has it really been that long?
(of course it has)


funny how things change. funny how things stay the same.

september 14, 2008. that's when this thing started to change. we just didn't know it yet.
(yes, i realize how lazy i've become when most of my "research" for these posts is as simple as trekking down the dark and dusty hallways of this blog. whatareyagonnado?)

on sunday night, september 14, 2008, chip henson played the role of martin luther and spokesman on behalf of his small group and took before the governing body of humc his 20 "theses",...his 20 questions that would be the beginning of one end and the beginning of another beginning in the life of his church.

perhaps we handled it wrong. perhaps we handled it right. that's been debated and could continue to be the topic of debate for as long as we were interested in beating a dead horse, but make no mistake. something changed that night. it just took us a year and a half to fully realize it.

and that's ok.

this past sunday after worship, the laity of humc were invited to a post-worship luncheon and training session. the purpose of the training session would be this. we would talk about the current organizational structure of our church. come up with a list of questions and answers regarding the duties of certain committees and move forward with renewed purpose and vigor because we would all be on the same page moving forward.

that last sentence was a little sarcastic. we were never going to be on the same page, because we haven't yet figured out what book we are reading. the good news, though, is that we do now seem to be searching around in the same library (or li-mbo-brary, maybe? hmm.).

"training" never really happened on sunday as far as has been reported to me. i was in another room with another group until close to the end of the session. what did happen was unusual but quite familiar at the same time. the general, governing board group seemed to come to a consensus conclusion. that being "we have no idea what is going on."

awesome.

no, really, i think that is awesome! no one needed any weeds to stand in front of them to tell them what they thought the group or church was doing wrong. there didn't seem to be any sort of visceral conflict. no one threw anything. no one cursed or left the room because it didn't seem worth their time. no one vowed to leave and go to trussville or clearbranch or leave the methodist church. none of that happened. and that, folks, as screwy as it may sound, is progress.

what did come out of the not-training was that we still lacked structure. we still need some sort of hierarchical tree that our leaders can reference so that they know what route they can take to accomplishing their goals, whatever those end up being. we "learned" that we have groups or committees in our church that seem to be responsible the same or similar things and, henceforth, nothing ends up happening because it's just too easy to pass the buck or the fault to "that other group" that was supposed to take care of whatever it was. amazing, right? i am sure that's never happened in any other business or church.

we came to several conclusions, all framed under the umbrella of lack of direction and communication, the same problems that have plagued us for ten-plus years, the same problems that chip's "theses" addressed a year and a half ago. the same problems that it took the governing body 18 months to own and vow to solve.

how about that?!?!?

can we say, "victory!"

yes, we can. and yes, we should. we should celebrate the frustration because it was tinted with more optimistic colors this time around. it wasn't so much "who do you think you are???" as it was "okay, so what do we do about it?" again, i cannot stress to you how positive an outcome i feel like this is.

sunday afternoon, things felt very much the same. two days later, things feel a little different, and that is a very good thing.

you remember way back when? at some point in the past, some post went up here on HACAM that drew the analogy of our church finding itself sliding down an icy slope and wishing that we could find the strength to drive our pick in the mountain to stop the slide. somewhere in the last 18 months, we found that strength. we stopped sliding.

it will take us all to get back up our hill. not one of our shoulders is strong enough to lug us all back up by him or herself.

care to latch on and join the climb?

we'd love to have you.