Part 5. BEARS.

I loved Pittsburgh, but not the cold. So I told God I didn’t want to move anywhere colder than Pittsburgh.  I had two job offers after graduation, Detroit and Chicago.  I chose Chicago.

I ended up staying in the Chicago area for 13 years.  There is a lot I could write about from that time. Two things need to be mentioned here.

1. In October of 1996, I met the woman who would become my wife. (That always needs to be mentioned.  She’s pretty amazing.)

2. I realized I actually wasn’t too cool to work in the church.

To put a more positive spin on that last one, I discovered I love working in the church. I’ve done so for almost 20 years now.  It’s the church that brought us to Georgia six years ago.

This brings me back to the reason I started this blog in the first place.

The church.  It can be a great place.  I’ve served in a homeless shelter 12 blocks from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a soup kitchen about 7 miles from where John Hughes lived.

I’ve had the chance to build houses in 7 states.  I’ve built homes in Mexico and traveled the Amazon River.  When my dad went to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, one of the people in town told him the church, not the government would rebuild their town.

I don’t want to keep score here.  For every story I tell about something good the church has done, someone can match it with a story of a time the church abused, ignored, judged, dismissed or generally hurt someone. I don’t want to discount those stories either.

But I believe the church is- and can continue to be- a positive and relevant presence in the community.

Thank you for reading.