Day 80- What a Day!

Left to Right: Joel Osteen, yours truly, Sanetta Ponton, and Ben Richards

Total Mileage: 9,486

Song of the Day:
"Estimated Prophet"
(Grateful Dead)


In the past 24 hours, I've worshiped at . . .

Lakewood-- the country's largest megachurch, where the music was great, the welcome was extraordinary, and the message was --truth be told-- kind of mortifying.

Lord of the Streets-- an entirely homeless, high-liturgy Episcopal church where I witnessed one of the most moving Scripture readings ever and had to hop a six-foot fence to get out after the service.

Gethsemane/St. Luke-- a United Methodist church that is making the transition into being a missional multi-ethnic satellite campus of another UMC congregation.  I also heard a phenomenal and practical sermon preached here on . . . the Beast of Revelation?  My friend Sanetta Ponton did an amazing job with the sermon, but as an act of courtesy to her, I agreed not to take notes or analyze the church where she and my friend Ben Richards are both interning.  Still one of the best sermons of the summer, especially given what she was able to do with such a seemingly arcane text.

Ecclesia-- a predominantly 20/30-something, arts-focused, hipstery, emerging church that meets in a Christian art gallery and coffee shop.  The preaching artist delivered one of the most incredible multimedia sermons I've ever witnessed and unintentionally presented the perfect rebuttal to the first service of the weekend in a moment of beautiful serendipity-- closest I've come to crying in a church service this summer.

It was an amazing 24 hours, and now I have a lot of writing ahead of me!

Peace and Blessings,
Tom