I was in the last meeting of a trip to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver from January 30-February 3, 2010. It had been a good time – kicked off with a Phil Keaggy/Randy Stonehill concert in Edmonton (that Phil still one astonishing guitarist, and Randy about the same as when I presented him in Grande Prairie AB 25 years ago) – then 29 meetings in four days – but I was still feeling good. 12 hours later, after the red-eye flight from Vancouver to London, I wasn’t quite so positive.
But at that supper on the 3rd with Mike Sherbino of The Way Community Church in Richmond, I was still pretty energized, so when he asked me what I’d been doing, I tried to summarize. Pretty soon I was counting on my fingers – not the number of meetings or all the elements of the huge breakfast Geoff Chapman of U-Chapel Vancouver had treated me to that morning. I got listing all the possible new things, churches and incarnational communities and such, that I had met about in the previous few days. I had to use some toes as well, because I’d had a dozen of those conversations.
There are all kinds of interesting possibilities in just those three cities. I didn’t meet with everyone who has things in mind – and I’m not counting the usual goading I do to some of my friends about the next thing their fellowship might do (Ted McKellar and Capilano Christian Assembly guys in Edmonton heard some of that from me on the Monday of my trip).
Of course nothing much may come from some of those 12 conversations. But some interesting, Spirit-led new things will be born and grow, and become bright little kingdom beacons in this world.
What a fun job I have.