Time

It's amazing how quickly a blog can become outdated. Things in the non-profit world continue to hum along as newsletters and publications take shape. Over last week and weekend I traveled to the ELCA Communicator Conference in Chicago and the DMA Non-Profit Federation Conference in New York.

Each was an informative experience, but in drastically differently ways. For many at the conference in Chicago, budget constrains, lack of technological proficiency and assumptions regarding constituent access/interest in new media are imposing unique constraints upon Lutheran programs at the synod and congregational levels. Whereas the conference in New York featured many of the heavy-hitters in the non-profit world. Talk about contrast. Yet in each interaction we were able to develop insights into our own process at Lutheran World Relief and the ways we assume, limit, function and represent in our everyday interactions.

As I think about interconnectedness, interactions and interweaving in general, I reflect upon Psalm 8. Though certainly not an exhaustive list of the connected creation, I like to think of the psalm as a starting point, a beginning for discussing the web of creation. Though some have used the language of dominion in the psalm to promote an "anything goes" ethic of creational exploitation, the language draws me in the opposite direction. I am instead prompted to contemplate responsibility, connectedness and the inexplicable consequences of human action on the creation.