acts.1.eight

i’ve been meaning to write this week about some church related things.  or ministry related things.  or Jesus related things. or something.

first, last saturday i met with a friend from intervarsity christian fellowship.  he is the area director for north dakota and a couple of western minnesota schools.  basically.  he used to be my boss.  but we’re friends and he’s been good to me through all the trials of the last two years.  i have been meeting with others in the area lately to talk about the state of intervarsity on our campuses.  it’s been struggling the last couple of years.  i knew that our meeting likely had something to do with that.  additionally, the night before i found out that in all likelihood another of the staff would be leaving.  essentially that leaves two staff in the area to cover 5 or more campuses.  it came as no surprise that during the course of the conversation an invitation was extended for me to come on as a volunteer.  it would be an official volunteer position which means i would raise funds to cover expenses, but receive no compensation.  my reaction to the invitation was three fold.  initially, i met it with hesitation.  i explained that i would be hesitant to accept the offer for this reason:  i know that if i went back to the campus i would want to be there full time and financially that’s just not a possibility for me right now.  i feel like going back to volunteer would be teasing myself, to some extent.  the reality is though, if that’s my only hesitation, that’s not a huge deal.   my secondary reaction was flattery.  i think it’s obvious that i was good at what i was doing.  if not for a hiccup in my judgment, i’d still be an effective campus staff.  here’s where the third layer of my reaction comes into play.  iv is incredibly short staffed in our area right now.  with another staff member looking to move on, it’s looking pretty grim.  the prospects for new staff are relatively slim (i’m hopeful about a couple in our area).  the cynic in me wants to say that they are only approaching me now because they are desperate.  do i think there is an element of truth in my cynicism?  of course.  do i think that is the only reason they would invite me back to volunteer?  absolutely not.  so i have a decision to make in the near future.  pray for me on this.

second, church on sunday was good.  wait, let me rephrase that.  the sermon on sunday was good.  i felt like it was a return to our roots to some extent.  talking about living intentionally.  talking about building genuine friendships with people that aren’t christians.  and talking about letting witnessing happen in a natural and comfortable way.  living out what we believe, not just shoving our beliefs down the throats of others.  it was refreshing!

thirdly, more from the cynicism file. we get this little magazine at church each week. on more than one occasion i’ve found things about this magazine to be incredibly ridiculous.  this week was over the top.  the issue was touted as a “special financial edition”.  i was actually intrigued to look through it as we had just been talking this week about whether we are contributing to 401(k) plans and about roth ira stuff (i know, we’re getting old).  what i found instead was a running advertisement or a a financial services company that is affiliated with the denomination that produces this magazine.  i don’t know much about this company (i.e. – is it for- or non-profit?), but it was really frustrating to feel like they had dressed up a sunday newspaper advertising insert and called it a magazine.  something like 25 of the 32 pages had some mention of this company and the articles that were supposed to be discussion faith-based options and financial solutions only offered one option and one solution.  there was never a mention of any other faith-based financial services.  i have decided that i will no longer be taking any copies of this magazine and i’ve actually been working on a letter to the editor to express my frustration with them.  seems pretty ridiculous to be handing out something that is strictly advertising in church.

gunnar comes to visit this weekend.  i can’t wait!