This morning the congregation completely shocked me. They “did good.” During the Sunday School time they threw a surprise going-away party for me. How were they able to surprise me since I knew it’d be my last Sunday. Well, to begin with they kept it a secret in the office the entire week. They put an announcement in the newsletter and made sure to print, copy and send it on either the afternoon that I was in Kansas City or Des Moines. They then made sure that everyone at our card game last night knew not to tell. Finally, they announced it during the 8:00 worship service. Why did I not know about it then? Cathie ran into the sanctuary at the beginning of the service to get help on the computer because she had to find a number really fast. I really didn’t expect anything at that point. Once the service finished, however, it was time for Sunday School. I ran downstairs really fast to ask Richard Lofton what time the Men’s Chorus was going to practice before the worship service. When I didn’t find anyone in his classroom, I walked through the hallway beside the fellowship hall and Lea stopped me and told me to run upstairs: Cathie was looking for me. When I caught up with Cathie, she told me to run upstairs since she had something to do and watch over the middle school class until she came up. I walked up there with Phil Hendricks and the only one there was Taylor Courtois. Cathie then came up and told me she’d lied and that I was needed downstairs. Talk about dramatic!

I’m not one for big good-byes. My pattern is usually to fade out of the setting without bringing attention. This one was great, though. It’s a congregation I’ve grown close to. I grew even closer to the staff. The fellowship time during Sunday School was great. It ended up taking me at least 30 minutes until I got a chance to even make it to the refreshment table. People I’d worshipped with each week, visited at the hospital, led in Sunday school, worked with on the mission trip all came up and we talked. The nice thing was that they didn’t put any pressure on me to tell in that short time all that I’d learned during the summer; they were there to say goodbye and just enjoy the time together. My goal during the next three days is to not act like a lame duck; we’ll see how well I can do it!

How many people could identify ministry with stripping? I think it’s safe to say that no one would equate the two at first sight. Steve Courtois made me think more on it, though. Tonight at our last Friday Night Card Game (yeah, I know, it’s a Saturday one — the name’s stuck though), Steve joked that he had a shirt I should wear for my last Sunday with the congregation: “I Strip for a Living.” The reason it’s so funny for Steve is that he works as a part-time janitor at the Catholic elementary school in town and one of his duties is to strip the floors of their covering each summer and then reseal them before the school year begins.

Part of me really wanted to wear the shirt; stripping is a metaphor for ministry. Ministry, in several ways, requires people to strip many aspects of their identity in order to make room for the ministerial one. Intrusive shyness blocks one from meeting people enough to know their needs. This summer I didn’t have a problem with shyness but instead with using some of my spiritual gifts: not all of them are best suited for First Christian Church in Keokuk. One reason I’m successful, especially in Ft. Worth, is that I can find fast ways to overcome obstacles. I’m usually good at finding solutions that work. This summer is full of instances where I found solutions to problems, but couldn’t convince others or create the impetus to make them reality. A primary example: DSL for the congregation. We were using a dial-up internet connection and found out that Qwest has DSL for only $7 per month more than what we’re paying for the dial-up. Nothing could be done at the old church, and each week it looks less and less certain that anything will happen at the new one. I’ve had to strip off my wish for wanting to do things the way that I see are the easiest. I’ll enjoy some of the independence during the next couple of years before I work in a congregation full-time.

Stripping isn’t just something that Steve Courtois does or that ministers have to do. It’s something Christians must do. Once people become Christians, their lives change. Not only are they passively changed by God’s grace, but they also change themselves. They strip off the portions of their lives not worth continuing and they reforge their lives to fill the void left behind. So I now have to ask, why doesn’t everyone want to strip for a living?

Today was the most productive day of the entire summer. It’s sad that I hit this point with only a week left in my internship. It seemed like nothing I wanted to do couldn’t get done. Well, I take that back, there were some things I didn’t get to; but, considering that I got over 3/4 of my list done, it’s not that bad.

I’ve been trying to figure out what the church needs the most. If they do the internship again in the future, I think they need to intentionally find an intern who has experience in marketing or advertising. I do some stuff with the computers, but they need an intern who can develop of a strategy for them. They need a web site that has content updated at least twice a week. They need someone who can coordinate and lead dynamic training for volunteers who are working with the hospitality team. They need someone who can see four years into the future and try to get the church there. They need someone who can bring in the practical technology and do enough training with the staff to make sure it lasts once they leave. They need someone.

Even though I say they need someone like that, I’m sure some are probably asking why they don’t need someone who’s studied religion. Easy answer: this internship isn’t set up where an intern would need a lot of the knowledge learned in classes. It’s probably because of how they approach ministry. There’s a lot of coordination, administration, and visitation to do. My Religion studies have probably let me concentrate on these more than I would have been able to had I not had it, but it’s not essential for the way they do this internship.

Why do I sometimes get a rekindled passion to do academics? Usually it’s a reactionary urge; it’s a combination of anxiety and near-sightedness concerning the future. I’m still trying to figure out why this internship is causing me to want to hold on to academia. What am I reacting against?

