Not Dark Yet...

I'm just riffing, but I can't shake "Not Dark Yet", from Dylan's Time Out of Mind.  The whole album is just eating my lunch, frankly.  I went back to it tonight because it never fails to disturb me.  It's music is forlorn and real.  It breaks the echoes of the lyrics right into my soul.  I think what kills me is the music style is so close to that in Oh Mercy, one of my favorite albums.  It's no mistake since the same producer who helped Dylan in Oh Mercy produces Time.  Maybe the knife is twisting in me because the whole album speaks of someone coming to terms with approaching mortality, not accepting, just admitting that he's guilty of being mortal.  Working in Hospice now, it's no wonder something like this hits home.  I see the leaden results of delayed reflection constantly.   I witness the amazing density of choice every day I roll out of bed and drag myself to work.  Nowhere to go with this, just in a really, really morbid mood. 

Quote:

"Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Full Text of Assessment #1

While listening to Car Talk I thought I'd enter the full text of Tom Butcher's assessment.

Radiant Life is a new church start established as a "Mall Model".  Space was secured in the mall for around $5000 a month in July of 2006.  Pastor Andy Verner was officially appointed to this new church start in November of that year.  The mall's location is approximately 20 miles north of Pittsburgh and about 5 miles north of another existing established mall along the same travel route.  Andy and his family were asked to move to the area and find a house within 30 days of his appointment.

Andy Verner is very dedicated to starting new churches.  The fact that he attended three different "boot camps" speaks to his great desire to be successful in the planting of new churches.  Unfortunately all of these "boot camp" experiences did not prepare him for the specialized model of starting a new church from a "mall" setting.  In other words, the training, no matter how much of it or how high the quality, was inadequate for this particular model.

One of the large factors in successful church planting is the establishment of benchmarks toward the end of achieving "critical mass".  Benchmarks can be set at three months intervals during the first two years and can be adjusted as the situation develops.  There were few if any benchmarks initially established.  In fact, this unusual model was well into its second three months before a planter was selected.  The space that was rented at the mall was vacant the better part of five months with virtually nothing done to it to turn it into a "church" area.  Much time, planning and appropriate remodeling was lost during this initial phase, putting the new church start very much behind from the beginning.

While it's not impossible to plant a new church start in a mall setting, attention to many details need to be worked out months before the actual beginning date.  For example, the mall has set hours they need to be open for business.  Who is going to mind the store during those hours?  Requiring the church planter on the premises during those prime hours takes away precious time needed to establish key relationships that will lay the foundation for future growth.  Jesus sought after and found Peter, James and John that became the three disciples he depended on the most.  A new church planter needs a similar amount of time to find those key persons.

Perhaps the greatest attention to detail needs to be paid to the "affinity" between the "mission context" and the "personality profile" of the church planter.  In other words, how does the personality of the new church start missionary match up to the context into which they are being placed.  While Andy has a great personality and is very much outward in his approach to people, the mall setting was probably not a great match for him.  And although he is very passionate about starting a new church, he never imagined himself beginning in such an environment and that is probably the biggest problem here.  Another factor that might have added to the mismatch was in the purchase of the parsonage.  Without benefit of demographics information and knowing the area the new church would serve, the new parsonage was bought in an area to the south.  It was discovered later that people who use the mall usually come from north of the location.  Those people who live south of the mall location have established travel patterns that take them to the existing shopping areas located more to the south.  The location of the parsonage does not led itself to effective evangelism for the new mall church in its own neighborhood.

Best practices from a significant amount of successful new church starts indicate that developing an effective "launch team" of passionate laity is another key element.  Furthermore, there is evidence that suggests the larger the launch team the better.  Recently some launch teams have had as many as 40 to 65 persons planning the first worship service.  Much of this kind of thinking was also missing form the conference strategy for planting Radiant Life.

As for the worship service itself, there were a few really good qualities and several areas that need improvement.  This particular sermon was very good and gave every indication that Andy is a gifted preacher.  The music in the worship service sounded very good which featured a couple of good guitarists.  However, as good as the music was it was hard to sing to and most of the congregation just stood and listened to the performers.  Of the 30 that were there, almost all of them were in their thirties or younger which would be great if there were only many more of them.

