SoCal

There’s a lot to say about my recent trip to California.   I went to do a wedding for two friends, Jake and T’Nique.  And then National Discipleship Forum and The Exponential Conference.  The wedding was in Goleta, CA, right outside Santa Barbara.

Jake was a kid who started coming to the Rock (the church I was at in Lexington) because his bandmates/roommates lived around the corner.  Jake and our whole family hit it off.  It just clicked.  Anyway, Jake is a great drummer and he moved out to play in LA, and pays the rent with his rock.  He met T’NIque out there.  I got to meet her two years ago, at a burger joint in North Hollywood.  I was so  happy to get to hang out with them.  When they asked me to do their wedding… of course!

I had a bit of downtime Friday and Saturday to look around.  The thing about the Southern California coast is that it is perfect.  4,000-ft mountains almost on the shore.  I often meditate on why we take things for granted.  I have tried very hard not to take anything in Morehead for granted, especially not the beautiful scenery—hills, forest, streams.  But it’s so easy to take things for granted.  I remember thinking, “if I l lived in Goleta (or anywhere on the coast) I would be on the beach all the time” Probably not true.  Definitely not true.  But when you are a visitor and in awe, you wonder why everyone is going about  their business, not paying attention to the mountains and the ocean…

So I spent the early mornings on the pier, praying and reading Scripture.  I drove up into the mountains.  In less than half an hour, I was about 3000 feet up, looking back at the Pacific, coming across microclimates where thick stands of trees filled the air with some fragrance that I can’t identify (some kind of bay?) that is a smell I remember that always said we were close to my great-aunt’s house. {she is kind of a vegetarian but loves me so much she was the first person to introduce me to chili dogs…)  I stumbled across some Chumash tribe cave paintings.

The wedding was awesome.  Rehearsal, too.  Meeting the bride and groom’s friends and family.  Jake’s sister and brother in law are heavily involved in small groups at a church plant in Indiana.  His parents—so good to meet them after so many years of knowing him and hearing about them.  T’Nique’s dad is a Raiders fan, and I am too, from before I was born (long story).  One of John and Joe’s teachers from Lexington was there! She lives in LA now, too.  Three people from the Rock moved to LA to follow their dreams.

Jake and T’Nique wanted me to share a word from the Bible.  So cool because there were people from all kinds of backgrounds.  So I got to share the Gospel (tears in my eyes as I write this because I can’t believe that God even lets me preach) and people came up to me after and thanked me, and I was fielding spiritual questions at the bar.

Then it was on to Orange County to get ready for the Discipleship Forum and Exponential conference.  Sunday, I hit Mariners Church for service.  Blown away.  Then I went to catch a late lunch with my cousin Joey.  I took the Coast highway from Long Beach to Laguna Beach, and headed to Costa Mesa where my hotel was. The Pacific Coast Highway is always a highlight of my trips to Cali.  Then I picked up Mike Adams and he had to have In N Out immediately or he was going to die.

The Conference was pretty good.  The best speakers are the ones who don’t boast about their church but just drop Gospel truth.  It always takes me a few weeks to figure out what happens at Exponential.  So much material, encouragement, information. You can’t imagine how inspiring it is to be around 2500 people who think the whole world is going to be baptized tomorrow.  I spent most of the breakouts sessions writing and processing and talking to people I don’t see much.

Last day, Mike and I headed to Newport beach at 6 to catch sunrise.  We thought maybe we’d be there in solitude.  Nope.  Surfers were already in the water.  I thought, alright! These dudes are living it up, getting in some surfing before the day starts.  So cool that 8 dolphins were swimming just outside the breakers.  Mike and I had some huge prayer and some huge Holy Spirit action as the sun came up.  A lot of it for me was reflecting on the surfers.  We will get up for what we love.  These dudes are up to surf.  Early morning is a huge free time for almost everyone.  But will we get up for the Word or Life Transformation Group?

I get why people surf.  Or maybe I should say what I love about the coast is the relentless pounding of the surf.  In all the Germanic languages, the word for “time” is the word for “tide.”  I think it is a recognition that it does not stop, it keeps rolling.  There is an elemental force, something mysterious, at work in the tide.  And the wide expanse of the ocean at once inspires us to wonder how do I get on it? where would I end up? and also draws us into a sense that things could be very different than they are.  I remember a huge, mystical moment of God-consciousness that happened to me at Big Sur.  I was sitting on the beach watching the sunset.  The sun appeared to be resting on the water, casting a cone of light onto the black-green water, and I just wanted to walk on to it.  I don’t know how I knew but I knew it was God calling to me.

The funny thing is, there on Newport beach, in the midst of the perfect California morning, all Mike and I were really digging into with God was the discipleship movement in Eastern Kentucky.  We are such freaks—a huge conference for planting churches where every Macklemore haircut hipster thinks he is planting the next mega church—and we’re just trying to start churches in towns that everyone has forgotten about, trusting that if we can give our lives to it, we can see a hundred or more churches that would have more believers than any single church we could plant.