On my way back

It has been a long summer. I have probably spent as many days in my childhood home, dealing with my father's failing health, eventual death and the settling of some of his affairs as I have in my own home. That seems to be slowing down now and I hope to be back to regular blogging next week! I have been doing a lot of reading while I have been away and am eager to share those books with you.

See you Monday!

Blogging Sabbatical

In the past few days, as I have been reading my blog feeds on my email, I have noticed a (small) trend. Some of my regular bloggers are taking the month of July off. Each notice referenced a post by Michael Hyatt (another blogger I follow - if you are interested in leadership development, check out his whole blog) where he talks about his own sabbatical.

I agree that his post was inspiring, but for me it was more in a "wouldn't that be nice" sort of way. But his post was from June 20th. I was already up to my eyebrows in the business of death and grief - waiting on probate, meeting with lawyers, cleaning out a house, etc. I don't feel I have the luxury of walking away from anything right now.

Then, last night, I sat down to write a book review for today. I have been reading through my stash of books based on the TV show, Psych. The books have been good and I was ready to review three of them. Then I got a call with more bad news, and I thought, "I can't do this." I am about at my limit of what I can juggle. So I've decided to go with at least a blogging sabbatical. I may pull back from even more things in the next week. I can't even articulate what I want or need a break from. So, I'm going to step away for the month of July, at least, and see where things are on August 1st. 

I had a few blogs already typed and ready to go, so I released those earlier today. I hope you find something to enjoy. The Mo Willems book is especially fun.

WEDNESDAY: The Blogging Church

This is a good and easy to read book about how churches and people of faith can use blogs fora variety of purposes - providing information about community events, sharing testimonies of God's faithfulness, sharing pictures, connecting staff or volunteers to one another, sharing a vision for a church or ministry with a community, etc. It also shows what to do - and what not to do - with examples from blogging churches.

When I read this, I couldn't help but think of ways my own congregation could use the internet and blogs to connect to the people in our community and to the things that are important to us here and around the world. For pastors and lay leaders looking for ways to make new connections, this book provides good information in a very user-friendly way.