office hours

i spent a little bit of time with a new pastor today. he has come into a church where the old pastor had been there for 25 years and the taken A LOT of vacation over his last 3-4 years. apparently the church members felt like they could never find their minister because when he wasn’t on vacation he wasn’t anywhere near the church office either. the church’s response was to get this young minister to sign a contract of what is expected of him. i think this is a good idea. i like knowing what people expect of me and i like them knowing what i expect in return. part of his contract is that he will spend a certain amount of time in the church office and those hours will be published for the church members to see.

this is where the problem arises. this church needs new members. these new members are either going to come because of the old members inviting people or the new pastor meeting new people and inviting them. since this pastor is new in town he is going to find it hard to meet anyone outside the church when he is required to be in the office. now i understand that it is important for people to know how they can reach the pastor but i’m not sure the answer is sticking the pastor away in an office alone. i’m real thankful that people in tapestry consider my “office” to be emy j’s coffee house. i would rather be in the public than in a closed off room.

csa supper

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as many of you know pam is presently in brazil leading a study abroad course. this means i am briefly playing the single parent role (5 mores days and then she’s back). a part of this is cooking all of our meals. pam is the more creative cook of the two of us. she joined a a csa this year (community supported agriculture) and she has been making incredible things with the products that we have gotten each week. last thursday she picked up another batch of of fresh produce and she was very concerned that i use the vegetables that we had picked up. i’ve made some salads with the produce but tonight i used the beans, green onions, and basil that we received to make supper. it’s not really as good as the stuff that pam makes but it was decently tasty and filling.

tonight’s menu was grilled green onion and basil pork chops, green beans (the csa lists them with some specific name but i don’t remember it), steamed broccoli (not from the csa), and pudding (obviously not from the csa either).

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