One down

Church happened Sunday morning for the first time at Downtown Church. If we didn't have another service to plan for this coming Sunday, we might have time for some long-form navel gazing. The staff sent around some emails yesterday afternoon to say thanks and we had a little get together for our launch team last night at The Spot, but other than that our focus quickly turned to planning for next Sunday. Church comes at you fast. I must admit that the months of anticipation (and worry) in advance of yesterday seems overdone in hindsight. It looked effortless from the outside, as if we had been doing this all along. At least that's what they tell me. Which leads me to believe the truism that what seems effortless from the outside usually demands considerable effort. So, thanks is in order to the brave souls that worked harder than their job descriptions demanded. Lance, Suzanne, Diane, and Helen form the team of staff I'm honored to serve with. And there were others in our core group that will not get paid but to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for extending their faith in the vision and God by showing up to help in countless ways.

Our journey began in my backyard with our very first Sunday meeting in January. It didn't end yesterday, but the slideshow above does. If you can stand 12 minutes of Downtown Church pictures, follow the progress over the last year and then thank God that we aren't called to be perfect, just faithful.