Year to Date Review

Well, it has been a while since I have been on here and posting to the blog. I had this great plan of blogging my way through lent and then here we are in October. A lot has happened in my life and ministry in last several months.

Lenten fasting was quite successful for me in that I was able to complete my journey on the Daniel fast with only one or two times where I probably did not live up to the eating expectations as I should have. But in the end I found it to be healthy in both spirituality and physical health. I lost a decent amount of weight and felt really good overall. I had energy and felt full without feeling like I had overdone it, even when eating a decent amount of food. I also spent a lot of time centering on God in that period, every time in which I got the craving for fast food or coffee, I turned God and centered myself.

During Lent and following, I finished my capstone project at Lexington Theological Seminary which led to my finishing up my Master of Divinity. I was able to graduate and celebrate in June. I traveled with both of my parents to Kentucky and then to New York where I got to see my friend Dave. After a brief stopover in NYC, my parents and I boarded a boat for 7 days on a cruise. It was nice to be able to find an affordable vacation because once we got started on our journey through graduations and such, I came to realize how much I had been carrying with me, the amount of tension that lived in my body that evaporated after a period of rest. It was a joy to be with family for that time and to be disconnected for a few days.

Upon returning to Missoula, I got right back to it as July was filled with camps and General Assembly. I was excited to once again be the site director for camps at Cane Ridge West. We had two wonderful weeks of camp with amazing campers and staff, it was a spirit filled time for everyone. This year our region built our own program for church camps, which was a fun experience but we came to realize the amount of work needed and the lack of time our volunteers have to truly put together a larger program. So, going forward we are returning to our previous program materials and assessing how we will continue to expand faith formation for all ages in the region.

Between our two summer camps at CRW was the gathering of the General Assemby of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Memphis Tennessee. It was a fantastic gathering of Disciples from across the US and Canada as we continue on the journey of discerning how we be church in the world today. One of the exciting things that took place was that we voted on changes to The Design, the governing document of the denomination, that will allow for us to be more connected than ever before. I believe that the work we do as a church can make such an impact on the world and our taking time to work on our approach to being in ministry together is good for what God has in store for us. I look forward to where we are going as a larger church.

And now that Fall is upon us, my attention has been on preparing for our 140th anniversary of FCC Missoula and taking on further studies in a Master of Sacred Theology program at Chicago Theological Semicanry. It is hard to believe that FCC Missoula has been around for 140 years in Missoula, but it is so exciting to be the 37th minister of this congregation at a time of celebration such as this. As we approach this time in our ministry together, I am also encouraging people to think about where we are called to go from here because God continues to call us into the world to share the Good News, and each generation receives a call to continue the ministry of the Church and seek liberation for the world into a place of love, compassion, and mercy.

There is much ahead, and I will attempt to keep up on this blog, that will probably turn into more theological reflections and such, not just life updates, but here we are, lets see where we go!

Until next time.

-Mat