Summer's Winding Down

Spent quite a bit of time today thinking about, handling some correspondence for, preparing for, and then participating in a 90-minute conference call about the Stone-Campbell Dialogue that will meet in Abilene the first weekend of October.
The Dialogue meets each year to foster unity by bringing together folks from Christian churches/churches of Christ, a cappella churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ for a couple days of talk, mutual sharing, and worship. I've attended it for several years and became the coordinator for the 4C's churches at least a couple of years ago.
It's always an enjoyable time; I've appreciated friends I've made in the process. It's always a fair amount of work to gather attendees and plan or help facilitate a program. And I always wonder if it's really worth it--could the same amount of time, energy, and money accomplish more for the sake of Christian unity? I dunno.
As usual, every evening I watered plants outside, and although several of them are still beautiful, some of them just seem tired of blooming, growing, and trying to be spectacular. (Could it be that I'm just tired of watering, weeding, and killing bugs?) There's a parallel here to life in general, I think, but I'll have to save the teasing out of the analogy for another day.
As I said yesterday, I took a bunch of pictures in the garden Saturday, and the pictures of the individual plants are prettier than the yard in general. Here's another of those shots; I want to post all of them, maybe tonight, on Facebook.

I was finished with the yard and packing my lunch by 8:00, so I decided to sit on the deck and read awhile. I had to quit by 8:30, because it was getting dark. Not too dark to be outside, but too dark to read. The days are getting shorter; summer's winding down.

Now for something I said I was going to do every day but haven't kept up.

Quote of the Day:
I cannot remember in my lifetime when there has been so much foaming blind hatred and mindless rage going on in the world, America, and even my state (Missouri) as there is right now. We need genuine peacemakers, not religious terrorists, race baiters, and political opportunists.
—Victor Knowles II on Facebook today.

Meeting with the Stone-Campbell Dialogue

Drove home today from Indianapolis after attending the Stone-Campbell Dialogue meeting in Indianapolis starting Sunday afternoon. I always enjoy this opportunity to fellowship, worship, and learn with leaders from the Disciples of Christ, the a cappella churches of Christ, and friends from the Christian churches and churches of Christ.
This year we met at Allisonville Christian Church on the north side of Indy. Sunday afternoon's session consisted of three messages about the healing power of the Lord's Supper, followed by a fellowship meal hosted by the Allisonville congregation, and then a brief Communion service.
I suppose about 100-150 folks attended, with representatives from each of the three groups attending.
The local committee members that had planned the event were the speakers for the 4:30 session:

Kent Ellett, Speedway Church of Christ

Diane Spleth, Allisonville Christian Church

Mike Bowling, Englewood Christian Church

This is the beautiful Communion setting at the Allisonville church

Monday morning featured a challenging, convicting, and informing session on the theme of "Soul Repair" led by Rita Nakashima Brock, founding co-director of the Soul Repair Center, Brite Divinity School, Ft. Worth, Texas.

"Soul repair" refers to the task of helping soldiers (and others) who must do acts in war (or in some other line of duty) that contradict their moral or ethical values. Such men and women suffer from a condition called moral injury, which is a condition distinct from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dr. Brock has written a book (Soul Repair), and I want to read it.

In the afternoon we reviewed the history of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue and considered options for its future. 

This morning we visited the Disciples Center in downtown Indianapolis, took a brief tour, enjoyed a Communion service together, and then were adjourned. 

The Duty's in the Details

Today was a day for correspondence. A letter to a reader who had sent me a photocopy of an old article in Christian Standard by W.F. Lown that told the story of the merger of Midwest Christian College and Ozark Bible College decades ago. (This in response to my column encouraging more such mergers today.) An e-mail to a reader /friend who wanted to talk with me and Paul Williams about a piece Paul had written decrying the preponderance of one DiSC profile among successful church planters.
And then e-mails recruiting people to help with projects I'm involved with.
One task is to find a few folks in Indianapolis who would participate in a committee to help make local arrangements for a meeting of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue in that city this October. The committee will be made up of church staff people from independent Christian churches, a cappella churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ congregations. My job is to recruit the 4C's members. (Two have already said yes. One or two more, and I'll be there!) Next I needed to write e-mails to folks asking them to lead table discussions at the Networking Breakfasts co-sponsored by Milligan College and Standard Publishing at next summer's North American Christian Convention.
All this sounds simple when I describe it in just a couple of sentences. But finding the correct e-mail addresses, carefully writing the e-mail invitations and then copying and personalizing them for each new recipient--all this takes time. And it's a little mundane; I get bored and distracted easily, remembering other e-mails I'll need to write, checking a website for information I remember I want, and being distracted by something totally non-work-related that I find on one of those websites.
For an editor, I have a remarkably low interest in pursuing details. I've learned to tend to details in many ways, but I never relish it; and we've made some significant mistakes because I only glanced at something that should have been carefully examined.

