Fall Is Here!

The weather predictions on my last day in California called for triple-digit temperatures in parts of Los Angeles, but I flew home to discover that autumn had come to the Ohio Valley.
As the plane was descending through a thick cloud cover last night, there was still enough light to see the landscape below. It was dotted with brush strokes of amber, maroon, and gold--the leaves are turning! The changing landscape and the chilly temperatures outside tell us all that autumn is here--and it's a wonderful time of the year. I love not only the fall flowers, but the excuse to make hearty food and the need to pull old friends out of the winter clothes piles stored away in the basement. I'm not looking forward to winter. But beautiful autumn can stay for as long as she wants!
I was surprised to look around outside our office building and see that the landscapers had switched out the summer flowers for beautiful yellow mums and ornamental purple kale (or is this cabbage?). Yep, no more petunias or begonias for us. Fall is here!

Go East, Old Man!

Flew home today from California. Drove to LAX via Pacific Coast Highway from Camarillo where I spent two nights with Charlie and Bev Maloney.
We had a great day yesterday--long visit sitting at the bar between their kitchen and dining room over a great breakfast Bev had cooked.  Then a drive up the coast to Santa Barbara. It was a splendid, sunny, warm afternoon. The ocean sparkled around the Santa Barbara Pier where we wandered among the shops, enjoyed the views of the shore and the sailboats and yachts, and finally ate supper at a restaurant at the end of the pier, Moby Dick's. I had wonderful fried scallops and lobster bisque--very good, indeed!

Then we came home, I grabbed a 20-minute nap on their couch, and then we went to a presentation by Samaritan's Purse at their church. We came home to enjoy a little snack plus another piece of the wonderful pumpkin pie Beverly had bought at Costco (I'm gonna look for one of those here!).
It was a relaxing day, catching up with two lifelong friends, surrounded by beauty and in their comfortable home. I'm really glad I took the chance to go visit them instead of flying straight back from Hope after speaking there Thursday.
The drive along the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu to Santa Monica is a nice experience. I didn't want to take a chance on getting tied up and missing my plane, so I didn't stop along the way, but there are some wonderful vistas there. It was a peaceful way to end the trip. I sang hymns and had a brief worship time while I drove, remembering the body and blood of Christ as I sang and drove. (I definitely don't believe we all ought to go out and "have church" alone in nature instead of "assembling with the saints." But if one must miss church, taking time to actually remember it's the Lord's Day while you're alone is better than ignoring it altogether.)
Read a little better than half the proof for Christian Standard's November issue on the plane on the way home. After 9:00, Evelyn and I watched the premier of a new series, "Elementary," she had taped earlier this week. I think we'll watch it again!
I'm looking forward to tying up a bunch of loose ends at work this week.

My California Tour

I’m in the middle of what my friend Charlie Maloney dubbed my “California Tour.” It’s been a great way to reconnect with old friends on their own turf since I was coming anyway to speak at Hope International University.

I arrived Wednesday evening, and Dr. Joseph Grana picked me up from LAX and navigated the freeway traffic down to Fullerton, where the school is located. Joe and I have known each other for 50 years—we were kids together in the same youth group in Waukegan, Illinois—but I think this week was the most time we’ve spent together in decades. It was great to catch up with him and learn more about his life and ministry. Great, too, to see him in action interacting with colleagues and students. I sat in on one of his classes and really enjoyed his review of the first chapters of Acts. His easy interaction with the students as well as grasp of the material demonstrated his effectiveness as a professor.

Another joy was meeting Hope’s campus minister, Bryan Sands, who, among other things, plans and organizes the school’s chapel sessions. He was very organized, tending to every detail, but he had an easy rapport with the students who conducted the service I attended.

This week’s chapel was an a capella service. “Worship is more than music,” Bryan acknowledged, but even so, since music is such an important element, “there’s more than one way to use music in worship.” Thursday’s worship team, about eight young men and women, led us in a hymn and several worship choruses, complete with vocal percussion and full harmony. I really enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed interacting with several students, among them one young man who is earnestly seeking to discover God’s call on his life. It was humbling and encouraging to talk with him about how to figure out where God wants to use him after college.

