Questions ... week 2

This week we dug deep into the parable of the "good Samaritan" where Jesus asked "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man ... ?"  We didn't spend a great deal of time on the answer because it was and still is very apparent who the neighbor was.  What caught our attention was something else ... something that brought up our own question.  Would the story have been the same if Jesus had ended it where the Samaritan took the beaten man to the inn and cared for him?  In the next verse Jesus describes the Samaritan as having gone above and beyond and engaging another, the innkeeper to assist in his care.  The answer to our question again seemed to be simple ... would the story have been the same, would it have made any difference had Jesus ended it prior to this?  Of course it wouldn't.  Jesus was not known for wasting words.  In preachers language he knew how to land the sermon.  This means that verse 35 ... the going above and beyond verse, the including another in the care and well being of the beaten man verse ... this verse needs to mean something to us.  Just maybe its another instance of us not taking this journey alone.  The importance of community and the power of "the other" when it comes to displaying love and serving those on the margins could be on display here as well.  Maybe its just a matter of an overlap of last weeks question which demonstrated the completeness of Jesus healing.  Maybe we need to realize that its one thing to bring comfort in suffering, but let's not stop there when we could be involved completely in the whole healing process.

Questions Jesus asked ... and still does

A question can be a double edged sword.  On one side, the mere asking of a question implies that you don't know something.  It could be a sign of weakness.  Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't know the answer to this.  In a competitive culture this could put you at a disadvantage.  You could be the weakest link.  On the other hand, a question could be a sign of humility, of teachability, a moment of "I'd really like to better myself, can you help me?".  In a completely different sense, a well framed question coming from a teacher can draw tremendous insight.  Jesus used this form of teaching masterfully countless times.  So effective were they that they continue to resonate in our lives if we choose to be participants and not spectators in our study of scripture.  This past Sunday evening we began a new journey in the gospels wrestling with some of the questions that Jesus asked.  We entered into the story of a blind man named Bartimaeus .  Upon engaging him on the edge of the city, Jesus asked him a very simple and yet deeply profound question ... "What is it that you want me to do for you?"  Bartimaeus replied that he wanted his sight.  Well of course he did ... it seems fairly obvious, and yet you might miss this if you're not careful.  This was a blind man who spent his life alongside the road calling out for people to help him.  The help he was anticipating, most likely, would come in the form of food scraps or the ancient version of loose change which could be used to by food scraps.  I'm guessing that not once did he ever expect his sight from a passerby ... yet he did with Jesus.  Think about it for a moment ... his most pressing need was presented to the only one who could take care of it.  He wasn't about to waste this moment on something as momentary as food scraps or loose change.  Those he could get from anyone on any given day... but on this day Jesus asked him "What is it that you want me to do for you?"  The truth of the matter is this;  Jesus asks us the same exact question.  How many of us have wasted the offer on something that could be covered on any other day by any other source?  We waste it by answering the exact same deep and probing question with superficial things like "niceness", "success", "security".  Sometimes we even spiritualize our answers with promises that "if only I had ... then I could ... for the kingdom."  "When I reach a certain level of security, success, living conditions, location, free time ... then I can really get serious about following you."  Most of us, myself included, suffer from any one of a number of forms of blindness ... spiritual blindness.  So I ask myself as I call out to him, when he asks "What is it that you want me to do for you?" ... what's my answer going to be?

A home and a light

This past Sunday evening we enjoyed our first time together in what we have determined to be our new gathering space.  On Sunday evenings and select other opportunities Common Table will call the Cascade "Peoples Center" home.  Sunday we were welcomed by Josh, the manager of the People's Center, with open arms and lots of Theo chocolate.  He was moved by the evening worship time and he shared afterwards that we were just what they were needing there to bring light and life to the center and the neighborhood.  That statement has had me thinking these past few days.  I can't underestimate how important these easily overlooked words actually are to our time at the center.  These words, although meant as sincere eagerness to have us there, hold a profound and deeper challenge for us.  Our task is indeed to bring light and life to wherever we find ourselves.  This is true of us individually, but can be so much more powerful as a community seeking to more faithfully live and love like Jesus.  So here is the challenge ... How will we in fact be light and life here?  I need us, all of us, each one who passes through the doors on a Sunday evening, to be diligently asking that question.  This is not a consumer community because ours is not a consumer faith.  So lets not fall into the trap of "using" the People's Center.  May we instead ask how God may use us within and around the space we've been given, for as long as we've been given it.  Our time there may be short as we continue to seek a permanent home, lets make the most of it.  As you walk past the park, as you drive into the neighborhood, as you come up the gravel path ... don't merely focus on the gathering at hand.  Look beyond, ask for insight, listen to the whisper, and be ready to share with us and challenge us with what God is setting before us.  Life can certainly take place inside the building within the context of our gatherings, but light is going to be a bigger challenge.  We are dead center in the middle of the city.  What greater place to bring light to than that?

