Mark Moore's Blog

Relaxation of Vacation

I just returned from a great vacation with my family. It was a very relaxing trip, although we were on the go quite a bit. I think what made it so relaxing was that I was "unplugged". I was not online -- no internet, no email, no cell phone or text messaging with the outside world -- just me and my family. It is amazing how the world continues on without you. The same terrible stories are on the news when you get home; the same problems exist; the same work awaits you as always; the same King still reigns. I think often times we don't "unplug" out of fear that something will happen without our knowing (thinking in the back of the mind that it is necessary for us to know what happens as if we have an impact on the world greater than the reality of our finiteness).

On my trip I read a couple of good books. Having just read The Kite Runner, I was eager to read Khaled Hosseini's second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. It proved in its own way to be just as good as his previous book, this time telling the amazing story of the lives of two women in Afghanistan over several decades. Like The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns left me with much to think about regarding the condition of the world and the suffering of people in places that most of us give no thought to whatsoever. I highly recommend it!

The other book I read was an interesting story, a true story, about a group of men crossing the Pacific Ocean on a balsa raft. Thor Heyerdahl tells the amazing story of his journey on the open seas in his book Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft. This book was given to me by a good friend who said, "This will serve as good beach reading." That it was. I read the book on a couple of trips to the beach and needless to say I was glad that the Pacific Ocean merely served as the backdrop to my kids building sandcastles rather than my being on it in a tiny raft for months on end. If you are interested in men with wild theories who set out to prove the impossible by doing the stupid, you will enjoy Heyerdahl's account.

There's no mistaking now that I'm back home as it is nearly one hundred degrees outside and I'm once again plugged in to a world of problems and a number of people and things demanding my attention. One thing that doesn't change, whether at home or on vacation, is the same King still reigns.

Technorati Tags: A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, Kon-Tiki, The Kite Runner, Thor Heyerdahl

The Past Six Months

So, what have I been doing for the past six months?

As many of you know, we were planning to move to England this year in order to work with The Crowded House in Sheffield. A lot has transpired since the last time I posted on this blog (October 17, 2007) and I'll try and catch you up to speed.

First, we are not moving to England. We made the decision after spending a couple of weeks in Sheffield with Steve Timmis last October. There are many factors in our not moving, but the bottom line is that it was not the Lord's will at this time. The decision to not move was not as simple as simply saying, "Alright, we're not moving so life just resumes as normal." The whole process caused us to think quite a bit about what we were doing, specifically what I was doing. The one thing that I was convinced of was that at that time I was completely overextended. I was full-time pastor, full-time coach, full-time European church planter guy, and these were just my professional roles. Part of the decision to move to the UK in the first place was that I could not continue doing things the way I was doing them. There were too many balls in the air and I was having to juggle faster and faster. Something had to give. The decision not to move meant that I needed to set some of the balls down. Based on our staying I resigned my role as Acts 29 Europe guy, resigned from the international board, resigned from the national board, took a break from all of my coaching commitments, and resigned from another board I was serving on at the time as well. It was like taking a big deep breath after you've come up from holding your breath under water for several minutes. After you come up, you kind of have to sit there for a minute and breathe in-and-out while you gather your strength.

Second, we determined that in staying I needed to focus all of my energy into our church. After a year and a half of me traveling around quite a bit, our church really needed my attention. It is funny how we say things like, "This church isn't about me, it's about Jesus," and "If I drop dead tomorrow this thing will just keep running like it always has." When, in reality, we also know that everything rises and falls on leadership. There is a fine balance and as leaders we need to be wise as we walk the wire. As an entrepreneur I had built a rocket, move it to the launch pad, pressed the button, watched it shoot through the clouds, and then walked away to build new rockets while assuming that there was a ground control and a pilot. What a dumb idea that was. From November of last year, my energy has been wrapped up in leading the vision of Providence Community, the church that I love.

Third, as a church we have been making some major structural adjustments. This has included the way we do things in our church and the way we do things outside of our church (broader kingdom-oriented ministry and partnerships). This has meant evaluating what it means for us to be missional in a, geographically speaking, very spread out city. What does church planting that is streamlined, missional, and incarnational look like in this metroplex? Furthermore, how do we connect and partner with others that are doing and thinking the same things we are doing and thinking? This has taken a ton of time and energy; time and energy that I did not have when I was earning frequent flyer miles and elite status on American Airlines.

Fourth, the elders of our church decided that it was time for us to make some changes to our primary church planting partnership. From the beginning of our church, we have been associated with the Acts 29 Network. This network is one of the finest church planting networks in the world. I have the greatest respect for the leaders and members of Acts 29, but we felt that as a church it was time for us to move in a new direction. My relationship to Steve Timmis and The Crowded House has continued to develop and we felt that it was a good time for us (Providence Community and The Crowded House) to try something new. Therefore, we have entered into a formal partnership with The Crowded House for the purpose of planting churches. The Crowded House is not just the name of a church in Sheffield, but The Crowded House is a group of church planting networks with a commitment to missional communities and household church. This partnership is defined by our shared values, which I will post on later. Currently this includes a few networks in the UK, ours in the US, and one that is emerging in Australia. We are very excited about what the future holds for us as a network committed to the mission of the gospel.

