{"id":505,"date":"2010-07-10T13:42:07","date_gmt":"2010-07-10T19:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raincitypastor.wordpress.com\/?p=505"},"modified":"2010-07-10T13:42:07","modified_gmt":"2010-07-10T19:42:07","slug":"showing-up-for-each-other-year-after-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2010\/07\/10\/showing-up-for-each-other-year-after-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Showing up for each other…year after year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

raising kids and loving God...together <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

I just finished a week of ministry at Forest Home<\/a>, a marvelous ministry in Southern California that shares Christ with thousands of families each year.\u00a0 I love these weeks of itinerant teaching; , sharing meals, and talking about family life, church life, and ministry with people from all over Southern California and Arizona.\u00a0 This is the kind of ministry that I did for years before settling in to life in Seattle as the pastor of Bethany Community Church.<\/a><\/p>\n

There was a group of people at family camp this week that reminded me, once again, of the value of community.\u00a0 The folks in this picture are all of from San Diego.\u00a0 All week long I saw them together; at the pool together, eating together, sitting together in sessions, sitting together at the final fireside.<\/p>\n

I learned that they\u2019ve been investing in each other\u2019s lives and marriages for a very long time.\u00a0 Now in their mid to late thirties, they\u2019ve been forging deep bonds of friendship since their early twenties, including worshipping together at the same church. \u00a0It shows.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know them well, but I\u2019ve a suspicion that in another decade their deep bonds and interdependency will have paid off richly \u2013 in their marriages, their children\u2019s lives, and the lives of others around them.\u00a0 They keep showing up for each other, and each time they do, they\u2019re adding a brick to the tower of strength that is their friendships.\u00a0 It\u2019s already<\/em> a fortress, and a blessed reminder of the value of community and friendship.<\/p>\n

When they\u2019re mentoring young couples in 2025, they\u2019ll have a young couple over for supper and as they laugh, linger over the candles, and pour more drinks, the young couple will say, \u201cwe want these kinds of friendships with our peers.\u00a0 How do you do this?\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll say,\u00a0\u201cKeep showing up for each other\u2026for twenty years.\u00a0 There\u2019s no other way.\u201d<\/em> And they\u2019ll be right.<\/p>\n

When I arrived in Seattle fifteen years ago, I moved into a deeply rooted community.\u00a0 I\u2019d said, at the time, \u201cteaching is teaching \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m in a church or at a conference.\u00a0 Nothing will change for me.\u201d\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong.\u00a0 Church life has shown me (as was illustrated so beautifully this past week by this group, and others like them) that church life is so much more than teaching \u2013 it\u2019s being there for each other \u2013 day after day.\u00a0 After all, we see Christ not just in the Bible, but in the body.<\/p>\n

Thanks San Diego friends \u2013 for living out your commitment to each other so well.\u00a0 I\u2019ll hope to surf with you in San Diego later this summer.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re ever hungry for rain and clouds, we\u2019ve a spare bed or two for you.<\/p>\n

Cheers\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished a week of ministry at Forest Home, a marvelous ministry in Southern California that shares Christ with thousands of families each year.\u00a0 I love these weeks of itinerant teaching; , sharing meals, and talking about family life, church life, and ministry with people from all over Southern California and Arizona.\u00a0 This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-intimacy","category-life"],"yoast_head":"\nShowing up for each other...year after year<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I just finished a week of ministry at Forest Home, a marvelous ministry in Southern California that shares Christ with thousands of families each year.\u00a0 I\" \/>\n<meta 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