Back from Synod Assembly

I am back from my church's Synod Assembly (my church, the ELCA, is divided into regional synods;  my synod is the Florida-Bahamas Synod).  We do alternating years, legislation one year, faith and family the next.  This year was a Faith and Family year.  We met in Orlando.

Usually in a Faith and Family year, we have interesting workshops.  This year, a woman from the Disney Institute came to speak to us.  It led to some interesting ruminations about how the Church is both similar to Disney World, yet vastly different.  I will likely devote a later blog post to thinking about how to be Church in a Disney culture.  Her talk was full of MBA-ish affirmations, which I grow weary of in my work life.  It was somewhat dispiriting to encounter them at Synod Assembly.  For example, do we really want to think of the unchurched as our "customers"?

We had great worship services, of course.  I will devote a later blog post to the opening worship service with ordination.  We had red paraments, which inspired lots of thoughts of Pentecost, which is coming.  Are you ready?

This year Synod Assembly lasted from Friday to Sunday, which is nice in terms of having to take one less vacation day.  But I really prefer the Thursday to Saturday option that we do in alternating years.  It's tough to get back in late afternoon on Sunday and be ready for work today.

Of course, if I could ever learn to pack light . . . but so far, that's an evolution that's tough for me.

More on Synod Assembly through the week--stay tuned!