The 1st

Wednesday, August 25th was the very first Salt Company - Iowa City. As expected, it is nearly impossible to consolidate everything that went down in a concise, well-articulated blog post. Well, maybe it's not -  my good friend and ministry partner Mark Arant has actually done it quite well - I can't stand that guy! To visit his blog, go to http://metropuritan.blogspot.com/

Here are a few of my reflections from "The 1st":

1) God drew people. From Iowa City, from Cedar Rapids, even from Ames (we had a fair share of supporters from Cornerstone there - very cool). I received an email on Monday of this week from a mom in Arizona. Her son is a freshman at the University of Iowa this year. She so desperately wanted him to connect with a community who exalts and proclaims Christ. Spaid and I had coffee with him on Tuesday, and he was at Salt on Wednesday - thrilled to have found a place to 'connect'. God's drawing people is a remarkable thing!

2) The Blue Moose Tap House. It's pretty crazy to do 'church' in a bar and have the bartenders and barmaids coming back, and standing in the doorway just to see exactly WHAT-IT-IS that's going on. This venue has big 'shows'(concerts) all the time, but even it's employees were ducking their heads in to see this "worship of the King".

3) Prayer. There are times when you hear people say things like "I knew - I FELT that people were praying for me." In this case, it was so very true. We had asked people to be praying, we knew people were praying, and we FELT God responding to those prayers. Thank you for hitting your knees on our behalf!

4) Connections. This is hard to describe but let me try to give you a quick snapshot. At the end of the night, we had our Connection Group Leaders standing in the back, attempting to meet, greet, invite people to their Connection Groups (think small groups with a sexier name). In the back corner of the room, I saw one of our young leaders (who had been to China on a short-term missions trip this summer) surrounded by Asians. God had not only softened his heart toward internationals this summer, He was now BRINGING them to him. I had to chuckle inside - amazing!

5) Authentic Worship. This little phrase gets thrown around a lot - but it remains difficult to find. We have some extremely talented musicians, writers, leaders here - but more than that they are 'worshippers'. This, in many ways, is a product of Mark Arant's influence. To watch him jumping around, hands raised, so alive and at home worshipping his God - I was so thankful.

6) Servants.  Mark already eluded to this in his latest post, but it's worth repeating.  God has brought us an amazing crew of get'r'done boys (and girls).  Of course Clint already has them working like a well oiled machine, but they honor Christ and challenge us, with their hearts and hands and spirit.

I wanted to give 7 reflections - primarily because 7 is God's number (according to my 2nd grade Sunday School teacher).  But this is a blog post, not a short story, and I've got a cluttered garage to organize - Dang It!!!