Programming Note

Many people around the church refer to the summer as a "down time".  If by "down" they mean "down in the trenches busting my butt", then they're absolutely right.  It has been a crazy, insane summer full of weddings and funerals, family and friends, travels and travails, and heat and humidity.  There's a lot going on that I don't just want to report on, but I actually want to reflect on.  While I debate a few changes to the way I do blogging (don't worry, they'll still involve blogging - if anything, I'm hoping to work out a better way to do more of it!) I'd like to give you a little bit of a teaser.  Here are the titles of the upcoming blog posts that I'm hoping to crank out within the next week.  They are generally in chronological order:

1. You're No Campers, Pups
2. On Butt Glue, Mismatched Earrings, And The Privileged Status Of An Old Queen
3. Whither Weddings?
4. I Should Preach With A Jumbotron More Often
5. Itchy Feet

I might even have a few pictures to accompany a few of these.  I realize that my blogging has been sporadic and ineffectual lately (those post will, for example, bring me to 10 total posts all year - as many as I produced in just the first two months of this blog's existence), but I refuse to resort to the "my life is busy" excuse.  If my life is really so busy, then I should just have more to blog about.  So, to the four of you still reading, stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you want a little foretaste of the feast to come from Future Post #4, check this out.  Go to: http://www.elca.org/Growing-In-Faith/Ministry/Women-of-the-ELCA/Triennial-Convention-and-Gathering/Triennial-LIVE.aspx .  Click on the first link in the video options on the scroll bar below the screen, the one labeled "Gathering Meeting Saturday Evening".  Scroll to either the 58:21 mark to hear the gospel or 1:00:41 to hear me start preaching.  That's the sermon I gave on Saturday night at closing worship for the Women of the ELCA Triennial Gathering.  I was so nervous that I was sweating like a faucet, but on first glance, you don't seem to be able to tell.  Hope you enjoy it!

On to cooking up more posts for you...