Which torso goes with which head?
It was a very wet and heavy snow and I saw lots of trees and branches that couldn't bear the weight. It should be dry and clear the end of the week so I'll fire up the chain saw and clean up what came down on our three acres.
I was the first one into the lot at the church offices and it hadn't been plowed. More 4WD. And a telephone or cable line laying across the lot.
Some forecasts call for another 2-3" tonight and some say mostly rain. All of them call for dark.
Wednesday mornings at 9:00 are staff meetings. I generally keep my mouth shut. I've attended too many meetings that went on too long because people fell in love with the sound of their own voice. But Dave (exec. pastor) told me I'm on the agenda for tomorrow's meeting. I'm excited about this.
UFC, like most contemporary churches, doesn't have a "Sunday School" hour (throwback name that's typically been replaced by something more enticing by churches that still do that sort of thing). The kids from Jr. Hi. on down are dismissed just before the sermon to go to their classes but there's no adult Christian Ed time.
My "Bible Project" class has gone well enough that about six months ago we started talking about a way to incorporate an educational hour into the total church programming. The biggest problem is that we don't have a building except for the small office building we have off of Willamette Ave. That's used almost every night of the week for a women's Bible study, Jr. Hi. and Sr. Hi. youth group meetings (Wed. p.m. and Thurs. p.m. respectively), and several other gatherings but there isn't enough room on any of those nights to add another group like an adult class.
The idea: find a church that's under-utilizing it's facility and offer to rent it one night a week. Then move all our mid-week gatherings to that facility on that night. That means a family with a Jr. Hi. kid and a Sr. Hi. kid is only out one night a week instead of two. And they've got something to do while their kid(s) is/are in youth group - attend a class designed for adults.
All mid-week ministries on the same night in the same space, a win for everyone.
I'm going to be the teacher and leader of that adult class, and that's what I'll pitch at tomorrow's meeting. Making that time/place move will involve several logistical issues and require buy-in by all those other ministries but the payoff seems to be worth it.
After the meeting we're going 3/4 mile down Willamette to look at a church building that looks like it fits what we need and is struggling to survive. (As in, the rent we'd pay will look attractive to them.)
If you know me you know I'd LOVE to do more teaching. It's what I'm best at AND I'm convinced of the benefits of leading people into a more thorough knowledge of their faith and of the Bible. So yeah, I'm geeked about this.
I've already got some developed ideas about what I'd teach. ("Whatever you want" was the answer I got when I asked Dave that question.) Two categories of courses, each at 6 weeks long so people don't feel like they're getting into something that goes on too long. Category one is content driven and will cover an area of theology or Bible knowledge. I think I'll call those BK 101 etc. for Bible knowledge. The others will be CL for Christian living. So a BK course may cover one of the areas of systematic theology while a CL course might focus on the principle of stewardship in the Christian life.
If (since) we assume that a course on Christology or stewardship is so basic to Christian maturity that it should be offered on a regular basis we have to come up with a way to repeat it. But I should teach something else so those who took that course can move on to something else. How do we do that??
Aha!
We identify potential teachers and make sure they take the course. Then when we're ready to repeat that course they teach it with my support while I teach something else. We build a cadre of teachers who are trained re. both the content and the methodology of teaching.
Boom!!
This is a long way from a done deal. They've expressed initial willingness to let us use their facility but problems could come up. There are other logistical issues too, like childcare. Will other leaders and their people want to make the switch to another night? Our goal is to go "live" on April 1st but that's if everything falls into place.
It's now 6:45 p.m. and we know which forecast was right. Alas, it was the one that called for snow, which has been coming down since I walked Buddy at 4:00. They promise only 3-4" but on top of what we already have that will make tomorrow's commute potentially tricky.
I'll have to go out every few hours to get the snow off the roof of the two canopies so I'll set my alarm and may sleep in my chair.
And drink hot coffee, starting now.
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