Nancy Beach

Choking Up at Parades

    Tomorrow morning I will stand in front of the same storefront I always find to get a great view of our local July 4th parade.  The entire village of Barrington seems to show up annually for the event down Main Street.  I will miss the delight of my daughters in their younger years, fighting for every piece of candy tossed into the street by those marching.  They filled up bags of candy--mostly Tootsie Rolls--that stayed on our countertop for a few weeks.
    Each year I think the parade gets a little longer, and, especially towards the end, a little more commercial.  Every real estate company, restaurant and tanning salon in town seizes the opportunity to hand out flyers about their business.  But I'm not going to let that ruin the joy of all the rest--the local band playing patriotic musc on a flatbread truck (out of tune, but oh so passionate!), the neighborhoods with little ones on tricycles and dogs decked out in red, white, and blue, and most moving of all, the veterans.
    The men in uniform (I don't recall any women vets marching) walk by, but some of the most elderly ride in cars with posters declaring the war they fought in.  I wonder if we'll still see the man who must be over 100 years old by now, our only local WW I veteran.  Those who march hold the flag high, and it get me every time--I choke up with gratidude for our country, for those who have served to preserve our freedom, for the incredible sacrifices made by many citizens, including my father.  I put my hand on my heart and thank God for my country.  My daughters watch to see if any tears make their way down my cheek, just waiting to nail me for getting emotional again.  So be it.  I won't try to fight it!  Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans....let's be grateful for our country, imperfect as it may be, with all our struggles.  May God bless America....
    Blogger taking a nap....I'm taking lots of time off in the month of July, and therefore won't be posting many blog entries unless I am just so incredibly compelled to write about something that I simply must.  After all, I have a ton of reading to do!  So have a great month of seizing all kinds of moments....and I'll be checking back in really soon

Summer Reading

When I was young, a highlight of the summer was heading to the local library to sign up for the summer reading program.  Each year, the library chose a theme, and we would receive stickers or some kind of reward based on how many books we read in various categories.  For me, there was no greater joy than loading up my skinny arms with 9 or 10 books, anticipating the moment when I got home and could choose which one to dig into first.

I still think of summer as a time to read, and especially, to read some books I might not normally think to pick up.  There are several I already have on my list, because they have been waiting patiently on my nightstand at home, piling up, making me feel guilty for not giving them my full attention yet.  I have started a few of them, and look forward to exploring the others as well.  So far, some of my book choices include the following:

            The Great Omission – by Dallas Willard

            You Staying Young – by Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mahmet Oz

            Prayer – by Philip Yancey

            The Sparrow (a novel) – by Mary Doria Russell

            The Audacity of Hope – by Barack Obama

            The Shack by – William P Young

Maybe you’ve already read most of these.  I’m curious – what’s on your summer reading list?  I’m always up for adding another book to my list!

Summer Camp -- An Alternate Universe

I just returned from dropping off my younger daughter for two weeks at a Christian summer camp.  She is 15, and though she has gone to camp before, she doesn’t know if there will be anyone she recognizes this year.  Pretty scary for a young girl!  While we were making the 10 hour journey to camp, Johanna and I talked about how weird, in a way, camp time is.  She will have no cell phone, no computer, no television, no candy or pop, no contact with family or friends from home.  Her entire schedule will be different in every way.  And that, I think, is largely the point.  She is experiencing an alternate kind of universe, one in which, if she chooses, she can start over as someone else, and leave any impression she chooses to leave.  I remember the feelings when my parents drove away as I started out a new session at camp. I felt an odd mixture of emotions including freedom and terror and anticipation.

Summer camp gives a young person the chance to try things he or she may never try back home – making goofy crafts with popsicle sticks, water skiing, navigating a ropes course, horseback riding, competing in a vigorous game of Capture the Flag, etc. And though we often stereotype the dramatic decisions kids can make around campfires at Christian camps, often those experiences mark a young person for life.  It makes me wonder if we adults should consider ways to experience some kind of alternate universe, breaking out of our usual routines and seeing how God might work.

So I’m praying for my girl this week, that she might discover something new, make a great friend, connect to God and creation in a meaningful way, take a risk on the zipline, maybe even start a summer romance!  (OK, delete that last one…)  No matter what, I pray that she won’t be quite the same when I give her a huge hug two weeks from now.

