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.

A Good Day

Trevor DeVage started a new sermon series today, all about Jesus. Today's focus was on Jesus, our Friend, and I had the chance to serve as host at the 9:30 service in the auditorium. I decided to quote J. Wilbur Chapman's words, the text to a familiar hymn, for the Communion meditation.

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners! Jesus! lover of my soul;Friends may fail me, foes assail me,He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Jesus! what a Strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in Him; [I'm] Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,He, my Strength, my vict'ry wins.
Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah! what a Friend!Saving, helping, keeping, loving,He is with me to the end.

It was a blessing to participate in the worship service this morning.

Benji Maurer worked with one of the worship teams early in the morning.

Evelyn and I had a nice breakfast at Mimi's Cafe and then took our walk as soon as we got home. Another 50-plus degree, springlike day (just like yesterday), made a good afternoon to walk in the park. When we got back, we chopped down the dead ornamental grass outside. And then, after a shower, I did some writing (got a draft of my column that goes live Tuesday), and then went to the grocery store.
Enjoyed a little time to read the paper and watch the news before dinner, "60 Minutes," and "The Bible," the miniseries on the History Channel

 

 

 

 

A Wonderful Evening, All for a Good Price

We had decided not to subscribe to a concert series with the Cincinnati Pops this year. There just weren't five concerts I wanted to attend. But then we got this offer to purchase tickets to two concerts and get the third one free, and there were two I really did want to attend, the annual Holiday concert and the closing concert featuring Mandy Patinkin. So I thought, OK, I'll take a third concert free. I chose the concert for last night, March 8, featuring the Chieftains. 

I'm afraid I'd never heard of the Chieftains, and I didn't really know what to expect. I was delightfully surprised and pleased. They are a group of marvelous musicians--and dancers!--from Ireland. And in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day, the whole program featured the haunting melodies of Irish tunes.

Flutes, harp, keyboard, guitar, violins combined with vocals and several rounds of that unique brand of Irish dancing plus a bagpipe choir and a men's chorus for an evening that was truly enjoyable. 

We saw or bumped into several friends there, which added to the enjoyment, as did our wonderful dinner at the Washington Platform, located not far from Music Hall at the corner of Court and Elm. 

We discovered Washington Platform a year or two ago when we had a Groupon for the place, and we loved the eclectic mix of seafood and other delights as well as the unique atmosphere. So when their name came up again amid the Groupon offerings a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance. We parked across the street from the restaurant--on the street, for free--and decided to walk down to Music Hall for the concert. It was brisk, but not cold. We were glad to get into the warm concert hall, and afterwards, glad to get in our warm car. But the fresh air and walk were good for us. We had a free concert, a discounted dinner, and free parking in an evening that was nice in every way.

Revealed

I really enjoyed leading the discussion at our men's Bible study this morning. We're working through Revelation--I chose it because I felt particularly uncomfortable with the book. And I must admit I haven't felt completely comfortable trying to lead some of our discussions so far. But for some reason, I was more satisfied with the way today's session went.
For one thing, I devised some discussion questions and activities quite apart from anything suggested in the several resources I'm using. For another, I used the white board as a part of that discussion, and I think it's an excellent tool for stimulating response and helping a group summarize what it has decided and learned. I had planned more for us to discuss than we had time to get to, which may be another positive indicator. They say the best teaching is from the overflow, and I found myself remembering points and questions without being tied to my notes or to the guidebook we're following together. And the guys themselves bring meaningful insights to the discussion and helps from their study Bibles that left us all (I hope!) feeling more comfortable with the chapter (Revelation 6) after our session than before.
It was a heavy topic, evil and God's response to it at the end of time. In many ways I feel insulated from the evil that characterizes existence for so many people in the world. But it's good for all of us to consider how the Evil One is present and active, even in our own upper middle class, suburban worlds.

Snow White

We awoke this morning to find a thick insulation of heavy, wet snow over everything. Before I left for work after 9:00, Evelyn measured 7 inches on the front lawn.

