tammymelchien.com

A Little Rant for all the CCC'ers Out There...

OK. I've had enough. I just need to vent about it. I've waited too long.

When is Jon Ferguson going to start a blog?!?

It's bad enough that he is still dragging his feet on it. But then he has the nerve to leave town for a week and a half with no way for us to keep up on his life and times. I mean, where are the pictures of Jon in front of Old Faithful? How about a little story about how he out ran a bear? Come on! Is this too much to ask?!?

I feel better now that I got it out in the open. Thanks for listening.

Fine Lines

There are a lot of things in life that are hard to tell apart. A fine line separates one thing from another. Are we being careful or overprotective? Is it a joke or passive aggressive spite? Is it humility or pride?

I've been thinking today about guilt and conviction. How do you tell the difference? When a challenge is posed that calls us to something more, is it playing to our guilt or is it trying to awaken in us the call of Christ?

I think of Joshua's words..."But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

I think some might accuse Joshua of trying to lay a guilt trip on people. He challenges them. He's basically saying, "You do what you want but I'm going to do the right thing." I could see where people today would accuse him of manipulating...of trying to guilt people into making the wise choice.

Which makes me wonder...how can the same challenge be embraced with motivation by some and rejected as a guilt trip by others? Does the challenge's reception have more to do with the readiness of the hearer's heart?

How I pray I'll never dismiss the call of Christ to take up my cross and follow because it makes me uncomfortable. I pray I'll never try to cast off guilt that is really conviction.

Well, he's blind as a bat...

...but he sure is the cutest little 4-eyes I've ever seen.

Staff Oddity

I've been thinking about something the past day or so that strikes me as odd. As I've mentioned before in posts, I absolutely adore my co-workers at CCC. I can't imagine another staff experience that could match this one. Many of them would go above and beyond to help me out and I'd do the same for them. We spend hours and hours together and never seem to tire of each other. I really would describe them as family.

Yet something strikes me as very odd.

I don't know where most of them live.

Maybe it is a function of being on staff at a large church. Maybe it is because we are a multi-site church with seven sites in the Chicago area so people are scattered over a wide area. But it still seems odd to me that I've worked with some people for 4 years and we've never been in each other's homes. I only know where 4 of the 9 Kids' City people who directly report to me live. Eric? Don't know. Cathy? Haven't a clue. John? Only know the general area. Shannon? I bet you live in some mansion somewhere. Pat? Couldn't find it if my life depended on it.

How can you be so close to some people yet have no clue what their home lives look like?

I'm thinking we need to have one, big progressive dinner.

Carillon

Tomorrow morning I'm delivering the talk during the service at our Carillon Campus. It's the one CCC campus where we don't have Kids' City...because it's in the middle of a gated retirement community. It's been over 2 years since I last spoke there (which means 2 years since I last taught in a service...which I was shocked to realize this week!). It's doubled in size since I was last there...from 60 to over 120 senior citizens celebrating each week.

I love going to Carillon. I've said after my previous 3 trips there that if you are ever feeling down on yourself you need to go talk at Carillon. The people there are so gracious. They make you feel like you made their week by coming to spend a couple hours with them. I think they think I'm something of a novelty...I'm guessing they don't see many younger women teach. I may stink but they always make me feel like I hit one out of the park. Usually a line forms at my chair in the front as soon as the service is over so that they can each share their thoughts and words of encouragement. They sure know how to build a person up.

And they have the best food spread of any of our campuses. 2 tables full of homemade goodies. Yum.

Still, it is always a bit odd preparing to talk there. I can't help think from time to time as I'm rehearsing that I have no business trying to teach these wise ones who have so much life experience. Sometimes I feel like I should just sit down on a stool in the front of the room and have them talk to me for the allotted 25 minutes. I'm sure I would learn a lot.

But off I'll go in the morning with my script and PowerPoint file. And I know they will be receptive and the Spirit will work through the words I am to deliver. But I also know that I'll end up being the one in the room who receives the most.

