The Inn has a new website?!

That's right! The Inn has a new website. You can now visit us at theinnoc.com!

I am currently blogging the Epistle of James, and you should definitely head over to see it!

-John

Celebrate!!

Repetition is a pretty obvious way to emphasize something. Today God repeated, pretty explicitly, that we as a body need to celebrate His goodness, for His sake and our own.

If you didn't know I volunteer in the high school group at OCEC, and over the last couple weeks Erin has been going over Holy Habits...spiritual disciplines that we can incorporate into our daily lives to draw our energy, thoughts, and actions towards God. Today's Holy Habit was Celebration: Openly enjoying God, and His goodness to us. Erin started by playing the "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang and we as a youth group proceeded to 'get down'. Then we went on to look at some good examples of celebration in scripture:

-Moses, Miriam and their songs/tambourine dancing in Exodus 15 after God's rescue of Israel's from Egypt.
-Deborah and Barak's song in Judges 5 after God's defeat of Canaan.
-David and Israel's rejoicing/dancing in 2 Samuel 6 after God's return of the Ark to Jerusalem.
-Jesus first miracle of making water into wine at the wedding in Cana as recorded in John 2.

The next urge to celebrate came from Andrew and the rest of the worship band today as we began with the song "We're going to sing like the saved". YOu can't help but enjoy God's goodness to you when you are singing that song and then screaming at the top of your lungs! It was amazing to be reminded of the spiritual discpline of celebration at the perfect time, and then to be able to practice it.

So did you get any reminders from God to celebrate today? How do you think the the Inn could better pracitice this dsicipline? What are you gonna do because of God and his goodness to you?!

-John Lusser

Funky Friday: Mystery Desert Theatre Edition

Hey I am blogging from the first annual OCEC Mystery Desert Theatre!

Our very own Aaron Babst is playing the role of Johnny the mechanic, while Melanie Erickson and Trisha Freitag MC the entire event trying to help determine who killed who! They've filled up the fellowship center with hungry theatre lovers in order to raise funds for the junior high and high school missions trips this spring break.

As you may be aware we at the Inn are helping out the high school with their mission trip to Oakland by sending socks their way. It's an amazing opportunity to help out the homeless of the city with a much needed gift of clean and new socks. When you are on your feet for the most of the day it's incredibly important to get fresh socks as much as possible. We're collecting socks throughout the month of march up until the team leaves on the 20th, so PLEASE GET THOSE SOCKS IN!!

Tonight's Funky Friday challenge, you ask? Bring in 4-6 pairs of new socks. Do this and whisper to me the secret code phrase "Andrew filters his beans with socks." And I will buy you a coffee at Breve Espresso this coming Thursday. So get those socks in and enjoy a coffee on me...err, I mean the Inn.

-John Lussier

This week I...

This week I...

am stoked about the sale of our home in North Carolina. This is something that has been a financial burden for us for about a year now. We are totally excited about being free from that mortgage payment. Now we look for housing in the great Northwest.

have spent a ton of time with great people. I love doing life and ministry together, so when there are weeks like this when I get the chance to be with a lot of different people, I feel great and seem to draw a bunch of energy from being together with them.

will spend intentional time and energy in the tasks that I have been procrastinating from (as if I procrastinate / lol).

hope to have a few books finished that I have been working through for some time, namely, 9 Things A Leader Must Do and Building Leaders The West Point Way. In light of finishing these books I am really excited to start a couple of other books.

am starting a new book of the Bible for my devotions and personal development. I have been working through Paul's letters in the New Testament. Today I started Philippians.

think that The Inn is gonna rock! We're starting a new series entitled, "Relationships 101" and I expect that it's gonna be life-changing.

desire to continue to develop into the best me that God has created me to be. Through times of intentional discipleship and accountability as well as exhaustive reflections and personal as well as leadership development, I am hoping to take one step closer to developing as a child of the Most High, a husband, a father, a friend, and as a leader.

~Andrew