Summary of the First Days of MRL

I just sent a quick e-mail to someone and it seemed like a pretty good nutshell description of my first days of Ministry Renewal Leave. Here it is:

The main experience of the first couple of weeks has been lots of classical theology reading--not just contemporary inspirational reflections, or books on church dynamics, but the real, grueling philosophical theology that I haven't had time to dust off since seminary--and this against the backdrop of touching base with a lot of places that have been formational for me. Flying out from the retreat center in Durham, I spent about a day and a half with my Mom in my hometown of Bloomington, IL before coming home, and then on the way up to Montreat I spent Sunday in Kannapolis, joining my former small church, Kirkwood, for 11:00 worship and then heading over to Bethpage, where I was associate pastor, for the 3:00 ordination service. (The sermon I posted below discusses some of what was going on with me in the first week or so.) In Kannapolis, I got to see lots of people I thought I might never get to see again, in the churches where I have known them, and there was something almost dreamlike about that. Once I was able to join the family at Montreat, it's been a week of family retreat and more reading and reading and reading. Then a little writing and then more reading. We're back home on Monday for frantic preparations and then Vivian and I fly to England--speaking of formational places--and she'll be back in a week and a half and I'll be Stateside again in late August for a little more of what I've been doing to start things off.

Loads of good wishes to you and all the folks back home!