I’m curious as to how many of you have ever had a job where they handed you a written job description. (Please raise your hands.) I don’t think I ever have, not my paper route, summer jobs or part-time jobs when I was in school, not in my careers as a salesman, a CPA or a priest. I was told what to do in almost – almost – all of my jobs, but most often they just tell you and expect you to pick it up along the way and to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

And there is an important distinction, the tasks that need to be done to get the job done. If you’ve worked retail, you’ve had order items, to unload a truck, stock the shelves, front the shelves, sweep the floors, clean the bathroom, and all sorts of other tasks to make the store attractive and ready to serve the customer, to make sales. You job doesn’t exist just to make the floor clean.

Read More

We don’t know how many churches those first apostles planted or what happened in them. They are, by and large, like planes that land safely, no news to report. The church at Corinth had issues, serious divisions and arguments.

Corinth was a busy seaport because it sat – and sits – on the western side of a narrow isthmus that connects the large Peloponnesian Peninsula to the mainland of Greece. (Isthmus is hard for me to say. Would you like to know the Greek word for isthmus? It’s isthmos.) When I say narrow, it is less than four miles across.

The waters around that peninsula are very treacherous with dangerous currents and lots and lots of rocky shoals just beneath the surface. Many merchants from the west would much prefer to bring their wares to or from Corinth whether for ground transport into Greece or portage across to ports on the Adriatic to go further east, or it would receive and ship cargo coming back the other way.

Read More

This is a great time of year. I’m not referring to the cold but to the Youth Fair. A lot of Good Shepherd kids compete in various ways. A couple of weeks ago Natalie and Corbin Merson shared with me all about the pigs they were raising. As most of you probably know, this includes all that they spent to acquire care for the pigs, including feed, medication and all they had done in terms of feeding and training them. It’s all very impressive and teaches great life lessons.

One of those lessons is that no matter what they have to take care of the pig. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, or if it’s cold, or if the kids don’t feel well, or if they were invited to a birthday party or whatever is happening, they have to take care of the pig. Sometimes they could switch off or cover each other, but even then they are making sure the job gets done.

Read More