On Typing

By choosing the word "pursuing" to describe what we want to do about peace, we are acknowledging that it is a continuous activity. We are always going after or chasing peace. Sometimes peace is elusive, sometime there are complications, sometimes there are obstacles to overcome. Maybe we will never quite capture peace, but we are always pursuing, always following after Christ, who indeed is our peace.

- Harriet Sider Bixler in an essay entitled Pursuing Peace found in the Brethren in Christ core values.

What a contrast this quote presents against many ideas of a peacemaker as an avoider or mediator, but never as an agitator. To re-orient peacemaking in a light which appears aggressive but still faithfully meek is something Bixler does well here. I think.

soon and very soon

This week I wrote a story about one really BIG church and one small church. It is interesting because it is not time that makes one congregation grow more rapidly than the others...The larger one is a much younger congregation. It seems to be a mentality shift. Not that one mentality is superior to the other, but even the way things are talked about is worlds different.

I think someone could spend hours studying this subject, tossing it about and traveling across the country interviewing church members and staff - deliberating over the factors: marketing techniques, gregarious personalities, a wide age-range, right place right time, the work of the holy spirit in a congregation... sheesh, the thoughts are endless

Stories are piling up and will soon be available on the web!

Rounding out

In a farewell meeting today for a member of the Foundation all people within the BIC church offices met to share and gather around A. Ray one last time. Although I never had a chance to really speak with her, she has walked by my cubicle purposefully many times - and individuals I have interviewed glowed her praise.

This is the second time I have gotten the chance to be a part of a farewell ceremony for a much beloved member of these offices this summer.

Each time tears, laughter and stories were passed around like cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving Dinner. And although the middle of a work day often seems like it is not the place for warm condolences and heart rendering, people here in the office have no problem breaking it down -there is a sense of camaraderie and closeness in the office that is pleasant to observe and be around.

It seems to demand a contemplation on rootedness in me. When you put roots down in a community you gain the ability to display a more true sense of yourself, one that others are able to comment on. I guess more simply it gives you time to make an indent.

In transient society - one that often takes importance off of community gatherings, and places them on more individualistic efforts of proving yourself to yourself only - I think this beauty is often lost. Not that there is a need to prove - that word throws the harmony off a bit- but just to be a part of something that can be attested to, understood, quoted back.

One thing said today was "in every thing we do, every interaction, we are either adding to or taking away from our integrity" in other words - our wholeness. When I think of wholeness I think of circles, and thinking of gaining more wholeness, in a visual sense, makes me thinking of growing more 'round.'

It seems that without a community surrounding us, sounding out this continued 'rounding out' (one way rounding out is sweet) how can we understand our shape? With all the talk of round people - do you remember playing with weebles little people!? Love 'em

*wish I could have found some better pictures though.

drops of promise in the air

And August begins. Swaggering onto stage as predicted--with swells of heat rising in a haze of humidity from blacktop. When I was 15 I started setting monthly goals at the beginning of every month - I thought it would help with the short vs long term memory thing a bit - and while a lot of things have changed from the age of 15 - 22! - this one hasn't.

I think the thing about August is that you start to remember. those goals, the moisture laden heat sort of purifies you and makes you stop to think - the beginning of the summer always starts with high hopes for relaxation, meditation, reading, hiking, biking, swimming, traveling and catching with friends, and those projects and dreams that fall beside the way on colder days. But somewhere in the first weeks of June, summer stops being that place we place our most exciting hopes and just sort of races itself to the end... till we get to August. Now we soak up every last ray of summer's potential energy before she moves on. I like talking about things like they are universal.

Well, here at the BIC Foundation it seems that people I haven't been able to get a hold of or who never called me back, finally are contacting me. They didn't forget me completely after all. So I have been working on email interviews and turning them into articles. While email does make things so much easier in some ways, just having those words right there in front of you to plug in, all laid out, ahhh, cuts out having to listen to an article over again remembering where quotes were, etc.
- it does lack of something of a push, a voice tone inflection that shows you right where to begin or end your article. A whole slue of pictures just came in today as well - always interesting to put faces to the voices you have been listening to on the phone.

