

I need to resist systematically categorizing every little thing I do during sabbatical into the four different areas of focus I'm targeting, but I will continue to be intentional in the following four areas:

REST- physically

RENEW- spiritually

RECONNECT- relationally

REFOCUS- theologically