‘portrait’ in the seattle times

my kids looked through the sunday paper today and asked, ‘why are you in the paper daddy?’  i didn’t really have a good answer but for whatever reason, both quest church and i have received ‘favorable’ responses from the larger city of seattle and the local media.  while it feels good to be noticed and acknowledged, this is important to me as i seek to not only serve quest church, but to serve and love the larger city and people of seattle.  while i believe in the importance of caring for your family and your church, we  have to be careful not to be so insular that we can’t look beyond our walls.

today’s article can be found in the profile section of the pacific northwest sunday magazine.  the photo you see above is a little glimpse of our very messy and  unproduced sunday worship services.  i like the picture because it shows our spotty floors in the cafe, the instrument cords lying all around, the communion table that is present every sunday, artwork on the walls from local artists, a painting done for a burma benefit show by chris leong, a quester, on stage (far left), and of course, my demontrative hands in action.  corey and katey hage, our children’s pastor, don’t look too happy though.  it may have been one of those sundays i again went over an hour.  you can see all the other articles written about quest/qcafe in the ‘in the media’ section of the church website.  there was one front page article in the Seattle PI that people erroneously connected quest and strip clubs.  🙂

on another note, the seattle times is looking for an ‘evangelical voice’ to join a rotation of religion columnists.  after an initial review, they’ve asked about 15 people to turn in their resumes and examples of their writing.  my chances will be very slim but i have decided to turn in my resume by the deadline next week.  thanks to those in seattle that submitted my name to the editors.

my hope, ultimately, is that God would honor and bless the work my wife and i strive to do so that men, women, and children may be drawn to His love and grace.  this is not intended to sound arrogant but i have always believed that God would elevate me to be seen and heard – as a person of influence.  as i come to your thoughts, please pray for continual protection, unwavering integrity, and honest humility. 

ps  there was another article in the paper about christmas eve services where quest, and one of our members, jennifer, was featured amongst other churches.