Earlier this summer I was accepted to be a part of a twelve day learning tour in November to Israel/Palestine.  Mennonite Central Committee has been leading these tours for the last few years, giving church leaders the opportunity to become acquainted first hand with the daily realities of life there.  Historically Mennonites have worked especially closely with Palestinian Christians and Israeli peace groups. This will be my third trip to that region, also 2000 and 2004.  Because I find it easier to sympathize with Palestinians, who continue to be on the receiving end of so much injustice through home demolitions, middle of the night house raids, harassment at checkpoints, bombings of residential areas, etc, part of my preparation for the trip includes gaining a better understanding of Israeli/Jewish perspectives and their version of history.  One way will be to initiate some conversations with a few rabbis in the Columbus area.

The Alban Institute puts out helpful essays about church life and this week I came across an archived article titled, “Spiritual Identity and Worship Planning.”  The author draws from the work of Urban T. Holmes who wrote a book called Discover Your Spiritual Type which names four types of spiritual identity: mystic, feeling, thinking, and visionary.  These could also be named contemplative, charismatic, intellectual, and crusader (that is a lousy word with its association with violent wars, but it essentially means mission-oriented, visionary).  The basic argument is that people are drawn into the Divine in different ways and that each person has one or two primary ways through which they do this. This of course relates to worship services.  Contemplatives value practices such as silence and meditation.  Charismatics openly express emotion and value impassioned singing and speaking.  Intellectuals want to be challenged to think in new ways.  Visionaries look to

Last week approximately 20-30 children gathered at the church every evening between Sunday and Thursday for Vacation Bible School.  A big thanks to all who helped make VBS possible this year.  It would not have happened without the willing and graceful leadership of organizers, teachers, snack preparers, game leaders, craft artisans, drama thespians, sound-system operators, parent-chauffeurs, and anyone else I have forgotten.   The theme of the week was “Message Received: Hearing God’s Call,” and we heard a different story every night about someone in the Bible receiving a message from God.  I was glad to see the curriculum included stories about people in the Bible who might be unfamiliar to many of our young people.  I also found it interesting that the stories that were included covered a range of ways that messages could be received from God.  For instance, on the second night we learned about Esther and her

If you were unable to attend worship on Sunday you missed a wonderful celebration of Mark’s credentialing, including a powerful sermon reflecting on Jesus’ parable of the banquet in Luke 14.  We were honored to have numerous out of town guests (32 to be precise), many from Central District Conference, and there were various times of spontaneous applause and Amen-ing.  The sermon can be read or heard on our website HERE, and a few pictures are posted on our church’s Facebook page HERE.  You can also listen to the whole worship service HERE.  The service and the open mic time during the meal that followed also included a number of memorable and hashtag-able phrases and inside jokes:  #hellofriends  #atvariance  #stillmoreroom  #brunch  #cementtruck  #licensetodrive. Because the credentialing of persons who identify as LGBTQ remains at odds with official denominational teaching and statements, you may very likely find yourself in a conversation

Our family arrived back from vacation last Thursday night.  We had all driven out to Kansas City, Eve and me staying for the Convention, Abbie taking Lily and Ila on to her hometown of Quinter in Western Kansas.  After Convention we joined up in Quinter and spent a week in the mountains near Gunnison, Colorado, in a cabin that Abbie’s grandpa built several decades ago. It was a significant transition going from the hyperconnectivity of Convention – with face-to-face and facebook-to-facebook conversations happening all day every day – to a setting in which phone and internet connections were not even an option.  It was lovely. Another transition was going from a setting in which change is measured in shifts of attitude and polity that occur over the span of years and decades, to a setting in which change is measured in the millions of years.  Convention was an exercise in