my lawyer, the story machine

One of the things I love to do most, and something that I believe is important in my calling, is to meet and talk to people who know the history of my part of town.

This is important to me because, if I am going to introduce people to the story God is writing, I must understand the story going on around me. That is my entry point to telling God's story here.

It turns out, one of these people doubles as our church's legal representation.

I met with Steven Hall this evening to talk about issues surrounding potential real estate transactions and the like, and as we talked, he steered the conversation toward our community. He asked me if I had talked to this person or that, and told me about communities of faith that had grown, peaked, died, become irrelevant. He talked about how the demographics of our area have changed and are changing, and he did so excitedly.

He asked me, "Do you know why all the upper-scale communities are to the north?" I had never thought of this, but it's true: Carmel, Noblesville, Fishers, Zionsville and the like are all to the north of Indy's downtown. I had no idea.

"Because of the railroads," he replied. "When people moved away from downtown, they wanted to get away from the dirt and noise of the railroads. And there are no railroads north of downtown."

He was right, of course. All the rail yards run through the south side.

I was fascinated by this and other stories he shared in our time together. At the end of our meeting, I asked him if he would be willing to meet with me later, just to talk about our community.

"I'd love to," he said, smiling. "I'd like to hear some of your ideas."

I smiled.