Embracing the journey

In Genesis we can discover an interchange between God and Abraham where God indicates his desire for Abraham to pick up everything and move to "a land that I will show you".  I've come to discover that this is Gods way of simply getting us to put one foot in front of another and begin to move.  Now I'm a "map" person.  By that I mean I have this odd habit, gift, skill, peculiarity ... however you might like to term it ... of reading maps, visualizing the journey, and then, having been given a very reliable internal compass, setting out on the journey, rarely to look at the map again.  Nine times out of ten I can make it to the destination.  The other one I'll attribute to the male inability to ask for directions.  All this to say, I'd like to know ahead of time what I'm getting in to and where I'm headed before I set out.  So God and I continue to struggle for control in this ... or should I say that I continue to struggle.  I'm fairly certain that God is content that he has me pretty much where he wants me.  To keep myself from going completely crazy over the years I will settle for just making myself available ... simply saying "yes" to Him when he says crazy unsettling things like go "to a land I will show you".  Once again I find myself simply trying to continue to move towards the place that I am confident He will show us as our "best" place to gather on Sunday evenings to share dinner, stories, scripture, community, hope, prayers, and the Jesus who draws us all together around a common table.  As we began to pray about where this might be, my "assumption" (why I assumed I have no idea) was that we would find the new place before leaving the old place.  What was I thinking?  We prayed specifically two weeks ago for timing and the next morning I learned that we had just enjoyed our last time together in the old space.  "Go (move) to a land (space) I will show you"  The operative idea for this, I am reminded again, is to "go".  We need to move for Him to show us where.  As much as I can tend to be impatient, to charge ahead ... I am pretty sure that this particular journey is better accomplished at a walking pace, along with space to stop, listen, and discover.  So this week continues the journey and the beauty of it is that we get to experience this journey together in community ... just as we should our spiritual journeys.  Walk with us won't you.

a church for everyone ... or maybe not

This past Sunday, as a group of us sat around the table finishing the last of a wonderful meal, I asked the question "What do we value as a church community?" I was amazed and humbled to hear what their perception is of what we, as a faith community centered on Christ, valued.  You would have thought that they had intimate knowledge of our earliest documents and discussions. The reality though is that the group I was asking are all relatively new to this journey with us.  All of them joined us during the Common Table 2.0 phase ... having gone public and gathering together as a church these past 12 months.  None of them were here during our phase of wrestling with terms like mission, values, purpose.  Now as a good leader, it could be argued that I should have been hammering these as the new people joined us.  It should have been on cards, banners, signs, video screens.  I should have highlighted each message with just exactly where these all fit within our scripture teaching.  Having self evaluated and looking back over these months, I can honestly say that I did not do these things.  Oh sure they are on the website, but those of us pursuing the pastoral arts would tell you, in a moment of painful honesty, that these sites are not very frequently visited by our members.  Leadership experts would say that I failed in this most crucial aspect of vision casting. I have done that drill though in other ministries.  I have cast those visions and led those efforts to ingrain mission and value into a group who sat politely nodding their heads, only to have those who never heard it also never see it.  I would tell you that I'd much rather have the response that I received the other night ... because they knew it, not because it was well positioned and produced.  They knew it because it is what their experience has been with us.
It has gotten me to thinking though ... a key value of ours being that everyone is welcome around our table ... that we are a church for anyone and everyone ... but not really.  "Church" is still colored by so many different markers that ours would be, and is, too big a stretch for many people.  What I mean is that it is too big a stretch for "church" people.  Our intimacy in community is intimidating.  "Church" should be sitting back and watching.  It should be produced, or at least neat and definitely predictable.  Food is fine, but lets schedule it around potlucks after church that we are free to stay for or not.  Scripture is for teaching us how to be better Christians ... it resolves, it answers questions.  It might challenge, but not anger.  For all of our intent and desire, the worship environment is not participatory.  Discipleship is for the overachiever types and workshops...perhaps a small group subject. 
We are a different place.  Our values are things like community, love, prayer, connection, serving the least, walking through tough stuff ... things of discipleship. I don't know this because of our taglines.   I know this because that's what our group said has been their experience.  It's not perfect.  It's often messy and certainly not well produced.  We are wide open, and our table always has space... but be warned;  this is a church for everyone, and then again maybe not.

