fluidity of time

No, I haven't change topics for the blog to quantum-multi-dimensional physics; it's time for another update and "I'm not dead" post. I could of course ask, nay beg, your pardon for my lack of writing and information, but I'm sure many of you will understand anyway.

Time is money. Time is of the essence. Time is on my side. Time is a piece of wax, fallen on a termite, that's choking on a splinter. Time is running out. Time to make the donuts. Time is a precious commodity. Time is irrelevant. Time heals all wounds. Time is... annoying!

I'm not normally a "not enough hours in the day" kind of person, but lately I could convince myself to be. Between the mountain of work I have to finish before my holiday vacation time, the preparations that go along with those holidays, and both recent and looming business travel to contend with, I want to know what happened to my 4th quarter lull. The increased demand on my time, conflicting schedules, and the ever unpredictable illnesses have made it extremely difficult to make forward progress with starting up ReGroup. I have been thinking about it a lot, and gathering bits of information here and there in anticipation of some possible areas of discussion. However, for the moment it is looking like ReGroup will not launch until 2007.

Time waits for no man, but...

James 5:7
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.

group flexibility

A semi-quick word on flexibility, seeing as I haven't posted much lately.

There are many ways to interpret flexibility, especially as it relates to church and spiritual matters. There is flexibility in doctrine; while in some instances this can be useful for maintaining unity and avoiding judgmentalism, as they say, there can be too much of a good thing. There is flexibility in meeting; I touched on this earlier, mostly from the frame of reference that gathering together is not limited to a single time and place. There is flexibility in format; again, this topic I touched on before, maintaining the position that changing up the content and activities of a meeting is a good thing. Lastly (for now), there is flexibility in the medium. This is what I'd like to elaborate on.

Medium: singular of media, the format through which communication is achieved. Since ReGroup is by its very definition something that must emerge from its surrounding cultural and societal context, the medium or media used for communication within and for the group will range widely. However, as with flexibility in doctrine, there is a limitation to how flexible a group can be with the media used to communicate. First and foremost, there is one aspect of ReGroup that is fundamental and unchangeable for it to function and succeed. People who join ReGroup must be located geographically near each other so they can meet face-to-face on a regular basis. This personal contact is a must, especially in a time when digital interactions are a major part of mainstream communication - instant messaging, texting, chat rooms, blogs, myspace pages, cell phones, etc. This is not to say that any of those technologies are bad, they have their uses. However, to truly know someone and be a part of each other's lives requires that fundamental human need -- to be with others, not be alone, and know you are loved.

Now, the flexibility in medium comes from the communication that takes place between meetings. Sure one could go so far as to say that meaningful conversation should only ever take place face-to-face, which might lead to many impromptu calls to meet for coffee, but there obviously are other options. If the group so decides, they could choose any one or more (or none) of the myriad communication technologies to keep each other up to date, or perhaps discuss ideas for future meetings. Anything goes, so long as it works for everyone: a private or public group blog, a group website (like Yahoo! or MSN Groups), myspace, a mailed newsletter, phone calls, text messages, etc. How a group communicates will emerge from within the context of how they live their lives. There is no defined template of how a ReGroup should be formatted, and thusly there is no template as to how a ReGroup will communicate.

Cheers!

Reminder: Keep that feedback coming, as much as it might help you to have questions or concerns addressed, it helps me even more by forcing me to think about things that I might never have thought of...