The Way

Sometimes it seems that time just gets away and I look up and realize I have not blogged in way too long. I will try and correct that. This past month has been fairly busy with work related travel to MO, Jackson, TN; New Orleans; New Mexico and a little family travel to GA to see Morgan and Mark who are working at WinShape Camps. Wedding plans seem to be going very well and Sondra and Shelbi are doing a great job of getting things done and getting along while doing it! They are also frequent repeat offenders to the pool of a friend of ours. It has been oppressively hot the past couple of weeks and extremely dry. Thankful we are not experiencing the fires that many in the West are experiencing. Here are some very encouraging things I have been a part of this month: an historic Southern Baptist Convention where Fred Luter was elected President great times meeting and encouraging adult leaders at FUGE camps in MO, TN, LA & NM training adult leaders who work with students ...

So recently there has been a lot of talk about me building some margin into my life and I would like to tell you that I have made great strides in that area but that might be a stretch. Except, this week, Sondra and I have been on vacation. After spending a little time with my friends at World Changers and their worship leaders this summer, Sondra and I climbed in the car and headed east. Our first stop was in Maryville, TN to see our friends the Kooch's. Wonderful friends who used to live in Nashville and moved to the Knoxville area and we have kept in touch with them over the years. On Sunday, we headed to Florence, SC and stayed a couple of days with Tom and Georgina Carringer. Other friends of ours who used to live in Nashville but Tom is a big shot at ACS now and they are based in Florence. We enjoyed seeing them and Jacob and Denise and their three, Malachi, Zeke and Fiona. All three of the kids were great to be around and so were their parents. It was great to catch up ...

So the past few posts have been about slowing down; focusing on what really matters; all that stuff that sounds really good and things I have been intentionally trying to put into practice and build margin into life. About 10 days ago I was having lunch with my buddy, Scott Mills, and I looked at him across the table and said, "If I hit the table, just know I am not feeling very good." He looked at me a little freaked out and said, "Do I need to take you to the hospital?" "Nah, just let me hang out here for a minute," I said. And I did fine. ER fun It was a busy weekend with Shelbi graduating from Union with honors and good times with family and friends. On Monday we took Morgan to WinShape Camps in Rome, GA  for her work gig this summer and on Tuesday morning on my way into work, I decided I had felt bad enough, long enough, so . . . I drove my self to the ER. They did an EKG, took a ton of blood, ran tests, and did a MRI on my head. Good news! I...

It has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged and some of that is due to the fact that the pace has been pretty brisk, and some of it is due to the fact that I just have not wanted to write. These past two weeks have been pretty good and pretty busy. With Shelbi completing her nursing degree at Union University and the normal work and church life schedule, we have been running pretty hard. Actually, May is always pretty busy for us in the Turner household. We have extended family birthdays, Mother's Day and also our wedding anniversary on the 11th. Sondra and I had a great time celebrating our 27th this past Friday. We had a gift certificate to Flemings Steak House, had never been, but were willing to try and we are glad that we did. There were a number of things that impressed me that evening: (I will mention a couple) 1. My incredible wife of 27 years. Sondra is just simply amazing. Her desire to love the Lord with all her heart, soul and mind is beautiful to witness u...

This blog post is in the same vein as last week's on Busyness and my confession that too many times I try to find my worth in "being busy" or "in demand." This week I boarded a plane for LA and met with the wonderful folks at UYWI. Bobby Duran is great guy who coordinates their training events and he also is a DJ and a manager for folks like Propaganda, Humble Beast and others. He is a guy who loves youth workers and students. I was encouraged just being around him. I also got to meet up with my friend Paul Kelly who is the youth prof at Golden Gate Seminary and we talked through some of the course offerings he is working on for coming semesters. Another guy who just encourages me, causes me to think and makes me sharper. Yosemite Valley (w/ my iPhone) Tuesday night I boarded a plane from LAX to Fresno where I have met and will be meeting with some youth pastors; Daryl Watts, the CA state youth guy; and training some folks that he uses as trainers thro...

I have been incredibly busy the past couple of weeks with things at work like training opps in the coming year, first run through of budget, our 360 conference in September and lots of speaking and training. It has been a very busy two weeks and the next four weeks are pretty crazy as well. I am working hard to remember that "busyness is not next to godliness". So how is it that busyness takes over my life? Poor planning sounds like an indictment on me, but actually is probably the closest to the truth. I understand that there are seasons that can bring about more busy, but trying to anticipate the unexpected is something I have failed miserably at recently. I realize that I have not allowed for much margin in my life and in that, I have planned poorly. I will say that I am not trying to complain that I am "busier" than anyone else, but I think for the most part, ALL of us are too busy.  I find myself running from one thing to the next, prepping for talks/bu...

And thankfully not a baby! but we are definitely adding to our family. This morning about 930ish, Mark proposed to Shelbi on our front door step. He called me last week, we set up a Skype call for earlier this week since I have been traveling a lot, and we had a great conversation via Skype on Monday. He asked for our blessing and permission to ask Shelbi to marry him and we granted him that honor. There are a lot of things that come flooding to my mind as I think about what has transpired and what will soon transpire as we prepare for a wedding, but the purpose of this post is to let you know that we are extremely excited about Mark and Shelbi being engaged and probably soon to be married. (I really can't say much about them wanting to get married soon since Sondra and I were engaged only about 6 months before we married.) I do want to take a minute and let you know Mark from my perspective. The motto at our house is and has been, "boys are bad" and as they girls ...