Pirate Holiday. Who knew?

One of the things I get to do in my job is write curriculum for our elementary large group experience. I write the scripts and teachings that our communicators deliver in six places during 15 Kids' City services. It's one of those things I never could have imagined I would (or could) do, but I actually really enjoy it.

In a few weeks we'll start a new series called The Pirates of the Caring Being. These friendly pirates are going to teach the kids how to be a better friend. So today I sat down to begin writing my first pirate script. I wondered, "What do pirates say?" Of course I could pull an "Arrr" or a "Shiver me timbers" from my own knowledge base, but I decided to Google "pirate talk" to see what I could find.

That's when I discovered this: the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I had no idea that such a holiday existed...let alone that it was internationally recognized. Where have I been? So if you are so inclined, on September 19th you are free to talk like a pirate as much as you please. If you need some help, the website has this handy English to Pirate translation tool (although it doesn't seem to work very well).

Ahoy, buckos! Have a Happy Pirate day!

Giving Back to God Confusion

At our church, we call the offering time "Giving Back to God." I liked that from the first time I heard it because it reminds me that everything I have I've been given and I'm simply giving a portion back. I actually love this part of the service. I'm not really sure how my parents did it, but somehow they raised me so that tithing has never been hard for me. It's something I enjoy. It's a non-issue. I'm committed to tithing 10 percent of my income to my local church to be used in the mission of helping people find their way back to God.

My struggle comes after the tithe. I have some life goals regarding giving and I am committed to giving above and beyond a tithe. It's fun to me. I love using my money in a way that has missional and critical impact. But how do you decide what to do?

I attended Willowcreek's Leadership Summit this weekend and in one of the pre-recorded sessions Bill Hybels interviewed Bono about his passion to help the poor. I was blown away by Bono's thoughfulness and the way he articulated his deep rooted beliefs. I was challenged to be about the business of "widows and orphans." I walked away wanting to be open to how God might want to use me and my resources to tackle the greatest humanitarian problems in the world.

I went from the Summit to a dessert my church was hosting to learn more about our upcoming capital campaign. I love the mission of our church and want to help make it possible for us to launch 7 more campuses in the next span of years. I know this is important too.

And there are three other endeavors/situations that have been weighing on my heart during the past few months.

So how do you decide? How do you decide what is most important? How do you say 'no' to one great opportunity in order to say 'yes' to another?

Maybe what I need to be praying for is a big fat raise. But even that wouldn't help because then I'd have to give more at church to pay my salary.

Routines and Rhythms

I'm thinking tonight about routines. Maybe it is on my mind because for the past few weeks I haven't had one. Traveling, house guests, meeting changes, friends popping in and out of town. All of these good things have added so much fun to the past few weeks but they've also obliterated any sense of a routine.

I'm wondering tonight why I find myself longing for a pattern. I'm a person who loves change and mixing it up each day. I honestly don't think I could ever work a normal 9-5 job where you did the same thing and had the same schedule every day. I love that in ministry every day is different and that I have to look at my Outlook calendar each morning to figure out where I need to be, what I need to be doing, and who I'll be meeting with. Do I really want a routine?

Maybe what I'm longing for is more of a rhythm than a routine. A sense that there is a constant beat backing up the score even if the musical notes are racing along some unpredictable pattern. Rhythm holds the whole piece together.

For me, rhythm comes through journaling and quiet and moments of gratitude. When I stop frequently to hear the beat through those practices I find that their cadence continues on through the day even if I become more focused on melodic variations.

I guess what I'm really wanting is time with God.

Hmmmm...

My friend David had this thought today... If the temperature outside is hotter than the temperature of my body am I basically in a slow cooker?

Let's hope this heat wave doesn't turn into one of those frog in the kettle stories.

But seriously that is another phenomenon of creation I'd never thought of before. How come we don't "heat up" to 100 degrees when it is 100 degrees outside? God must really have known what he was doing when he came up with this design.