A full day of gabbing

I spent the whole day talking.

Really, I pretty much did. Lucinda hosted the text study at her house this morning, and it was only her and one other of our colleagues there. We talked a bit about the texts for next Sunday, and a lot about the ups and downs of financing a seminary education. Susan, our newest colleague, has a really wonderful story of God's providence, leading to her finishing sem with a credit rather than a balance of student loans. Many, if not most seminarians, have a sadly different experience, though.

After the text study, Cinda and I got caught up. We seem to do this every few weeks to few months - sit down, start talking about everything under the sun, and discover we need to eat because we've talked right through mealtime. Then we continue to talk for another few hours. =) It was very good and helpful visiting with her today. She's got a good sense for the way things work around here, and has been an excellent resource and source of encouragement when things in my own ministry have been difficult. Very good conversation... we just need to do this more often, so it doesn't have to take all day!

Then I visited the sewing ladies and had coffee. Afterwards I hunted for possible storage places with two of them (the church is filling up, and I firmly believe that with a little willpower and a weekend we could free up fully half of our cluttered storage spaces). I talked about my desire for a youth room at the church, and we wrestled a bit over why the "lounge" upstairs is sacrosanct - it's used only three or four times a year for anything "loungelike" (when we have funerals), and is essentially a wasted space the rest of the year. Yet it is emotionally beyond touch in our church. If there is anything about the church (the people or the building) that is not service Christ and his gospel, but could be, then we should be bold enough and faithful enough to put it to use. Protecting a room because "it's special" or "we've always had it" is silly if that room sits empty and doesn't serve the needs of the church.

Well, we went around in circles a little over that. ;) I want to understand why that room is so sacrosanct, but I also want to challenge people a little bit. In many churches, there are lots of things like that - gifts of God that are being wasted out of laziness, sentimentality, fear, and a host of other excuses. Our churches are no better or worse than most in this area. But just because we're no worse than most doesn't mean we should be content with that fact! We have no excuse not to try and use whatever we have here in Hastings and Litchville to serve Christ. We're called to do no less.

So now when I get home from a day full of gabbing, what do I do? I sit down at the computer, get caught up on the blogs and news I read, and then gab away on my own blog. =) Life is funny that way.