I’m back but never really left. I took a hiatus from blogging but not from life. And where has the summer gone?
Much has happened in recent months. Among the hi-lights was a time of renewal via a vacation with Roxanne in the Buffalo National Forest in Arkansas. We made some new friends including 3 dogs that hung out at the cabin where we stayed–our base camp. We learned you can really get away from the world in a relatively short drive. The Buffalo River and surrounding area is wild and beautiful.
I also experienced some incredible continuing education and renewal at St. Paul in Kansas City. The experience was magnified by the combination of great teaching (& teachers) and colleagues making up the classroom. The experience combined broad New Testament teaching with evangelism through a Wesleyan lens. I’ve gained a new passion for sharing what I’ve learned and being a witness for Christ to others through ministry and life in general. I pray to continue to be a lifelong learner and will share more about my renewed passion is an upcoming post.
I’ve read some interesting books including The Shack. Other folks in my family read it first and recommended it to me. Presently, I’m really enjoying a book of daily meditations by Richard Rohr entitled Radical Grace…and find myself re-reading it. It is that good and I highly recommend it. I’m also looking forward to reading a book given to me by friends entitled Same Kind of Different as Me. Let me know if you’ve read it and what you think.
A new experience awaits me in co-teaching a class called Christian Believer. The class begins the evening of September 16thand I’m excited to be teaching with two (retired) colleagues. Christian Believer is for the “believer” that has journeyed with God and wants to go deeper. This class, Christian Believer, assumes participants are already followers of Jesus and that they come to the study to understand the faith they already have. Believer emphasizes the head as will as the heart.
Enough for now. Jim
