Loved this sign! Cana and I loved the shop too--on 8th Ave North in Nashville.
I am in Baltimore at a Lewis Center for Church Leadership (Wesley Seminary) sponsored event. I am a part of a district superintendency cohort which began two years ago. There were 12 of us that began. Now there are 9---two have gone back to the local church and one is no longer in the ministry. We have met twice a year to help Lovett and the Center to find out how best practices can be developed early in the superintendency. It has been a really neat group--Liz Lopez and Gail Ford Smith I had met before. Others were new to me and are now good friends.
We do much honest sharing about the struggles and joys of our ministries---each of us superintends a bit differently. THe times I have come to this meeting have been one of the most generative experiences for me --- not that I take others' ideas wholesale, but somehow being with this group inspires and generates ideas particular to the HN district. Today, I got to thinking again about offering a book study each month. I would not have to lead each one---in fact I began brainstorming today books and pastors in my district whom I could ask for ideas and to lead. I also began to dream some about three "days apart" and what we might do to experience Advent/Christmas; Lent; and Easter together as district pastors. I thought about asking my lay leaders to chair our still-shaping District Round Table which functions in some ways like a district council...actually to be honest it hasn't functioned much at all even though we elected it last November. I've thought about methods for evaluation for my ministry as a superintendent. And, also, I will admit that along with the others here, I also have hoped and prayed today that my beloved United Methodist Church would not become "an antique of the future." I also was so touched this morning to hear from our district lay leaders, knowing that they, and others are praying for me while I am here. I am so sure about the power of prayer to focus and to birth ideas of the Spirit.
And, I was VERY tired today...didn't sleep well last night. However, I had a fairly neat prayer-learning this morning. I get nervous when this happens because once in a while in the past the chemical depression sometimes rears its unattrative head on days when I don't sleep. But maybe when I have these days for whatever reason, when I don't sleep well maybe I can see it as an experience to let go and let God...to know that it isn't the end of the world, and that despite my tiredness, God can work for good in me. Yes, I know...I should know this already. But some of those gosh darn simple truths are the ones you need to learn over and over. This letting go thing and the result from it today was a postmodern thing, kind of. There is mystery in it beyond cognition and power in it beyond what I could do by or for myself. To trust in the power of God to be at work in us; to relax into that; and to acknowledge it is also a way to "get over yourself" when you believe yourself "not at your best." Maybe it's in the times when we are required to be most reliant of the power of God to love us through and get us through, is really, in fact, when we are at our best. Actually, there is no "maybe about it".
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