I was recently at a meeting and it was, as has been the case over the last two years, a meeting in which there was a lot of energy. This particular group of men and women have been meeting to review where the congregation has been, discussing where it currently is, and imaging where the Spirit might be guiding. In times of such intentional reflection there is always richness. This group, as with most that engage with leadership, modelled self-challenge, as well as comfort in listening to ideas that were either new or difficult. I suspect that many who are in leadership, either Ordered or Lay, have been in this place. And, as my own experience has evidenced, there are moments of profound insight, perhaps even revelation ...

So what happens to us? 

All of this talk about the changing church,the emerging church, new styles of worshipping, new ways of being community makes some of us "Preachers" nervous. For most of our professional lives we have focused on preaching. It's not just that we like to stand up there on Sunday (some of us in big dresses) making people and the heavens, shake and listen to our take on the Word of God, it's also that the church has liked, applauded and rewarded us for doing it. To this day, when searching for a new minister most churches will send delegations to hear the candidate preach. They don't send folks to sit in hospital waiting rooms or church board rooms to see how the potential incumbent handles grief, administration, annoyance and day to day to workings of a church - they want to hear the good Reverend "Preach for a Call."

As we move to a time when the expressed desire is more for a "guide on the side" than a "sage on the stage," what are all us stage savvy sages supposed to do? Is there no place for us in an emergent congregation?

How many of you have heard of Lumby, British Columbia. Few, I am sure. We are a small village of about 1800 people on highway 6, just south of Vernon in the North Okanagan. Close you Cherryville? Whitevale? Does that help?

And so we gathered to watch ListenUpTV on Sunday. Well, actually, I was getting ready for Sunday Service, and talking a few minutes to watch on line... my parents were watching at home, a couple of friends were PVRing... and Emerging Spirit, I imagine, was looking forward to getting some of our point of view included in public discussion.

Not quite the conflagration we'd come to expect!

I have been out of touch for the last few weeks as I have tried to make sense of my new congregational ministry situation. I am challenged: challenged not only by the task of remembering myriad names and faces but also by the daunting undertaking of identifying the story that is this people and discerning what part I play in its future unfolding.

I have a soft spot for international hockey, probably a holdover from being raised during the heyday of the hometown 1961 World Champion Trail Smoke Eaters.

Following the Juniors recent 5th straight gold medal, I read a feature in the Vancouver Province newspaper about how the Canadian hockey system was rebuilt after 1981. The junior team was fifth at the world junior hockey tournament in 1979 and 1980 and seventh in 1981.

After this Murray Costello and others decided something had to be done. Calls were made, doors resounded with knocks and presentations were made. The result was the Program of Excellence. And Canadian hockey stepped back from the brink and towards excellence. The challenge of the changing global hockey context made us better. 

Leads me to wonder.