In summary, because of the way that this specialized "mall" model was launched it had very little opportunity for success.  The church planter had little or no affinity for the mall context.  There was not a lot of attention given to many important details in such a setting and there was not very much "benchmarking" that is crucial to the success of most church plants.  Furthermore, asking the pastor and his family to find a home within 30 days was not reasonable if the intention was for the pastor to live in the community to which he was appointed.  Finally there was a lack of "trained laity support" to accompany the new church start clergy person and his family.

My recommendations are that for all of the above stated reasons, the lease agreement not be renewed in August and that this new church start be closed down.  I also recommend that Andy be given a very good appointment from where he may be able to launch a new church start from an existing healthy anchor church.  I believe that he does indeed have the skills, the talent and passion to be able to plant a new church.  Finally, I recommend that a complete "autopsy" be done on this new church start experience including much input from Andy.  It is one of my firmest beliefs that we learn the most from our failures and not our success.

Autopsy

Well, here is the autopsy provided to the cabinet by me.  I was not sure how much to include since it is rather long to post all at once.  I thought about doing it a little bit at a time but the issues tend to be interrelated.  I just decided to do it in one post.  For those of you who wish to see the assessments offered by the specialists the Bishop brought in, they follow this post.  (I didn't get to the conclusion...too tired right now.  I'll finish later.)

RLCC Autopsy

Prepared for: Dean Zeigler, Butler District Superintendent

Prepared by: R. Andrew Verner

July 22, 2008

Executive Summary

Overview

Radiant Life Christian Community was an attempt at church planting by the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference.  It began with the signing of the lease in the Pittsburgh Mills Mall Galleria in June of 2006 and concluded with its dissolution in September of 2008.

Goal

This document is offered as a learning tool so that the errors made and experiences garnered would not be wasted in the future of new church development in the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Cautions 

This summary is my own (R. Andrew Verner).  It arises solely from my own observations, in hindsight, for the unfolding of this church plant.  If my tone seems injurious, it is not intended as such.  I intend candor.  I, and my family, have bled for this church and this conference.  My heart is broken that I could not "succeed" in this endeavor.  I trust that those who read this and know me know that all the excellence Christ has placed within me was expended to bring the good news of Jesus to others and help build a community of faith, hope and love.  In many ways we have succeeded, but not in ways that would produce a self-sustaining United Methodist Church.  I have tried to exorcise the small bitterness that is within, knowing that all who conceived this effort did so with the greatest and most holy of motives, and yet the failure is too close right now for the emotion of it not to spill out on these pages.

ISSUES

These are the issues affecting the outcome:

ISSUE #1: Conception

The Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church (WPAMUC) decided to lease 8100 sq. ft. of prime retail space in Tarentum, Pa. at the cost of $5000 per month plus utilities with the purpose of launching a new United Methodist Church along the Route 28 corridor northeast of Pittsburgh.  This decision was influenced by a the possession of a sizable grant designated for that purpose. While no specific target people group was identified, no local population interviewed, no specific timetable was agreed upon, no church planter was selected, no consultations with local UM churches and pastors were held, and no specific methodology or plan were identified and agreed upon, the location of the plant was fixed by mutual assent.

Clearly, the decision making body was crippled by the lack of a person experienced and trained in modern church plant methodology.  Assumptions about church planting and the location were made.  These included: the model of planting or church plant methodology required to make such a location work; the necessary level of local tribal church 'buy-in' required to sustain the church and planter through the early stages; the relative benefits and liabilities of using a retail location as the main networking hub; the degree to which mall management goals and church planting goals could be conjoined; the most import was how the location would drive the launch timeline rather than the size of the faith community.

Ideally, a combination of community need, a committed local sponsoring body, and planter passion combines to cultivate a powerful 'ought' in which the community of Jesus takes root and flourishes.  In this plant it appears that the possession of the grant, the novelty of the location (coupled with the lower than standard rent for comparable retail property), and other conference concerns overshadowed in the minds of the committee the liabilities of the location. 