Our Amazing Bodies

I’m teaching this coming weekend at our services about Wonder, and one of the major sections of my message focuses on the wonder of the human body.  This drove me to a treasured book written several years ago by Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.  Dr. Brand is a Christian doctor who primarily worked with leprosy patients.  He has an amazing perspective on the miracle of God’s design of our bodies.  Just one of the marvels of how we are crafted centers on our incredible skin.

Our skin, in total, only weighs 9 pounds.  Each section of our skin – on our scalp, lip, heel, abdomen, and fingertips is different.  I loved a quote from the book by Richard Selzer:

What is it, then, this seamless body stocking, some two yards square, this our casing, our façade, that flushes, pales, perspires, glistens, glows, furrows, tingles, crawls, itches, pleasures and pains us all our days, at once keeper of the organs within and sensitive probe, adventurer into the world outside?

Our skin is tough enough, writes Yancey and Brand, to withstand the rigorous pounding of jogging on asphalt, yet sensitive enough to have bare toes tickled by a light breeze.  Think of what we would lose without the sense of touch!  We would no longer know the joy of petting a dog, digging our fingers into mud, or hugging someone we dearly love.

Perhaps the greatest miracle of our skin is how it waterproofs us.  Sixty percent of our bodies consists of fluids.  These would completely evaporate without the moist, sheltered world provided by skin.  We couldn’t take a warm bath without skin or it would kill us.  Our skin offers us a front-line defense against the hordes of bacteria that threaten us.  Do you know how many skin cells the average person loses in a day?  10,000!!!!!  Up to 90% of household dust consists of dead skin…gross, I know.  And our replacement cells grow back mainly between midnight and 4:00 a.m. while our bodies rest.

So for today, say a big “Wow” for your skin.  Let’s not take this for granted.  Our Creator is magnificent beyond description and breathtakingly good.

Shaking From Cold -- and JOY!

Yesterday afternoon I had the joy of helping to baptize hundreds of people in the lake outside of our church.  Bill Hybels delivered a strong challenge to people in the weekend services to live their faith out loud, to have the guts to stand up for Jesus, and, if they had not yet been baptized as an adult, to stop all the excuses and join us in the water.  As a result, hundreds of people came down front at the end of one of those services to get a towel we had prepared – towels marked “Willow Creek Baptism 2008.”  At l:30 in the afternoon, the hillside along the lake was packed with people.  I’ve never seen it quite that full.  Some chose to watch from the opposite side of the lake, even with binoculars!

I stood in the water, looking in the eyes of people from all walks of life, all ages, many different races, all unique stories of faith.  I had the privilege of baptizing two sets of twins, several married couples, and a father who was so overcome with joy because he was baptized alongside his 21-yr-old daughter named Emily.  These are the snapshots I will treasure in the coming weeks.  I also talked with an elderly gentleman after one of our services who was still trying to decide whether to head to the water.  His hesitation reminded me of Jesus’ words to count the cost.  This man, named Dick, told me he was so afraid that after being baptized he will fail to follow God.  We talked about grace, about the process of surrendering, about how none of us gets it right all the time and that’s what forgiveness is about.  With tears in his eyes, he decided to turn around and go get a towel….wow.

I must add two little details to my story of baptism.  First, the elder baptizing next to me and I saw a fairly large fish floating by.  That freaked me out.  He picked it up and hurled it far away.  I still don’t know if it was dead or alive.  I’m just grateful I didn’t baptize someone right into a fish!

Second, I’ve never been so cold in the water.  The sun disappeared for awhile, and we were in that lake a very long time.  I started shaking so much that those I baptized were probably a little nervous, wondering if I was strong enough to prevent them from drowning.  Part of me was shaking with joy and excitement, and part of me was just plain cold.  Maybe next year, I’ll have to borrow a wet suit…

Learning to Text

One of my primary goals this summer is to learn how to text with my cell phone.  I realize this does not sound like a significant goal, but for a mom of teens, it’s apparent to me that if I hope to communicate efficiently with my daughters, in a language they will respond to and much prefer, then it’s time to get with the program.  This morning I read a newspaper article confirming my own experience at my house.  This next generation views e-mail as an archaic form of communication, almost right up there with the telegraph and the Pony Express.  When forced to connect with adults for a more professional or educational purpose, the teens grudgingly use e-mail.  But it is most certainly not their first choice.  If an adult wants an immediate response from a teen, texting is the only way to go.