My sermon on Saturday night went well! Methodists are a friendly group to worship with. I preached it on the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. It shouldn’t have been that hard to write, should it have?

It ended up not being that hard to finish. I started it on Saturday morning and spent most of the day at the church working on it. In the afternoon, when I had only a little bit left to write, I got a strange phone call. “Adam, are you coming up to Iowa City any time in the next couple of days?” It was Bill S-D, the director at the Christian Conference Center. “Ummm, I wasn’t planning on it. Why?” “Oh, we have someone in your congregation who donated tile for the interns to use to floor their bathroom; we need a way to get it up here though.” I then thought about it, and realized I could alter my route and return to Keokuk via Newton on my way home tonight. Then came the news in another phone call that I had to get it in the next half-hour. The good news is that I now have it loaded in my car and ready to go!

Sunday was good as well. Because I’d spent most of Saturday working on my sermon, I still hadn’t thought of my offertory meditation, pastoral prayer, or prepared the media with Keynote, so I came in at 6:30 and got everything ready before the 8:00am service. The worships went great and my afternoon nap afterwards was quite nice. I capped off the afternoon and evening by visiting the Whitakers for three hours (and then another porch conversation with Rodger for 45 minutes) and reading a lot and then watching The Boondock Saints.

It’s often fun for me to look and see which type of ministries my gifts work best in. Keokuk is a fun place to explore those as well. My natural tendency is to work in the background. I’ll work with technology, shoot photography, and administrate events behind the scenes. Rarely do I have to be up front. The fun thing is that I don’t have a problem leading up front, it’s just not my first choice.

Church camp is really an area where I have to be up front. It takes the enthusiastic (and sometimes crazy) counselor to set the tone for the rest of the group. Vacation Bible School was an area where I did both the foreground and background leading.

This weekend is already starting to be another combination of the two. Yesterday, Cathie got back from vacation and we realized that she was scheduled to preach at the Methodist church on Saturday. Occasionally she’ll fill in and preach there at the Saturday night contemporary service. FCC in Keokuk (where I work) hasn’t had any open Sundays for me to preach this summer, so Cathie and I decided that the Methodist worship would be a good chance. I still haven’t started my sermon yet, but that’s what I’m going to do this afternoon and tonight (with luck). I also need to work on the powerpoint for Sunday’s worship service (background), the pastoral prayer and offertory sentences (foreground) and the high school sunday school prep (foreground). My Saturday morning’s going to be pretty busy; I can already tell.

Part of the busyness later this weekend is due to me taking some time to design a sweet powerpoint background this morning. I ended up putting in a Disciples chalice, as well as the shapes for the windows in the back of FCC Keokuk’s new doors at the back of the sanctuary. When I got to looking at them I decided that they looked like arms, so I put a dove in there too. I’m pretty proud of it, if you couldn’t tell. The picture above links to the full-sized version for the powerpoint background. If anyone needs a bigger size, let me know — it’s an easy thing to do and then e-mail.

It’s sad how easy it is for me to overload myself. Today I took the day off of work and drove to St. Louis. The beginning of this week has been packed. On Monday I did two hospital visits. On Tuesday morning I saw a 101-year-old lady in the congregation who has a mind more intact than most college students I know. She was fun! Last night I went with Tom to the prison again. This week the prisoners didn’t have a lesson done before we got there because they’re just starting 1 and 2 Peter, so it didn’t require much from me.

So I’m finishing up my lunch break and my mind already hurts. I’m in a fantastic day of workshops on Adobe Photoshop. I’ve been a hobbyist Photoshop user for at least 5 years and this workshop is already teaching me. Almost everything they’re covering is pretty new. What’s especially nice is that it’s going to make my digital photography look even better. I realize that I’m not doing the greatest at updating the galleries section of the website. Hopefully when I get back to high-speed internet in the middle of August I can get some of the stuff up. OK … workshop’s starting!

Last Sunday I left the church and picked up Cathie Courtois and immediately drove up to the Christian Conference Center in Newton, IA. Cathie counseled for the high school camp in the cabin side and I counseled for the middle school camp in the rustic side. How rustic you may be wondering? We sleep on wooden platforms in the middle of the woods with tents over us. We make our breakfasts and dinners over open fires which we build.

Sometimes counselors can get stuck with kids who don’t like to work and then the meals and living situation really starts to get bad. Mine was awesome. My co-counselor was Melanie Van Weelden and I had 11 youth living in our village. When we told them what needed done they worked incredibly hard. What a treat!

The best part of the week had to be our village community. The guys were a hoot! During FOB (Flat on Back/Bed/Bunk/TakeYourPick) time they decided to make up different cheers and new verses to some of the songs we sang. They even made a verse to one of our favorites (“Flea-Fly”) where they substituted some of the words for the names of all in our tent. It was great!

The words part of the week was definitely the heat. Thursday was the worst. I still haven’t heard what the temperature and heat-index were, but it was bad. When I left the camp on Saturday at 12:30 it was 101 out with a heat index around 115 degrees.

