Dear Friends, It's already February. 2017 is off and running like a downhill skier on Red Bull. I want to share a series of encounters I had to get us into the topic of this letter . . . First, a friend shared with me how much he was enjoying a podcast by a thoughtful NPR commentator, and the nuggets of insight were impressive. A few hours later a different friend mentioned how much they were getting out of another podcast. I thought to myself, I'd better subscribe to those; they sound really good and I feel like I'm not keeping up with the trends. That afternoon, Stasi said something about some world news event she had just read about, and I thought, Wow--I am not keeping up on global happenings. I'd better do more of that, too. During a meeting the next day, someone makes a reference to a well-known ministry when everyone else at the table nods like they knew the story, and I'm wondering, Wow--I have no idea what is going on in the church world; I ne