Another grandparent story. A couple weeks ago here I shared a sweet grandfather/ grandson story about mosquitoes with flashlights, i.e. lightning bugs. Here's another one -- this from my experience and not so much sweet as perplexing. When I took my ten-year-old grandson and a friend to the Mariners game last week I heard him speaking to his buddy of "missionaries" about whom he had learned something in his fourth grade Washington State history class. (I think it was the Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who they had been studying.) "They were bad people," he said. "Why?" I asked. "They tricked people into going to their church. And if they wouldn't go they beat them up and made them go." Me: "When did that happen?" Him: "Back in the time of George Washington Bush." Really? For a more accurate account of the Whitman's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Whitman

I'm in the Boston area this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be leading a gathering of a new team of writers for the God Is Still Speaking Bible Study project. So far we've done material for small group Bible Studies on Acts and Exodus. But we want to ramp that up in a big way in the next two years, producing a dozen new studies. Here's a link to Exodus and Acts Bible Studies (excellent for small groups/ adult education, etc.)

On Thursday I will keynote the spring convocation at Andover Newton Theological School. My morning address is titled, "The Subject of the Verb." A kind of theological grammar lesson. In the afternoon I will do a workshop on the spirituality of leadership.

The piece I wrote on the Boston bombing for Crosscut was picked up and republished by the blog site, "The Twelve," which is a successor to the Journal of Reformed Theology, Perspectives. In introducing the piece the editor wrote, "Typically writing to a very secular audience, Tony always manages to be overtly theological and explicitly Christian, not to mention often compelling—for both Christians and others. That's what I think Tony does here, pushing beyond the whodunit headlines to ask questions about society, ourselves, and the deeper state of things.Thanks to Tony for allowing me to share these excerpts." Here's the link to that site and the piece itself.

A thank you to New York Times columnist Frank Bruni for reminding the world that the Religious Right isn't the only game in town, that there is a Religious Center and a Religious Left. That said, I don't think we ought to classify faith/ ourselves solely in the boxes provided by the culture or the culture wars. Here's the link.

And another recently published piece I liked, this on dying and physician assisted suicide. The author, Giles Frasier, writing in the British paper "The Guardian swims against the stream of conventional wisdom writing, "I do want to be a burden on my loved ones just as I want them to be a burden on me – it's called looking after each other. Obviously, I know people are terrified of the indignity of dying and of being ill generally. Having someone wipe our bums, clean up our mess, put up with our incoherent ramblings and mood swings is a threat to our cherished sense of personal autonomy.

Check out the movie "Parental Guidance" with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. I first saw it on a plane. Enjoyed it so much, that I ordered it for Linda and me to watch together. And I also recommend the new movie about Jackie Robinson "42." At least one reviewer thought the role of Christian faith in the lives and events of Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson was underplayed, but the movie is good and inspiring.

Just concluded my work as a consultant with Winnetka Congregational Church. I like where we ended up, not with a traditional "strategic plan," but with a congregational process for "Growing in Faith." We call that giving the work back to the people who are facing the challenge. Too often "strategic plans" end up assigning the work out to existing boards/ committees where it goes to die.

Last week here I mentioned that I was spending two days at a UCC Pension Board sponsored consultation on pastoral transitions. The core concern of that gathering was to move the UCC away from interim ministry as the sole model for doing such transitions. A related concern is that the approach followed by many in the interim "guild" tends to be "illness based." That is, the assumption is that the church is sick and needs a doctor (the interim minister). In some cases there's truth in that, but not in every case. Many of our stronger and more vital churches are not well served by such models or by interim ministries lasting two and three years.

Anyhow, a couple of statistics about the United Church of Christ that were of interest to me. There are a bit more than 3,000 UCC clergy (who participate in the Pension Fund). Of those, nearly half will retire in the next five years. So lots of pastoral transitions. Will there be a clergy shortage in the near term? Not sure. There are roughly 800 UCC related seminarians all across the country at the present time. But an increasing number of churches that have supported full time clergy are unable to do so, and that number is likely to grow.

Here's another factoid or two. In 2000, 31% of UCC congregations reported "excellent financial health." By 2005, that number dropped to 24%, then 19% in 2008 and 14% in 2010. Yes, the recession had an impact, but even the starting number wasn't that great. And a second bit of data: in 2000, 64.2% of UCC congregations reported a "high rate of conflict." In 2010 that number was 65.1%. Not a big increase there -- but the starting number seems very high (so maybe the "illness based" model of interim ministry -- see above -- does fit!).

Anybody got some happier stats to share?

At this consultation, former PSR President and friend/ colleague, Bill McKinney, reminded us that Pastoral Search Committees are supposed to "search." A good reminder as sometimes such committees do more waiting than searching.

Did an article for Crosscut last week on a topic I've been brooding on for some time. Theme is the revolving door at the leadership level (in Seattle), while public employee unions stay put accruing and enhancing power. Got some fiery comment. Here's the link