To District Assembly and Beyond
It was good to give the first report as pastor of the Shepherd's House to the Assembly as interim since mid-February and appointed a regular pastor in mid-May two weeks before the end of our church business year. The pastors had a whole 90 seconds so I mentioned the amazing work of our worship band which sounds like a sanctified version of Steely Dan, in my opinion, the tremendous work of Hank Spaulding and a half dozen student leaders through the Campus House Churches sponsored by our congregation--six house churches with over 120 regularly involved. I also talked about sending members Dan and Coralee Behr to Asia Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila in the Philippine islands. It's been a good year even with all of the change. Maybe especially so.

Looking forward to next week's visit from Dany Gomis, a long time friend from Senegal and current field strategy coordinator for the Africa West Field for the Church of the Nazarene. Here's a photo of us from one of our years working together, I think, in Dakar.

We will be traveling from Indianapolis to Fostoria for a deputation service on Sunday morning. Then, back to Indianapolis for two days of meetings with compassionate ministry leaders. Afterward, we will attend the Southwestern Ohio district assembly, especially exciting as they will elect a new district superintendent. We will visit with a new missional community of several MVNU grads in the Cincy area as well as a campus ministry at the University of Cincinnati. Hopefully, we will be able to squeeze in a visit to Dayton with various partner churches.

We will bring Paul and Elizabeth Harding, former students of mine, that are preparing there for nontraditional church work and grad school in Palo Alto California, from Cincinnati to Philadelphia for a visit to the various work happening in this great city where I've sent many interns including Paul and current student and House Church/Thrive participant Kayleigh Schiro, and then back to Cleveland for another deputation service at Willo-Lake. How'd you like that last sentence? Take a breath before continuing. I will be in town for the service at Shepherd's House on this next Sunday thr 24th. I will pick up Dany in the afternoon for the Behr's home group and I'll drive him to Chicago for his flight home. Whew! What a week. I already feel tired, and it hasn't even started yet.

Pastor's Note on the Police Shootings

​Violence always begets violence. This is proven again and again in the cycle of history. It's the story of humanity. The first story depicting two brothers in the Holy Scriptures ended with one killing the other. Here is the Lord's response: