Haven't posted for a few days here . . . a bit of a roller coaser of a few days.

Sunday was a first-hand experience of what Paul rails against in I Corinthians - one of those days where "your meetings do more harm than good." People sticking their noses where they don't belong, making political maneuvers, and generally just being arrogant and self-centered. Grrrr. This is why the modern church is failing. This is why I want nothing to do with it.

Monday I was seriously in a funk all day as I reflected on the travesty that I had lived through the day before. Fortunately, that evening I had a meeting with my corps of volunteers in student ministry and got a chance to paint a wild-eyed vision for how church could be if we ever fully owned our role as missionaries in this world. It's a vision not for the next one or four years (as student ministry vision tends to be), but forty years. As I spoke with passion, people caught little glimpses and got energized by it, which encouraged me, given that most of my volunteers will be long dead in forty years. We went on to talk about more immediately practical things, but I sensed a lingering excitement. After the pathetic meeting Sunday night, I needed a meeting that good.

On Tuesday morning in staff prayer, I shared briefly about the Monday meeting, and the vision that I had painted. Although I had shared this once before with the pastor, he seemed to latch on to it more, and asked me to write him a three paragraph e-mail outlining my vision. Instead, I wrote a four page document, which may have the makings of a pretty decent article. We'll see if it ever gets published!