Christ Plays in at least 10,000 Places

I'm finally finished.

I set a goal for myself back a year or two ago to read through Eugene Peterson's 5 volume spiritual theology series. Tonight I turned the last page in my final book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

If you know anything about the series you'll know that this book is actually his first of the five. I picked it up in February while visiting Regent College in Vancouver. A friendly enrolment specialist issued me a $20 gift card for the bookstore. The book choice was a no-brainer. Both the visit and the title were on my list of goals for 2011. Now they're both checked off.

I'll pass along two profound excerpts:

"Stories are verbal acts of hospitality" (p. 13)

"The community of God's people has survived... always as a minority, always marginal to the mainstream, never statistically significant. It gives us pause. If we, as the continuing company of Jesus, seem to have achieved an easy accommodation with our society and culture, how did we pull off what Jesus and the community of Jesus failed to accomplish?" (p. 288)

Did you catch that last sentence?

I wonder, have we done a better job of Christianizing our society--and remember, societies don't follow Jesus, only people do--or socializing our Christianity?

Where are all the pastors going?

Clergy burn out.

I starting to wonder what's going on.

I don't want to be a burn-out stat so here's a few commitments:

1. Embrace Further Education - It's easy to regurgitate information and rely on past successes. Especially when you're preaching almost every week. That's why I'm hoping to take a week long course or two every summer.

2. Spent quality time with my wife and kids - My kids are only young once. Enough said.

3. Deal with conflict quickly - I'm committed to keep the lines of communication wide open and deal with difficult situations quickly, sensitively, and courageously. Unresolved conflict absorbs a lot of mental energy so it's best to ask "what's up?" as soon as possible.

4. Build a staff team that loves working together - This is a work in progress but we can accomplish a whole lot more when we work together.

Moving mountains

"I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him." (Mark 11:23 NIV).

I believe in moving mountains. Actually, we have one growing in our church parking lot. It didn't go into the sea but it did get moved--further back and a lot higher. I guess God uses high hoes.

Many thanks to Dan and Adam who volunteered their Saturday to mountain moving.

Retreat from "I" or "You" to "We"

We retreated this week.

That's right, our pastoral team waved goodbye to our families and our offices for 2 days in order to spend time in Stayner, ON.

While away we set goals, bounced around ideas for congregational discipleship, and we even had time for a late night game of euchre.

But my most significant moment came, not in a new idea or a breakthrough conversation, but when I reflected on how things were being said.

Sometimes I can get caught up talking about myself too much. That's an "I" mentality. Other times I'm tempted to point my finger at someone else when I think a wrong needs to be righted. That's a "You" mentality. But there's a third way; it's not an "I" or "You" by a "We". "We" knows that if there's a problem, together we can find a solution because we're all responsible. I think that makes for good teamwork.

Happy New Year!

It's the start of a New Year so, once again, the Mills family set some goals.

While I don't want to give away any of my clan's ambitious ideas, I will enlighten you with a few of my own. In no particular order:

Learn biblical Hebrew. I learned Greek but never took a Hebrew course. I'm not sure how attainable this one is given my schedule. Nonetheless, it made the list.

Read Christ Plays in 10,000 Places by Eugene Peterson. I've finished the other four books in the series but I've never made it through the first--even after two attempts and a handful of overdue notices from the library.

Visit Regent College. It's an international graduate school located on the campus of UBC. I've known many who have studied there, and read books by Regent professors (including Peterson), but I've never been there myself.

So, these a few of my plans for 2011. How about you?

Snowy drive home

My final class of the semester wrapped up this past Monday evening. After the student groups presented their final projects, I began the snowy drive home.

I arrived and departed from Elmira Tim Hortons at around 10:30pm. It's normally close to an hour to home from that point.

That night it took us two hours. The blowing snow and icy roads slowed me down but the worst part was driving on a closed highway.

Since I'm teaching in the same time slot next semester, I'm hoping the snow falls on Tuesday-Sunday for the rest of the year.

Tiling on diagonal

Our laundry room project that was launched in August is nearing completion.

This past week, my final vacation allotment for the year, Erika and I tiled the floor. We attempted something new--tiling on diagonal.

For those who aren't up on tiling terminology, that's what you call laying tiles on a 45 degree angle. Rather than keeping the squares aligned with the walls, they're spun a half a turn. It means every cut produces a triangle rather than a rectangle.

In other news, last night I remember three of my dreams. In one I was a student seated in a tiny desk. In another, my long hair raised a few eyebrows in Western Canada. I'll keep the final one to myself.

So, three dreams after an evening of cutting triangles. What's next? Hat trick perhaps?