Return to Blogging
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
I’ve not been blogging - and not exactly sure why. I’ve set here in front of computer several times ready to create a new post, but each time I don’t know what to write about. It is not lack of material, but just too much to know where to start. Maybe I ought to just summarize some of the high points:
Family: Aaron is at college and seems to be enjoying it. We are adjusting, and are definitely proud of him. Adrienne is into her sophomore year of high school and has a good year going, except for one class which is poorly taught. She’s a good student, though, and will overcome that difficulty.
Ministry: Lots of grace happening in the lives of some who are finding how to live in recovery, while others are just floundering in the hell of their own appetites. Found out we are truly a “sanctuary” - being one individual’s refuge of choice when a drug deal went bad. Some we love even though they are spiraling into the pit.
Thinking: Been enjoying Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways and McLaren’s Everything Must Change. My “radical edge” has always been prominent in my approach to living - taking less cautious routes and living out my understandings whether or not popular or accepted. In talking with a friend yesterday he remarked how his radical understanding of Jesus’ message had been domesticated by the church over time, and I feel that the same has happened to me to some extent.
Plans: I am getting a chance to speak to the employees of a friend’s company over a weekend coming up in September. I am thinking of talking to them about how in working together they constitute more of a “church” than those might worship with - to get them to think about being a church as they work and live together during the week. I think I will also speak about a theology of work, and then Jesus’ mission of “Disturbing the Peace.”
Later in September I will be speaking as part of a panel at Abilene Christian University on Missional Leadership. That’s really ironic since someone from there told me several years ago that since I was trained as a missionary I was poorly equipped to minister in American churches. Now the whole missional idea is that we need to think more like missionaries in our own context . . . instead of in corporate, managerial terms. But he was right, I make a lousy institutional manager.
Prayer meeting starts in 15 minutes, and we will be praying with Gideon, Warrior Messiah.
Maybe I’ll return to blogging with this post.
