I've had some good talks with Michelle over the past several days. Some of them have been uncomfortable, but all have been helpful. I enjoy her thinking so much.

We worshiped with a faith community in North San Diego yesterday. It was a "cool" church - what I might call a transitional church. Reading and interpreting the fine print showed that they are at least loosely organized around the purpose driven model, and listening to the language of worship that would be at home in most evangelical congregations gave me the impression that they have gone for the "coffee and candles" approach to doing church. I did not get the impression that they have gotten terribly far along in the thought process of what the next step really involves, though. But that's o.k., really - I think communities like that one are helpful for younger people who want to experience the things of God in a different way than they've found all their lives growing up in church. Hopefully, the leadership of the church will make the necessary future steps in due time. There were a couple of things I really enjoyed about the worship experience, though. First, all but one of the songs of worship seem to have been written within the context of that community - that's huge to me. Second, as the teaching was being given I got the feeling that it was leading up to a traditional type of altar call. And I was right, except that the pastor asked people who were in need of prayer or help just stand where they were, and after praying for them as a whole, he asked the people who remained seated to go to those people and pray over them. Then he encouraged the paired up groups of people to talk to one another and see what God was going to do. I thought that was a beautiful approach to the ministry of the body doing what the body is supposed to do, rather than having the people "in need" come to the specialists for attention.

This will be a full week for me. I'll be going to some training seminars in church plating that are required by my denomination - I have mixed feelings about this. Also, I'll be back in the pulpit on Sunday. My dad injured himself recently and will be having a surgery this week, so I'll be preaching at his church for him. I'm definitely glad I can help my dad out, but it'll be interesting . . . the church is in the middle of the 40 days of something or other, and the sermon is supposed to go along with the book. I haven't read the book (and by God's grace, I won't), and probably won't like the sermon outline I'm supposed to follow. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm guessing that I'll go quickly (hopefully very quickly) through the outline with the people so they can fill in all of their alliterated blanks in their notes, and then tell some stories.

I'm also looking forward to diving into some books I got from a local seminary library the other day. Eugene Peterson, NT Wright, and John Howard Yoder.