Personal ... And not so much

All of us, at one time or another, could probably be found guilty of being attached to something just a little too much.  You know the kind of attachment that I mean ... The kind that becomes annoying to most everyone else around you who doesn't share your passion.  The kind of obsession that makes it hard for others to relate to and, honestly, makes it difficult for you to relate to their obvious cluelessness.  I mean really, who couldn't appreciate being part of a competitive duck herding association?  It seems as if there are associations for those rabidly passionate about just about anything ... From extreme ironing to sailing, from beetle fighting to model airplanes.  If you are passionate about it, chances are that you can find a group that is too.  Somewhere in the collective goals of practically any group who are passionate about something is the desire to see the group grow, unless of course your group is the "passionate about introversion" association. The reality is that individuals of certain affinities will form groups, while it is the power, influence and critical mass of groups that create movements....and don't we all want our passions to become movements? Consequently we want those not yet sold out to our passion to get a clue and get on board.  When they don't, it can leave us discouraged, and worse yet, disillusioned.  Questions form ... What's wrong with me that I'm the only one who sees the importance of this?  What's your problem? What's his problem?  What's their problem?  What's our problem?
Today, if I were honest, I'd have to say that I'm just about there with my passion.  My passion, it seems, is the church.  The living, breathing, organic, socially challenging, relationally taxing, beautiful mess known as the local church.  I've given my life to this "group".  I can't really explain why anymore than someone who collects stamps can explain the why of their obsession, even though it makes perfect sense in their minds.  My group certainly has its flaws and its detractors.  So does NASCAR.  The difference is that I believe in the depths of my soul that my group ... the local church ...truly is the hope of the world.  I don't think that even the most deranged Seahawks fan really thinks, in their heart of hearts, that salvation comes through the Legion of Boom.  It's not only my personal church, little "c", but also the bigger Church that consumes me.  For 2000 years this flawed and faulted institution has survived and in many places flourished.  It's immortal origins and mission have carried it beyond mortal and moral shortcomings.  People, especially in other lands, still continue to struggle for it and sacrifice even life itself to belong to it.  Collectively, it is Gods instrument to carry out the eternal mission to convey His grace, love and offer of redemption.  It is still, and always has been, the hope of the world.
The problem is that I live in a land where countless people, including followers of Jesus, founder of my group, feel that they individually are the hope of the world.  There is no need to be in a group who believe as they do.  For those of you outside of this corner of the country, what you need to know is that, while we are now known as the land of the religiously unaffiliated... the "nones", we are not a land devoid of people claiming to "follow" Jesus.  There are plenty of those here.  They just choose to do it individually.  It's a sort of Jesus based anarchy.  Everyone gets do follow in their own individual way.  The thing is, individuals do not create a movement.   Groups do, formed by individuals, critical mass and momentum.  If my unaffiliated Jesus loving friends could take a page from the legalizing marijuana playbook, there would be no stopping us.
I still have faith that one day this will change ... that people would realize that we are not as strong as we think we are ... that people in the group would be passionate enough to care about those not yet in the group and that they would long, as I do, for others to get as excited about gathering to worship and encourage and to serve as we do about a home game.

the whole package

Back some time ago, we as a community agreed that what Jesus ultimately calls us to is simply to become disciples and then make disciples.  We aren't called to perfect attendance for ourselves or big numbers on Sunday's .  We aren't called to theological brilliance.  We aren't called to technical or programming perfection, or even competence for that matter.  We aren't called to devotional piety.  We aren't called to many of the things that tend to give pastors piece of mind and personal esteem in front of their colleagues when questioned "How is your church doing?".  We are called to discipleship, both personal and progressing outward.
In my earliest days of following Jesus ... or probably more honestly, following church, I don't ever recall imagining that I could ever become a "disciple".  In fact, as I remember it, a disciple was one of Jesus' immediate followers, often to be confused, at least in my mind, with an apostle.  Back in that day, they were "the" disciples, blindly and faithfully ... sometimes... following Jesus on great adventures, being pressed by great and at the same time troubling counter cultural teaching.  They experienced healings and feedings and miracles.  The impression I had was that they were disciples, they were called to that.  I was called, we were called to be "Christians".  What they had was supernatural, otherworldly, and revolutionary.  What I bought into was organized, neatly packaged and comfortable.  We were called to moral purity and being nice, neither of which has proven to be attainable.  I was, and millions like me, led insidiously back into a well disguised form of "The Law" which manifests itself in morality and well produced Sunday worship.  Check those off and I'm a good "Christian".
I have been a practitioner of the pastoral arts long enough to remember that this is indeed the formula that I was taught would bring "success" in my field.  Simply get people to show up ... in increasing numbers... and behave themselves and I could rest easily.  It seemed like a great and workable plan, at least until it wasn't. Ironically, for me at least, about the same time that the whisper became uncomfortably loud, I began to hear the term "disciple" filtering through the undercurrent.  Eventually, like many things evangelical, a right and pure idea gained enough traction for entrepreneurs and marketers to bring it precariously close to fad status. Books were written, conferences were formed, staff positions were created.   A congregation of mine even became part of a disciple making... wait for it ... program, in which we sank thousands of dollars to learn this most basic, fundamental and simple truth of following Jesus;  A follower of Jesus, a Christian, was and is simply, yet profoundly, a disciple.
So then the question for me became, how does one really become a "disciple"?  Ironically, the model I came back to was those first followers that I was led to believe were a unique class of "Christian".  Their lives certainly didn't model moral purity and programming excellence.  They simply spent time with Jesus, they spent time in community, and then they followed him into the midst of those whom he loved unconditionally.  That's what I'd call "The Whole Package".  That is becoming a "disciple".
That's what Common Table is about:
Spending time with Jesus (Love God)
Spending time in community (Live well)
Following Him into the midst of those He loves unconditionally (Do Good)

legacy part 2

Last week we came to the end of Hebrews 11 and began to put it into perspective within the context of our own lives and influences.  When you have lived "x" number of days and are gone, what will be your legacy?  What will you have been commended for?  We shared snap shots of our own faith journeys.  We considered the names of those who influenced us on our pursuit of Jesus.  Everyone is entirely different, yet everyone has a story.  This week we will be wrapping it up with some additional biblical context as well as more reflection on our own journeys. 

Two questions to consider:

1. If you would be remembered for one aspect of your "faith", (based on your life to this point) what would that be?

2. If you could actively improve or advance in one area of your journey, what would that be?

On death and disappearing

Tucked into this list in Hebrews 11 is a name that is not nearly as familiar as the others.  Enoch is not necessarily a character that you'd hear about on your average Sunday morning from your average preacher.  I don't know that I've ever really heard an entire message based around him.  Like the rest of those contained in this list we can look back and find reference to him in the Old Testament, this time again in Genesis.  Before you get too excited, when you wander back in to Genesis 5 to read about him, you find him hidden in another list.  It's a genealogy actually ... One of those "this guy lived, and his son was, and his son was, and his son was" kind of lists that we tend to gloss over.  This time he is tucked into a list of nine defendants of Adam.  Each lived a number of years, had sons of their own and "then he died"... All except for one.  Seven times the story goes this way, then for Enoch it records that he disappeared " for God took him".  Then for the last name it goes back to the expected "then he died" ending.  You might overlook it as just an oddity with the recording method of the author of Genesis except for one other interesting difference.  Each of these others are recorded simply as having lived x number of years and then dying.  Enoch is recorded as having "walked with God" before disappearing.  Sunday we are going to dig into what the authors of Hebrews and Genesis might be telling us about Enoch's uniqueness and what does it mean that someone could "walk with God" in such a way as to have it recorded and commended.

