URGENCY by Kim Shockley

In a coaching conversation this week with a pastor who is currently reading The Surprise Factor he told me of his initial reaction – the surprise is the place where God intersects with what is unfolding!  It was very gratifying to know that people are catching on to what this book is all about.  I think the key to surprise is training oneself to look for God’s surprises in the midst of the day.  When we look for them, they really are there!

LOVE ONE'S COMMUNITY by Paul Nixon

As I reflect on my love for my community, in terms of the physical gathering of human beings that live within five miles of my house, it makes me homesick.  As I write this, I am almost 8000 miles from home, as the bird flies.  I do not live in a perfect place - far from it - in fact there are aspects of the city I call home that are just detestable - but it is a place that I have embraced nonetheless.  It is home.  Across the years, I have lived in ten cities.  Of the ten, I fell in love with all but one.  Ironically I was sent to the one as a United Methodist pastor, and it was about the worst job I ever did trying to pastor anybody or anything.