What a long day… or shall I say a long weekend. On Saturday, Christina and I had to leave early from the revival meeting because my family needed to get back to Ann Arbor. I ended up sticking around in Chicago for Sunday’s celebration at HMCC of Chicago.
Pastor Paul’s message on “The Gospel for the Shamed” really spoke to me as I was reminded that true freedom from shame comes when we know that we are love even when God knows the worst of us. This frees us from hiding in shame and even living in secrecy.
Then on Saturday morning, I spoke to the leaders at their leaders’ meeting. I addressed the whole issue about the 360 leadership and just learning how to lead from the middle.
This morning I was able to speak on the theme for this coming year to the church in Chicago. I was encouraged to see some new faces and I was also able to spend some time with members that I knew from last year.
Then in the late afternoon I spend time with some pastors. It is always a blessing to connect heart to heart with people who are going through the same challenges as a pastor. After the meeting we quickly rushed over to UIC at one of our member’s apartment. We shared a meal together and then we decided to go out to the UIC campus and do a prayer walk. It was refreshing for me because there were some people who never have been on a prayer walk. Explaining things to them and just leading by example was an awesome reminder of the importance of life-on-life discipleship.
Afterwards, couple of the brothers and I went to a café to just chill and hang out together. I don’t think I will ever get sick and tired of meeting up with people and just sharing about church and life. It is in these conversations that life is experienced and principles are learned.