Hieroglyphics by Harvey

On the Lighter Side will include incidents of office humor and encouragement, with the hope of bringing a smile to your day.

Pastor Harvey recently attended a seminar and brought back a few pages of notes.

"I have a job for you," he informed me with his Cheshire cat grin. "Please type these notes as best you can."

Have you ever tried to read Harvey's handwriting? Even worse, have you ever tried to interpret his markings that were written at the speed of sound? I typed what I could, leaving numerous blanks for Harvey to fill in. Some of the corrections were humorous. What I thought said "start-stop growth" was actually "stair-step growth!"

Next, "Here's a diagram. This original is pretty bad, but I've re-drawn it to try and make it a little neater. Can you somehow transfer this to a computer document?"

I gave it my best shot. Harvey's review: OK, move this and this over here forming four columns. Make the font smaller. Center this. Move this section down and put this phrase on the left side, like a section title. Make these arrows smaller. I began to zone out as the instructions droned on.

But by the end of the day, I had enjoyed reading (and typing) many pertinent pieces of information comparing traditional Sunday church to a mindset that integrates church into seven days a week. It was as if I had attended one of the workshops!

I learned that we have traditionally thought of evangelism as our goal. But it might be better to acknowledge that it's just a starting point.

We have worked to present the gospel - made it a "proclamation." But "demonstration" is so important.

We've grown up going to church. In reality, we are the church.

I appreciate that Pastor Harvey and Pastor Dick took the time to attend this seminar, and that our leadership is constantly seeking, testing and expanding our mindset to embrace the best way to reach people for Christ - kingdom thinking.

By the way, I finally got the diagram right. I love my job!