For new partners to join join us in the

mission of TCA

For Christa’s

meditation on what it

means to be a

Street art by

What is happening? Did my bed get smaller? Why donʼt my shoes fit? I woke up and everything is different. It all happened so fast,

the autumn is over and 2010 is in itʼs twilight and I havenʼt had a chance to breathe let alone sit and write you a letter. Iʼm only writing now out of sheer disci-pline. Weʼve been on a roller-coaster these last few months with several projects including worship leading for sometimes three churches a weekend, a large-scale Christmas production for Denver First Church of the Nazarine, preparing for a Christmas Eve program in Dodge City and maybe most notably directing and sending off the Dare 2 Share team to perform my work without me for the first time.

I must say that Iʼd never seen my work from the audience before. I was relieved when it was over. I had a very satisfied feeling in one sense but, also a nagging hunger for the creative process that follows the first performance, the evolution, the experimentation, the learning, the growth. Growth is probably the best way to describe this last season. We are growing... and growing is a clumsy, messy business. Weʼre almost five years old and for the first time Iʼm dropping the part-time job weʼve needed to make ends meet. Torn Curtain is our full-time job. Weʼre finally out of the house and living on our own. Who knows? Maybe weʼll be moving back home in six months but for now, weʼre moving out. Weʼve entered into a six month partnership with Restoration Community Church in Greenwood Village as a worship leader and creative consultant. Weʼre also working on another part-nership with Hope Community Church in Washington Park to help equip and train their volunteer worship teams and infuse the arts more into their community. Christa and I are also scheduled to teach in the spring with ACTS and start rehearsals for our exciting, new Jonah(s) tour in January! Iʼm glad for this recent growth spurt. It seems like weʼve waited forever for this day and Iʼm profoundly grateful. Iʼm also worried about our upcoming adolescence because in so many ways weʼre not ready to grow up. Then again, who is? God chooses when itʼs your time to grow and you just need to hold on and try and survive it. I suppose I count on this, We will not always be here, we will change whether we like it or not... for the time being, weʼre growing. Thank you Jesus.

When I was young I was in the church choir for kids. I donʼt re-member the name of these groups. Probably Kids for the Kingdom or Saintly Singers or something with good alliteration. I do remember loving, I mean loving, singing and being a part of the rehearsals and the programs. I remember sitting on little wooden chairs or benches in an old room with red squares of linoleum flecked with cream in the Methodist Church and I remem-ber getting to sit in the adult choir loft in the carpeted sanctuary on Sunday afternoons after church at Bible Christian Church. Both in Kansas where I grew up. I loved practicing with my friends and being a part of something that was so beautiful and bigger than me.

She had a chance to understand that she can be a part of something larger than herself. Her voice needed to be added to the chorus to make it better. Brighter. I looked around that night at all the beaming families. All dressed up to watch their babies stand on a stage in front of painted flats and sing. And I noticed that we werenʼt showing our smiles to just our spouses and children. We were sharing them with others. Everyone was beaming at each other. Love for our children was so great that we couldnʼt keep a simple smile to our-selves, we had to share it with another and another....Love was so big on a Friday night in Northglenn that in one small brick building people were looking into the eyes of strangers and connecting. I hope that more mommies and daddies, granmaʼs and granpaʼs had the chance to realize once again, that we can choose to be part of something more than ourselves. I hope that in this Christmas season we can choose to be a part of Love and Hope and Others. I hope we can add our voice to some choir somewhere and change. I hope that we can look into a strangerʼs eyes because we love so much. Plus, thereʼs always cookies in the foyer after the show...that alone might be worth giving it a try...

Stella attends a small Christian school that is housed in a Lutheran church. She is having her first experience with choir this year in Kindergarten and she just performed her first Christmas Program as a member of the chorus. She was lovely. Unfortunately, she was one of two rows standing and sitting on the floor in front of the stage and so was difficult for us to see. But, that didnʼt stop her from singing, waving her little hands and smiling broadly whenever she caught a glimpse of us.

For people who would want to sponsor a leg of the Jonah(s) tour.

We’re moving again in the spring! Pray for the wisdom we need to decide where to live. Rent? Buy? RV? (kidding.)

For our partnership with Hope and Restoration and that God brings growth there too.

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growing

Paul

X-mas programs

Christa