Thursday at noon I enjoyed a wonderful lunch served in the college president’s dining room with Joe Grana, a couple of other faculty and administrators, and the guest of honor, Floyd Strater. Floyd has been a church builder, an encourager of other ministers, a friend, and a kingdom builder wherever he has served, whether Enid Oklahoma, Springfield, Illinois, or Anaheim, California. After finishing his ministry at Knott Avenue Christian Church in Anaheim, he served for several years on the staff of Hope International (then Pacific Christian College). In that role, he traveled to churches throughout Southern California preaching, advising, consulting, building up. He served on Standard Publishing’s Publishing Committee for 40 years (“the most enjoyable group I ever was a part of,” he told me) and was a leader and influencer with the North American Christian Convention.

We sat and talked and reminisced and laughed for almost three hours, and it was great to be with him. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease about a year ago, and so his activity has been curtailed. But his spirit is as vibrant as ever.

Thursday afternoon I sat in on Bob Mink’s class, and then we grabbed dinner at the Cheesecake Factory before he navigated the freeways back to his home in Moreno Valley, California. Bob was a year behind me and Evelyn at Cincinnati Bible Seminary, and we’ve stayed long-distance friends ever since. He, too, led a dynamic class session—I learned some stuff in it!—and related well to his students. I really enjoyed talking with him about his ministry and mine and pondering where the next few years would take us.

Friday morning Becky Ahlberg picked me up at the school and treated me to breakfast at Mimi’s Café before taking me on a tour of her ministry in Anaheim, My Safe Harbor. It’s an outreach to the urban community in Anaheim and beyond, principally to single mothers who have missed the positive influences and support and accountability that all of us need to survive. She’s doing a wonderful work there, in addition to her fine arts ministries at First Christian Church of Anaheim, which owns the building that houses My Safe Harbor.

Glenn and Carolyn posed just before he left to
preach a funeral.

From Anaheim I drove to West Hills where Glenn and Carolyn Kirby serve the West Valley Christian Church. It was a treat to see the large complex of buildings the church owns and uses not only for weekend services but for a Christian school and a host of community activities. We enjoyed lunch together and a long visit (again about what our ministries will look like between now and retirement ahead) before Glenn had to go preach a funeral at 3:00. I showed wedding pictures to Carolyn and then was off for Camarillo before 3:30.

I’m writing this from the home of Charlie and Bev Maloney in Camarillo, where Charlie has preached for the Christian church here for 30 years. We’ve been friends since college days more than 40 years ago; they were in our wedding; Evelyn was in theirs; Charlie and I sang in a quartet together, and he and Bev and I were a part of the school’s very first Come Alive Singers.

It’s great just to relax and catch up—and laugh!—with them. I’m glad I can hang out with them all day today before I head for LAX and home tomorrow.

Westward Bound

I miss visiting California, all these years after Jennifer moved away from there. Evelyn says she'd never live there, and I don't expect to get the chance. But I'm pleased with the opportunity to speak at Hope International University's chapel session tomorrow morning, and I'm flying out this afternoon for LAX. I decided while I was there I'd visit some old friends, and I've arranged quite a line-up: Bob Mink, Becky Ahlberg, Glenn and Carolyn Kirby, and Charlie and Bev Maloney. All of them current or former partners in ministry or former classmates or both. I'm flying back Sunday, but before then I hope to have some pictures of palm trees under sunny skies and maybe some ocean shots to post on my blog.
I was up early this morning for the kick-off breakfast for our men's Bible study. After the 6:00 meeting at Cracker Barrel, I drove home to pack and look at my sermon. Then I was back at the office by 10:15 or so to have an impromptu meeting, catch up on some correspondence, and do some assigning for future issues. Left there after 1:30, and now I'm hanging out at the Starbucks with a decaf latte before my plane starts boarding in a few minutes.
For only about $30 more than any other price I was finding, I came across the nonstop flight and said to myself, "Oh yes, that's what I'm taking." Otherwise, I probably would have been here at noon.
I want to look at the sermon some more on the plane, and I figure I'll be up early in the morning to work some more on getting in mind, with a section here and there memorized.
I doubt I'll be blogging again till after that, but I do have some free time in the afternoon tomorrow, so I'm thinking that might be the right time for some computer time.