ISSUE #2: Fantasy Statement v. Vision Statement

The vision of a "Mall Church" was promoted throughout our conference.  It appears, however, no infrastructure to realize this vision was put in place.  One person, when questioned about the plan for the church, stated, "We don't want to burden the planter with a plan.  We want the plan to come from the church planter."  While that statement sounds trusting and generous, it is foolish.  Regardless of the methodology employed by a planter, clear systems of accountability, concrete benchmarks, a method of funding and disbursement, as well as inter-church networking is the responsibility of the planting body and essential to realizing any church plant vision.

The idea of a Mall Church was not fleshed out prior to lease signing.  What is a Mall Church?  What is the nature, spiritual expectations, and sociological makeup of consumers?  What are expectations of people of a "Mall Church"?  What kinds of ministries would attract people from the mall and how many people would it take to create a ministry presence that would have legitimacy in the eyes of the target group?  Perhaps these questions were asked by the initial decision making body.  If so, there were not provided to the church planter when he asked for such.

ISSUE # 3:  Location of Planter Family

The housing for the church plant was, in retrospect, poorly located. The urgencies of a mid-appointment year move dictated a choice of location that proved less than ideal.  The planter's decision, conditioned by a late autumn move, inexperience with hope purchasing, unfamiliarity with the area, and the 30 day time restriction artificially imposed by leadership, was wrong.  While the home served the family well, it did not serve the church plant well.  The location would have been suitable if the rented space was further south, since established shopping patterns dictate that people tend toward rather than away from Pittsburgh.  Locating the church planter's family south of the mall, rather than north, meant that those with whom the planter was in regular contact at home did not naturally intersect with the planter in the mall environment.  Most of those who would later become connected to Radiant Life Christian Community came from north of the mall.  Reconnaissance, planning and patience as well as a thorough and accurate sociological and demographic survey could have avoided this error.

ISSUE #4:  Mall Restrictions

The Mills Corporation, desperate for tenants and experiencing severe internal corporate difficulties, rented the space to the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference with the expectation of a filled storefront to demonstrate the mall's viability to potential commercial tenants.  The conference signed the lease in June, yet left the space unoccupied and undeveloped for 6 months.  This encouraged concern by mall management, who were initially uncertain as to what the impact a nonprofit company might have on the retail environment.

The mall lease states tenants will be open during all mall hours.  This effectively ties the church planter to the site and requires that people come to the planter rather than the planter going to the people.  The mall prohibits any action that could be interpreted as solicitation.  These restrictions directly oppose strategies that have been demonstrated to work for new church plants.  Outside signage is prohibited.  The lease restricts any sales activity to the leased spaces only.  The mall has noise restrictions.  These restrictions were not burdensome in the early stages, but as worship outreach and preview services began, so too did concern about "noise".

ISSUE #5: Early/Late Launch

Worship was launched too early and too late.  The Public Event is the most important item on the timeline of a church plant.  In North American anglo culture, a church is not a church unless it has a worship event on Sunday morning in the church location.  A church is not legitimate in the eyes of possible attenders if it is not worshipping on Sunday morning.  For a "parachute drop", worship launch must be delayed as long as it takes to get a large enough core group (launch team) to feel legitimate to guests.  As a parachute drop, Radiant Life was launched too early.

As an "Attract Model" church plant, which is the only way procuring property in a highly visible mall before a launch team is recruited and trained could be construed, worship was launched way too late.  An attract model relies on a high profile presence and a blitz opening.  For those who did come in to the site, the first question was "When is worship?"  A reasonable question when a church is paying rent and has a public presence in the form of a storefront in an upscale mall.  Yet the answer had to be "Not yet," since no worship team or children's ministry existed (two core functions that must exist for a church to be viewed as legitimate in the modern mindset).  Without worship, the average inquirer, no matter how interested, mentally wrote off the church.  The church was "public" in that it was visible to the shoppers of the mall, but not "public" in the sense that it had the "Public Event" (worship on Sunday morning) that denotes a real church.  The site was useful, in one sense, since it provided an available space for outreach events.  it was debilitating in the way it was perceived by the "consumers" who come to the mall expecting a "finished product".  Because no worship was possible, RLCC was dismissed as an oddity.

