Happy Birthday Jesus!

I could write on and on with a Christmas message, but I believe I'll defer to a much better writer, and use more breity.

- God Bless Us, Everyone!
from Tiny Tim by Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" 1843

Learning's from a snowy drive

Greetings my friends and fellow servant leaders, I wanted to share with you the results of a couple gatherings I’ve attended lately and the learning gained by the snowy drive home from the second.

First gathering; I was invited to attend the final session of our Lay Speaking teams Advanced Course training and offer the charge to these wonderful servant leaders as they continue their congregational and Conference ministries. I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you of the blessing we all receive from the leadership of Mrs. Cara Pilch our impassioned District Director and Mr. Doug Quackenbush who recently joined this team as Assistant Director but by no means is new to the excellence of Lay Speaking. As I joined with this hard working group and was privileged to listen to the moving devotionals they had each developed and presented I was taken by their Christ lead love and genuine emotion of this short but meaningful assignment. I must have mentally revised and reworked my prepared remarks several times over as I listened – Spirit lead, hum, keep that in mind as I tell you about the next event.

This past week I was rushing to the airport for my flight home to Kansas City from a long, ten day stint in Los Angeles flying, and sitting around waiting to fly (you can imagine how much I enjoy the latter), anyway, it was a very windy day and evening was not looking any better across the upper Midwest, flights were delayed and cancelled all over for high winds and storms, oh how I wanted to get home because of all the things I miss about being there, and also I had an opportunity to attend the District Clergy Day Apart early the next morning, It didn’t look good. I was anxious to greet and offer thanks on your behalf to our gathered Pastor Partners at the Wilderness Retreat and Conference Center just outside Lawson. Well, at the last minute, on the last flight, I shoehorned myself into the cockpit jump seat of a Southwest 737 and tried to stay awake as the talented crew brought me and over one hundred-forty others safely home. It was after midnight when I finally got to my frigid car to drive home, but I was glad it all worked out, and gave thanks. The next morning (same morning I guess) I started the snowy drive to the gathering of Pastors, and was one of the first to arrive just like I’d planned so as to greet each one personally and express the thanks of our District laity. Well the snow had slowed things down just a bit, but not their spirit, and Pastor Ginger Pudenz who was going to lead the day kept all in a warm and festive mood as we waited to get started, that’s when she asked if I’d like to address the group, well, yeah sure. Having nothing really prepared I just left it to the Lord to remind me of what I could offer to the gathered group of Clergy leaders, and I was reminded of the group of Lay Speakers – hum, discernment of the Spirit, so what have we learned?

Well, I’m flying back to work in LA as I write this having just left good old freezing KC behind and as I look out at the cold dark night just a little south of Pueblo, Colorado I think I’m doing a little homework for an upcoming teaching event, and I’m reading about “Discern before Dismissing”, “Taking what we can Use” and “Looking for Potential” in a book titled Top 10 ways to Defuse your Congregational Time Bomb by Rev. Julianna Tenny-Brittian a visionary leader of transformational churches and it hit me. We have been talking change, transformation, fruitful practices and more for some time now around our Conference, and I’ve not fully connected the dots before to express the discernment of such leaders, being led by the Spirit and refining within my own thoughts and words expressing how necessary this process is to our mission in the Church. Yet, at both these events I unintentionally but specifically mentioned in my short remarks the path of change, the difficulty of change, and the risks of change along with the great appreciation and heartfelt thanks for leading this change to both groups with their discernment.

Note to Self!!! Ask God more often for the direction and tone of my remarks, he’s trying to tell me (us) something.

I’ll be on bended knee for all your thoughtful discernment, potential, and leadership.

Blessings <><

He'sssss Baaaaaack

Hello my friends, it's good to be back! I won't go into the internet server decommissioning without notification story which wiped out most of my electronic communications capability, let's just say that when you loose an e-mail address without warning is may cause a few problems. Those of you who have been patient followers wondering when I'd post again on Heartlandnorthleader will notice the Sept. 22 post is, and shall remain the final entry - that is the blog which now resides in total cyber-suspension since no one, absolutely no one can gain access to it anymore. The new blog address here will be our shared portal for our leadership musings, and dare I say the author is now older and wiser. It's good to be back with you. Blessings all as we begin the advent season.
Kevin <><