Another highlight for the week is that the youth had a dance on Thursday night that lasted 2.5 hours. What’s even better is that they were dancing the entire time. I’ve never seen this successful of a Chi Rho dance. We (some of the counselors) also got glow sticks and bracelets and necklaces before we got to camp; let’s just say that the effect was cool with a darkened shelter house.

Friday night we also decided as a camp to sleep under the stars. We pulled all of our cots out onto the lawn by the shelter house and had the guys on one side and the girls on the other with the counselors down the middle. I’ve never done it before and I have to say: it’s nice! I stayed up until 2:45 talking with some of the other counselors. We then had to get up early (I think before 7am).

So it’s now Sunday afternoon and I’m exhausted. I drove some of the Keokuk youth back yesterday afternoon and arrived at 3:45 and had the last one gone by 4:45. After that I got some great pictures of the inside of the new church’s sanctuary. The evening was capped by a wonderful dinner with Tom and Kathy as well as Tom’s mother and two of their friends (Daryl and Marcia). Why is it so easy to find such wonderful people in this town?

I’m finishing up some other e-mails and then going to take a nap for the rest of the day and then do some reading. It’s hard catching up with e-mails when one has been gone for a week.

Whenever I pull all-nighters, they knock me flat on my back. This one was especially that way since I’d deprived myself of sleep during my event at Eureka. Last night we arrived at the new church at 7:00 and started working. We raked dead grass off of a section so that the mower could go over it without getting clogged with all of the dead stuff. After that, Cathie and I did a fun demonstration of proper wood-work clearning. Let’s just say we had a good time getting into our roles. We all then cleaned all of the trim and wood we could find. The sanctuary — SO MUCH wood. That’s ok, though; it looks gorgeous! We then worked as teams and carried all of the pew seat cushions into the sanctuary to make it easier for the company to install them on Thursday.

We finished all of that by 10pm and took a break. Afterwards, we went upstairs into the middle school room and cleaned all of the rafters, swept the floor, and also installed ceiling tiles in the snack area. It looks cool! Before going to watch a movie to get to sleep at night, we also swept out the adult sunday school classrooms so carpet can be installed later this week (hopefully). Our progress was great and I hope that the adults can see it and that it hopefully makes their jobs a little easier. I ended up getting 3.5 hours of sleep last night. When I woke up, I wasn’t that tired though! So I went back to the Seiberts and showered. Kathy then made me french toast for breakfast. How lucky can a guy get?!? It’s a great to start that definitely lifted me off of my back.

This entry definitely deserves this title more than the other one did. While I thought I was at that point 10 days ago, I can now say I’ve gone beyond it. To begin with, I’ve gone the 5.5 hours of sleep for the last 40 hours. Surprisingly, I’m not nearly as tired as I probably should be. We had the work-in last night at the new church facility. The physical activity somehow gives me energy; that’s all I can come up with. I got 3.5 hours of sleep after we finished working and before we left. When I woke up, I was feeling good and took some of the kids home. Then I came back to the Seiberts’ house and showered and then Kathy made me french toast. I then went right back in and worked until 12:20 when I took a break for lunch.

What’s best is that I had some of my most productive moments of the summer during those four hours. We’ve been looking for some other stuff for me to do while I’m here, so I started some new things. One was to finish a website of some of the better pictures I took at the Servant Leadership Network event; you can see it at: http://aristotle.rel.tcu.edu/AdamFrieberg/Galleries/ServantLeadershipNetwork/index.aspx. Beyond the site uploading (talking someone with a high-speed connection through it), I also worked on a summary piece highlighting the event. I’m going to hopefully finish that tomorrow and get it sent out. One of the most exciting things looking back on that event is how good my picture-taking skills are becoming. I’m not only enjoying taking the pictures, but others are enjoying them as well! (Italy here I come!)

So I worked the rest of the afternoon on some branding stuff for the new church. I’m specifically thinking an incredibly user-friendly website aimed specifically at visitors. I’ve already designed some of the graphics and like the look. It’s basic, but looks professional. Hopefully there’ll be more to come from that later in the summer. Tomorrow I’m planning on reading through and learning the camp curriculum for the middle school church camp I’m counseling next week.

Well after dinner, I went back into the new church and worked for two hours with one of the high school youth group volunteers and a couple of the youth. We worked on painting the high school room (repainting some sections) and also laying the ceiling grid. It’s going to look good in the end!

Probably the best news of the night is my brother’s soccer results. The team he’s playing on this summer, the Des Moines Menace, played in the third round of a cup tonight. I’ve posted on the other games before, but tonight, they played in Atlanta. I got the phone call when I finished with the painting and my dad told me they were winning against the Atlanta team 5-1. They ended up winning it with that score and so on August 3rd they get to play the Kansas City Wizards. Yes, those Kansas City Wizards — the Major League Soccer team!!! The Atlanta round was already the furthest the Menace have made it, so this is just plain huge. I’m already planning on going. Who would have thought that a year after my brother finished high school he’d be playing against a professional team. This is just plain fun! OK, now it’s time for sleep (or a little reading beforehand).