Wednesday

     In music news, I now have Spotify again. Thanks to their policies, they won't (or can't) serve most European countries including Ukraine. But I'm using a nice little piece of software that makes them think I'm back in the USA. It would have been a long six months with only my collection of music. At this point I can say I'm Feelin' Alright with what I can listen to now.
     And before I get into my update about the elder class I have a short programming note. I'd like to do a little Q&A for the readers back home. If you have a burning desire (or just curiosity) to know about something here, send me an email or post in the comments. The plan is to organize them into a question and answer format for a long post and share the answers with all the readers. I'm not sure when that post will up. This weekend looks like a bust for big posts. It's the Big City Church retreat and I'm teaching one of the classes on Sunday. Nothing theological, just how to make a kite. So the Q&A post will probably happen early next week. That will give people time to think of questions and allow me to organize good answers.
     Also, hello to my readers in Germany. As of this morning, there were 7 page views from there and I have no idea who it might be. The same goes for readers from France (totaling 3) and the one from Ireland. All the same, thanks for reading.

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"We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog post already in progress."  

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     Wednesday night saw the continuation of the Big City elder class. Actually, I'm not really certain what to call it. The six guys going through the training have been doing this for eight months now. There is a teacher, they are students, and they are learning. So I guess class is the right word.
     Tonight focused a little more on how an elder should lead. Jerry used the example from Psalm 23. But he also made the distinction that a rod and staff should not be transposed for the service of the people. A rod is for defense against outside enemies. A staff is for guiding.
     He also emphasized that elders should be (in my words) bridge-builders. They should do everything they can to right every offense, perceived or real. But do not apologize for their convictions, especially if they are based in Scripture. They should apologize for the offense. The example of wine was given. Some people are offended at the idea of Christians drinking alcohol. If a person is offended that an elder is drinking wine or something else, the elder should apologize for offending the person. They shouldn't apologize for following their own convictions especially if those convictions come directly from Scripture.
     The even got off to a late start because of people being late. So we went a little longer that the last two nights. I'm just now getting to finish this at 10:54 PM. Tomorrow is another language lesson along with English practice and elder class. So I've got a packed afternoon.