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Soultuary
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
First “Official” Small Group Meeting
OK, so as a part of the church planting training that Patti and I are getting, as we endeavor to launch Soultuary as a viable church entity, we have been asked by Pastor Jerry Bryant, of Vineyard Nashville to put together a small group here in the West End / Bellevue area of Nashville. Last night was our inaugural meeting.
There were five adults and seven kids in attendance! This is definitely going to be a family friendly atmosphere… and the great thing is, shy of four year old Reagan and three year old Hunter, you wouldn’t have known the adults were outnumbered! So, it was Suzanne and Ryan Soria, Leah Heyman, Patti and I rounding out the adults in attendance.
The group seemed to gel pretty quickly and we discovered that all involved have a bent toward the artistic… and are somewhat “out of the box” types (oh, and I learned that I'm not the only "veggie" in the group - Woo Hoo! Yeah Leah!). Yeah, OK, some people would say we are freaky, black sheep types, but it’s my little rubber world, so let me bounce around in it, OK?!
We started out at 07:00PM. Of course there was food – any meeting worth being at should have food, right? Yeah, it was the typical chips and pretzel fair, but the stand out was Leah Heyman’s Chocolate-Chip-Oatmeal-Cookies. Man those were good!
After a brief introduction and word of prayer around 07:15PM Ryan Soria broke out his Takamine Guitar and we enhanced our time of worship with a little music (NOTE: I didn’t say we “had worship”. I think we should be living LIVES OF WORSHIP and occasionally use music as a tool to help us out with that!). On a personal note, I really appreciated Ryan's sensitivity and his ability to worship musically with reckless abandon – jumping from one song to the next, mid way through and then back to the first, extending choruses and making room for the spontaneous. We were able to just sing the words that were in our hearts a few times – a “musical offering” to God, if you will.
Around 07:45PM we wrapped up that time in prayer and responded to a reading that Patti had prepared from the book, “Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive” By: John Eldredge of "Ransomed Heart Ministries", which basically talked about what The Church and Christian Community are supposed to be.
I made it pretty clear that I am a busy person and really don’t have time for “another group”. I have absolutely no desire to hold another meeting, just to fulfill some training obligation. But, what I will do is re-arrange my life and prioritize my time for anyone who is willing to be open, transparent, and vulnerable and who will help develop a deep and meaningful sense of community. That is my goal for anyone who will become a part of this group and ultimately a part of Soultuary. I’m just diving in first!
Because Leah Heyman wasn’t really aware of the overall vision for Soultuary, I shared a condensed version of what our dreams are, believing that God wants to see these things (and probably more… we are such suckers for God! He baits us with a little and then –WHAM- hits us with greater things than we could ever imagine!) come to pass, invited prayer and support for that vision.
We also took time listening to what the expectations and desires for this group were from each person there. Pretty unanimously, it was what I had laid out… all are looking for a sense of community, to bear one another’s burdens and to have people who will encourage them and be a part of their lives in such a way as to actually love each other – and not just on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night!
After concluding with prayer at around 08:45PM, we devoured the remaining food items that were still on the table (OK, so I wrestled one of those cookies outta Reagan’s hands… He had like five of them – and did I mention they were good?!).
And yes… being that it was Tuesday night and seeing as we are freaky, black sheep, rock-n-roll types, (and that our “meeting” was officially concluded) we cranked up the TV and watched the latest installment of “RockStar:INXS” on CBS. OK, not like you care, but here’s how I want to see it end. Mig and Jordis in the final two, with Mig getting the INXS gig and Jordis getting the record deal of her dreams – that chick is amazing!
Ahh… but I digress! Hey, that’s my life. It’s an open book. Come read what’s there and help me write the next few chapters, OK?
Later-
Ray
Oh, and not that it's a foot note by any stretch, but we are so excited that my daughter, Lauren, willbe coming home from her month long stay with her grandfather in West Virginia and Ohio today!
There were five adults and seven kids in attendance! This is definitely going to be a family friendly atmosphere… and the great thing is, shy of four year old Reagan and three year old Hunter, you wouldn’t have known the adults were outnumbered! So, it was Suzanne and Ryan Soria, Leah Heyman, Patti and I rounding out the adults in attendance.
The group seemed to gel pretty quickly and we discovered that all involved have a bent toward the artistic… and are somewhat “out of the box” types (oh, and I learned that I'm not the only "veggie" in the group - Woo Hoo! Yeah Leah!). Yeah, OK, some people would say we are freaky, black sheep types, but it’s my little rubber world, so let me bounce around in it, OK?!
We started out at 07:00PM. Of course there was food – any meeting worth being at should have food, right? Yeah, it was the typical chips and pretzel fair, but the stand out was Leah Heyman’s Chocolate-Chip-Oatmeal-Cookies. Man those were good!
After a brief introduction and word of prayer around 07:15PM Ryan Soria broke out his Takamine Guitar and we enhanced our time of worship with a little music (NOTE: I didn’t say we “had worship”. I think we should be living LIVES OF WORSHIP and occasionally use music as a tool to help us out with that!). On a personal note, I really appreciated Ryan's sensitivity and his ability to worship musically with reckless abandon – jumping from one song to the next, mid way through and then back to the first, extending choruses and making room for the spontaneous. We were able to just sing the words that were in our hearts a few times – a “musical offering” to God, if you will.
Around 07:45PM we wrapped up that time in prayer and responded to a reading that Patti had prepared from the book, “Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive” By: John Eldredge of "Ransomed Heart Ministries", which basically talked about what The Church and Christian Community are supposed to be.
I made it pretty clear that I am a busy person and really don’t have time for “another group”. I have absolutely no desire to hold another meeting, just to fulfill some training obligation. But, what I will do is re-arrange my life and prioritize my time for anyone who is willing to be open, transparent, and vulnerable and who will help develop a deep and meaningful sense of community. That is my goal for anyone who will become a part of this group and ultimately a part of Soultuary. I’m just diving in first!
Because Leah Heyman wasn’t really aware of the overall vision for Soultuary, I shared a condensed version of what our dreams are, believing that God wants to see these things (and probably more… we are such suckers for God! He baits us with a little and then –WHAM- hits us with greater things than we could ever imagine!) come to pass, invited prayer and support for that vision.
We also took time listening to what the expectations and desires for this group were from each person there. Pretty unanimously, it was what I had laid out… all are looking for a sense of community, to bear one another’s burdens and to have people who will encourage them and be a part of their lives in such a way as to actually love each other – and not just on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night!
After concluding with prayer at around 08:45PM, we devoured the remaining food items that were still on the table (OK, so I wrestled one of those cookies outta Reagan’s hands… He had like five of them – and did I mention they were good?!).
And yes… being that it was Tuesday night and seeing as we are freaky, black sheep, rock-n-roll types, (and that our “meeting” was officially concluded) we cranked up the TV and watched the latest installment of “RockStar:INXS” on CBS. OK, not like you care, but here’s how I want to see it end. Mig and Jordis in the final two, with Mig getting the INXS gig and Jordis getting the record deal of her dreams – that chick is amazing!
Ahh… but I digress! Hey, that’s my life. It’s an open book. Come read what’s there and help me write the next few chapters, OK?
Later-
Ray
Oh, and not that it's a foot note by any stretch, but we are so excited that my daughter, Lauren, willbe coming home from her month long stay with her grandfather in West Virginia and Ohio today!
