This week has been a blur for me. Before I took the ministry job at Otter Creek I committed to speaking/participating in several powerful events. I’m glad those are now all done for the remainder of 2009. Here’s what I was up to this week.

1. I spent three days with Rick Atchley, Bob Russell, and other young ministers from Churches of Christ and the Christian Church. Rick has made it one of his goals to mentor some of us “young guns” (that’s the Texas expression I believe). If you are a younger minister hungry for this kind of ongoing mentoring, let me know on this blog, and we’ll get you connected. You can’t do this thing called leadership alone.

2. I went right from this retreat to Lipscomb’ s Preaching Conference where I presented a film/introduction to preaching and the work of Rob Bell. I also sat on a panel with Scot McKnight (twice). and broke bread with him and two other friends. Sitting at table, sharing food, and talking about the deep things of God has become the place that God speaks most to me.

3. Saturday afternoon I got a little Sabbath time with Kara and Lucas–my soul is now whole.

I’m grateful to be back into my normal rhythm of life. I’m getting ready to preach from John 4 and The Woman at the Well. This quote from a novelist and Christian leader connects with me in redemptive ways. “To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you,” (F. Buechner).