charlieDEAN’S Blog

Well, today I cleared out the few remaining things from my office at Northwoods Community Church, sent a final email to the whole staff, turned in my credit card & keys, and took a bow at the door (only Sarah got to see my bow)!

It’s been a great 4 years at Northwoods and I can truly say that I am leaving as a friend of Northwoods.

And now, the adventure begins…

Two survey questions…I would love some feedback.  Here’s the first:  I am working on a class that we will teach here at the church that will be a introduction to the Bible.  We’re assuming that most people actually know very little about the Bible, so the goal of this class is to give a grand overview.  The first six weeks of the class, I’ve broken the Bible down into sections — Penteteuch, History, Wisdom Literature, etc.  The last week of the class I’ve left open for other “issues.”  I’m thinking things like canonization, authority, etc.  Here’s what I’m asking you…

What are some questions you have about the Bible that you would want answered in this final session?

At New Community tonight, Cal proclaim that THIS is a defining moment for our church (trust him on this one…some big changes are coming for the better), but before things change, we must consecrate ourselves to being used by God (Joshua 3:5).

He challenged us to have unwavering confidence in the WORD of God, to have an unapologetic sensitivity to the WHISPERS of God, and to have uncompromising integrity in our WALK with God.

This really lays the foundation for all the teaching at New Community this fall. In September we’ll be talking about the WORD, in October the WHISPERS, and in November our WALK.

And then…most likely in January, Cal will begin unpacking for the congregation his vision for the next 15 years at Northwoods!

I haven’t posted much this week, because I’ve been engaged in some offline discussions that have been rich & meaningful. I tell you that because I’ve been thinking over the past couple of years about communication & intimacy, especially as it pertains to email.

We have a problem in our organization (and if my conversations with friends and family are any indication, we aren’t the only ones) that people assume that email is the best way to communicate, period.

However, some conversations are simply inappropriate for print, because communication is more than just words on a screen, it’s about body language, tone, posture, eye contact, volume, etc.

And so, in our organization, we’ve talked some (not near enough, if you ask me) about how to determine what is appropriate for email and what is appropriate for face-to-face.

All that to say: I love this blog, because I love having a place to capture my thoughts. But some conversations are better had away from this forum. For example, last week, in the debacle of the A Fan from afar… post, the best conversation was not on the blog but was found in the long conversations that Chris and I had, and a challenging email from my friend Laura.

In conclusion (this has gone on longer, than I anticipated), if you see something here, that you want to hammer out…let me know…I’d love to talk.

AND, if you know of any books, articles, etc. pertaining to the “appropriateness” of electronic communication, I’d be interested.

What if someone’s biggest objection to the gospel is that they lived next to a church? And over the years of fighting traffic and maybe some noise, and perhaps even a fair amount of construction dirt, they’ve just tuned out to what the chhurchh is really there for?

Today, our staff did something in an attempt to foster a good relationship with our neighbors. We went door-to-door and distributed 1 gal. jugs of washer fluid and a coupon for some free gas at a local gas station.

It was a blast!