We’ve moved from the era of intermittent podcasts to an era of consistent podcasts. Pretty excited about that. In retrospect, it’s a little embarrassing that it’s taken us this long to make the move but nonetheless, I’m glad we’re here.

You’ll now be able to get a podcast of our messages every Thursday. Hope it helps you share Christ with others and stay connected on the weeks you might not be able to make it.

By all measures, next Tuesday is going to be a pretty big one in the American story. We’ve been thinking for a while about the impact that’s likely to have on our Gathering at American University. We’ve decided that 9PM isn’t sacred and there would be nothing wrong with moving the service up a bit so we can all watch election returns as they come in. So, for next week only:

If you’re planning to be there, PLEASE help us let your friends know. I promise it’s impossible to over-communicate a change in our location and time. Would love to pack Butler out, blow it up and then go see who the next President is.

I think there’s the occasional misperception that life with The Gathering is always easy, stress-free and totally comfortable. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “sure, it’s that way for a ministry, but it’ll never be that way for me.” And we get all frustrated. But here’s the real truth – it’s NOT that way for ministries either!

If I’m honest, I would tell you yesterday was a rough day for our team.

- It was just plain cold out. Not a big deal, but didn’t do much to help.
- If it could go wrong technologically, it did. We missed critical emails that just never made it through our gate filter at church. Weird.
- We had trouble getting things printed. Hmm…
- We got tossed out of our normal location by the President of Paraguay sending us scrambling for another location. No estoy feliz.
- We couldn’t get into that new room until 8.15. Tough when you have a 9PM service.
- The road in front of our new location was completely closed. When you are in a 23 foot box truck, alternate routes don’t come easy. We had to park about 300 yards away from the building for our last minute load-in. Did I mention it was pretty cold at that point?

Was everything terrible? No. I had some great meetings with students. Our production team was nothing short of heroic in overcoming all the challenges. Our student leaders made it all work. And I was so proud of our staff, band and tech guys. But all in all, it was tough.

Just wanted to inject a little realism this morning. Maybe it connects with how you’ve been feeling recently.

But the Scriptures show all of us how to respond to the difficulties of life. When Job learned of the devastation that had come to his life, his response was amazing:

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.” – Job 1:20.

Wow. It’s what we did last night. It’s what I need to do today. It’s how God is calling all of us to respond…even when it’s hard.

We’re just putting the finishing touches on this week’s Gathering worship services. I honestly can’t wait for everything God is going to do on campus this week. All day long, we’ve been praying our times of worship would be powerful and that God would use them to encourage and strengthen our hearts.

As I’ve been thinking about that, my mind has been drifting back to Rwanda. There’s one children’s choir that stands out – not because they’re the most polished, on pitch group you’ve ever heard. But because of their simple passion and joy in Christ. I hope the video above captures their spirit. If anything’s lost in translation, it’s only because a tiny video can’t capture the amazing hearts of these kids.

But I do hope watching it fills you with the joy I found is seeing it all over again.

As our SeeSaws Against Slavery event at Georgetown fades into history, it’s time to start looking to the beginning of next month when SeeSaws comes to the University of Maryland. I’m so excited our student leadership team at UMD has gotten on board with the vision of SeeSaws and decided to take on the 24 hour challenge.

To get more information or to sign up, click here to visit SeeSaws’ website.

Some of you at American University may have seen some posters that were hung up earlier today by a student on campus who does not attend The Gathering. Essentially, those posters were designed to make the campus aware that we are a ministry of McLean Bible Church and that our church upholds the Biblical teaching that homosexuality is not God’s plan for our lives.

My guess is some of your friends might have seen the posters as well and might have some question for you about The Gathering. So, I hope the following three thoughts are of some benefit in answering any questions you might be asked.

1. The Bible’s Position on Homosexuality.

The Scriptures teach that all sex outside of marriage is contrary to God’s plan for us. That includes premarital or extramarital sex, pornography and homosexuality. The Bible does speak directly to the question of homosexuality in Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1, Leviticus 18 and many other places. To pretend those passages aren’t clear is not intellectually honest. As a church, our primary responsibility is to teach the Word of God as He wrote it in all areas.

2. The Church’s Response to Homosexuality.

Our prayer is that we can uphold the Bible’s teachings while at the same time treating all people with the gentleness and respect they are entitled to regardless of their sexual orientation. That’s incredibly important to us at The Gathering and MBC because it’s incredibly important to God.

So many times the church in America has gotten this wrong in ways that are nothing short of contemptible. Those who preach hate while claiming to represent Jesus are an embarrassment to us all and do not represent the God of the Bible.

3. Remember What Jesus Said Was The Greatest Commandment

One day Jesus was asked a very simple question. Matthew’s Gospel records both the question and Christ’s answer:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

“This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”- Matthew 22: 36-40

Maybe that’s the most helpful thing we can like out. Love your God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. I’m pretty convinced that as long as we’re doing that, we’re walking in the path of Jesus.

If you want to talk more, shoot me an email or post a comment.

I haven’t been able to receive texts since Friday. And it’s killing me!!

I can’t tell you how many of my friends are annoyed by this; at last count, I think all five of them were pretty upset! I hear it over and over, “Hey, thanks for getting back to me!” But the phone just won’t go for it.

I didn’t realize what a text addict I was until it all went away. Out of curiosity, how many texts would you say you send in an average day?

What an amazing weekend this has been!

I can’t say enough good things about our Gathering Day yesterday. Kate McNeil and her team did a great job pulling the whole day together. I loved looking out over the fields and seeing students from all over DC hanging out, playing football and just enjoying the rolling hills of Virginia. I loved being able to spend time with everyone outside of a service and definitely thought the bonfire was sick! If you were at Gathering day, you know what I’m talking about. If not, no worries, we’ll catch you next year!

It’s cool to know that even as I sit here writing from Tyson’s, the Georgetown students are kicking off 24 hours of See Saws on that campus. I love their heart to make a difference in the fight against child prostitution. It’s the perfect lead in to our service there tomorrow night. It’s all really worship – seesaws and songs are going to merge together to form an amazing 24 hour marathon of worship on that campus!

I can’t wait to see what this week holds for all of us.

It’s been a couple of months now since SeeSaws Against Slavery came to a campus in DC but Georgetown is going to break that streak starting this Sunday at 6PM. Red Square is going to be home to 24 hours of outreach, awareness and making a difference in the lives of some little girls desperate for hope. We have no doubt God is going to use this time to rally Georgetown to fight evil with good. Our prayer is that God will use all of it to point students to the cross of Jesus in a world that can be so desperately broken at times.

At the end of the day, we’re going to be doing a Gathering worship service on campus. We’ll be getting that started at 9PM on Monday in McShane Formal Lounge.

If you would, take some time today to pray for Georgetown and what God is going to do there at the beginning of the week.

I just got home after spending the evening at our location for Gathering Day tomorrow. I’m not kidding when I tell you the place is absolutely amazing. I’ve been there many times and every time I go, I’m amazing at how beautiful the place is. You’re going to love the views, love breaking away from the city/suburbia feel and love connecting with other people.

If you’ve already bought a ticket, I can’t wait to see you there. If you haven’t yet, but want in…just click here.

Just a short post as a follow-up to this morning’s thoughts on “micro vacations.”

Last night was such a good one at AU. I had a great time connecting with the students, worshiping in the Kay Center, celebrating communion and studying the life of Joseph in our current series. It all just felt really good and I loved every minute of it.

But I was pretty tired by the time I made it home. There was a lot inside of me that just wanted to crash as soon as I got through the door. Instead, I went and sat out on the deck for about 10 – 15 minutes. It was absolutely beautiful – a great night, bright moon and just totally quiet outside. It was such a good space to think through everything that had happened during the day and to reflect on God’s faithfulness.

It was like a micro vacation! Little times like this are hugely helpful in our relationship with Christ. We all need to find little windows of time during the day where we can break away from it all. It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate – just a few minutes to catch your breath and let God put it all into perspective.

So, I hope you get a little vacation today…even if it’s just for a few minutes.