Well, the adventure is about to begin. On Tuesday I leave for Germany for four months and it is going to be a true adventure. There are many layers of my life to be explored while having opportunity to serve the lives of others.
Many of you have asked whether or not I will be blogging about this experience. I hope to be doing a great deal of writing this summer, but to answer the blog question; the answer is, YES. My goal is to write something everyday (beginning today) and it is also my hope that many will choose to join the conversation and interaction by responding to the blogs.
For over twenty years I have done workshops using coffee shops as a metaphor for church and ministry, so the title of the blog will be, “Reflections from a Coffee House.” Most of the blogs will be written from Wittenberg, Germany while I serve with Wittenberg English Ministry. However, some will be written from Berlin, Leipzig, Chemnitz, Erfurt and other places around Germany that have coffee shops.
No metaphor is perfect, but, I first began thinking about coffee shops while sitting in a coffee shop in Estevan, Saskatchewan Canada. It was about 7 in the morning and I was having breakfast before joining my intern. I watched the waitress, (sorry, the term server will just not work here) as she bustled from table to table with her coffee pot. At each table she called every person by name (yes, I know it sounds like Cheers) poured some coffee and gave a word of encouragement. As she worked the cash register she spoke a word of blessing to those who paid their bill and were heading out to work. Watching her serve, bless and send I had to give her the title of bishop of the coffee shop.
I thought, this is a model for being Church and maybe what ministry is about.
