May 14

I talked to Brian yesterday and finally ordered a Shofar. It has been one of those things that I've thought about and considered for some time but have just never done it. In the grand sceam of things it didn't seem like a good use of resources but the other day God seemed to be saying, "Now is the time. I want you to blow the Shofar on Pentecost." So I called Brian and told him that I would send him a check and he should pick out a Shofar for me.
I'll post more when it arrives.

May 12

This past weekend I experienced a very interesting process to assist people in dialoguing together as well as provide the opportunity for creative problem solving. The process is called Open Space or Open Space Technology and it is designed in a way to let the people who have the most passion about something gather with others who have passion/concern/interest in the same areas. It is a guided conversation and one that truly worked well in generating the conversation that we need to have around the areas of worship in relationship to HEbrews Joe.
One of the questions that we have been asking is about how big can a coffee house worship get? The truth is that we don't know as there aren't really people doing the same kind of things that we are doing as far as I know. But one of the things that was clear from the conversation during the Open Space was that for those who attended HEbrews Joe it wasn't about the size of the room but about the intamacy of the table that was important. So right now we have space for 150 that is running out of room. Could we go to 300 space wise and still get the same feel? Or how about 500? I guess we just don't know. Does anybody know of any socialigical studies done around space issues and feelings of intamacy within a group setting?

Can I try to keep this up again?

Several people have asked it I will be keeping a blog this summer while I am on my Renewal Leave and of course being the people pleaser that I am I have said that I thought I would try to keep one but that I'm not sure of what my internet connections will be like. So in anticipation of having to / getting to write every day I thought that I should get back into the flow of writing on somewhat of a regular basis. I know that I've tried to get back into it before but now I'm going to have to try even harder if I'm going to make it happen. So here goes, another attempt at blogging.