I decided to shovel the driveway and clean off Jennifer's car since she had to drive to Louisville today, and since her car was almost hidden by the snow. Evelyn helped. The snow was heavy and wet. 

We were making slow progress when our neighbor, Bob Leshnak, came down, driving his ATV with a plow attached. We had seen him clearing his driveway, and now he was finished. He offered to finish plowing ours; we still had at least a third of it to do, plus clearing Jennifer's car, and we were really grateful.

The snow outside was beautiful. Every tree was covered with snow, as if it was painted with fluffy, white icing. Every grove, every yard, at every turn there was a scene that looked like a landscape from a painting or a Christmas card. 

I drove to work about 9:15 and enjoyed the beautiful scenery (my picture certainly doesn't do it justice) all the way there.

Back to the Blog

This week is more evidence of a syndrome I've observed before. When there's not much to write about, there's usually time to write. When the day is full of stuff to report, it may be too full for diary-writing time. Jen has been here the last few days, and I've been too busy talking and eating and TV-viewing with her to write about it.
Actually, I've decided to be a little less driven about this whole diary-keeping thing. That is, I'm not going to feel guilty if I don't post some day. So I won't feel guilty about not posting yesterday, and I'll get on with a short entry for today.
Jennifer said before she came to visit that she was craving one of her guilty pleasures, a trip to Frisch's. So she and Evelyn met me there for lunch yesterday before they visited Mildred Holmes at Mason Christian Village. She also said she was missing good Indian food, so our outing today was to go to Raja India on Tylersville for dinner and enjoy the delicacies they offer there.

Jennifer decided while she was here she'd teach Evelyn how to use Pinterest, so that was the activity for this evening. We've had lots of laughs over the whole experience thinking of names for boards we could create, for example, and comparing Evelyn's beginning boards with the little bit I've pinned. ("Who would guess you'd both have pins from mamalovesfood.com?"
I spent most of the day at work today slogging through some challenging editing, in between e-mail correspondence and getting answers I didn't like at a brief meeting I had this afternoon.
They're predicting several inches of snow overnight, and before 9:00, the pouring rain we had at suppertime turned into heavy snowfall. The sidewalks and lawn were covered in no time.
I e-mailed myself some editing I can do early in the morning if I decide to go in a little late. The snow is supposed to turn into flurries by about 9:00 in the morning.

One Fine Day

This morning Trevor Devage told the story of Jesus  and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11).
Sin leads to
SHAME,
STONES, and ultimately, a
SAVIOR,
he said.
One of the memorable points: "I think Jesus got down at eye level with that woman weeping in the dirt. I think he looked her straight in the eye and said, 'I've got this one.'"
His challenge: "We're going to be a church that gets in the dirt, eye level with sinners."
He asked us to pray for one, invite one, and move for one and announced that we would move from four services in two hours to five services in three hours, starting the week after Easter.  Our church is growing, our services are full, obviously there are many, many around us who don't know Jesus, and we must do what we can to reach them. It was a moving, challenging service, and we're full of anticipation about what the future months will bring.
Dave and Carol Ray visited this morning  and we invited them the grab brunch with us at Bob Evans after the first service. Lots of laughter, but serious life sharing too.
Jennifer is in town this weekend. She came this way a few days early before she heads to Louisville for an NACC 2014 executive committee meeting. So it was a great time with the five of us at lunch.

This afternoon I paid bills, took a long nap, went to the grocery store, and came home to make vegetable soup for supper. It was so yummy. Jen asked if I could pick up some pimiento cheese at the grocery store; she was used to finding a dozen different varieties of it in Nashville, but it's an unknown quantity in Philadelphia.
Oh, it is so good on three-cheese bread and crackers with that hearty minestrone-style vegetable soup.  And we have leftovers!
Settling in and watching the first episode of the History Channel's miniseries, "The Bible," to end a good day.