class & christa

Tonight our family has to put Christa down. She’s had a very long and good life with our family. 🙂 More pics here. Hard decision to make. It seems silly to be upset about dogs but they really become part of your family. Hard on my mom and little brother who spend the most time with them.

Last Sunday my mom was playing volleyball and tore her achilles tendon. She was rushed into surgery and is now chilling out at home for a while. She’ll have a cast for 6 weeks. That’s really difficult for someone who swims and works out almost every morning. Been thinking about her a lot and wishing I could be there to hang out.

First two weeks of classes are behind us and so far, so good. Had my first UMC Polity class today with Dr. Ed Zeiders (previous UTS president) and it was fantastic. Some notes are below…

UMC Polity

The measure of a person’s maturity is his/her capacity to live with ambiguity.
Are you having conversations with culture?
Try to shift from a culture of critique to a culture of appreciation.
We usually begin with a critique of each other’s flawed ideas, instead of appreciating the person’s soul in Christ.
Our polity assumes a posture of humility, not superiority.
The old you that critiques others so you look better needs to die.
The world’s norms have invaded the church.
Leadership in the body of Christ is more about relationships than products.
Words exist forever. If you say hate, it lives forever. You’ve sown hate into the world. If you sow love, that lives forever.
We’ve minimized how people get into community, than we’re surprised they’re not maximizing their potential for connection with God.
The risk of being connectional is accepting the person that follows you may not value what you value.