first

One of the earliest referred to as being commended for their faith in Hebrews 11 is Abel.  I love that Abel is in here because his story represents a very relevant faith practice that I find is fundamental to the discipleship process.  The story of Cain and Abel forces me to self examine in the space of where I place God in my priorities.  In the earlier years of Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal played a character named Fernando.  One of the most notable lines from Fernando is "Looking good is better than being good".  On the surface this may seem like a throwaway line, but its actually quite profound.  It applies here in the story of Cain and Abel.  It actually identifies the sometimes murky but actually quite profound difference between their gifts offered before God.  It also identifies a constant struggle in  my own spiritual journey pursuing Jesus.  What is the difference between the two ... looking good and being good I mean ... glad you asked.  "Looking good", in my opinion,  is the shortcut that we attempt in our original desire to follow Jesus.  "Being good" is a point of spiritual maturity where you just have God as preeminent in all things.  Cain and Abel both made offerings to God and yet one was accepted and one not so much.  Look closely and you see that the difference was that one gave "some" and the other gave first and from the first.  Cain gave some in a desire to "look good" while Able gave first as a reflection of "being good".  The gifts revealed where each was at.  The thing that is often tragically overlooked though, but must not be, is that Cain was not condemned for his gift.  The indication is that it was an opportunity for teaching, that Cain would have had another shot.  It was grace in its earliest form.  The bar was set at a certain height and he had another shot at getting over it.  Instead he chose to eliminate the bar.  
Too many times I have chosen to eliminate the bar.  Too often I'm attempting to take the shortcut of "looking good" rather than investing in the journey of "being good".  And so the question continues ... "Am I giving Him my first or am I giving what's left over?"  When it comes to resources, it's really not that difficult to determine ... all I need to do is look at my bank statements.  When it comes to my time, all I really need to do is look at my calendar.  Fortunately ... Each day I get to do it over again, and prayerfully I'll choose to clear the bar rather than eliminate it.

Summer travels

Each and every time, without fail, that I travel the highways in this part of the country, I think about those who traveled these parts long before asphalt and motorized vehicles.  Specifically I wonder about those who moved across these vast spaces of rock, scrub brush, and canyons with every piece of themselves and their lives stored in a wagon. I wonder what drove them forward when each peak conquered revealed another treacherous and seemingly unending path.   Even in the comfort of an temperature controlled chariot moving at speed on smooth roads and over safe bridges, I can get impatient as the destiny seems always out of reach and always over one more pass.  Each and every time I wonder what it was that enabled them to get up each and every day and put one more days worth of life and trial and labor behind them.  Over these next several weeks that Common Table gathers in community we will be immersed in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, visiting and revisiting those "ancients" who were commended for the faith that kept them moving but ultimately didn't get them to "the promise".  My prayer is that is will encourage us to look intently at our own journeys and consider how we might develop a faith that continues to move us forward. 

devotion and the bride

Wrestling with our text in Acts 2 where the earliest form of the church emerges, I keep running into the word "devoted".  As a practitioner of the pastoral arts for more than two decades ... Yes that makes me old ... I have long been in pursuit of what I would term the "keys of engagement" which would unlock the door of meaningful participation in the life of the local church.  I have lived through terms like "relevant" and "seeker", "missional", "attractional", "emergent" and many others that have been spoken into the dilemma of steady declines in church participation and attendance.  The recent report from the Pew Research Group clearly demonstrates that none of these discussions really offers silver bullet solutions.  The "rise of the nones" rings as clearly or perhaps more so in the great city of Seattle.  Could it be that this word "devoted" need be reinserted into the discussion?  Could it be something so radical as to put some biblical perspective back into our quest to find the missing link that would ... Although not solve it ... at least explain what has really occurred?
Could we put it in these terms ... that the Church in our culture struggles with the concept of being devoted to the biblical community often referred to as "the bride" of Christ.
The Acts 2 usage of the term "devoted" is used 5 other places in New Testament teaching, all referring to the idea of sacrificial, persevering and continual steadfastness.  As one who has lead many couples through their marriage ceremonies, all speaking in various terms that would be descriptive of this concept, I know only too well of the disconnect between belief and practice.
In contemporary language, rather than the "till death do us part" verbiage that we profess, perhaps it could more accurately read the "till something less difficult and more appealing comes along" that tends to be practiced.
It's widely recognized that continual exposure to failed marriage relationships (lack of devotion) tends to contribute to an increased reluctance to pursue marriage as reasonable option.  Could it be that the same is going on with faith identification, particularly as it pertains to participation in a church community?  My personal observation is that we are modeling, in practice, a "till something less difficult and more appealing" comes along.  The concept of devotion is less appealing than sin, repentance, and what you do with your money.  
Sunday we asked, "how can you tell what someone is devoted to?".  It wasn't a deep question at all.  Within seconds people offered the markers of finances, time, resources.  What would it look like in the context of our own lives to overlay that outline?  Would people recognize in us, not by words but by practice, a devotion to the "bride" or would they see "until something less difficult and more appealing" comes along?

