For several nights it has snowed to beat the band in Indianapolis. Wind, rain and ice got involved. The city shut down. Last night I was reading the various closings and saw a church I hadn't before imagined. Unless it was a typo, some congregation in this city bills itself, "First Free Wheel Baptist Church.”  Imagine. It sounds like a clear rejection of their "Hard Shell"brothers and sisters, and Calvinism in every form. The Sunday liturgy must vary wildly from week to week. I suppose these things can happen in a free country.

The Disciples Center sits on a block of downtown Indianapolis that enjoys an interesting mix of neighbors. On this same plot of the planet are lawyers, insurance companies, sports bars, bail bondsmen and a massage therapist. There's a kosher hot dog stand that doesn't look too kosher, a swank apartment complex and a brand new parking deck robbing the swank apartment dwellers of their view of Disciples Center, perhaps offering new business for the lawyers. Most fun is the psychic with a misspelled sign offering tarot cards, crystal balls, and palm readings. This place is open by appointment only, which further encourages my basic distrust of psychics. Shouldn't they be expecting you?

Several years ago Paul Crow recruited me to make a pilgrimage to Russia while it was still the Soviet Union. Myself excepted, it was an august group of Campbellites including such saints as Wayne Bell, Harold Horne, Peter Morgan and Don Reisinger. I'll admit I went a 'dyed in the wool' rationalist in the manner of most Disciples. I look for unity based on what is according to reason, liberty in things above reason, and insistent on freedom from acceptance of that which is contrary to reason. I came home the same way only totally changed.

My pre-Russian self was more comfortable expecting others to think as I. My tolerance of mystery and mysticism wasn't much. In retrospect I was unreasonably intolerant of expressions of faith I found unreasonable. In Russia I actually encountered real Christians who were very different from me, people I admired and appreciated. In them I saw that people can actually experience the presence of God, and have deep spiritual needs met, in ways I don't. Nothing like a three week immersion in Russian Orthodoxy to knock out some cockiness.

Two things happened when I came home. For one, I appreciated the value of other people's faith journeys as never before. Be they Orthodox, Pentecostal, Trinitarian, Unitarian, Calvinist, Free Will, even Free Wheel, I trust we have a God interested in them, not their opinions.  This doesn't mean I have a casual attitude about my own tradition. On the contrary, and this is the second thing, I gained new interest in the Disciples of Christ. Experiencing another faith at its best made me want to experience my own the same way. It gave me fresh appreciation of our history, traditions, worship and values.

In this issue of the Home Mission Advocate we draw attention to spirituality. I hope it serves to help us better appreciate our own avenues to experiencing God, and our neighbors' as well. Of course, I don't know that it will; it's not like I'm psychic.

Glad to be with you in Christian mission,

—The Rev. Arnold C. Nelson Jr., president of Disciples Home Missions, is a native of Clarksville, Tenn., and is a member of Southport Christian Church, Indianapolis.