A Few Out of My Mind Guidelines
from Pastor Jon

The Purpose

There are a number of issues that roll around in my mind from time to time that I would like to communicate to our whole church body. This might include further elaborations on a sermon, or maybe a clarification based upon something that was misunderstood by some. It might be a current issue that some in our church are dealing with. It might be to give a certain ministry a little extra punch. The bottom line is it could be any number of things.

The Place

Our website seems like a perfect place to share these issues. I realize that not everyone has a computer, but that number is growing smaller all the time. Even my 81 year old Mom is computer savvy. So I am going to post an article from time to time on our website under the banner “Out of My Mind”. These will simply be my thoughts on an issue that I think could be important for those in our body to consider. My opinion or ideas obviously are not the final answer, but I will be offering my insights and observations in the hope that they might be helpful to you. I don’t want to clutter you email, so this format seems best. If people want to read my musings, they can click on and read them. If they don’t, they certainly don’t have to.

The Understanding

• I will post these rantings whenever I have the time to write and have something I want to say. We will archive past writings so you can review them as I post new ones.
• This may not be regular. I will write as I have time and as there seems to be a subject worth writing about.
• I am not really interested in carrying on a dialogue about what I write. Some of you might live with your computer screen open all the time, but I don’t. I hate the burden of responding to email and I don’t spend my idle time surfing the internet. I don’t read “cute” or “inspiring” stories that are sent to me, unless they have my grandkids’ names attached to them. It’s not that I’m trying to be rude. It’s just that I don’t have the time to spend reading all the stuff that is out there. I pretty much choose to get my information from books or selected websites that I’ve learned to trust.
• If you want to send me something that you think I should address, I’m open to it. Just don’t expect me to do it. Please don’t send me any of the above “cute” little inspirational stories.
• Don’t expect an ongoing personal dialogue about what I’ve written. I’m not averse to hearing from you in response, but frankly, I’m afraid of increasing the volume of my email. Please understand if I don’t respond, or don’t write about what you think I should write about.
• I promise not to waste your time with something just to fill up the space. If I don’t have the time to write, or I don’t have something to say, I won’t write. I want to write about substantive issues that concern our church life or biblical issues, or something that is going on in the larger Christian community that I want to comment on.
• Please disregard any spellin airs! I’m not going to spend a lot of time on spelling and grammar checks. My focus is not to publish – it’s just to communicate.