Friends of Shalom, As we are in the midst of Advent, I'm reminded of how it's a season of tension. On the one hand we are looking forward to Christmas, to remembering our Lord's birth and all the beauty of the story. But on the other hand we are longing for his final coming when he will make all wrongs right. In Advent we're invited to be honest about our longings for freedom from cancer, oppression, sin, war, depression, and all the brokenness of the world while at the same time putting our hope in Jesus the shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1-11). But this is how we always live isn't it? We live in the in-between and in a perpetual Advent of sorts! As Karl Barth said, " What other time or season can or will the Church ever have but that of Advent?" So we live in the tension. And as a church planter I also live in the tension. I live with a heart of gratitude for all that God has done and is doing in our church while at the same time longing fo...