This raises a bit of an issue for me.  With a regular kind of cell phone, those letters and buttons are teeny tiny, and oh so inconvenient.  I will never be as lightning fast as my girls, who can text under a table or desk at school without even looking at their fingers.  My younger daughter tried to teach me to text once.  But she explained everything so fast and was terribly impatient with her technically challenged mother.  So I told them both that I expect a nice, slow series of lessons now that we are breathing easier in the lazier days of summer.  We’ll see how they do.  I may have to hire a person outside the family to teach me well!

Then there is the entire universe of texting language – the abbreviations I don’t know, the phrases my daughters will undoubtedly use that cause me to scratch my head and wonder just what they are trying to say.  I am steeling myself for their ridicule when I concoct my own abbreviations, knowing that I will never be as cool as them!

So why risk this embarrassment and waste my time learning something new?  Primarily because one daughter is heading off to college, and I know if I have any hope of staying in touch, texting is it.  She won’t frequently check e-mail, and she hates it when I leave a voice message on her cell phone.  Why don’t young people like the sound of another person’s voice?  I always try to be pleasant, to tell her I love her…but both my girls say, “We already know you called us by looking at our phone…you don’t really need to say anything…that takes too long to listen to.”  Well, EXCUSE ME for trying to express something to my daughters with the human voice!!!  I’ll just have to get over this and join the revolution.  I’m still not on Facebook…that will have to wait awhile because texting is enough of a challenge for one summer.

Final Reflections on ARISE

I enjoyed a gorgeous weekend here in the Chicago area following the Arts Conference, with a chance to feel the warm sun in my back yard, walk into town for a movie with my husband at the 100-year-old theatre (we saw Ironman, which was quite entertaining), and celebrating Father’s Day at my sister’s home with my 87-year-old father.  Throughout the weekend, I thought back on the previous three days, and gave thanks for all that God did among us and in us and through us.  Just a few lingering and final thoughts and memories…

Heather…a young woman found me eating breakfast at IHOP Thursday morning, and told me her story.  Last year she was a student of the arts in college, and then came to the 2007 Arts Conference.  God used the event to re-direct her entire career plan, and now she is serving full-time at a church in the arts ministry.  I was reminded of how high the stakes are at these events, and how profoundly the Holy Spirit works inside the hearts of so many who attend.

A man from Pennsylvania...to protect his privacy, I won’t write his name.  But I had a moving conversation Thursday with an arts leader who has faithfully served his local church for 17 years, but is now feeling a bit of restlessness and confessed that his joy is waning.  His eyes filled with tears, and I could read the guilt all over his face as he admitted his contemplations of making some kind of change.  This man loves his church, his pastor, and all the people there.  I believe he is only trying to pay attention to the truth that maybe God is prompting him to a different kind of role in ministry, or possibly to another place.  But he was clearly quite uncomfortable wrestling with those thoughts.  I saw him again on Friday. His eyes looked peaceful.  He had slept well, released his concerns to the Lord, and was in a much more trusting place.  I think all will be well as he carves out time over the summer to listen to the Spirit and discern what is going on.  I look forward to finding out what happens (he promised to touch base).  Surprise moments on Friday…I was delighted by the refreshing music ministry of Kendall Payne, and her response to her less than perfect keyboard work.  She’s only played that instrument for 18 months!  Her character, the depth of her songs, the richness of her voice, were truly a gift to all of us and I found her to be a breath of fresh air.

At the end of Francis Chan’s stirring, stretching, remarkable message, we all began to sing God of the City.  When Francis told me the story behind the writing of that song as we sang down in the front row, I just knew everyone needed to hear that story.  So up he went, and then we sang it all again – with an entirely different perspective.  The song was written by a guy in a city of Thailand where there are 30,000 prostitutes, as he led worship essentially in a brothel…and believed that greater things are yet to come for God in that city…WOW!  Only God can orchestrate moments like that one.  I smiled as I drove home, knowing that once again, the best parts of the conference and the most transforming results are completely out of my hands and the hands of others on our team.  What an adventure to walk with God and to be stunned by all that He does.  I will never know all the stories of private moments with the Spirit, of personal confessions and moments of surrender, of serendipitous conversations in the lobby, at restaurants, in the rental cars, and even in the bathrooms.  OK, maybe I’ll hear some of that in heaven.  But for now, I simply want to keep telling God “Thank you…Thank you…Thank you.”

