the lighter load on the journey...

For the last week I have walked 5 miles a day. We had a dog behavioralist come over last Friday. 3 hours for $65! The dogs are the best I have ever had...in only a few days. He is like the "Dog Whisperer." He said 90% of training is walking (not peeing & pooping or exploring, but just straight walking.) It works!!!! And I have lost 4+ lbs! I walk Winston and Maggie 3 miles in the morning and 2 miles in the evening. Clearly the training was more of Martha and I so we could then be in charge of our dogs and not just their human buddies.

I find that I am more relaxed with the dogs and during my day. As I walk them all three of us relax together. I get stopped often complimenting me on our well behaved dogs. When I tell them we just started last Friday they can't believe it. BTW, Winston (our year old Lab/Boxer/Shar Pei we got from the pound in March just a little while before he was to be put to sleep also works out on our treadmill for up to 20 minutes at a time!). I took both dogs to the vet on Tues when in the past I had trouble just handling one dog in and of itself at the vet's. Winston has gone from 39 lbs when we got him to 56 lbs and it is clearly a lot of muscle!

I can understand St. Francis much more now. The time with the dogs is very centering for me. I now follow it with reading Eugene Peterson's "Living the Message: Daily Help for Living the God-Centered Life" daily devotional and Oswald Chambers "My Utmost for His Highest"daily devotional. The discipline is about God. Not about me. The dogs are clearly a gift to help me let go of my self and be with God.

I am troubled by much in the world and at our church. God's purpose is not for me to stay stuck in that troublesome place. It is to move on and listen to God and to be obedient to God's will in the here and now. I have been seeking a Christian community where that could happen. I have found it 5 miles a day with my dogs. I pray that I will find it with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

David Loar, Akron, Ohio, United Church of Christ, dogs, Christian spirituality

Will Campbell and the church

One of my heroes is Will Campbell. He is a preacher up there with Frederick Buechner and Madeleine L'Engle. Yet, he can't stand the church! He has been involved in some of the most courageous stuff around civil rights and the struggle for peace in the world, and yet he can't stand politics.

I find myself at the same point on both counts. I love the body of Christ, but my experience of church seems to be running away from trusting God and accepting our identity in Christ. Folks feel like I am badgering them to be the "church." Maybe its time I just found a church and then let that experience of church/bodiness speak for itself.

I fear we have "compromised"* the church to death! Fortunately, we don't save ourselves!

*fudged, lied, short-cut, been so codependent to others,

I find conservatives and liberals have done this. We have "cherry-picked" scripture to support our own pre-concieved ideologies. Campbell was ostracized by the civil rights community because he believed we needed to be consistent in sharing love as he went to meet members of the KKK in North Carolina to see what of the Gospel they needed in their personal lives.

Will Campbell, David Loar, Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, Akron, OH

closing churches

In this economy many churches are falling back into or deeper into a pit which will lead to their demise. That pit is to put more time and energy into their building and their past history to try stave off the anxiety they have about the future. The fastest growing style of property for sale in Ohio are church buildings of congregations who held on to them, using up their money and energy until there was no one left to keep them going, but by then the congregation was decimated and had lost their missional purpose.

We are trapped by our success in the past.

10 Deadly Sins of a Dying Church
Abandoning a Building Centered Model
summary of "Pagan Christianity" (book) on church buildings

A live church has parking problems
A dying church doesn’t

A live church has lots of noisy children around
A dying church enjoys peace and quiet

A live church often changes the way things are done to do them better
A dying church doesn’t need to

A live church dreams greater dreams for God’s Kingdom
A dying church has nightmares

A live church invites people to risk involvement and new ideas
A dying church plays it safe and never risks anything

A live church supports world mission
A dying church says “charity begins at home”

A live church uses tradition and buildings to serve God and people
A dying church uses people to serve the tradition and buildings

A live church worships
A dying church worries

A live church is filled with tithers
A dying church is filled with tippers

A live church forgives and seeks forgiveness
A dying church never makes mistakes

A live church looks for challenges and opportunities
A dying church looks out for problems and dangers

A live church evangelizes
A dying church fossilizes