I promised earlier today on Facebook that I would blog. Not "post a sermon" or "link a video" but "blog." As both of my regular readers have noticed, it's been a while (ReverendMother said last week that her blog had grown "stale." If that can happen, then this thing oughta be ready for croutons by now.)
It's been an interesting beginning to our life in Ames. I think we're finally coming to grips with the fact that we own a house (paying the first mortgage payment can do that to you - let's say it was somewhere between "ouch" and "boing.") and we're making a home here. Kristin and Ainsley have found all sorts of fun things we can do together - play groups at the local rec center, KinderMusik, story time at the public library, etc. But the weather has been conspiring against us, it seems - school has been delayed or canceled at least once each of the eight weeks we've been here, and I think I can count the the number of days of seasonal weather without removing my shoes. We expect snow in the midwest, but the frigid temps and ice? Not so much. I have the opportunity to get to work daily, but Kristin and Ainsley are getting a bit of cabin fever, I think. Thankfully, spring is coming soon and we'll be able to get outside and see exactly what kind of backyard we have (right now, all we know is "big").
At the Center, it's really starting to feel like "my" call, and I mean that in a healthy way. The danger coming into a situation where you follow quickly on a well-liked previous pastor (in my case, less than 8 months) is the constant refrain of "Reverend _____ never did it like this." That hasn't happened much here, for two reasons - first, I haven't changed a whole lot, and second, Reverend _____ has graciously stayed away, even though he's still living in town while he does a long-term interim in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I like my predecessor very much, and I hope when his interim is completed he'll feel comfortable stopping by occasionally, but I very much appreciate his discretion and respect; it's made things much easier for me.
In terms of program and spiritual life, our numbers are slowly increasing, but we're making quality growth steps in ways that I think will pay large dividends for the future. We've restarted a spiritual discernment program called "Reaching In / Reaching Out" and the eight members of our group will, I think, form a strong core for next year's student community. We're averaging about 25-30 for Sunday morning worship and 15-19 for Holden Evening Prayer on Wednesday, and again, there's quality growth here: these are regular attendees, with very few one-timers. If they come, by and large they come back, so we're obviously feeding something even as the community and I get to know each other better.
With all that happening, and my continuing exploration of the community (I'm blogging from The Stomping Grounds this afternoon), I'm beginning to get a sense of the mountain range that I'll be travelling professionally for the foreseeable future. Though the University Lutheran Center facility is impressive, there is a TON of renovation and repair to be done, and it's more than a little intimidating to contemplate. My colleague from Lord of Life Lutheran and I toured the building again this morning and found more that we can repair (and this is in addition to the thousands left to raise to pay off the repair of our sanctuary roof and installation of new windows and a different floor). My office administrator just smiled when we told her what we'd been doing; she said "Sometimes it's better not to think about everything that needs to be done." There's a need for spiritual life and community building, of course. The old nursery rhyme is certainly true: the church is the people. But since this particular people have been blessed with a building site, part of my responsibility to them is to inspire a sense of stewardship when it comes to that building. Somehow that got neglected for quite some time, and though my predecessor got a lot of things moving, there is much yet to be done.
It's enough that this afternoon I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed. Consequently, my two-week string of Thursday afternoon sermons has come screeching to a halt. With luck and a bit more determination, I'll be able to recapture the magic tomorrow and still enjoy a weekend free of nerves. I do have a title/them in mind, and even an opening illustration, but it's going to take some dedicated work to pull it off tomorrow. Not to mention I'll be anxious to post the results of the 20 week ultrasound. Yikes - hard to believe we're close to the third trimester already.
It's quite a range of mountains in front of me. But each climb begins with one step, and it's getting near the time that scouting stops and climbing starts. Wish me luck.
Peace,
Scott
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