I really didn't find anything to photograph today, but my day reminds me of a picture I snapped last week. This is the checklist that managing editor Jim Nieman pulls out just before we give each month's issue to the printer. I've seen it on the table with the proof more than once, but I'd never really read it before. As I thought about the painstaking care he gives each issue before we release it, I'm glad I work with someone with an instinct for details that exceeds my own.

Weekend Update: All About the Dialogue

I’m writing this Monday night at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, but I’m too cheap to pay the seven bucks to buy Wi-Fi access, so I won’t be able to post this till sometime Tuesday. I’m on my way home from attending the Stone-Campbell Journal Dialogue, which met this week in Grand Prairie, Texas, outside Dallas. My layover in Chicago is almost two hours; I could have flown nonstop on American, and for a lower fare. But at the time I was booking, American was suffering from sick-outs, cancelled flights, and threats of collapse because of bankruptcy. So I didn’t want to risk not getting to Dallas on time or not getting home today at all. So I’m living tonight with the decision I made. (By all accounts, American is flying without a flaw this week.)

The Dialogue was a good experience. I value the new friends I’ve made by attending these meetings for the last several years, and I’ve gained new perspectives on the faith as well as the convictions of those in the Disciples of Christ and the noninstrumental churches of Christ.

We began the retreat with an effort to extend the possibilities and the pursuit of unity beyond the circle of 15 or so members of the national Dialogue team. So we invited Dallas-area “young leaders” from all three streams of the movement to share with us in a spiritual formation retreat Friday night and all day Saturday. We met at a Catholic retreat center in Grand Prairie, a pleasant location—clean, comfortable, and they fixed us excellent meals. It was a good experience; I felt drawn closer to God, and I made several new friends.

One of them was Brandon Groome, who accepted the invitation of the Dialogue team to welcome a guest preacher for Sunday morning this weekend. He had invited me to speak at his congregation, Southwest Christian Church in Fort Worth, and I had a great experience there.

The worship music was wonderful—upbeat and contemporary, but so well sung and played, loud but not blasting your ears off, with variety both in tempo and volume and accompaniment. I preached one of my favorite sermons, on Daniel chapter 3, and I surely received as many blessings as anyone in the service that morning.

Newell Williams, president of Brite Divinity School and
member of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue, came to
hear me preach Sunday morning. Jean and Marshall
Leggett attend Southwest Christian every Sunday.

I had the chance to meet all the church’s staff—Brandon invited me to join them for lunch after the second service. And I enjoyed the serendipity of saying hello to Jean and Marshall Leggett who have located in Fort Worth and are faithful members of Southwest Christian. (Marshall has been a friend for years; he invited me to speak at Broadway Christian Church in Lexington one Sunday night when he was preaching there, before he became president of Milligan College.)

Sunday evening we had a unity Communion service at North Davis Church of Christ—an impressive congregation with a beautiful building. Dusty Rubeck preached, and I hope to persuade him to prepare a manuscript version of the sermon for Christian Standard.

The national team met alone today, reflecting on take-aways from the spiritual formation retreat and engaging in a lively discussion about which directions the Dialogue should take, specifically next year.

The group had nominated me to lead the closing Communion service. I used the old hymn, “Just As I Am” as a framework for the time, interspersed with responsive Scripture readings, a variety of types of prayers, a reading from Isaiah 53, and the partaking of the Communion.

Most members of the team view these simple efforts at expressing unity as only an example of other such efforts that are happening among many groups in many places in the world. The steps toward understanding and discovering areas of agreement that we are taking and urging others to take seem to be significant even though they are not making headlines or involving hundreds of people.

Sean Palmer from Temple, Texas, was my
roommate the first night of the retreat.

I’m very tired as I finish this little report in O’Hare’s drafty B concourse, but I’m glad I’ve had this experience with these people.

Now home to the challenges of the week: two days in the office; attending the International Conference on Missions in Indianapolis, leaving home at about 9:00 Thursday morning; and returning Saturday night so we can be present for Tom and Kay Moll’s last Sunday of their ministry with our church. And we need to figure out what was the scratching in the wall that Jennifer heard when she stayed over with Evelyn at our house Saturday night. I don’t have time to host the exterminator this week, but I probably don’t have a choice.

Knowing as We Are Known

Left home about 8:30 this morning to run an errand or two on the way to the Dayton airport for a 10:58 flight to Chicago. Connected to a flight for Dallas and arrived here after 2:30 Central time.  I was concerned about connecting through Chicago, but both flights departed and arrived without a hitch, and I had plenty of time to grab lunch at O'Hare before the second one.
Finished reading Soul Feast and skimmed through The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Hagberg and Guelich. The first was "required," and the second was recommended. I want to read the second one, though, because I think I might enjoy it more.

