Good and Seeking Better

"I feel more energy from this group than ever before," Paul Williams told me after our first session with Christian Standard's contributing editors Wednesday night this week.
They are universally pleased with what we've achieved in the move to monthly editions with Christian Standard, and we feel certain that is what created the positive spirit that permeated our time together, which ended this morning at about 10.
I reminded them--and myself--of a maxim my high school drama teacher often offered: "The closer something gets to perfection, the more there is to criticize about it." And the group was not without suggestions for small and some larger ways we can take the magazine to the next level. And not only the magazine, but the whole brand, the whole ministry that Christian Standard can have.

I grabbed a picture of part of our group as we were breaking up this morning: (standing, left to right)
Paul Williams, Jeff Faull, Arron Chambers, Jennifer Johnson, Becky Ahlberg, (seated) Jim Tune, and
Doug Priest. Also attending this week were Ben Cachiaras, Glen Elliott, Randy Gariss, Matt Proctor, and  Roy Lawson. Our 12th member, Phyllis Fox, had to miss our meeting this year.

Arron got us
started this morning
with thoughts he's
been pondering
lately: building
disciples whose
chief characteristic
is their love
for Jesus.

We realized that this is the 10th time we have convened an annual retreat for the contributing editors. If I had thought about that sooner, perhaps we could have done something "anniversaryish" at the meeting. Nothing special we could have planned, however, would have enhanced or increased the passion these men and women expressed for what we have accomplished--and what we must accomplish as we seek to serve Christian leaders with Christian Standard.
Perhaps it goes without saying that the magazine would not be what it is today without the input of this diverse and talented group. I'm sleepy this evening, because I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep for thinking about all we must yet do (and, as is common in the middle of the night, stewing about how to achieve it, given all the present restraints). But in the morning, I realized that there are ways to do what we must, and I will pursue them. Good people are with me, and God is our strength.
Jennifer is one of our contributing editors, and she and I are going to Universal Studios tomorrow before we both head back home Sunday. It has been chilly and gray today, but they're saying we'll have temperatures in the mid 70s tomorrow.  I hope so!