I’m live-blogging my day in an attempt to answer the “What do you really do?” question.  The most recent updates will be at the top.

[9:51] Home!  Enjoyed my dinner (tasty carne asada burrito) and time with the community group.  This group has some complex decisions to make about their participation in the church plant.  As much as I don’t envy their decisions, it was really cool to hear them talking together about their community life together.

So that’s it.  That’s what I really do all day.  Of course, this was an extra-long day but it did cover many of my regular activities.

As a final aside, I missed the USA VS Mexico soccer game tonight so it was good to see the winning streak over Mexico kept alive.

[5:50] A bit more sermon work, emails and prep for tonight’s meetings.  Maggie is picking me up in a few minutes and I’ll drop her off at home.  Then it’s off to La Pasadita for a quick dinner with a leader from church.  At 7:30 I’m joining one of the south side community groups to talk some about the church plant and field some questions.

So far a productive day, though I didn’t get to my Out of Ur article which is already a week late.  Hopefully tomorrow.

[4:24] Reading through the Mark passage and relevant portion of the NICNT reveals a whole lot.  It’s tricky to know which direction to go with a passage when I’m preaching somewhere other than New Com.  This is where serious dependence on the Holy Spirit comes in.  Also had a good meeting with a person from church who is interested in leading a community group.  As pastor of said community groups, this makes me quite happy.

[2:09] Read through some of the latest Leadership Journal over lunch.  Now I’m reviewing Mark 5:21-43 for this Sunday’s sermon at Bridgeway Community Church in Carol Stream.  I’ve been impressed with this church for a while- they’re strategically located to serve their low-income neighborhood- so it’s a privilege to get to worship with them on Sunday.

[1:08] Michael and I spent 45 minutes talking and brainstorming about church plant stuff.  We also caught up about some partnerships in our neighborhood our church will be involved with.  I’ve spent the past hour on some text and visuals to help explain the steps involved in the church plant…nothing I can share here at this point, but I hope it will be helpful to those wondering about participating in the Bronzeville church.  Time to go find some lunch.

[9:53] Had planned on working from New Wave, the new coffee shop in Logan Square, but the rain has deterred me.  Instead, I just went downstairs to Bulldog Bakery for some coffee and a super tasty blueberry croissant.

A bunch of email has been knocked out in the past hour and I’m spending some time on the Bronzeville church plant now.  Yesterday I visited the Bronzeville YMCA with a guy from New Com and drove around the neighborhood a bit.  It’s exciting to imagine what the next few months may hold for us in this south side neighborhood.

[7:13] There were six of us for the prayer time.  We read Psalm 147 (last Sunday’s Psalm according to the Revised Common Lectionary) three times: before a time of silent prayer, before prayers of praise and thanksgiving, and before our requests.  Everyone has left to catch their bus to work or school and I need to decide what comes next: sermon prep, chuch plant stuff, or cleaning up the desk and emails.

[5:10] I’m opening up the office for the Wednesday morning prayer time since the person who normally does is under the weather.  According to CTA’s Bus Tracker (oh how I love you bus tracker), my bus is 15 minutes away.