Finally, I decided to start taking better care of myself--health wise that is. In February I began an extreme workout program called P90X (yeah, you may have seen the infomercial). It is unbelievable! I have not been in this good of shape since I was in the Marine Corps and that was ten years ago. Furthermore, I have never eaten as healthy as I am eating right now--whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, and gallons and gallons of water.

Basically that's it. My life for the past six months.

Technorati Tags: the crowded house

...and then...six months later...

Well, it is exactly six months since my last blog post.

Why?

Well there are a lot of reasons why. Stay tuned for details...

Lessons From Busyness

I admit, I have not been very attentive to my blog lately. Here is a quick rundown of our life over the past month.

We put our house up for sale in a terrible market. Our hope was that it would sell at some point over the next year before we move to England in July '08. Little did we know that our house would sell in three weeks. We had to be out of our house by October 19th and we leave for England on October 22nd. This meant finding a rent house that would give us a nine month lease and not hold us responsible for the three months short of a year. In the midst of all this, we had three different church planters come and stay with us for close to two weeks. By God's grace, we found a house three streets over from where we've been living and were able to secure a nine month lease putting us on target to move around July 15th of next year.

So in the past month we have sold our house, hosted three church planters, found a new place to live, moved all of our stuff into our new house, switched over all our utilities, I've continued to preach, my wife continues to have patience, our kids are still happy, and Lord willing we'll be in England by 8am on Monday (that's 2am in Dallas).

Now, here's a thought...

Stuff like this makes us recognize how little we are actually capable of doing because of our finiteness. Getting my new phone service established was a nightmare, and I only moved three blocks. In talking with the phone company, my words repeatedly failed to exercise any power in getting my service established at the speed I wanted it.

In contrast the author of Hebrews tells us about Jesus...

"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power." -- Hebrews 1:3a

It is nice to know that I'm not in control.

Technorati Tags: grace

Short Emails

It's been a while since my last post. I have a lot of stuff I'd love to blog about, but I have to keep my priorities straight. I'm a son who needs to spend time with his Father. I'm a husband who needs to spend time with his wife. I'm a father who needs to spend time with his kids. I'm a pastor who needs to spend time with his church. I'm a church planter who needs to spend time with church planters. Etc. Etc. Etc.

The really crazy thing is that I'm all of these at once. I never stop being a husband or a pastor. This means that I have to really pay attention to how I spend my time and not be wasteful.

If you are like most other people, email is both the greatest blessing and the worst curse. I spend a lot of time sending, receiving, and replying. Today, on Pastor Hacks, I came across an excellent bit of advice to help control the time spent emailing. I'm going to give it a try for a while and see how it goes. The advice is simple. Treat email like a text message, SMS, and limit the amount that can be said. In a SMS message you can type 160 characters. The advice given for emails is to type only five sentences. At the bottom of your email, in the signature line, you have something that explains the brevity of your email so that it does not seem offensive. I'm sure that people who receive only one or two emails a day and spend the rest of their time forwarding silly things that have been forwarded to five thousand others before them will not have any use for such advice. But, for those of you who suffer alongside of me, I hope this tip helps.

Technorati Tags: productivity

Schaefferian Wisdom

"It is thrilling to know that the Lord really knows who is loving Him and truly serving Him and delighting himself or herself in Him, and that some of the shiniest rewards and gorgeous surprises are ahead. That day will come when people who think they have never been seen--in dingy sordid little "holes" of history, whether in prison or caves, in wars or in unemployment, in factories or on farms--will discover that their serving was recognized all the time, by the One who matters. So often human beings have false measuring sticks or warped scales."

--Edith Schaeffer, The Tapestry

Technorati Tags: edith schaeffer

Update on Linda

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for my mother-in-law, Linda. This weekend we received excellent news as the results from her various blood tests, bone scans, kidney biopsy, and stomach biopsy all came back without any evidence of myeloma or any other forms of cancer. After being sick since July 16th, she has made a dramatic turnaround in the past few days and will most likely be released from the hospital tomorrow. It looks like she will have to make some lifestyle adjustments due to weak kidneys, but we are rejoicing that she does not have myeloma, which had become our biggest fear.

It is amazing how much we live with ignorance to certain diseases and forms of cancer until they hit close to home. Although my mother-in-law appears to have received a clean bill of health, there are still countless others who do not receive the same good news that we have. Please take some time this evening to thank God for the blessing of health in your life and the lives of the ones you love.

Some of you may be on the other end of the spectrum, praying and agonizing over the suffering of a loved one, or fighting your own battle with a terminal illness; my heart breaks for you in a new way. I pray that you will be overwhelmed by the incomprehensible grace of Jesus and find in Him a promise of restoration that is never broken.

Desiring God Book Sale

Desiring God has announced that next Wednesday and Thursday, June 27-28, every book in their online store will be $5. It is for those two days only and, even better, there are no limits. In other words, you can buy as many books as you want for only $5 each. What a great deal!

Technorati Tags: books, john piper, desiring god

A Good Laugh!

My friend Jason Reid in Canterbury, England sent me this. I think it is great!

Technorati Tags: emerging church

Vacation

I just returned from a great week of vacation in California. I can't say that it was a relaxing, sit by the pool and do nothing kind of week, but it was a great week! The picture above is of me and my wife along with some of our closest friends, Drue and Sandi, at a restaurant one evening. Drue leads the music in our church and is a great brother to me. He and Sandi spent the week with my family in Newport Beach.

A lot has been happening lately and I look forward to blogging about much of it soon. Until next time...