The Dialogue Continues

I am home after a relatively long day. I was in meetings most of the day with a couple of VIPs dealing with funding for the future of the Arizona Adventist school system. We were trying to dissect the nuances of an agreement that has yet to be drawn up. If in fact the document will ever be signed still remains to be seen. One thing in certain—the time has come to consider paradigms that are unlike anything we have tried before.

The challenge is to re-build a broken system that as a result will be both a model of academic excellence while at the same time creating sufficient streams of income to make the system accessible to those who have been locked out of the system due primarily to financial limitations.

We will have to look critically at the system as it exists today and reassess the components that make it the system that it has become. Once we have looked critically at every nook and cranny of the system, we must decide which components are working and which ones are not. The intent is to create a school that will draw the best students in our community of faith and beyond-- students that at the moment are being prepared for the future by other schools, and often in other communities of faith.

We must reclaim our own constituency if we are going to be able to attract those outside our community. We will work to create a model of education which honors the best of our educational roots while molding that pattern into one that fits the 21st century setting: technology, virtual education, co-curricular opportunities in technology, organic farming, solar energy, and flight school. We have an ideal setting for a field school in those areas with the potential for offering the highest level of academics in the greater Phoenix area and the nation.

And after hours I am enjoying myself immensely preaching at the Generation Joven Week of Spiritual Emphasis at the Phoenix Central Spanish SDA Church. It’s a small group, but they are coming every night, more or less, to listen to my evening talks. My theme is “The Pursuit.” I am exploring some new concepts with them in the areas of salvation, grace, life, love, good and evil. It’s pretty informal, but the topics are serious. I am enjoying myself. I hope they are internalizing the messages. That is something I cannot elicit. That’s a God thing.

Gotta go and get my evening exercise in before I call it a day.

Unexpected Devotional Thought

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8). I read this text this morning. I needed to hear those very words today. Life has been a bit dicey recently. Like the proverbial duck, at the surface there is the appearance of peace and tranquility. All would appear to be fine to all who are looking at my life without a view to the inner workings that take place behind the scenes.

I sense I am not different from most people who wrestle with the nuts and bolts of living, doing, producing, and trying to measure up to external pressures. I venture to believe that I am not alone in wondering whether my best is sufficient to satisfy those who are looking for someone to cast a vision or “right the ship.” I confess that I often wonder whether my best is actually my best, or whether the time has come in my life when I will have to finally admit that I am in over my head. Is it permissible for a leader to have such thoughts?

You can see why the words hit home this morning. Yesterday was largely spent working with (in charge of?) a committee that is making decisions that are going to change the way Adventist Education works in Arizona. That I am on the committee is sobering enough to me to begin with. I do not yet feel at home in my new conference superintendent armor. I was left wondering at the end of the day—how, or for that matter—why, would God bring me to this place at this time? There are many other people more qualified, more quantified, more sanctified, more dignified, to lead the process of change that is needed. I am a feeble, frail, fractured, fickle, foolish, and very faulty fellow. I’m in charge? No way!

I must trust God to make grace abound—to me and in me, in order to provide me what I need for the moment and produce the intended results that He needs to bring about. Those results will be good—not in spite of me, but because what I am is secondary to the fact that He is working through me to accomplish what He wants. I can live with that. I cannot change what I am. God, on the other hand, changes what needs to be changed and uses the foolish of this world (I qualify!) to stump the experts and bring about His Kingdom. Let’s have a great day!

Friday Funk

It’s Friday about 4:15 p.m. I am awaiting Penny’s arrival later this evening, after which we intend to go to Heber, AZ for the Winter AZ Youth Retreat. I have no idea what I will be doing other than representing the Office of Education to a group made up largely by young people who do not attend our schools. I think I am in charge of devotionals for the youth that wake up early in the morning on Sabbath and Sunday. Considering I am not a morning person (what normal person is?) I don’t think any consideration was given my propensity for sluggishness in the wee hours of the morning. As Mark Lowry used to say, “Even the sun has more sense than to be up at that hour!” Classic!

I am not sure how to get there—wherever “there” is. I think it’s called the Ponderosa Ranch (clever!). I know I will not arrive until much later—after most everyone else has arrived. I hope I will be able to find a place to sleep a few minutes before I have to wake up to share a profound thought (not thoughts) with any youth-type person who arrives at a location yet to be determined. Thus is the life of an itinerant preacher.

It is 68 degrees outside on this blistery winter afternoon in Scottsdale, Arizona. I believe I have seen some people with heavy overcoats on as they walk down the street. The world has gone mad! My Prius is in the shop. By the time the mechanics are done doing this overhaul to my aging auto, the price tag will be nearing $1800! That will set me back considerably…but they say the car is still in good shape for a car with over 230,000 miles on it. No leaks. No hanging metal. I told them I intend to drive it into the ground. I just don’t want to be in the middle of the desert when it dies. I am just increasing the chances that such an event will not take place. I guess it’s still cheaper than buying a new car!

Gotta go, I feel a chill coming on….

Office Changes

Big news today! We have a new treasurer for the Arizona Conference. His name is Robert Hastings. As I mentioned yesterday, he is a very nice person. I am confident he will do a fine job. He is not Kent, our past treasurer. Kent was a character (he actually still is a character). A southern boy through and through, he could spin a tale and engage in creative license when recalling events in his life. I miss Kent—well actually I miss his wife Lisa even more, because she always had candy in her office cubicle. In any case, life goes on. The new treasurer will begin the transition on February 15, but will not be entirely here with his family until after the present school year. He and his wife, Cindy, have to daughters—Taylor and Keila (I am not sure about the spelling).

Looking for Mr. Good

I am sitting in my office enjoying my second teleconference of the day. One more teleconference before the day is done. It’s been a hectic, albeit short, week in the conference office. We are in the process of hiring a new treasurer for the conference. He seems like a really nice guy with a sterling resume and job track record. He inspires confidence in his ability to perform the tasks for which he is being called. He comes from the Great Northwest! His two daughters seem to have become enamored to the sunny and warm weather quite easily. They even told me they went swimming at their hotel. I guess you don’t swim outdoors in the winter if you live in Washington State. I was tempted to say, "Talk to me in August!"

Board meetings are getting more serious as the calendar turns toward personnel and budgeting for the coming year. The future is taking shape but it’s hard to see what shape it’s taking! By the way, the word enjoying was used somewhat sarcastically—for those who may have been left with the wrong idea of my personal tastes in job description.

Let me add that every day that goes by I am getting a closer look at the politics of church work. Not “politics” as in the dirty word we often associate with political campaigns and smear tactics used by unseemly characters in the shadows of power struggles. I mean the dynamics between people and how they deal with other people in a setting that requires serious engagement on topics that may cause divergence, while at the same time requiring interpersonal skills that may make or break any chance of a future working relationship. It is very interesting. I feel like a “fly on the wall.”

How we treat one another often makes all the difference in the world. Sadly, we often take the most expedient path to gain what we want, rather than the way that may require more work, but that will pay off in the long run— perhaps even an eternal long run....

New Direction

It is quite funny how quickly the days fly by. My last entry was on the second day of the year. Much has happened since my last entry. I was able to enjoy a lot of time with family at the beginning of the year. I took a junket of sorts through the Navajo/Hopi reservations in Northern Arizona. I preached at Show Low. I refereed an evening of class basketball games at Thunderbird Academy. I anointed a first cousin before he went in for surgery on a cancerous pancreas. I made a presentation on the state of Adventist Educational system in Arizona and the preliminary plans to change course.

The other significant change in direction that will somewhat affect my blogging patterns (more?) is a project I have undertaken after a few years in hibernation. I have decided to continue what I have termed My Legacy Bible project. I will continue my quest to give my family (present and future) the gift of a Bible written in my own words and from my perspective. I am hoping that simply knowing the person who transcribed the book will perhaps make reading it will become a double connection. It also gives me an outlet for my writing.

The backside is that it will definitely impact my blog time, I think. On the other hand if you would like to have me add you to my family list and send you these installments, chapter by chapter, as long as it takes me—well, I would be honored, albeit a bit nervous.

In any case, the wheels of change are beginning to churn. I am both excited and restless as the impending movements begin to gain some incremental momentum that will lead to the concepts eventually taking off. I try not to think about the possibilities for failure. I am, after all, a youth pastor masquerading as an educational superintendent. No fear!

First Post of New Year

I am finally back in Scottsdale after almost a week and a half of down time. Make no mistake—there was no significant down time during my time in California. Even for a self-proclaimed Scrooge, the holidays do provide some very meaningful family moments that are reminders of one of the few benefits of getting old—seeing your children grow and mature while seeing their life choices take shape. And of course there are the grandchildren!

Back in Arizona will place me back in my regular schedule. It will also eliminate a lot of food choices from my daily experience. All the holiday eating has left its mark. It was great food, though. It was worth it.

The New Year brings with it a sense of optimism and hope. Let me join the throng wishing you and your loved ones a Happy and Meaningful New Year 2011. Big events are looming on the horizon. Delighted to be in a place where amazing things are possible.