Blog B --- a sneak peek...

Today we had a long staff meeting --- and I have to say - I love them. I love the staff I'm a part of and I love our staff meetings. Today was more of a mini-retreat I think, and an "official" sneak peek into our new community center building, Broadway Commons, 1300 Broadway, Salem, OR 97301 --- Grand Opening September 11-12, 2010!!

Let's just say - the layout is amazing, the furniture is so comfy, the technology rocks, and the lives that I trust will be changed there are too many to count. From Life Center classes (English as a Second Language, finances, parenting, nutrition) to the Salem Free Medical Clinic to the Broadway Coffeehouse (serving Stumptown Coffee) to a special place for moms with young children to go and visit and let their kids play to big seating areas to enjoy conversations to a plaza with a cool fountain and amphitheater to classrooms and meeting rooms and a ballroom to be utilized by the community to the Upper Room (a prayer room with individual prayer closets as well as a general prayer area all open to anyone who enters to pray, leave prayer requests, meet with Him, etc.). I can't wait.

Now, it was a little funny watching some of our staff sit on the big comfy couches... do you see the humor here??

I don't want to give away too much, because I hope when any of you come to Grand Opening weekend that you'll be excited and welcomed by what you see and experience... and if you're legs don't quite reach the floor like in the pic above, feel free to curl up with your feet up on the couch and make yourself at home!!!

In addition to getting to browse the building for a while, we also watched a Bill Hybels presentation from Leadership Summit in 2000 (I think it was 2000). And then as I've been reading in Ed Stetzer's book, Breaking the Missional Code, the phrase came up again... the challenge to know and have the Father's heart. To so know God that you know His heart for people and are committed to them... It's a resonating theme I'm hearing over and over these days... it was similarly in Same Kind of Different As Me with the "Catch & Release" theory. And the only way to know the God's heart is to spend time with Him... And so...

Add this book to my favs list... my everyday must and want and need to read list... is it on yours??