ISSUE #6: Outreach and Buy-in

An overused, but accurate, expression in church planting is "Church planting is a contact sport."  The goal of the planter at RLCC was 20 contacts a week (this works out to meeting a little over 1000 new people every year).  This was frequently accomplished (note that the space was unfinished and required some 8 months of time to complete, taking away valuable contact making time in the most important stage of planting).  After the site was completed, outreach events were able to be held that helped exceed this goal.  Vacation Bible School, Coffee House, Concerts, Teaching/Education Events, Children's Outreach (puppet shows, magic shows, etc.) were all held with the intention of parleying those contacts into a viable launch team.

These events were successful in attracting crowds, especially among families.  Each attracted 60-100 people.  While there was some buy-in from a few, given the number of contacts made, a greater number of commitments were expected over the pre-launch term.  In asking questions, we discovered that the outreach events were crippled by sociological factors.  Coming to an event at a mall, people were approaching as they would any other event in a mall: willing to be entertained, looking for something to distract them, and very wary of salesmen.

Fruitful contacts are best made in organic (natural) ways.  They also take time, which requires repeated encounters. The mall space put the contact in control of repeating the encounter, whereas normally the planter would ensure repeated contact by going to the people.  That's why community based launches (neighborhood) fare better than those removed from community (such as a destination shopping center).  That's also the reason why most planters spend 90% of their time where people are already going to build relationships.  While some of this was done at RLCC, it has already been noted that the mall restrictions and removal from natural community made this prohibitive.

ISSUE #7: Formalizing Leadership and Structure Too Soon

The leadership structure at RLCC was created too early.  This was due to a number of factors, many of them noted above.  An early worship launch requires committed worship leadership.  Lack of clear financial oversight and disbursement system along with the eventual employment of contractors led to the need for a trained person to handle the immediate and pressing financial issues of a new church plant.   Mall requirements early on led to the need for a more consistent staffing in the mall facility. A parachute drop model needs time, yet everything about the mall model launch required urgency.  This led the planter to regrettable staffing decisions early on that could and should have been avoided.

The Autopsy

Some of you have sent me emails asking about the autopsy.  I'm going to post it but it its much longer than the assessment summaries.  What I may do is post one issue at a time to break it up somewhat.  That means that they'll be upside down on the blog.  I'll probably get one done a day and I'll start tomorrow (later today, actually).  Hope it doesn't bug anyone too much.  Peace.

Assessment #1

The first assessor, Tom Butcher, had a lot to say.  There was a great deal of content that was more educational than evaluative.  Here are the two summary paragraphs:

...In summary, because of the way that this specialized "mall" model was launched it had very little opportunity for success.  The church planter had little or no affinity for the mall context.  There was not a lot of attention given to many important details in such a setting and there was not very much "benchmarking" that is crucial to the success of most church plants.  Furthermore, asking the pastor and his family to find a home within 30 days was not reasonable if the intention was for the pastor to live in the community to which he was appointed.  Finally there was a lack of "trained laity support" to accompany the new church start clergy person and his family.

My recommendations are that for all of the above stated reasons, the lease agreement not be renewed in August and that this new church start be closed down.  I also recommend that Andy be given a very good appointment from where he may be able to launch a new church start from an existing healthy anchor church.  I believe that he does indeed have the skills, talent and passion to be able to plant a new church.  Finally, I recommend that a complete "autopsy" be done on this new church start experience including much input from Andy.  It is one of my firmest beliefs that we learn the most from our failures and not our successes.

Well, there it is.  My autopsy is in the can and has already been sent to the cabinet.  I'll post it soon.

Peace.

