counting me worthy

I listen often to the preaching of a pastor named Matt Chandler. Powerful communicator. On Thanksgiving Day, he had a seizure. That evening he found out he had a brain tumor and had to undergo emergency surgery. Here is his powerful thought before going into this life-threatening procedure.

Video from Matt

A1:8 Magazine

So proud to have helped pull our A1:8 Missions Magazine together. It's beautiful. 40 pages, full bleed, matte-finished magazine. Last year we did a Christmas Catalog for people to purchase products for organizations and missionaries overseas that we support. Those included goats, school supplies, housing for widows, bricks for a classroom, etc. Raised $57k this past year through the catalog.

With the huge help of Kate and her company Bittersweet Creative, we took it to another level with a magazine. So proud of it because it really captures of heart of NCC and it's passion for being on mission. We've got articles written from staff members and other NCCers who have seen invisible lines of connection through the simple act of sharing the love of Christ to others around them.

You can go to the marketplace to view the different items our congregation is investing in.

Who

I'll tell you a story. It's only the memory of a question and about where the question first hit me. I was in college. It was a friday evening in the middle of December, most of the students had travelled home. I was sitting there having a drink and a smoke and it dawned on me that there was an ultimate question: What is the meaning of life? For a moment, I actually considered the possibility that i was the first one ever to have asked it.

My friends had reached identical conclusions for themselves. The same question apparently teased everyone. It could take many forms: What am I doing here? What am I supposed to be doing here? Why am I able to ask this question? Why am I unable to answer it?

The Kabbalists say that the ultimate question is simply "who?" I've asked these questions over and over since then. I suppose that one of the main reasons I'm a Pastor is because Pastor's have permission to be with people during the most transformative moments of their lives and are even expected to help them make those moments coherent and meaningful. I'm not sure I have a responsibility to have the right answers, but have increasingly learned it's about asking the questions that allow another to hear the echoes of the larger questions right there in the midst of the ordinary.