Keith this is so true. At the time those first meetings at KSU were so exciting and we knew God was working and building something through us there there. Looking back as a somewhat more experienced leader, I think, “We were a bunch of goofballs!” I think if I were you back then I would have a hard time looking at our motley crew and believing God could do anything with our messed up selves. Thanks for investing in us and taking the risks to send out this new messy group of college punks.

Credit was much more difficult to acquire in the 70’s and 80’s. I recall my my mom could not get credit - being a divorced woman - she also made too much for government assistance, yet we were very poor. Today credit is far easier to acquire, yet not as easy as a year ago.

I just wonder if economic difficulties — the stress of war (remember Vietnam was ending in the 70’s), and post secondary education being something that was more readily accessible to all - not just the rich or those who were able to get aide/financing, if these things could be the start of a spiritual resurgence. I believe it is - yet this generation has redefined truth as something that is contextualized and viewed through perspectivalism. Truth is no longer absolute. There are no answers.

Things in the 70’s seemed to be ripe for a revival or a seeking for answers to a screwed up world. Now I look around and listen … I hear a lot a confused people - as a whole not suffering yet … but is it coming?

What do we do in this climate of uncertainty, fuzzy truth, and people seeking answers.

It seems so confusing to me and I understand truth.

We forgot what really gave Xenos credibility in the secular realm: it was one-on-one sharing the Gospel.

It seems that people were receptive to the gospel and Christians were burdened to share.

Keith I am curious how the uncertainty of the 70’s and early 80’s may have played a role in the explosion of church growth. If I recall, the ecomonic times were poor at best, there was not the comfortable affluence of the later 80’s and 90’s.

With the economy taking another dive - will people be more open to the gospel as their personal resources move from abundant to meager? Will the impending recession result in people looking for answers for the pain and emptiness that money can no longer mask?

Adding to things, I was always bothered by how our church wasn’t growing into a huge mega church. Many people were coming, but it seemed like a huge battle for each one.

Personally, this has been very good for my own spiritual life - learning how not to be so rigid has been a good thing. But, I always attributed the choatic nature of our ministry to the fact that our leaders were unorganized.

As I stepped into some leadership, I found out this wasn’t the case at all…the very nature of relationships is really irrational and the time it takes to relate with a few people in an intense discipleship relationship far eclipses the time it would take to set up a huge church production with a big building and a stage show.

But, the Dave Browning teaching you’re talking about is so cool. The relational model is harder and lacks the flashy lights and glamour, but it is really cool and rewarding. The church grows and multiplies in small cells like virus. I see also that this is the method Jesus used (it seemed to work) as did the early church (worked too).