Okay, so we have this great opportunity in Lansing -- we host a community meal every Monday and Friday. It's mostly the same people, but there are always a few new ones. We probably average about 70-80 people each time. Some are homeless, most are living in poverty, some just come because they like to eat with other people instead of eating by themselves. They seem spiritually open, but a lot of them have limited social skills. That's one fact.

The other fact is that the corps (or what we traditionally think of as the corps -- the people who gather on Sunday morning) is kind of in decline. It's a great group of people who truly love Jesus and want to serve Him. But they're aging and there is a fair amount of disability in the group. I certainly don't want anyone to misunderstand -- I am not criticizing. Just trying to give a fair picture. So ... aging, somewhat limited group on Sundays. That's fact #2.

Fact #3 is, I feel like I'm the pastor of two very different congregations -- the Sunday one and the Monday/Friday one. What I'm wrestling with is the question of whether they can be brought together. In fact, I'm kind of wondering whether they SHOULD be brought together.

Here's the thought that keeps running through my mind -- Jesus didn't meet people and then invite them to get involved with the programs at their local synagogues. He just talked to them where they were and left the rest up to them. Is that the pattern for us to follow or did something change with the establishment of the church? (That's not a rhetorical question. I really don't quite know.)

What to do with my two congregations?

For now, I'm just thankful for them. For both of them. They both have their challenges. They both bring great blessing. I think they both reveal a little something about the Kingdom of God.

Here's a little somewhat moral dilemma I hadn't really thought about before today:

At Josiah's game today, he had a great tackle. So good, in fact, that the other player had to leave the field. (He was fine, just had the wind knocked out of him.) It was a clean hit, but it still feels just a tiny bit wrong to be excited about it. One the one hand, it was so cool -- Josiah just plowed right through the line and took his guy down. On the other hand, should you really be excited that your son hurt someone else's son?

And one more question -- if I were a dad instead of a mom, would I even be thinking about this????

Since coming back from the TC's conference on strategic priorities, I've been thinking a lot about some common "myths" that we all believe. The guest speaker was talking about how almost all North American Christians believe that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, but he contended that Christianity is actually growing faster everywhere but North American and Europe (where Constantine's footprint went, as he expressed it).

Anyway, it set me to thinking about some things that I think most Salvationists believe that may or may not be true. For instance, I keep hearing, "If we don't feed the kids on youth night, they won't eat." I'm just not sure that's true. Don't misunderstand me -- I'm not against feeding the kids (or anyone else, for that matter). I kind of enjoy having that meal with them. On the other hand, I really don't think they are not eating every other night of the week when we're not feeding them.

My question is, what am I doing because I believe I have to do it and not necessarily because it makes sense or because it actually accomplishes something?

I have a longer list, but I've probably offended enough people. Feel free to start throwing things (comments would be even better) my way now.