Our life comes to us moment by moment. One moment disappears before the next comes along: and there is room for very little in each. That is what Time is like. And of course you and I tend to take it for granted that this Time series—this arrangement of past, present, and future—is not simply the way life comes to us but the way all things really exist. We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all. His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours: with Him it is still 1920 and already 1960 – C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
I don’t know how things have been going for you but, I’d like to give a quick rundown of the last 6 months of what our life has looked like… WHOOOOSHHHH!!!! And there it went…
Seriously, Kristofer graduated high school in May, we took a trip to Florida to celebrate and in just a little over a week he’ll finish up his first trimester at Central Washington University. Stephen will wrap up almost three years at the local Smashburger while putting the final touches on a degree at UAA. Karen is halfway through another year as a 6th grade teacher with the Anchorage School District and I’m just over here being your pastor, leading in several non-profit organizations around Alaska, and trying to keep my day to day calendar straight.
In all, time has simply been racing right by and I often feel like there isn’t a moment to breathe.
More than a little of that pressure comes from details revolving around the life and people of Christ Community Church, Alaska. If you’ve been around the past couple of years, you know we’ve wrestled some struggles and had some amazing successes. As we’ve continued to pursue repairs, upgrades, and replacements in the physical place that is C3AK, we’ve also been putting pieces into place to increase our engagement both within and outside the church. Most recently, with the success of phase one in our lighting project, a new media projection package, and soon to be in place sound system upgrades (all made possible by grants from the Alaska Baptist Convention and specific donations from several C3AK members) we kicked off a long dreamed aspect of a multi-generational church community by inviting our student ministry to engage with both the on stage and behind the scenes aspects of our Sunday worship ministry.
As one of those who has the privilege of hanging out with our students each Tuesday night, let me say, it’s a blast! My first calling in ministry was student ministry and it is still dear to my heart. It’s no surprise that these young people are motivated, energetic, and quick to catch on. However, as with a lot of great ideas, we couldn’t foresee every nuance when we kicked this thing into motion. Jason, Tyler and I are now in the process of refining, structuring and planning.
As well, when a very good friend of mine started hanging out with C3AK a handful of years ago we dreamed about doing some of the things within the context of the church that we were doing out in the community, like an elite student choir and musical theatre, and drama productions. Well, many of you have enjoyed the seasons of da Capo Choir we’ve had in the past and I hope you will enjoy the upcoming production of the Broadway classic Little Shop of Horrors featuring high school age students from all over the Anchorage area. Auditions happen in just a couple of weeks and, like some other things, I have no idea how this is going to go or how it’s going to work BUT I AM EXCITED!
This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s exactly what should be expected by anyone when there are major shifts and change, right? I mean, nothing ever works exactly like you think it will. In reality, that should be part of the fun. It also makes things seem like they’re flying by! I have to believe that’s the reason why the past 6 months have felt so hectic; so much change.
But, I don’t mind and neither does C3AK. Flexibility, change, new things are in our DNA and I am so thankful. I’ll ask you to be patient with us over the next several weeks as we adjust a billion moving parts, identify things that work and things that don’t and, maybe, even decide some things are better left “undone” and we should move on to something else. I can’t predict exactly how all that will go but, I can promise we won’t keep striving for the best. Underneath of it all, just like the efforts with Grace Works mission teams this past summer (coming soon in 2019), each of these efforts spring from a deep desire to find new, creative, engaging ways to share the Gospel with the people who live, work, and play around us. One of my favorite verses comes from Revelation and reminds me of on aspect of the heart of God we see over and over again in the Bible. He LOVES new things.
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5
Blessings
Pastor Tracy