Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time

Following through with ideas and plans has not really been a strong suit. I make plans and they fall by the wayside or I get a little lazy.
This week I have planned to lead a discussion about how our churches and dioceses have helped their communities deal with the recession. The goal was to host it during the summer when a myriad of summer students with diverse backgrounds from teaching, to counseling to parenting cross paths for six weeks at the School of Theology and Ministry.
The Summer Session is traditionally for the more mature crowd that does not have the time during the school year to devote to earning an MA in pastoral ministry or spiritual direction. And the Summer Institute makes it possible to finish in MA over summers.

I figured the conversation would be a good way to merge my interests in pastoral ministry with my experience in newspapers along with the Newspaper Guild. I was very involved with my newspaper in Calif. after we had two rounds of layoffs. We had meetings and conversations and called people at home to see what they needed. We looked at the big picture and asked questions of ourselves and what we could do better or what we did that was horrible.

Now, I'm trying to put those skills to use in my current environment to help other people find resources or ideas that they can take back once they finish with summer school.

One of my professors came up to me today and said, "I heard you are talking about important things tomorrow." And then I invited her to join us at 2:15 p.m. Tues, July 21, at Voute Hall in Room 310.

It won't be me talking about important things as it will be more like giving others an opportunity to exchange ideas.