Are you connected?

It's sometimes pretty tough to feel like you're really connected to your local church, isn't it? It's easy to get lost in the shuffle, whether you're a part of a big church or a small one. You can come and go every Sunday and yet never have much personal connection with other believers. The Christian life was not designed to be lived alone (see Genesis 2:18). We were created with a need for God and a need for meaningful relationships with people. When we choose to live life in isolation, we're missing out on so many of God's great blessings.

Our relationships aren't perfect. In fact, they're often really messy. It all goes back to sin (see Genesis 3). When you bring sinners into close proximity with each other, we tend to mess things up. We sin against each other in our motives, thoughts, and actions. At times, it's not pretty! But Scripture gives us hope that our relationships, while imperfect, can get better. They can begin to be characterized by love, compassion, forgiveness, and humility where once impatience, pride, dishonesty, and divisiveness were given free reign.

That being said, you need meaningful relationships! God knows our struggles, our pains, and our weaknesses. Amazingly, He often helps us with these struggles in the context of community - authentic, life-changing, hope-inspiring, transforming relationships. Would you like to be a apart of that? How about starting a small group with folks at your church? How about starting a Bible study and inviting your neighbors, who may or may not be saved? If we want relationships that are life-changing and transforming, we're going to have to work hard at it. It doesn't come easily, but it's worth the effort. There's the real opportunity that you'll get hurt...but, there's the real opportunity that the Lord is going to use others to change you, if you'll step out in faith trusting that He's in control. It's worth the risk. I'm giving it a shot. If you try it, let me know how it goes.

Ben

Brandon and Kara's Wedding

Hey guys, we wanted to post some pictures from Brandon and Kara's wedding. Here's the slideshow we put together.

Video Test

Trying to see if we can put video on the blog... thought I would start with something funny. If this doesn't make you want to have kids, I don't know what will!

Enjoy!

NOTE: This is just a random kid on youtube... not my brother

Settling In

I've been bad about updating the blog... I guess my only excuse is that we have been busy settling in. Ben loves his job here, which is such a blessing. God has been so gracious to surround us with wonderful, godly people everywhere we have lived and Grace Community is no different. We have met so many wonderful people who have been so kind and welcoming. Part of Ben's job as Director of Community Groups has been to visit all of the existing groups to get to know the leaders and group members. We have so enjoyed this opportunity and can't wait to have a community group of our own.

I still have not been able to find a job here in Clarksville, but I have several applications out that I am still waiting to hear from and I know that the Lord has a place for me to serve. Although I am anxious to find a job, I have enjoyed my time off work. I am thankful that I have had the time to unpack boxes and organize our little home. My most proud accomplishment is my ever shrinking mountain of boxes... below is a picture of how far I have come. I wish that I had taken a before picture, but really boxes covered our whole basement. Now I have them confined to this one little corner.

Also keeping us busy is preparation for Brandon and Kara's wedding (Ben's brother). I have a tendency to volunteer myself for jobs that become much larger as I get into them... The upcoming Reed wedding is no exception. I have been up to my eyeballs in shower invitations and addressing and stuffing wedding envelopes. It has kept my busy, but I have enjoyed it... it makes me wonder if I should be a wedding planner. If anyone knows of an opening let me know.

Check out the "Sites to Visit" part of our blog. I have added the website to our church and Ben is starting to blog there sometimes. They also have a new feature where the staff answers a funny but random question of the week... the answers are fun to read.

Our New House

We're officially homeowners now. Actually, we have been for almost 2 weeks now...I know I said that I would be sure to post pictures right after closing, but needless to say things have been crazy for us. Here are some pictures of the house:Our first picture as homeowners!Living room (Kitchen to the right)... Ben thinks he needs a flat screen TV for the nook above the fireplace!View of Kitchen from Living RoomAlternate view of KitchenDining RoomMaster BedroomOur backyard & deck

The Friday after Thanksgiving we had a "family work day" at the house to get it ready to move in to... wiped down, fix-uped, cleaned, everything. We love our backyard but I was really dreading having to rake up all the leaves... then I found out that I wouldn't have to. Ben and Pete went out there with the lawn mower and leaf blower and cleaned it up in no time... I was so grateful!
Brandon and Kara also helped us put up our Christmas tree. We knew with moving right in the middle of December we wouldn't put up a tree unless we did it while we were in for Thanksgiving.

