Monthly Archives: April 2009

April 24, 2009 · 4:19 am

Family Time

Chicago went well.  Read about a dozen actors for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit shoot in May, had a great time planning with the producer/DP of the piece, and then spent some good time with my friend Steve Pederson of Willow Creek Drama.   Yesterday, the Cincinnati leg of the trip began with meeting Anjie and her family at the airport.  We got checked in and grabbed a bite to eat, then waited for Amy to get out of her show.   I picked her up just after 11:00 p.m., and then she came to the hotel and spent the night with us.  She’s excited about the play, as are we…she looks great and is busily making her summer New York plans.  Today we visit U.S. Grant’s birthplace and then pick up Mom and Jody at the airport.   The van will be full, but it should be fun.

Not much time to be reflective, but I’m very aware of the process going on at the Northwest Church this week.  This is the week of the choosing of the new preaching minister/catalyst leader.  On Sunday afternoon, the transition team, which has now expanded to include the Elders and the staff, will meet to discover where God is leading us.  But I won’t be there, which is an interesting wrinkle to an interesting journey.   But as I’ve said all along, this is God’s church, and He’s doing His thing.  But never a dull moment.

Headed to breakfast, then down the Ohio River to where Grant was born.   A nice little trip, given that I’m going to be working on an original piece concerning Grant and Robert E. Lee in the next 18 months.  More about that later…

Hungry…

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Filed under Daily Life

April 21, 2009 · 6:43 am

Early Morning Walk

So after a long Elder’s meeting last night, I got to bed too late to do the usual routine–up at 4:40 a.m. to head to the gym to workout–but I was awake at 5:00 anyway, so I headed downstairs, made a cup of coffee and settled in for a bit of prayer time.  The church is in the final stages of selecting a new preaching minister after having interviewed 3 strong candidates, and the church is engaged in a prayer vigil for guidance and wisdom.  My sense is that God is assuredly working in the process, but not always the way we think, nor for the purposes that we have in mind.

Around 6:15, I headed to the coffee shop and did what I haven’t done in months.

I took a walk.

Two years ago I discovered Spring.  This year I almost missed it, but this morning I saw that Spring was well and good, and the slow observance of daffodils and tulips and front yards and houses for sale did my spirit a world of good.  I’m headed for Chicago this morning and then on to Cincinnati on Thursday.   I’m looking forward to the break in routine…as I said yesterday, the pace of life and ministry is very much on my mind.  This morning’s turn around a few neighborhood blocks affirmed my intuition, that time to breathe and reflect and sip and pray is critical.

For me, deep will always be better than wide.

Slower steps…

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Filed under Faith and Art

April 20, 2009 · 6:47 am

The Pace of Ministry

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, and in today’s cyber-crazed world, that’s no way to go about business.  I know that.  However, I’ve been running hard.   Between Good Friday and Easter preparations, the process of interviewing candidates for the preaching minister/catalyst leader position at the church, the leadership and management of various ministries at NW, the writing and directing of a series of short videos for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, preaching every week, and working toward some personal goals related to the milestone called my 50th birthday, life has been more hamster-wheelish than usual.

But I’ve also been brooding.

As you would expect.

Feels like it’s time to come out and begin to speak again.

I’m fairly convinced that I’m going about all this in a way that’s not quite right.   What I mean is that I’ve fallen into one of the classic traps of ministry.  It’s not that I think it depends on me.  I’m fairly convinced it doesn’t.  But having said that, there is still a sense that if I work a bit harder, a bit more efficiently, if I communicate to a few more people, send a few more emails, have an hour-coffee with a few more strategic people, work with this one more ministry, gently confront this one key person…on and on…that the “one more thing” might be the thing that will unleash what is so plainly a logjam of devotion and energy and life among the gathered people I’m working with.  And of course,  this easily slides into a subtle call to working in ways that are simply not sustainable.

Sabbath gets run over, and the inner resources to do ministry get depleted, and when confronted with conflict, passion, and vehement criticism from well-meaning people, patience runs thin, desire for control asserts itself, and dark clouds gather.

What’s funny about all this is that I wrote about it a long time ago in a novel called Leaving Ruin.   It’s not as if I didn’t know.

So, here’s to repentance, and slowing down, and going deep.

And blogging again.  Twitter and tweating I’m not as sure about, but I think I get it.  We’ll see.   I’ll be traveling this week to Chicago and Cincinnati, and will be posting from there.

Peace…

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Filed under Spirituality