Mammon, 3 More Pieces

Thank you to Arlan, Chris, Jolie and Al (the abbey's landlord) for your feedback in reference to my last blog. Amazingly, my head feels much clearer as a result of just trying to give words to some of the givens in my noggin. I've been able to pinpoint at least three significant middle pieces to this current puzzle:

1. I'm searching in earnest now for another job. The nearly two years at Central Market have been an indispensable portion of my journey and I have nary a regret about my time there. But, there are a pile of reasons why now is the time to move on. The two most obvious reasons are that most of the people I have befriended are no longer there (and we have still been able to hang on to regular community-forming times together) and that our financial scenario now requires something more substantial. [If someone were to say "I really like what you are doing there, Greg. I'll pay you to stay on," then I suppose I might re-consider.] I've got my eyes set on something in the academic world -- either some form of advisor role at UT or maybe even teaching at the local community college (philosophy?). We'll see...

2. I'm going to continue to cultivate my dreams of starting a small business. To begin with, I've got a lot of research to do -- not so much demographic (that will come later), but trying out ideas on people who are in a position to shoot straight with me. Early timelines and business proposals will be noodled out in the coming months.

3. I'm going to try to generate fundraising strategies for the abbey itself, rather than primarily for my family. There are a myriad of ways in which people and local congregations could support the Oak Grove idea, and it's high time I became a passionate advocate. Why couldn't someone support, say, Sean, who is also working in a service industry for peanuts for no other reason than because he wants to love people; or Jason, whose tremendous gifts as a drummer place him in the midst of an amazing missional network, but who has to try to live from gig to gig with no consistent income? I want the people who leave the abbey to have as much financial health as possible, so that they can be in a position to start their own communities and small businesses with confidence and minimal risk. Or maybe someone might want to help with our bills, or books, or a budget item dedicated to hospitality? Lots of untapped potentiality here.

Daddy, help me put this puzzle together.