Update

Yeah, I know it's been awhile. My apologies to my faithful readers.

Things here have been advancing about as expected. There have been a few bumps along the road--this isn't the healthiest of congregations. I won't elaborate, in order to protect the innocent and the guilty.

It's been a difficult transition back to the US. More difficult in some ways, less in others. Relearning Church has been one of those learning cliffs. When I went to England, I noticed how many meetings we had. I assumed (!) that since I had fewer churches, I'd have fewer meetings. Ha! The United Methodist Church forms committees for just about anything. Since the beginning of September, I've had about two committee meetings a week. That's all going to stop soon, hopefully. We're going to try a more consolidated approach and see what happens.

Also, because I only have one church instead of four, the church members view their pastor differently. With four churches, each one understands that I will have to be with one of the others 3/4 of the time. Thus, the minister serves a more formal and official role. If I tried to move a table or a chair, I'd get chastised. I could obviously spend my time better doing something else. Here, without spreading myself so thin, the pastor becomes more apart of the church and community. Instead of being excited and privileged when I arrive (as in England), folks here, while still glad to see me (hopefully), I'm more expected to be around.

I've also taken on the role of choir director. Now, in England, I knew of two churches that had choirs. This one has a choir (loosely so called) and no director. They don't particularly like to practice, but they do like to sing on Sunday morning. You can imagine the quality of performance. Not to mention, I've never had any experience choosing choir music. It's a bit different than picking a hymn out of the hymnal. I don't even know where to begin looking, other than the choir file cabinets...with music dating as late as 1983 and as early as 1951.

The most exciting thing that's happened is that I stumbled across a newly started Habitat for Humanity chapter. We're about to choose our first family and will hopefully start working on the house soon. It's been great. Not only are we building a house for someone who needs it, but it's also been a great opportunity to meet folks in the community who aren't church members.

Socially, things are still slow in developing. There aren't many folks my age in the area. I travel 30 miles (one way) at least 3 times a week. Hopefully, I'll find something there to get involved in. I've joined the gym. Plus, tomorrow night I'm going to a meeting about climate change. They meet once a month and talk about various issues. I'm looking forward to the meeting tomorrow night. Hopefully it will be interesting and fruitful.

That's all for now. Will try and update more regularly.