Letters to the Churches of Carbony County and Beyond - Sept 27 2009

September 27, 2009

This is the last Sunday of September 2009 and it was a beautiful weekend. It was a good time to be out and about in the great outdoors of Wyoming. Talking about being out and about this is what is taking place throughout Carbon County: St. Thomas was getting ready for a bishop’s visit, but they need to change their plans; St. Paul had their annual Wyoming trip and from all reports they had a great time in the northern part of the state; St. Luke’s had a full church this Sunday with three kids running about; St. James is getting for a family gathering to do some work on a house. I hope this letter finds you well.

Last Monday I worked on some administrative items and caught up with the Ministry Support Team for St. Thomas. They have been working hard this year on various development projects and is taking some time to catch their breath. There was some clearing of the air, reconnecting, and planning on how to handle the music during the worship. Tuesday was another day of phone calls, and reading. Wednesday was a full day of web/phone meeting. The Ministry Developers have realized that we need to work with the basics again like having relational meetings and to connect with people again to find out what passions that are waiting to be energized. We also talked about Convention what we need to do to prepare for that upcoming event. Finally we talked about some administrative items like Family Systems, on-line Ethics course of the all important calendar. Wednesday evening was another web/phone meeting with the Regional Reps in which we celebrated having Safeguarding God’s Children training in each of the six regions in the state. Outstanding work!

Friday afternoon I drove over to Wheatland and had dinner with Ray Grieb to discus Wade in the Water. He will be assisting me with this work in Encampment. The next morning I attended Raising Up Your Congregation workshop. It was good to return “home” for the day and to learn more about expectations of vestries and the changing legal environment that we now live in. However, one of the wonderful discoveries of the day was Andy’s presentation with the emerging technologies. Andy is a strong critic of technology and is always asking questions as to what is the purpose of using the latest thing. He gave us some useful information about how to set up web-sites, blogging, Facebook, and twitter.

Sunday I arrived in St. Luke’s in Medicine Bow to listen to a presentation about what it will take to start a pre-school. The presentation was well done and the person did some good research. This might become a good Mustard Seed Project for that community. As we wrapped up a young family arrived from Hanna. It was a family that I married and baptized their two children. What a gift to offer to the church members of Wyoming different choices to worship.

The upcoming week looks like this – Monday I will be heading to St. Paul’s for their Fall Bible Café and there is a chance that I will catch up with Linda to practice the case study presentation and there is always Tuesday. Talking about Tuesday I will be heading to Saratoga to listen and continue the discernment process for Ralph Hick’s preaching ministry @ 4pm. Wednesday I am planning on doing some continuing education and preparation for Convention. Thursday through Sunday I will be in Casper for the Convention.