I'm touched tonight by the church here

Each day I'm still here I am reminded of how precious the people at Liberty are. Tonight was one of those days.

Dennis, our associate minister, had a great class on, of all things, the story of Dinah and the men of Shechem in Genesis 34. There were a lot of good insights that were brought out by various members of the class on this interesting narrative. We laughed a lot too, which always helps. I told Dennis that I would be preaching this story soon. I thought of a lot of application for evangelism on this. I won't spoil it for you. I was also reminded of how important it is to study in community, to hear the different perspectives of God's people on a text.

I sent out a questionnaire this week to most of the people who have gone through the Strengths and Spiritual gifts assessments. It asks questions about the process--whether or not it helped people serve, learn how God made them, help them in sharing their faith, and a whole lot of other questions. I have compiled some of the results already, and they are very interesting. I'll share them with you later.

I sent out these requests for this questionnaire to be filled out by people on close to midnight on Christmas Day. It is research that I need for one of my doctoral classes. It was a personal request, though we will use the results here to help with our discovery process. I had to ask for a quick response, because my paper is due at the end of December. And people responded. The responses just kept coming throughout the day.

I know it is a small thing, perhaps, and maybe I'm just emotional right now. But as I was sitting here tonight, inputting data, I was touched by the fact that people cared enough to take time out of their busy holiday and help me on this project. Liberty, I will really miss you. You are my friends and co-workers for life.