Sorry for the long delay, but it’s been a week full of visitors here in Walnut Hills. Our pal and honorary Campolo Laura Baker got some unexpected time off and drove up to Atlanta on Wednesday, just in time to have dinner with my Dad, who was here both Wednesday and Thursday. My Mom came in for Friday and Saturday, and Laura didn’t leave until Sunday afternoon. Just in case you were wondering, yes, we do still live in a one-bedroom apartment.

In addition to all those houseguests, our dear friends George Baum and Michael Bridges, otherwise known as our all-time favorite two-man band, Lost and Found, also came to town this weekend. For those unfamiliar with Lost and Found, I would be hard pressed to adequately describe either their manic style of music or their positive and positively hilarious showmanship. All I can tell you is that their concerts almost perfectly reflect both my theology and my philosophy of ministry. If you ever get a chance to hear them live, jump on it. In the meantime, jump on their uber-cool website http://www.speedwood.com/

Of course, all we younger Campolos (including Laura) went to the show on Saturday night and had ourselves a ball, er, actually a Slinky. Afterwards, I stuck around to play roadie and George and Michael and I went out for another of our late-night talk fests.

After fifteen years of intense conversation, we three know the subjects we’re bound to cover, but lately I am amazed at how our perspectives and opinions have changed. What hasn’t changed, however, is the frequency with which God uses my two old friends to speak into my life. This time it was Michael who did the talking, and what he said was fairly simple: There are a whole lot of people within the church for whom traditional evangelical theology no longer works, and a whole lot of people outside the church who are drawn to Jesus but turned off by those same unworkable ideas. Many of these folks would be genuinely thrilled if a credible person like me could manage to write down a simple and straightforward book about how to believe in a God who is genuinely worth the trouble. Now that I’m free of organizational constraints and back in a place where I can breathe God’s grace more easily, I should try my level best to write that book.

How strange the way such a familiar idea hit me like a ton of bricks this time.

So now, along with fixing up an old house, figuring out a new neighborhood, trying to keep track of way too many people, and doing my various odd jobs well enough to make an honest living, I have one more ridiculously urgent task running around in my little bald head.