Aj Schwanz

I heart the Mad Hatter (who spoke the above title for you poor unfortunate souls who did not listen to Alice in Wonderland on audiotape over . . . and over . . . and over as a child); I just wish he hadn’t passed his hat off to me.

This past Thursday I had a hard time getting ready to go to Bible Study. I’ve been facilitating a class on “How to Study the Bible/How to Read the Bible/Why Bother with this Crazy Convoluted Book Anyway?” which has been *great* – so life giving, both in the material and in the class interaction. But I’m getting tired: I taught last semester as well, and the steam is running out.

I prepared the night before to share the last lesson, even though three weeks remained. What was I going to do for the last two weeks? I dunno: pull something out of my “I’ve been raised up in an experiential youth ministry” bag (it’s a fun bag: things in there actually work well with toddlers as well).

But on Thursday morning I woke up unsettled: I didn’t feel peace about summing up the New Testament. I scrapped the lesson, and in typical Aj fashion, ran around last minute pulling together materials to do a lectio divina: instead of me talking, I was going to let God have His way with us for an hour. My husband was very kind, recognizing that I was not talking but rather pulling Small Group books and materials off of my book shelf and muttering at 7am; he got Judah up, dressed, and fed while I got my Mad Hatter Facilitator thing going (“No wonder you’re late; Why, this watch is exactly two days slow”).

So Judah and I got to church early enough for me to make copies of how to engage in a lectio, and in the midst of me trying to make two-sided non-upside-down copies and take my toddler to the “bafwoom peese,” we ran into our friend who oversees women’s ministries at the church. She greeted me, mentioned how tired she was, and jokingly asked if I wanted to teach the following two weeks because the other Bible Study class facilitator had run out of material as of that day. “Well, uh, sure! I can finish up my stuff today. I’m totally out of material, too, but I’ve been pulling stuff out of my Bag of Tricks to lengthen the weeks. I’m breezy if we want to combine the classes and do something all together.”

But somehow later I found myself agreeing to teach for the next two weeks (such a sucker for times to get to pull things out of my Bag of Tricks!). “As long as I don’t go into labor” I joked to them. My husband did not find it so funny, but I think it’ll be okay. “Please. I promise I won’t do too much, and you know me: I don’t teach – I *facilitate*.” He sighed.

After that conversation, I sat down with a cup of decaf and a hazy look on my face. A friend approached me with a question. She’s on the Nominating Committee from our faith community, and they’re having a hard time finding a Recording Clerk for the business meetings. Who was the previous clerk? Oh, that was me, but I had to step down due to not being able to ensure having two free hands with which to take minutes or the ability to stay awake during meetings due to ensuing sleep deprivation. She asked for a few more details about what I did: totally easy – write down what people say. Free form. If you miss something, ask them to repeat it. Or ask the awesome tech guy for an audio file (he’s so good about that stuff). She said she had asked about eight people – talked directly with five. Their answer: “No.” Not even small talk or “let me think about it.” Just: No.

It makes me wonder: why?

Are people too busy? Are we too guarded/selfish with our time? Have we overscheduled ourselves so we can’t handle just one more thing?

Or is it that this type of position isn’t needed (a.k.a. a complete overhaul and reevaluation of how we do business)?

Graham Cooke says God calls us to ministry for a season, but individuals/corporate gatherings latch it on for life. . . . Graham also says that the folks who show up for times of prayer and business – that’s the core of the church: the members of the body. Teaching is important; business is important. But how we’re called to go about it could be up for debate, yes?

So, currently, the about-to-burst-with-child lady is leading Bible study, and nothing of our business will be recorded except on Itunes. Makes a person wonder . . .