Bad blogger

I want to apologize for not writing lately. As I mentioned in my last post, I was going on vacation. We planned to do some painting on the house, but we got busy doing several other things that we did not have time to paint. The good news is that everything else we did was important to and needed to be done as much as the painting did.

After being off for a week my workload was pretty heavy when I came back, and I just have not been able to take the time to write. I completed another chapter of my DMin thesis and submitted it. I had a workshop on Church Hospitality that I had to prepare to present to a church this past Saturday. We had an all day staff meeting. And in addition to these things I had my usual assortment of church issues to address, some good and some not so good. Needless to say, it's been hectic, and I do hope you'll forgive my lack of writing this month.

I do want to direct your attention to the blog at http://z410.blogspot.com. They are in week six of discussing my book The Healthy Small Church. There have been some excellent comments shared in that discussion that I think you'll want to read. This week's topic looks at the chapter that addresses change in the church. We all know how much churches like change! Ed McCallum provides some great questions at the end of his post and encourages church leaders to sit down with their church leadership and discuss them. I'm looking forward to reading the comments people have for this week's discussion.

Next week I will be with the American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware leading the "Healthy Small Church" workshop at four sites in their region. If you are a member of one of their churches I encourage you to plan to attend the meeting closest to you. I look forward to meeting some of you at those meetings. You can check the locations on their web site. If you would like this day-long workshop to come to your area, please contact me for 2010 dates. I provide other workshops for small and bivocational churches and their pastors as well.

On a personal note, I would ask for your prayers. There are several personal issues that we are dealing with right now. One involves a granddaughter who has contracted the H1N1 virus. She is not real sick with it, but of course everyone in the family has been exposed. One brother and our daughter have experienced some symptoms and we are waiting to see if anyone becomes ill from it. In addition to that issue, there are several others, so please keep us in your prayers. Thank you.