Blogging Alabama

I'm writing tonight from the historic city of Montgomery, Alabama, where I'm attending a conference with some other members of my church in Johnson City. I'm probably not going to have time to do any touristy stuff in this historic Southern city, so I thought I'd nab this picture of the capital building off the Internet. What I will have time to do, it seems, is go to conference sessions about how a church grows big and strong--like when kids drink milk. This idea reminds me of an old American theological book written by a Puritan divine of the 17th century, a book titled something like Milk for Babes, Drawn from the Teats of Both Gospels. Like most early American books, the title was probably much longer than that, but the gist of it is there.

The company here is made up of good folks, some of my favorite folks. We've already had lots of laughs and food, and much more of both is sure to come. In between these, we'll go to conference sessions and learn about how this huge Methodist church handles ministry volunteers, praise music, contemporary worship and so on. Typically when I go to a conference--the professional ones I'm involved in--I attend only those sessions in which I'm to take part (chairing or presenting), and the rest of the time I hang out in my room or run around the city. Here, however, I'm actually committed to learning some stuff and taking it with me back to Cherokee Methodist. And because the first session is at 8:00 in the morning, I should probably get to bed.

Speaking of bed, I must confess that for the first time in memory, I'm sleeping with another man. Three of us are staying in a room, and we gave the senior roommate the single bed. So, I'll crawl under the covers now and try to get some sleep, in spite of the fact that J----, my bedfellow, has already drifted off and begun to snore.