I've enjoyed renewing friendships with others on the Stone-Campbell Dialogue Team who are here this weekend and making new acquaintance with "younger" local leaders who are joining us just for the retreat. We spent the opening session sharing our spiritual journeys with each other in small groups and then ended the retreat with repeated readings of Psalm 139:1-10, with a different listening assignment for each reading. Quiet, directed, repeated reading of a familiar passage of Scripture does have an impact that we often miss by reading through it quickly without meditation.
I'm looking forward to our time together tomorrow.

Getting Ready for Travel, Getting Ready for Christmas

Today was a somewhat typical last day in the office before a trip away. I mentioned yesterday that I'm reading a book in preparation for attending a spiritual life retreat sponsored by the Stone-Campbell Dialogue. Well, I leave home about 8:30 tomorrow morning to catch a plane for Chicago connecting to Dallas, where the retreat will be held.
Today I spent checking items off my list, all of them items that really needed to be handled before I'm back in the office next week.
Had a productive couple of meetings settling on prices and procedures for a program I'll introduce to the Christian college presidents meeting before the ICOM next week. We're going to offer student subscriptions to Christian Standard, and I'm going to see how they like the idea, suggested by Matt Proctor, when I meet with them.
Did some planning with Diane Jones-Dunham and some last-minute consultation with Jim Nieman on the January issue of Christian Standard, whose layout he'll be designing starting tomorrow.
Meanwhile, our printed copies of the December issue arrived. We're thinking about the holiday as we send contributors' samples of our bright red, "Merry Christmas" cover.

A Book I'm Reading

This weekend I'm attending a spiritual life retreat as part of the annual meeting of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue. This year we're meeting at a retreat center outside of Dallas, Texas. The retreat leader asked us to read a book by Marjorie J. Thompson, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. Below are some snippets I've underlined so far.

Although we  may be able to point to a single and decisive conversion experience, remaining faithful involves a journey of continual conversion. 

In prayer, we need to speak whatever truth is in us . . . . It takes practice to learn not to censor our prayer. But trying to keep secrets from God is like the three-year-old who covers her eyes and declares, "You can't see me." 

There is no substitute for giving time to the practice of prayer. Like most things, we learn best by doing it. 

Keeping the Sabbath means trusting God to be God, recognizing that we are not indispensable. When we refuse to take a single day a week for genuine refreshment and rest, we try to outdo even God! In the light of God's rest, our anxious, compulsive activities may be exposed as little more than efforts to stay in control, or to fabricate life's meaning out of constant activity. 

If we spend half an hour assessing our life before God, either Saturday evening or early Sunday morning, we will discover a natural bridge between our personal prayer and common worship. 

Personal prayer during the week is even more critical for church leaders than for other Christians. Without it, you are truly courting the sin of works-righteousness, not to mention hypocrisy and burnout. 

We can neither earn God's love nor achieve our own security and perfection. We cannot "fix" ourselves or anyone else the way we want to.

Not Skeptical, Not a Pollyanna

Sometimes I have tried to analyze my tendency to bounce between being Pollyanna on the one extreme and cynical and skeptical on the other. I thought about that again today as I reflected on two events from the day.
One was a conference call with Doug Foster and Robert Welch to plan details for the Stone-Campbell Dialogue that will meet in Dallas this November. The Dialogue has been meeting for several years now, long before I was associated with it. It is an effort to acquaint leaders from all three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement in discussions to help them see where they agree and to foster Christian unity among the three groups.
The cynical side of me says, "Dialogue. Talk. Discussion. That's great, but what is accomplished in all of this? And are we experiencing unity richer, fuller, or more obvious now than before all the talk began?"
I'm still not sure I have an answer for all those questions, but I do believe the meeting we'll experience in Dallas this November will be worth the time of all who attend. We are planning a spiritual disciplines retreat, led by a lady from the churches of Christ and attended not only by the Dialogue team members, but also by 14 or 15 "young leaders," 5 from each of the streams, who minister in the Metroplex area. It will be a way to broaden the acquaintance of others with the goals and people in the Dialogue. And I believe it will be a worthwhile event just for itself, regardless of any future implications or lack of them.
Late this afternoon I sat in with the VBS production team to talk about an article about Standard Publishing's 2013 VBS in the January issue of Christian Standard.
At first I was skeptical and critical of the decision to introduce a VBS theme based so closely on a previous course. ("God's Big Backyard" was Standard's 2008 VBS.) But after talking with Matt Lockhart and the VBS team, I can see all the reasons for doing this, all the ways next year's course will be different and better than the previous one, and all the creative and new features users will enjoy in "God's Backyard Bible Camp." I'm looking forward to laying this all out there in an interview-format article that will appear in our January issue.