What are you doing?

"So, Jim, what are you doing these days?"

Good question.

My primary focus over the last year has been to be a stay-at-home dad for our four year old son, Teddy. It's been a special time for all of us, and I am sure I will never regret this special opportunityI have had to be at home with him.

Now that Teddy has started pre-school and is away from home a couple of hours during the week, I have begun to pick up some additional things to occupy myself. Recently, I started a gig with our local newspaper, The Sun. I am now a corespondent reporting every other week on the happenings of the city council of Lisbon, which is our neighboring town.

I am also keeping my eyes open to the possibility of returning to the work force full time, applying to the occasional job that sounds interesting to me and appears to fit my set of skills and abilities. So far, nothing has come to fruition, so I just keep pressing on, at home, with the tasks that are right in front me.

One thing I don't foresee happening anytime soon is a return to pastoral leadership. The further away I am from it, the more I discover that I have little energy or passion for it. Not only that, I am constantly questioning what it is, exactly, we are doing when we gather together for "church."

That doesn't mean, however, that I'm no longer interested in being a part of kingdom work in someway.

In fact, I am set to start on a journey with the Academy for Missional Wisdom. This unique two-year program, which I will begin in October, is an opportunity for me to receive training and mentoring to  help me retool the way I think about God's mission and activity in the world.

My initial hope in undertaking this journey is two fold:

1.) To be spiritually rejuvenated through daily contemplative practices.
2.) To see the church and the local community with new eyes so I might better identify and join in with what God is already doing.

I am not exactly sure where all of this will lead me; I'm just trying as best I can to keep my eyes, ears, and heart open to how God is calling me to be of service.