Preacher’s House Parables

Most of you who read our blog read Neva Cooper’s Dancing In The Light as well. In case you do not there is a link on our blog roll with more details, but in short we need to pray for her. Tuesday at 10:30am she will be having surgery to deal with a mass found in her spine. Ned and Neva are great friends and she is an awesome prayer warrior. She champions many other’s causes. You may not even know it, but, she has been praying for you. Let’s show them the support they need right now.

Solomon made the observation “there is nothing new under the sun”. There is truth to this fact. People also repeat the old adage “don’t reinvent the wheel”. Again, this has some validity.

On the other hand, was the wheel always as it is?  We as a nation encourage imagination and ingenuity. The wheel of the ‘stone age’ probably looked nothing like the wheel of today. Yes they were both round and rolled moving something else. But does a log used in this way constitute a wheel? My point is not to be philosophical but to say we need to rethink everything at some point.

Our (Kathy and James) world is presently full of that rethinking. My ministry, our house, raising kids, this blog. As I indicated last post we are in transition.

A brief glimpse at my work. My job description has as it’s major focus family. I am responsible for education, small groups, worship, outreach, integration, administration and spiritual development particularly as it relates to family. There are others who more specifically focus on children’s education, women’s ministry, worship, etc. But I work in concert with them. We have someone who is responsible for senior adults and the Senior Minister, who is responsible for vision, the pulpit and the overall ministry.

My job description could be overwhelming. What does education look like. The new facilities we are building don’t have the traditional class room spaces, and we don’t have spaces like that on the drawing board for the next two phases. What does small groups mean? How do we implement that? The questions could go on and on. There is a reason why we are planting this new congregation. We are, to a certain extent, planning on re-inventing the wheel. We believe God has called us to lead a new work relevant to the people in our area. We are not in the business of sheep stealing and don’t intend to do something that would draw those people. But, there are programs that are effective and we don’t need to try to reinvent them.

So, the point for this blog is to share some of the inner activity of my world at present. I have been spending time developing our small groups program, education, new member classes, promotional literature, meetings and experiences of worship as we explore how we will be implement this,  building relationships in our community, paying attention to my family lest I loose them in this pursuit… You get the picture.  And they say preachers only work two days a week.

I will post some other thoughts about our family and other areas I see being re-invented later. Blessings to you and yours.

Several people have stopped by to write notes of encouragement or have sent e-mails asking about how we are and when we will be blogging.  This is just a note to say we have not fallen off the planet.  Josh is busy with school and Kathy is busy with ‘mommy school’ with Kobi and Kyli (heavy on Kobi). I have been busy with work and all the accoutrements that are part of starting a new work.

We hope you pray for us and know we think of you and pray for you. Kathy’s last post included some details about some illnesses. This move has been quite an adjustment. Josh’s strep throat cleared up but resurfaced a couple of weeks ago.  We went to Lubbock for Christmas and then returned roughly a week later when I officiated the wedding of Kathy’s sister. In January Josh, Kyli and Kathy were
all on antibiotics. I have had a cold or allergies for over three weeks. We run a vaporizer and Kyli was bleeding in her nose but it cleared up. But, for two weeks my sinuses have been bleeding. Kathy is pushing for a doctor. I will try to get an appointment after the holiday.

We are hosting a small group at our home as we are getting started up. We are also working on a variety of programs including  a mother’s night out Kathy is putting together.

Both Kathy and I read some blogs and I comment occasionally. We will get back in the hang of things. Kathy is considering revamping her efforts.  So this site may become mine or Kathy may change it and I may have to actually start the blog I kinda developed for this side of the move.

Again, know you are loved and missed (at least most of you)