Change on the Horizon

If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would be in Clarksville in 2007 and what I would have been doing, I would have told you, "Yeah, probably so...I'll be a Veterinarian." Of course, 10 years ago would have been my Sophomore year of high school, and I was just certain that I was going to be a Vet. Psalm 33:10 says, " The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples." Over the course of a few years, the Lord frustrated my plans, and I surrendered them. By this, I don't say that it is wrong for a person to become a Veterinarian, or any other profession. But for me, the Lord had different plans.

When we first moved to Louisville from Knoxville, we thought that it would be best if I would focus on school without the added responsibility of serving on staff in a church. Throughout those two years, I struggled with that, though. I had left Vet school to go into the ministry, and now it didn't seem that I was any closer than before we had moved. In August of 2006, I took a position at Little Mount Baptist Church. They had no youth, and wanted to start a youth program, and that's why I came on board. Over the last year, the Lord really has blessed Little Mount. We've had 9 professions of faith, and we can see real growth in Christlikeness in the youth.

Throughout our year at Little Mount, we've formed some deep relationships. I never imagined that it would be so heart-wrenching to leave a church (I feel as if I'm turning my back on my family), but this past Sunday, our departure from Little Mount began. We have accepted a position at Grace Community Church, where I will shepherd the community groups. Community groups are small groups of 12 to 15 peole who commit to meet weekly for 12-18 months. During these meetings, people study the Bible and live life together, sharing the victories and defeats of life. Basically, they "do church." My role will be two-fold. I will strengthen, encourage, and equip the existing community group leaders as they shepherd their group. I will also enlist new leaders. This is going to be a big task. Grace is growing so quickly that they have a deficit of leaders. They have lots of people that are willing to commit to community groups, but not enough leaders for the groups. I'm sure that many leaders are already there, they just need to be told that they can actually do it. This responsibility will fall on me.

We're excited to begin serving at Grace. This is a great opportunity, and is something that we did not think would be available for many years down the road. But the Lord has made this opportunity available for us, and we are ready to get going. We are praying even now that the Lord would continue to place a burden in our hearts for the lost in Clarksville.

We hope to hear from you soon.

--Ben

Bittersweet News

Wow... I can't believe that it has been so long since I have posted anything to our blog. A lot of exciting things have happened in the last month, most of which we have been unable to talk about... that is until now. All announcements have been made, and all information in public knowledge, so I guess the last thing to do is share the news will all you who may not know. I guess I will start from the beginning...

A couple of months ago on a random Wednesday night Ben received a phone call from a pastor in a church in his home town (Clarksville, TN) asking if he would be interested in a position that they had. We were caught off guard, flattered, but a little reluctant to move forward with anything. Ben still has a year of Seminary left, we were really happy in our position at Little Mount and the way the Lord was moving, and we were unsure about the church in Clarksville and their beliefs. We prayed about it for a couple of days and decided that we should at least meet with the pastor and find out more about the church and the position. To make a long story short, we had several meetings with the staff at the church, asked them a lot of hard questions, sought the counsel of our family and other wise Christians, and prayed A LOT and decided to move to Clarksville and accept the position (I'll have Ben tell a little bit more about the church and the position later).

This transition is so bittersweet for us... we are so excited and so sad at the same time. On one hand, we are moving back home (though we have been in KY for 3 years TN has that special place in our hearts). We are going to be close to our families and the job at the church is the type of position that we thought we wouldn't be able to get until we had been out of seminary a few years. But, on the other hand, we hate to leave our little nest in Taylorsville. We really feel that our little church is our family. We have built so many great relationships with so many wonderful, caring people. The Lord is also working in a mighty way at Little Mount. For start, we have had 9 youth come to Christ since the summer and new families have been visiting and joining. Though we know that God receives all the glory for these things and that it is not us that has caused these things to happen, it is hard to leave where the Lord is at work.

Also on the list of crazy thing we have done is the last month is buying a house. Here's a picture of our new home...

We certainly had no intentions of buying a house so soon, but the week after we looked at it we got a call from the owner (who went to kindergarten with Ben) saying that someone had put an offer on the house. We knew if we wanted it we had to move then. Let me just say that the next day was the just about the most stressful day ever. I couldn't sleep that night. I just kept thinking "Dave Ramsey would call us crazy!" The next morning I had about talked Ben into backing out and not sending in the contract. Ben spent the day on the phone with his dad and the mortgage broker and crunching numbers and we decided to take the plunge. We close on November 19... I'll post more pictures of the house then. We won't actually move until December 14th, so we'll have time do some work on the house before we move.

I guess that's all our big news, I'll do better about posting more often and not springing so much on you at once... I know it's a lot to take in.