I’m Curious

Suppose it were possible for readers of this blog to come together for a day.  The intention is for this to be a day of encouragement.  I know it is impossible, but please just imagine such a day with me. 

 
I know where some of these readers are.  Some of you will come from states such as: Alabama, California, Michigan, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida,  Missouri, Washington, Tennessee, Louisiana,  Arizona, Ohio, New York, etc.  Others of you will come from countries such as: Canada, Afghanistan, Philippines, Korea, Scotland, England, Ukraine, Australia, etc.

 
So here we are, all together.  We will be together all morning, break for lunch and then reassemble for the afternoon.  We will conclude at 5:00 p.m.  At that point, everyone will get in their cars and leave or go to the airport to catch a flight.

 
You enter the room and you meet many of us and we get to meet you.   Perhaps you get a cup of coffee or hot tea.  You look at a few name tags.  You recognize a few names from the comments.  

 
We are all in a large room with plenty of chairs and round tables.  We are going to spend the first hour or so just introducing ourselves.  "What is your name?  Where are you from?  What do you do?  Tell us about your family." 

 
For the remainder of the morning, different people will tell their stories.  Hopefully, most of us will connect with at least some of these stories.  I suspect that in some way, we will be talking about how God has worked in our lives to this point.  What would you share with this group?

 
After lunch, we reassemble.  The topic for much of the afternoon is our faith communities.  "Tell us about your church, your community of faith."  The stories will be varied.  We come from a variety of traditions and places.   Some of us are a part of large churches.  Some are a part of very small churches.  Some of us are a part of house churches.  Others of us have had difficulty connecting with any faith community. 

 
For the early part of the afternoon, we share stories of what God is doing in these churches.  (Don’t worry about your story being too small or even insignificant.  If God is at work, even a mustard seed takes on a whole new dimension.)  You might think for a moment about what is happening in your own church that is very encouraging to you.

 
Finally, at the end of the afternoon, we share resources that we have found encouraging.  In particular, we share names and addresses of blogs we frequent that provide encouragement.

 
Feel free in the comments today to include the names of a few blogs or authors that you find encouraging.  Feel free to include any remarks that you would like for the group to hear on a day such as this.