2015 joins the previous couple years as part of our crazy years of transition. We have taken an epic wilderness journey into becoming a gathering of house (and pub) churches. This year (perhaps) has been even more of a wandering than any previous year of our existence. Then again, having mapped territory no one before us had ever mapped in our work in the city of Salem, maybe it was just another crazy year, but we keep following the Shepherd who leads us on.
2015 started off with a
surprise. At the end of January, I (Pastor Phil) ended up with a sudden attack
of back pains, which could have been measured on the Richter Scale. By
February, this turned into an extended hospital stay and the discovery that the
pains had nothing to do with pulled muscles or slipped discs. Rather, a strep
infection was found in my blood stream, and pockets of that infection had
settled inside my spinal column, and scarier yet, inside my heart. I was
effectively down and out from late January until May, and although I was home for
much of that time, I was connected to antibiotic drip systems six hours a day,
which looked like a medical version of the “Holy Hand-Grenade of Antioch.” And,
fortunately, like the Holy Hand-Grenade of Antioch it worked and wiped out the
infection.
The church, and our local
friends were wonderful during this time. They brought me food, lots of
probiotics, and reminders of love. Boxes of nerds arrived from our geek
friends, balloons from bartenders, and meals that made a hospital visit seem
less of a drudgery. One of our home-groups even held a service in the hospital
room one Saturday morning. I did not feel as badly, as my critical condition,
and so I became a bit squirrely, and wandered the hallways playing my guitar
and singing to people. This turned out to be enough of a hit, that some of the
night crew cheered when I returned for a second visit, and then apologized for
being excited to see me back in the hospital again.
Somewhere in this time, our
now weekly home and pub groups gathered together for a grand meeting of eating
and sharing and I was hooked to my Holy Hand Grenade, and they made it all
happen, while I sat like a happy papa and looked on.
The Holy Hand Grenade worked
just in the nick of time, and while the church had been meeting and doing its
weekly activities without me, there had also been a UK Festival Outreach, which
had been in the planning for 6 months. Two days before I was to fly to the UK,
and meet Dennis there, I received the doctor’s clearance. So, off I flew to
Wales with oral antibiotics in hand. There we built an art project at BurningNest; we worked the doors and debates at a philosophy festival; and we
ministered to the 23,000 hippies, hipsters and all around seekers at Stonehenge
during the Summer Solstice.
Of course, as October rolled
around, we were back on the streets of Salem during our one million visitor
month with live music every weekend, and hundreds of friends from around the
country joining us for ministry. We bought pizza for some of the homeless youth
and elders who like to hang around our stage, we interpreted dreams, we shared
the love of our Lord Jesus with locals and visitors alike, and we simply created a
presence of acceptance and love during a weird and wild holiday season in our
unique city.
Between the time in the
hospital and the frenetic pace of Festival outreach from Summer through Fall,
this year has seemed like a blur, and does even now as I look back in the
rearview mirror.
The hospital stay and
prolonged downtime was perhaps a forced sabbatical of sorts. I was able to
complete a book I had been working on for a few years, and Burning Religion
is now self-published and online at Amazon.com.
Despite all this, we bought ice cream for the kids at the park on the Point in Salem during the summer, and we
joined the World’s Largest Eye Contact Experiment in October.
Please keep us in your
prayers. Getting back into a regular pattern of spiritual life as a body of
people has not been easy, but we continue our ride into Bethlehem and
appreciate every person who remembers our labors.
If you would like to help support the mission of the The Gathering, which has moved from a local expression of innovative mission, to something beyond the boundaries of our own country, you can do so at our website --> salemgathering.org. May your Christmas, your Solstiee, your Hannukah, and your New Year be blessed.
If you would like to help support the mission of the The Gathering, which has moved from a local expression of innovative mission, to something beyond the boundaries of our own country, you can do so at our website --> salemgathering.org. May your Christmas, your Solstiee, your Hannukah, and your New Year be blessed.