A Full Day, an Attractive Deck

Spent the day at my desk, crossing off items that must be finished before I leave town tomorrow afternoon. Got quite a bit done! Wrote my column that will be posted Thursday at ChristianStandard.com. Prepared copy for the Christian Standard e-newsletter that will go out tomorrow or Thursday. Looked at the first proof for our November issue and worked on pagination and some layout tweaks with our managing editor, Jim Nieman. Handled details for the trip: downloaded Mapquest directions for the driving around I'll be doing Friday thru Sunday; checked in with Delta and printed my boarding pass. Did a bit of assigning for an upcoming issue.
Got my haircut after work, and Evelyn and I enjoyed chicken salad leftover from the weekend for supper.
Decided to snap a picture or two of the flowers on our deck. They won't be with us much longer. There has been some frost around here already. I was pruning and feeding the flowering plants, urging them to bloom some more, especially before our company came last weekend. The blooms are not as abundant as in July, but the plants are quite healthy, and the display is still pretty.
One thing about a garden in pots is this: when something starts doing poorly, you can just hide it or remove it. When something that looked puny finally takes off, it can move to center stage. I've enjoyed arranging and rearranging them throughout the summer to give us a pretty view out our breakfast-table window.
But when the frost comes, I won't be sad that I don't have to water any more!
Watering won't be a problem when I'm gone this week, because rain is predicted almost every day for the rest of the week. Maybe some of that grass seed the lawn service put down will sprout!

California Dreamin'

The rocks around the tide pools at Laguna Beach.
One of my favorite places to visit, and
I got to go there today!

The NEXT Conference, hosted by Provision Ministries in Irvine, California, started last night with a stimulating discussion led by Greg Nettle. He described his struggle with the question, "What is our church doing to make disciples?" This came as he saw longterm attendees at his church who were as scarred by the sins of our culture as people outside the church. He challenged us with his church's decision to create communities in neighborhoods to reach and serve their neighborhoods and make disciples. And his congregation is seeking to invest 30% of its budget on their weekend gatherings in the church building and 70% on ministry outside the building, instead of visa versa.

Today Paul Williams presented material based on his doctoral research that shows the connection between the DISC profiles of church planters and the success of their new church plants. He followed this up with material about how family systems influence church function--or dysfunction, as is often the case.

We spent some time discussing our individual landing spot with regard to our identity with and for the fellowship of Christian churches and churches of Christ, and then broke for the day.

Jeremy Brown and Greg Lee were two in our beach party.

Bart Stone, always smiling, especially
in this beautiful spot.

I had the chance to ride with some others for a quick walk on Laguna Beach during our afternoon break. The conversations to and from the beach were filled with talk of ministry problems and opportunities and approaches. The same was true for the animated discussion around the dinner tables at  Bluewater Grill this evening.

A good day. A challenging day. I'm tired, but I need to pack up and be ready to start again at 8:30 tomorrow for a session that will last till noon. Then a flight to St. Louis through Denver to meet Evelyn who will be attending a conference for college English teachers the rest of the week.

Spent the Day with Jennifer

Jennifer and I are both attending the NEXT Conference in Irvine this week, sponsored Provision Ministry Group, Orchard Group, and Christian Standard. She flew in Saturday and stayed with some friends. I flew in last night so she and I could hang out together here in beautiful California before the conference starts this evening. (I'm writing this after 4:00 on CDT, so evening hasn't come here yet!)

My flight last night was through Chicago and then to Orange County. We were landing in Chicago just as the sun was setting, and the clouds above the city were beautiful.

It was only 10:30 in California when my plane landed at the Orange County airport, but of course that was 1:30 on my old body, so I was pretty tired, but I still had trouble sleeping well. So I'm going to be tired for this opening session of this meeting tonight, too.

Jennifer picked me up at 9:15 this morning, and we drove to Newport to eat breakfast at Pacific Whey, a trendy little coffee/pastry/breakfast/lunch cafe not far from the Pacific Ocean. In fact we could see the Ocean past the parking lot beside the window where we sat.

Then we drove through Newport a little and ended up at Roger's Gardens, a fabulous place that was more like an arboretum than a garden store. Jennifer and I are both flower fans, and we spent at least an hour looking through every nook and cranny of the place.

Then we met her friend and host Heather at Watson's Drug Store in Orange for lunch and a long visit about everything from what to do in Cincinnati when Heather and Paul come to the wedding to dysfunctional families to essentials for a marriage that works to race relations and prejudice. All that accompanied by lots of laughter helps me see why Jennifer values Heather's friendship so highly.

If this evening's conversation is half as stimulating, the day will have been quite memorable. More about that tomorrow.