It's late, and I need to go to bed. Just two things.

First, I'm not sure if I've posted the link to Mars Hill Bible Church previously, but you should check it out. Their website is amazing (we're working on redoing our church site, and I just pray ours can be half as inviting as theirs), their sermon podcasts ROCK, and apparently they're really energizing the church in Grand Rapids. I found them on a website (which was not very good, and did not contain the information I was looking for) about the "Church of Christ-Emergent." What is that? (that's what the website didn't tell me) Is it related to the Restoration-Stone-Campbell Church of Christ or is it something entirely different (see also: International Church of Christ, United Church of Christ)? Anyone?

Normally people trying to make the church more "accessible" just tick me off. They water everything down and put it to pop music. This church, though, whatever they're doing is SO "accessible" and yet astute, and very deep. I want to learn more about this, and bring it home.

The other thing is this--just a smidge of an email I wrote to Rob. One of my old writing teachers used to say that the first two-thirds of everything you write is just garbage you need to get out of your brain until you get to the real stuff. I think that means I've just hit the two-thirds mark, because I found myself writing something I've been looking for since September. It's my mission with all this. And my goodness, is it ever ambitious! Nigh impossible....

Before I do this--backstory--Rob was my manager's manager's manager for a while at RosettaStone. Now he's at Stanford, getting an MBA. Rob is one of the smartest people I know, and when I told him I wanted to do something -- but I didn't know what -- with Sunday school, he told me to start a blog ("Like the Long Tail guy"). It's because of Rob that you're reading these words at all.

From the email:

I think I’ve even figured out exactly what it is that I want to accomplish through this whole thing. Eco-evangelism is huge right now, and growing. Some genius in the green movement realized that churches are powerful. Then he convinced the churches that environmentalism fit perfectly with the church’s morality. I think that’s what I want to do for education. The schools are very seriously failing the churches—and I don’t mean in terms of divisive issues like prayer in schools or evolution. I mean more in terms of giving students geography, history, and reading comprehension skills. Likewise, the churches are failing the schools. They aren’t creating citizens who understand self-sacrifice or honesty. Schools, like the one where my mom is a guidance counselor, now have “character-building” programs, which belong more in churches than in schools. I want to get both sides to stop failing each other. Modest goals, right? I think I’ll start with the churches, though.