Category: tapestry

if you are connected with me on facebook you may have seen the above video already. it is from the tapestry super bowl gathering at our home last night. the gathering was a great deal of fun. in fact, it always is a great deal of fun. this is the 4th year that we have had a super bowl gathering at our house.

the thing i found interesting last night is how few people actually watched the game. seriously there were probably only 8-10 people who really cared about the game. even those 8-10 were still mainly talking with the people around them. i have two theories on why this was so:

1. the threads of tapestry have moved to a point where we enjoy being together more than anything else. therefore the game was just another excuse for us to hang out versus something that we passionately cared about. i like this theory a lot and i believe there is a great deal of truth to it. we do love being together and inviting new people to be with us. i think you see it in everything we do.
2. nobody cared about these two teams because most of the way through the year we were convince that the packers would be in the super bowl. i think there is a great deal of truth to this theory too. the packers dominated most of the year and then collapsed in the playoffs. it seemed inevitable that they would be in the super bowl again. sadly it wasn’t inevitable.  last year’s super bowl gathering was the most fun i have ever had watching an nfl game. we still talked a ton last year but most everyone also had an eye on the game while talking.

anyhow it was a blast last night.

tapestry and i seem to be getting involved in more weddings from within our group each year. here’s a year by year on the wedding officiating that i have been doing:

i’ve told pam that my personal goal is to do an extra wedding each year and i’m hoping for a 3rd wedding for 2011 and it looks like it will probably happen. i am pretty excited about this because i think it is a really good sign that things are going well in our group. i think it speaks of how we value strong relationships and community. it also reflects that as a group we are drawing younger people, one of the groups that aren’t typically becoming involved in a church.

the picture above is of the group of threads that drove to milwaukee (2 1/2 hours away) to be a part of joe & kaylin’s wedding. when someone (or two in joe & kaylin’s case) from our group joins with another we want to celebrate what GOD is doing in them. we want to celebrate it because we believe strong, healthy relationships reflect the nature of GOD.

SIDE NOTE – we had our first baby dedication this year so i guess i need to set up a new goal of an extra baby dedication each year 🙂

SIDE SIDE NOTE – the above photo is from adam h, one of the wedding photographers in our midst. you really should check out his website. he is awesome.

tapestry is a different kind of church in many ways. one of those ways is that because of the young nature of most of the people who are a part of tapestry our two lowest attendance worship gatherings during any year are typically easter and CHRISTmas. this is the exact opposite of most other churches. some churches joke that they have C&E members (people who just show up on CHRISTmas & easter). we don’t make that joke because we don’t have any people like that. instead, since most of the people in tapestry are around 21-26 years old they usually are the ones traveling to visit family members on these holidays. CHRISTmas and easter are still a very big deal for us, we just spend most of our time on the preparation for these holidays. it is why we spend so much time focusing on lent and doing advent conspiracy for advent. we just don’t count on large attendance on the actual holidays. for example, we had around 60 people at last year’s tenebrae gathering (the maunday thursday before easter) and about 25 for easter sunday. it makes for the need for creative thinking when it comes to these two times of the year.

tonight i figured the group would be pretty small and that would give us an opportunity to spend time in a home instead of washginton elementary school (where we normally meet on sunday nights). the photo above is most of the group tonight. small, intimate, and loving.

a short video to show what the LORD’s supper is usually like at tapestry.

just in case you don’t realize this, i get to lead the coolest church on the face of the planet. i don’t mean that we are cool in the “hey look at us we’re cool cause we wear v-neck t shirts and scarves” sort of way. nope what i mean is that the threads of tapestry are simply amazing people. the two photos above are one more example of how amazing the people of tapestry are.

a few weeks ago pete (one of the members of the leadership team) thought we should do a gift exchange. he asked me what i thought. i am usually not a big fan of gift exchanges because i think they usually lead to a bunch of meaningless crap. pete’s idea was different and i really liked it. his idea was that in the spirit of advent conspiracy the gifts should cost basically nothing. whoever signed up for the gift exchange would be given a name and their goal would be to find out as much as possible about that person and then find or make a gift for next to no expense that would connect to that person. like i said before i am not usually a fan of gift exchanges but i definitely am a fan of us giving of ourselves and that’s exactly what pete’s idea sounded like to me.

tonight most of the gifts were exchanged. i was amazed at the creativity, caring, and research that went into the gifts. kate gave pam a journal that details the rules of our family car game (pam explains the car game here). what a great gift. the photos above are of the gift that kayleigh gave me. it is a journal that she made. yeah that’s right SHE MADE THE ABOVE JOURNAL. the outside cover is from a t-shirt from a service project that we worked on together and the inside has micah 6:8 on it (a verse of scripture that i love and one that she remembered me using in a sermon a few weeks ago). i love to journal and what better journal than one made by a thread?

i saw other amazing gifts that spoke of presence, time, creativity, and love. from bacon roses (mhmm … bacon) to spice rubs to afghans to mix-cd’s to scarves. all amazing gifts that cost lots of time and energy but very little money.

i don’t mean to brag but i get to lead the most amazing church around.

all righty guys and girls it is that time of year again. it is time for use to start thinking advent conspiratorially. i can’t wait to see what happens this year.