Stuff

So, life has been busy this past week. Wednesday I chaired the first Worship Committee meeting at church. Overall it went pretty well. But some people that I was hoping would show up, didn't. So I get to decide what, if anything, to do about that. In the meantime, things roll on....

Work is heating up. Lots and lots and lots and lots of work involved in transitioning systems from Great-West to CIGNA. And here's the thing: I support 5 different systems, and none of them full-time. Yet every system requires full-time effort to transition. So (almost) everybody is expecting me to work full-time on their project. And management is very de-centralized right now. Part of the problem is that when project managers look at their project, they look at dollars. And there are plenty of dollars in the budget for their project. So they think everything is good. It means that they have plenty of money to pay for the work. What they don't have, is bodies. There just isn't enough bodies to do all the work, and it doesn't matter how much money you have if you don't have the bodies.

And training new bodies is a nightmare. If I *don't* work full-time on System A to get it transitioned, it will take 3 or 4x the amount of effort to train someone else to do it. And training takes full-time effort too. Thank God I'm not a manager. I think I'd be having a heart attack right about now.

On Thursday and Friday I went to Souljourners. That went well, although it wasn't my favorite weekend. The topic was on discernment. Which is always a good topic, but it's one we've had before, and sometimes I think we're wasting time duplicating stuff. There's so much ground to cover, that I don't know why we'd repeat anything.

Saturday I went to clay class. Didn't learn much that was new, but spent time practicing. I made a bottle, but unfortunately, I made the bottom too thin, and I lost the bottom when I lifted it. Then I made a bowl, which turned out okay.

This past Sunday I preached. The topic was Friendship with God. Overall I think it went very well. It was really a way for me to introduce the congregation to the Spiritual Director ministry I've been working at with Souljourners. I haven't really had much response from my own congregation, and this last week at Souljourners I talked with Joanie about it, and she gave me some really perceptive ideas why. First, she says, there is always that "who do you think you are?" kind of perception, like when Jesus got a poor reception from his own home town. Second, because Spiritual Direction is potentially a very personal kind of ministry, some people just don't want to talk to someone that they know. So, I may just need to give up on offering this in my congregation and start reaching out to KU and the other area churches.