three years ago tonight

jacob's well 1.0 was born in the gym at chbc. i have been thinking about all of the work that went in to that night. thomas and michael risking life and limb to cover the windows and then going out to poison the well for us. john working furiously to get it all wired up. jana and amanda and co. raiding the church for just the right tables, lamps, etc. a sense of anticipation, curiousity, hope, and fear as people came through the doors and we began. i remember that night being good.
we have come a long way. or in some cases, have gone a long way. what exists today as jacob's well is vastly different in some ways than what was on the mind of those of us who had a hand in those first days. in some ways the only difference is the faces that are a part of it. three years ago we wanted to discover what a church could look like if it took seriously things like the Bible and community and being organic. we're still chasing that. i think we're closer. i think we also were trying hard to become something rather than simply being. does that make any sense?

these days we seem to be more about being and letting God move us to the becoming.

sunday night a very different group of faces will stop and think about people they have never met and places they have never seen. we will thank God for the road he has brought us down and for the journey ahead. but mostly we will do what we have done - we'll talk, laugh, pray, think, discuss, sing, create, be together. that's what jacob's well has become. it feels good. right. home.

thank you God for john and sharon and b and lisa and jana and haley and thomas and michael and jaci and amanda and rebecca and kandie and ashley and krisha and kristen and all of the others from the first days. thanks for a dream that is still being dreamed. thanks for daniel 4:11-12. thanks for all of the friends we have and for those we have not yet met.

what more can i say.

thanks.

j