Summer Summer Summer Summertiiiiiime

Each summer for the past 6, Emily and Dave Decker (and often their family with them) have spent their time on the road serving the touring community – artists, speakers, bands, crew personnel – at music festivals around the country.

This summer is no different in its larger scope of us seeking to serve, but as each summer has been, it is different from the last in how that service looks. For the first time, Dave is the officiating pastor at 2 weddings this summer for artists that we serve – a great milestone and a sense of really being connected to this community as their pastor. The Deckers are serving at just 3 festivals (Lifest, Sonshine, LifeLight) this summer because of cancellations of festivals or conflicts with wedding schedules, but will be on the road about the same amount of time- with July being especially busy. One new experience this summer – Dave will be traveling with Kenna (the oldest of the kids) to California for the NAB Overflow – a youth mission trip/conference that Kenna will attend and Dave will be working at, serving artists through LightsOut and working as stage manager for the conference.

One significant challenge to community is continuity. Working with folks you see infrequently is a challenge, and makes community almost an impossibility when it comes to seeking a real sense of connectedness personally or communally. One of the things we continue to seek is to be present and usable and available to artists, and to be a consistent presence in their lives SO THAT some sense of home, of community, is present each time we connect with them. With that sense of community, we believe strongly that a greater sense of the body of Christ is present, and thus a greater sense of the right and holy creation of THE BODY with our bodies being in relationship with one another. It is a hard thing to describe, but a beautiful thing to see when God’s people are caring for each other, and to be in that type of relationship you have to know people and be willing to be known as well- a sense of deep trust that cannot be bought, but only earned and freely given. It is that which we seek when on the road and working with artists, not to be known as the Deckers, but to be part of a community that knows Christ because we know and serve one another.

That is summer for us. And you, those folks who continue to support and pray for and love and be the body of Christ to us – you make that possible.

so thank you thank you thank you. without you, there isn’t an us.

dave