You CAN go back home...

Thursday was a great day. I went with the three pastors from my church to a local ELCA conference, which, interestingly enough, was being held at my home church. Not only was I excited to be hanging out with my partners in crime, I was also excited to be doing so in a place where I was familiar with and had connections to.

The ride over was fun in itself...pastors have such entertaining stories to tell. Past experiences, different encounters, all of it makes for quite the interesting life. When we got there, the day got even better--as soon as I walked in the door, I saw someone I knew...and was greeted thereafter with a number of hugs and "welcome homes." It was a different experience than I am used to as of late, living in a new town...and for me to be in a place with my new colleagues and friends, and for me to be the one comfortable and familiar with my surroundings was such a fun experience.

Being somewhere with 30 other pastors is nothing short of amazing. Listening to stories, connections, and recent events is a blast, and especially being in my hometown area, there is no shortage of connections to be discovered.

On another tangent...the topic of discussion for the day was the new ELCA church hymnal, the Evangelical Lutheran Worship, or ELW. It is meant to replace the LBW Green Hymnal, and the With One Voice hymnal, and contains not only many new worship settings, but also new and updated renditions of some of the older hymns.

I wonder what it means for us to be updating our church hymns into newer, more upbeat, more contemporary songs, while many of our contemporary Christian music artists are now going back to hymns for their music, even some of the older hymns. What a strange relationship...