All Kinds of Thursday Action at ARISE

I’ve had so much fun today hearing about the variety of experiences connected to the Arise conference.  With over 160 different workshops, scheduled conversations with leading artists, a learning expo filled with ideas and practical equipment, and 3 hour Point Leader sessions with some terrific teachers, the attenders could custom design their day.  We capped it off with the Film Festival tonight, where I celebrated creative and impactful video work from many different churches.  I can’t wait to hear more stories of how today went for everyone, because I spent my day teaching small groups.  I love the more intimate settings, when I can roll up my sleeves with other arts leaders and pastors and talk about the behind the scenes challenges we face in building ministries.

Most of all, I’m thrilled that we can all see we’re not as alone as we think we are, and our problems aren’t entirely unique.  I love to watch us exchange ideas, affirm one another, and exhort one another to persevere and stay the course.  I locked eyes with some men and women who inspired me with their stories of God’s faithfulness in the midst of tremendous obstacles.  I won’t soon forget their faces – they will keep me going!

I can’t wait for our two final sessions tomorrow, including the music of Kendall Payne, the teaching of Richard Allen Farmer and Francis Chan, and a closing that I’m hoping and trusting God will use to launch us all back to our home churches with a sense of hope and tremendous resolve.  What a profound privilege to be a part of this event.  I am honored to be among all these remarkable individuals who give their lives and surrender their gifts to the advancement of the kingdom. 

Thanking the Lord For a Good Day at ARISE

It’s almost bedtime, and I’m reflecting back on the first day of the Arts Conference.  My overwhelming feeling toward God is one of gratitude.  The Lord was with us moment by moment, from the drum line beginning all the way through to the song Love at the end.  The drum line is a group from the south side of Chicago, a neighborhood called Englewood, where I was actually born.  It was started by a young leader who wanted to do something constructive to get kids in that under-resourced neighborhood off the streets.

I was struck all day long by a very sweet spirit in the room.  As I taught the first session, it seemed like all of us needed a time of cleansing, confession, and renewed surrender.  I hope others will dig into Psalm 40 even further, because it is full of riches for artists and teachers!

Mr. Gilles St. Croix is a delightful man.  I think he’s one of those creative geniuses who is so good at what he does that he has trouble explaining it.  I wanted so much more time with that interview than the 30 minutes.  But I’m not sure if we had more time (based on my additional conversations with Gilles) that he could have articulated what I most wanted to understand – how he and his team have developed their artistic instincts for what makes something beautiful, what makes a moment work, how to fix it when it’s not working.  I bet I speak for most of us when I say how much I would treasure watching Gilles at work, observing a creative concept session and an early rehearsal of a Cirque show.  I know we only scratched the surface in the interview, and long to learn more from the artistic excellence of that amazing organization.

Finally, I was grateful for the stretching time we experienced with Brian McLaren.  I know not everyone agrees with all that Brian writes and speaks about, but I certainly hope we can all agree that Christians need to become more intentional and passionate about bringing God’s kingdom to earth, helping to solve some of the gravest problems in this world.  I thought Brian’s list of what artists can uniquely do was worth a lot of further thought and processing.  “Humanizing the other” is such a beautiful goal for artists and pastors to aim for.

Well, it’s my bedtime.  I look forward to teaching all day tomorrow, to connecting in more intimate settings with some of the incredible people who made their way to Chicago for this event.  God has been abundantly good to me and to all of us on this day, and I can’t wait to see what awaits us tomorrow…

Arise Arts Conference Begins Tomorrow

I am staring out my office window at the sparkling lake on our church campus, so very excited about the thousands of church artists and teachers who will make their way here in the morning for the Arise conference.  Even if you haven’t registered by now, you can just show up and register in the morning to join us!  We’d love to have you here.

For those who cannot come this year, we would deeply appreciate your prayers.  Nothing of substance will happen between now and Friday afternoon without the supernatural outpouring of God’s Spirit on every moment, in every session and workshop and conversation.  Please pray that we will sense a mighty wind of the power of our Creator, moving among us and surprising us with His grace.

I’ll be giving some updates at the end of each day, hoping to give you a glimpse of what God does in this place.  For the sake of His kingdom…