Day 13 of 365 Day Experiment -- January 13

This is my favorite coffee shop in town: The Ryder's Cup. Like Wegmans, it is very visually pleasing inside with its blue walls and displays of work by local artists. The staff is very friendly, and they make the best hazlenut steamers... much better than Starbucks (otherwise known as Fourbucks). They also have a vehicle with awesome graphics that drives around town to advertise the place. Someday I'll take a pic of it. Today it was covered in snow in the parking lot. Notice the snow falling in this pic?

I attended the JAYWOK meeting today: Jamestown Area Youth Workers. This is a group of area youth pastors who meet regularly for encouragement and prayer. It was my first meeting and it was great. They are mostly younger than me and are salt-of-the-earth folk who are working hard to do ministry in these crazy times. We had a great talk about issues like:

• How do we get church members away from the consumer mentality?
• Whose responsibility is it to care for others -- the pastor or us?
• How do we motivate youth to be good leaders when they are surrounded by apathy in the church?

I won't pretend that we came up with all the answers but it was encouraging to share with like-minded people.

-- I'm always thankful for good conversation about ministry and faith issues.

-- I'm thankful for good talks in general. Today I had lunch down the road at Rich & Margaret's, our local diner. I sat near an older couple who came in after me and never said ONE WORD to each other the whole time they were there. They talked to other patrons, but not to each other. I thought it was so sad. Please, Lord, may this never be the case for me.