Assessment #2

Hey Everybody,

As promised, here is the assessment done by Brad Kalajainen (it's a little longer than anything I've posted before, I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed #3, #4, and #5):

Consultation on Radiant Life Christian Community

Date visited: July 1, 2008

Brad Kalajainen

Lead Pastor Cornerstone UMC

West Michigan Director of New Church

Overall Impressions

Andy Verner seems to be an excellent choice for new church planter.  Andy is educated in new church method, likeable, thoughtful, and dedicated to the cause.  He and his wife seem to have sense a call into this kind of ministry.  I only had the opportunity to talk with Andy for a few hours.  I did not see any obvious "head wounds" (personal, professional, mannerisms, etc.) that would lead to the slow growth of Radiant Life.  I usually can pick up on those fairly quickly.  I saw none in Andy.  He has many gifts and skills to do this again given the right set of circumstances and supervision.  Andy seems matched for the mission field.

Dean is providing excellent supervision in the role of DS for the church plant.  While he admits not having expertise in new church starts, he is thoughtful, methodical, understanding, and very approachable.  I'm glad he is in that role.  Dean asks the right questions and listens for solutions.

Major Obstacles

1.  Supervision:  One of the obvious problems with this new church plant is the lack of supervision on the part of one point person.  Andy answers to too many bosses.  The need for a staff person or paid ministry consultant to be the "in-between" person between Andy and conference is fairly obvious.  Most conferences have someone leading the charge for new church development.  It is not always a full-time position.

The new church planter cannot deal with all conference staff, cabinet, treasurer's office personnel, and others effectively.  Someone needs to be the person that the planter is accountable to and who opens the necessary doors in the conference structure.  I may have missed it, but that person does not seem to be identified in Western PA.  This lack of a point person led to several unnecessary decisions and/or conflicts over funding, benchmarks, etc.

New Church starts must be supervised be someone who is educated in new church.  Even if a supervisor has not started a church her/himself, education abounds in this area.  It is a different mindset and way to think than existing church ministry.  It follows some different rules.  It needs to be fully supported by cabinet and surrounding church pastors as well.

2.  Housing: The lack of anyone being in charge of the project led to some regretful decisions about funding for the house.  Assumptions were made, miscommunications abounded, leaving Andy and his family emotionally drained and hurt.  Again, I do not know all that went into these decisions; I'm just reporting the obstacles that I believe are hard to overcome at this point.

3.  Space:  I am aware of the funding, the stipulations, and all that went into the decision to use the mall space and launch this new church even though it was not a natural next site for the New Church Committee.

The mall sounded good in the initial stages.  However, from a new church planter viewpoint, it had limitations that could not be surmounted.

• 1 year of salary and planter time used up physically finishing the space with paint, carpet, etc.
• Pressure from the mall to "be open" immediately which robbed the planter of valuable contact time in the greater community
• Limited evangelistic opportunities per mall restrictions
• No organic way to meet people (dependence on walk-ins which is not a normal use of mall space).  People expect the person in the mall space to be selling something.
• Reliance on the "Attract Model" of ministry which is not as effective now as it was a few decades before.
• Hesitancy expressed by the planter in the initial interview.

4.  Pressure to Launch/Premature Birth:  The space mandated the launch date rather than the number of launch team members and contacts made by the planter.  This can never happen.  If you launch with a few, you get a few more.  Andy should have had the freedom to spend the first year making contacts and gathering a launch team.  The mall space could have worked if he could have brought a group to it with momentum and energy.  The lease should have not been signed in the mall until he had 60-100 committed people.  Then, the mall could have been a great location!

5.  No Conference Exit Strategy:  Conferences need to have benchmarks to achieve for new church planter accountability.  They also need to think through how and when to end the mission if it is simply not working.  How do you communicate this to the conference churches?  How do you care for the planter with all the subsequent feelings of closure, failure, etc.?  How are the funds used that remain?

6.  Coaching:  It is impossible for the supervisor to be the coach as well. The DS or even conference staff cannot coach the new church planter.  A coach could have been hired from the outside to ward off many of the decisions that became "head wounds" for this new church site.

