Act 1: Last fall I co-taught a course at church on fundamentalisms. Ten weeks long with homework assigned. Charged $35 because that seems to help people take something seriously and show up consistently. More learning that way.

This past Sunday, one of the class members, a newcomer to the church, came up to thank me for teaching the class, several weeks after the facts. She said I was a good teacher and told me why. And she asked when I would be teaching again and on what subject. Very kind of her.

Act 2: I’ve sort of been through the ringer trying to get a site redesign redone at church this past year. It really needs it. Nobody’s fault really, but it really needs it. So I put together a team to get it done last summer, but with committees being dedicated to hemming and hawing more than decisioning as they’re won to do, decisions were made and unmade, ad infinitum.

The last several weeks I’ve been working on it again, in hopes that a new staff position would have to the authority to make decisions so I could knock this thing out. But she doesn’t have that authority, which is a shame, for me (at least three work weeks wasted on this) and for the church (which still has an ass ugly website).

It appears like the committee is taking out bids (under the new staff person’s advice), which is sort of giving me and my ragtag team the finger. I’ve advised along the way that hiring it out would be the best decision, but I knew that would never happen, which is why I wanted to do it myself—so it would get done anyway. Silly me.

Bitterness aside, I met with the new staff person this afternoon. She had some good advice for me. In a very kind way, she said that she couldn’t guarantee that no futher asshattery would take place. I should decide which path to take: opting out of the process to have more energy taking care of depressed Chutney, who needs some taking care of, or opting to stay in with the possibility (likelihood?) of more hemming and hawing asshattery, and therefore even more cause for a bitter Chutney. She was more concerned for me than the website or the damned committee process. The first bid looks phenomenal and would be great for the church. I’m stepping aside.

Act 3: I’ve probably mentioned here before that about three years back my wifefriend and I started a group for 20/30somethings. We’d seen others our age across the sanctuary, but we all seemed to fly to the wind after the benediction. We tried a couple of times to get folks together for lunch after service. No avail. For the third attempt we decided to try starting a Sunday School class. Soon we had a regular group of twelve or fifteen.

And because those twelve or fifteen were full of awesomes, we soon started going out to lunch every month. Then having quarterly social events and service projects. Then impromptu social events. Then a bi-weekly small group. Then 160 people on the mailing list. Our modus operandi: if you want something to happen, you organize it, and we’ll come. And now some of the leaders of that group are stepping up to take more prominent leadership roles in our 800 member congregation. I had to lead a pissing and screaming brigade to make that happen, but there they are on important committees nonetheless. Pre-Boomers are scary, don’t you know?

After a workshoppy meeting tonight (for the youth program, so a fun one), a middle-aged woman walked up to me to tell me—twice, so I would have to hear it—that she appreciates what I have done for the church. I know that the folks in the 20/30something group appreciate me (because I, too, am full of awesomes). But I can’t say that many (any?) people over 45 have ever said as much before this week. I’ve been treated like a bother or like an experienced pup by most when push came to shove. She’s been in a position to see much of that over the years. Very kind of her to pull me aside and thank me, knowing the firefights I’ve gotten myself into to get things changed.