As someone who teaches seminars about church management around the country, I am continually amazed at our fascinating with dysfunction. Participants are much more intrigued with telling stories about their failures than their successes. We seem to think that there is more to learn from things that didn't work than things that do work.

Yes, it's Advent, and we're getting ready to celebrate Jesus' birth. But if the coming liturgical year is similar to those in the past, we know how quickly Jesus' earthy life speeds by! Would you skip ahead for just a moment and think about Lent?

Thanksgiving was special for me this year because I was able get out and see the community in ways that had been difficult in recent years. Henri Nouwen reminds us that: Hospitality . . . means primarily the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. In this sense, practicing hospitality can be a liberating experience. Making space for other people in our lives also makes space for our true selves in Christ.

A church member forwarded me an article by Tom Ehrich which began: "Here's a suggestion. Please take it seriously. For an entire week, do your ministry away from church property. Leave behind your office, your usual classroom and parlor, the quiet hallways that feel like home. Leave after worship on Sunday and don't come back until the following Sunday worship. Tell people you're doing it and why. Report to them what you learn." I took Tom's challenge and it was an amazing week.