Ralph Davis is about to build a go-kart for his son. It is Christmas Eve at 10 pm. This continues a family tradition at least five decades old of tinkering in the garage until 4 am on Christmas morning, playing Santa’s elf. Except as Ralph opens the box with go-kart parts, he notices that the directions are for …. a lawn mower.
Kim and I planted about thirty marigolds tonight. I know that sounds really strange to anyone living north of the Mason-Dixon line! Actually, it still sounds strange to us. We’re transplants from the north. This is supposed to be a season of cold, frigid air and frozen ground. No time for sticking live things in the earth!
All across America, the cabinet meetings have started. I am not talking about the Obama cabinet, but sixty-some-odd gatherings of United Methodist district superintendents with their bishops to begin the annual process of appointing tens of thousands of pastors to places of service in 2009-10. The majority of those cabinets will not appoint a single person to start a new congregation in their territory this year - an odd thing in a land where the population steadily is growing and changing, and an even odder thing in a denomination that came to dominance in the 1800s by starting one new church every day, on average. The low rate of new church development is one of the leading reasons for the unrelenting shrinkage of United Methodism as a movement in the United States.
While visiting Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia six years ago I had my first lesson on the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS), a turn-of-the-century ocean-rescue organization and predecessor of the Coast Guard. The primary task of the people serving in the USLSS was to be on the lookout for ships in trouble and provide assistance to bring sailors and passengers to safety.
