Dear Blooming Glen Friends, 

“Organizations evolve in the directions of their most frequently asked questions.”  Mike Morrison, former dean, University of Toyota (yes, there is such a thing)

 In a great book with the provocative title, “Positivity Irritating” (no, not the title of my biography), veteran church planter Jon Ritner is turning the dreaded triple cocktail of crisis on its head.  He wonders in this book, that in an increasingly digital and fragmented society, with Post-Christian ethics, and still facing a global pandemic, what might happen if these irritants became positive forces for renewal and innovation in the church.

I’m sure the role of questions would take on a central significance.

I confess I’m not always good at asking questions.  Mainly, my early childhood experience did not reward asking questions (if you want to know more about that, ask!), and my seminary education focused on asking questions of the biblical text, and not so much other people.  So, I’m not always the best at questions.  Not because I’m not interested or curious, but because I think you will be really annoyed with me if I ask too many questions.  As someone who is already “Positively Irritating,” I don’t want to add to the dilemma.  I recognize the catch-22 implicit in this point of view.  Nonetheless, I have found that my asking questions doesn’t always get rewarded with cheerful replies, or graciousness about the question, and that the answers I receive to my questioning often include an implicit expectation that I’m going to fix something.

So, I’m taking the chicken way out this week.  I’m going to ask a question from afar.  While I’m soaking up swimming pool time with the grandsons in California, eating scones with my 90-year-old friend, Father Conrad, discovering new hole-in-wall Mexican restaurants with friends, and seeing if my son and I have enough brain power to figure out how to open a New Mexican-style coffee shop in Riverside (i.e., coffee roasted with pinon nuts, breakfast burritos with hatch chillis, and biscochitos), I want to pose a question to any reader of this blog willing to share a response. Here goes: 

“If you were to receive a text that made you exclaim, “Wow! This is good news!” What might it say?”

 If you are willing to answer that question, send it as an email to gretchen@bgmc.net. In the subject line, write “My answer to Jeff’s question”.

I’m not trying to irritate you (goodness knows, I’ve already accomplished plenty of that with some of you 😊). I just want to probe a bit into the shape of happiness in our congregation.

Love you, Church!
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net

PS - Debbie and I are in California until August 25.  Lord willing, we’ll see y’all on Sunday, August 27!