Soccer and "Doing Life"

So a number of guys have from Joy have joined a soccer league hosted by CCV, one of the mega-churches in the Valley. We have played a couple of games so far, tying the first and losing the second. While many of the players are from Joy some are from CCV and others are just a part of the league for fun and were assigned to our team. Greg, one of the guys from Joy, has been blogging on the season at his site here. If you are really that interested in our progress you can follow along.

Playing on this team has been a blast so far and has given me a chance to hang out with some people from church outside of the traditional church setting. At times in the past that has been a real challenge for me and has put some social pressure on my usually introverted self but I have really felt called to be about "doing life" with people at Joy and not falling in to the trap of "doing church" instead. Two Sundays ago the teaching at church was about the people who come to church are the church. Not because we occupy a space called a church on a weekend but because the Spirit in me recognizes the Spirit in the others around me that gather for the purpose of being the church as opposed to "doing church." I feel like this is going to be a bit of a hard sell for some of the older folks at Joy and has already been a challenge that I have to actively overcome in my life.

On a completely random note, I have really been getting in to Dallas Willard lately. Particularly Divine Conspiracy and Hearing God which I am reading at the moment. If you have never read any of his work or haven't heard much on Kingdom Theology, I highly recommend his work to challenge you to grow up in your faith and understanding of Christianity.