The BIC Foundation has been cooking up some exciting new ways to get information out there to the public and let those that can benefit from them know.

unearthing talents

Not very much talking this week as I continued to process interviews that took place last week. This blog seems like it is pretty boring today - and it doesn't even say anything yet!

Tomorrow I am leaving for vacation so I am finishing up a few articles that I can leave behind before I go. I did have an interesting follow-up interview yesterday - the subject was...Drama! Discussing ways churches and ministries can really uncover and empower individuals hidden talents. In seeking to do this their church has uncovered a number of talented actors - and they are running with it! The plays they perform are also written and directed at the church.

I once acted in a play. I was Elizabeth, the cook in King Josiah's - that's right, from the OT - palace. Since I was the narrator I had to stand up in the play and do time-outs, Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell style, keeping the audience informed. My performance was complete with exaggerated hand gestures, facial expressions, and a lil to large chef's hat. Oh to drama! I can't say this star/lead part ever developed into a very extraordinary career for me - although I did almost try out for a Messiah play...

Does anyone have any hidden talents they developed later in life? Proclaim them on my blog!

Our country 'tis of thee

Today, I took some time to hop on the BIC Forum. I enjoyed the set-up. I noticed that most of the time the comments came from the same few people, which is ashame, what a powerful way to connect on a number of levels with individuals you are linked with by name (the denomination name). With all the time that individuals - or at least younger individuals have - for myspace, aim, hopefully they can jump on and be a part of the dialogue.

Today, I have been working primarily writing Mission Profiles which will be posted on BICWM website. While doing that, and a little research, I came across a blog kept by an Americah citizen who had lived in Thailand as an ex-pat for a number of years. Recently he had debated returning to the U.S. He was scared to return after such a long absence.

This morning I spoke with a CGA investor who had served in Africa for over twenty years. She said seconded the motion - returning was more difficult than adjusting.

North America - the land of convenience and freedom - is more difficult to return to?Although I cannot speak for others, some images enter my mind: the blue pen by my bed that cannot seem to find my journal or letters blank face, the red face of the woman in front of me who was cut off, mini vans full, and eyes on auto-pilot - (and also just that, the conveniance and freedom in the face of such disparity elsewhere.) We could stand to talk about the ways that America wears and pulls her citizens for an indefinite amount of time, but maybe for now.. living within her borders and sustaining balance is...an art of another kind.

Spacing out..

"These virtues of shelter are so simple, so deeply rooted in our unconscious that they may be recaptured through mere mention, rather than through minute description." - The Poetics of space.

Reading parts of the book Poetics of Space caused me to reflect more intentionally on the importance of space in a number of ways.
Interviewing pastors, leaders and congregations regularly I have come to realize they are doing this constantly, in a number of ways.

Does space and building define identity? Or does it just give others a chance to do so? This is a question that many congregations have had to ask themselves when they decide to take a loan for a building of their own. One pastor discussed the ways in which their local community had not truly acknowledge the congregations arrival without a locale and building to place them in. He also acknowledged the ways in which it contributed to the congregations own identity of itself.

The dynamic relationship between the space we inhabit, and ourselves, is exciting. Even more dynamic is when the buildings relationship is with a whole GROUP of people. Then it takes on the unique characteristics, not only one person or family, but a number of different families, people groups etc.

I have already recorded, inadvertently different ways congregations have put their money to good. Talking with a number of new pastors last week, here are some more:

* One congregation was able to turn their tilted lobby into a dinner theatre, rather than just manage with awkward angles like it has been doing.

*Another has used their building as a base for service outreach - becoming known in the community as a resource performing acts of kindness in the area.

*One congregation has used their building for Kids Clubs that attract a large number of children from the community to come out and share a time of fun and learning.