We are not as strong as we think we are

We begin this week with a journey through the mission and madness of the community commonly known as the church.  I've spent the last 23 years loving and learning from what is biblically known as "the hope of the world".  I will admit that, on too many occasions, I am straining to discover any wisdom in Gods plan to use the church for something as monumental as this task.  More conversations than I care to admit have centered around my attempts to explain the "why" of being part of a church.  I have difficulty defending some of the absurdity and disconnect from what I feel must have been the original wisdom of the plan.  The question of "why" church has become even more personal in recent years as we have been laboring to establish this unique expression known as Common Table.  After more than 20 years in traditional ministry, no one knows the flaws and failures more intimately than I do ... And let's just say it out loud, unlike others, I don't have the convenient choice of just staying home on a whim.  I'm expected to be there.  Some would say that I'm paid to be there.  I can see the logic in that ... However, in my case, to stop there and assume that you know why a pastor type would be in church week after week, would fall short of the real truth.  It's very simple really.  The truth is that, when all of the obvious is stripped away, I need to be here.  The reality is, in the words of Rich Mullins, "we are not as strong as we think we are". We meaning the collective "we"... The "we"who want to wear the individual label of follower of Jesus, but not be tied down to the corporate gathering of a community.  It is the "we" who'd rather be the "I" ...as in the individual.
It's the spiritual equivalent of a 3 year old declaring that "I can do it myself".  Biblically and practically speaking, my experience is that we are indeed not as strong as we think we are.  Allow me to point out a few of these areas.  The first sign of trouble in someone's spiritual life is that they begin to disappear from community.  They isolate themselves.  Satan is described as one who prowls around, waiting to devour victims in the same way that other predators will go after those who are outside the safety of community.  The book of Hebrews encourages us to not give up gathering together because in community is where encouragement and life is found.  The book of Acts reveals the incredible power that manifests itself in community.  It is all about "we", for safety, for encouragement, for impact, for hope.
There is wisdom in Gods plan, ancient wisdom, from which we have much to learn.  I'm intending to lead us down that path over the next few weeks to discover how God intended us to be and the role that we have, collectively, in representing "the hope of the world".

Interesting

The last few months in the life of Common Table have been interesting.  I would have never written the script this way in any of my preconceived notions of what a new church might look like.  The people are not the same as I had imagined they would be.  The location is not what I thought it would be.  The look and feel is even different.  For a planner, like me, in all honesty, this has taken some adjustment.  I like it though.  I like it so much more than I thought that I would and the changes are so much more welcome than I would have imagined that I'd be comfortable with.  I like it so much that a new frustration has surfaced for me.  The reasons that I like it so much more than I would have imagined are reasons that I believe that so many other people would like it also.  People who have lost faith in the traditional church, people who don't want to spectate, people who like adventure, uncertainty and mission would all very much appreciate this place.  People who can't gather on a Sunday morning, people who want to learn actively instead of passively, and people who want to come as they are while discovering who Jesus calls them to be would all love this place.  The frustration is that I'm not so clear on how to let them know that such a place exists.  As I write this I am also in the midst of trying to develop a mail centered communication.  I want people to know, up front and honestly, what we value, what we are about, what they might encounter when they walk into our warehouse space in the heart of Seattle.  This is probably not the place for those who are church shopping.  It's not the place for those who want a programmed faith experience.  We are pretty organic and experiential.  Sometimes we are like the proverbial box of chocolates where you're not always sure "what you're gonna get".  We are hands on and as often as possible, face to face, being the church together.  We are a gathering of people who have some and those who don't have at all.  We don't sit in rows.  We learn with each other and from each other.  We pray together, we sometimes eat together, we often serve together.  The door to our warehouse ministry center is open and you are most welcome to join us on the adventure ... and if you are a little apprehensive, bring a friend.