Current Reality

• Emotion and hurt over housing still strong
• 1 hour worship: attractive, useful, helpful
• Investment in equipment
• 20-30 adults (over 18) after 4 months of worship
• Lease renewal in August 08
• Attenders not aggressive about inviting
• Events have not drawn numbers of people hoped for
• No mall employees attending
• "Damascus Roadhouse" evangelistic plan limited productivity
• Postives: Baptisms, marriages
• Dedicated small team of leaders and musicians

Recommendation:

Options

• Bring Radiant Life to closure.  It is unlikely that even within another year that they will be able to add more than 20-30 people.  They will still not have enough to sustain a church or become free of conference funding.
• Do not resign the mall lease.  Look for another site within close range.  Hope to take core to new site.  Start over.  This option might work if Andy has the internal energy to do so, and if there is a school/other location suitable within a few miles.  Most of the staff could not think of such a site.
• Partner Andy with another larger church as associate to replant Radiant Life in some existing neighborhood.  This would give his family healing time and support in the interim.

If options 2 & 3 are not viable, I would recommend developing an exit strategy and using the plant as a learning model for the conference in the future.  Reappoint Andy to another church where he could use his valuable gifts and skills learned in some growing area.

Well friends, there it is.  I'll answer any questions I can.  I'll post my report to the cabinet the next time.

Peace

Assessments and Evaluations...

evaluate: form and idea of the amount, number or value of

assess: estimate the nature, ability or quality of

Last month I asked the Bishop if the church plant here could be assessed for its long-term viability.  We have been worshipping since February and things are growing, but very, very slowly.  Part of my request came because I have pulled just about every ministry possibility and outreach endeavor out my sleeve that I can.  I suspect that the setting itself is a limiting factor.  And frankly, though I have been personally assessed by church planting organizations, I wanted a look not only at the terrain and setting, but also at myself.

The conference is bringing in two assessors.  I got to meet one, Tom Butcher, yesterday.  Our second assessor will be here tomorrow.  Tom is the head of Path 1 from the General Conference.  Path 1 is the body that will be heading up new church plants across the denomination.  Tom has overseen the launch something like 24 churches in his area (out west) and 20 of them were successful.  Right now, they're developing a plan to recruit 1000 church planters with the goal of planting 650 churches across the US.

It was a great conversation.  Though I have misjudged some of this effort here, Tom assured me that most of my overall concerns were valid.  He also affirmed some of what I was beginning to doubt: my call to church planting, my training, and my competence.  He said of all the churches that they planted, they only started one with a location (property) prior to launch and after 7 years of limping, it was one of the ones that failed.  He also said that they learned more from the 4 churches that failed than they learned from the 20 that succeeded.

There was a lot more in our exchanges and maybe I'll save them for a later post.  Our lease is up in August and the outcomes of the two assessments will help us decide what's next.  Whether we stay in the mall, change locations, or something else only God knows.  I will say that they only thing that would discourage me is if those who are making church plant decisions in our conference choose not to learn from this one.  Either way, I'm loving this work and God is good!

Peace, peoples!

A Book Worth The Time

My Brother, Jeff K. told me about this book a while back so I picked it up at annual conference.  It's very bracing.  I'd recommend it to anyone involved in Christian ministry who has ever asked the question, "How did we get to this?".  I clipped the picture and description off of Viola's site.  I'd like a diehard traditionalist's take on the book (someone like McIlwain) who might have a stake in challenging the research that Barna and Viola did to produce the book.  Viola is committed hardcore to the housechurch movement and his bias tends to show in the late part of the book.  Nonetheless, his challenges are hard to refute.  I've thought through a few kinks but I'll refrain voicing until some others comment.

Book Description 
Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we "dress up" for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles.

Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices.

Jesse James Got the Game Ball!!!

Jesse, our youngest son, got the game ball today!  He's in kindergarten and it's his first year playing baseball.  He's been struggling all season with the basics and everything came together today in the first game of the Indiana Township tournament.  He hit the ball at every at bat and got on base every time but one!  THIS IS BIG!  Woo-Hoo!!  It's also the first game he played the field without playing in the dirt!

I Love Photoshop

This is my favorite photoshopped picture.  Not often you can take an assassination and turn it into the best punk band ever.  Thanks to Dan for showing me this one.  Captions welcome.

The Big Ted

President Theodore Roosevelt:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat."

I have found myself everywhere in this quote: the critic on the sidelines, in the ring, and sometimes in the corner of one who was in the fight.  I know one thing, it has always been a lonely thing to dare to attempt something significant.