fishbowl

New Blog...

2006-02-13T15:34:00.000-06:00

I've started a new blog: kairos.

I moved some of my recent posts there. I'm not sure how much posting I'll do here: maybe much, maybe not. We'll see.

Elizabeth on Bono and Mcconaughey

2006-02-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

Nice reflection on Bono and McConaughey's apparence on Oprah (though I don't know enough about him to say that he's an amazing person)...

When seminarians rebel...

2006-02-13T08:56:00.000-06:00

Those naughty PTS students. What happens when God opens up the snow-gates and Princeton still wants students to show up for 8am classes? They take action into their own hands....

Be sure to check out the pictures. Great photography, Adam...

Authentic blogging...

2006-02-11T20:49:00.000-06:00

So I ran across apostle john's blog today.

He is a ~~newish~~ longtime presbyterian pastor down in florida. One of the things I'm thinking through as a new pastor is how to blog authentically my thoughts/musings/feelings while being pastoral to the church at the same time. I'm not sure, but I don't think that apostle john identifies which church he pastors in his blog: it is psuedo-anonymous by my quick glance. I wonder if his church knows about it.

That frees him, in a way, to talk about things like what he doesn't like about the process of being church where he works. Does that mean I should maintain an pseudo-anonymous blog so I could do the same too? I just wonder about how far to take the whole transparency thing...

Extreme what?

2006-02-11T13:49:00.000-06:00

I remember in high school when the X games were being played in the downtown where I lived. I never thought that some folks would take the impulse to push the envelope to the heights now seen: extreme ironing!

Unbelievable.

(Hat-tip: Katie Harris)

Bono speaks. We should listen...

2006-02-07T14:42:00.000-06:00

Yes, at a national prayer breakfast

Zehnder

2006-02-06T18:29:00.000-06:00

Their webpage is up: http://www.ztheband.com

Not a great site: works poorly on firefox, and some limitations within IE as well; relies heavily on javascript. Still, I'm grateful that it is up so I can order a cd...

Cool music.

(The lyrics on the screen say "Gay and Lesbian We Love You, Ashe Ashe")

2006 APCE conference and Zehnder

2006-02-04T21:48:00.000-06:00

Just got back from the 2006 Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators. I know that 1200 Christian Educators might sound daunting to many folk, but I had a good time and took some great workshops.

Best part was the musical leadership of Zehnder. Too bad their webpage is down, or I'd link there. Maybe soon....

2006-01-30T19:51:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to test what putting a picture on here was like:

Meet Frankie:

2006-01-30T19:25:00.000-06:00

A filabuster goes down in flames.

Gawd, I just hope Stevens (or the others) can last until after the next President is inaugurated....

The Institution question

2006-01-27T21:26:00.000-06:00

It strikes me that these are precisely the questions that the church needs to begin thinking about: why does it matter?

It is a good post. Has me thinking about it....

The right kind of bad Christian....

2006-01-27T21:10:00.000-06:00

I've been called a bad Christian too.

Worth Reading Aloud is right....

2006-01-27T14:44:00.000-06:00

Stolen, word for word, from a plax over at fear and trembling:

Worth Reading Aloud

...are the following words in the form of a prayer by Saint Augustine.

Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and leading the proud to be old without their knowledge; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you repent without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains; you are never avaricious, yet you require interest. We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? You pay off debts, though owing nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. (Confessions I.iv)

Go ahead. Make them yours....

On the progressive nature of the emergent movement

2006-01-27T09:20:00.000-06:00

Ann Pittman blogs here. I can't say I've been reading her blog, but I found her on this recent exploration of the emergent movement.

Back last April she applied for a teaching job at an emergent church, and confronted sexism there.

The discussion of that application is on her blog, and I was struck by her comment:

So you can imagine how I feel now. Emergent is the moderate/progressive interdenominational church movement that has swept across the US, Britain, Australia and beyond. It is a response to fundamentalism, and an attempt to reclaim the beautiful traditions and truth of Christianity in an artistic, thoughtful, culturally relevant dialogue. For Westwinds Community Church to call themselves “culturally relevant” is a joke. Anyone or any church who wouldn’t hire a woman because she lacks the proper anatomy (i.e. is not a man) is not living in 2005. One of my friends wrote about how sad it is that Jesus could have been so progressive towards women 2000 years ago, but we insist on living minus that mission and truth. Christians should be the most progressive, truth embodying, gift embracing people on earth - why can we not step up to that challenge?

That is spot on...

Emergent scene and my possible transition

2006-01-27T09:09:00.000-06:00

Six months into my current position. They've been great, and I gather that means (in some weird way) that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing...

Things on this blog are likely in transition. Blogger's interface doesn't seem to grab me, and I'm not here much. Plus, I'm working on two blog projects at the church I'm serving: one a collaborative project, one a personal pastor's blog. That latter one might supercede this blog, which wouldn't amount to much I guess.

One of the interesting things this all has led me towards is back into the emergent culture, and the exploration of what this way of looking at church might mean for 21st Century Christianity.

A primer in emergent culture is available at emergent village, with some organizing principles (but note the debate over whether they are creeds, boundary markers, or such).

There are a myriad of webpages online devoted to emergent church, and indeed the internet is one of its more important tools. I'm beginning to explore how this movement happens among progressive/moderate mainline folks like myself...

One blog I've recently found that has me intrigued is by seminarian Adam Cleaveland at PTS.

So more soon...

New Scene

2005-09-24T01:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I upped and moved. A few months ago, that is. Took that long to get settled enough to think about blogging, of all things.

My better half and I were looking at our opportunities in Chicago and I was thinking hard about my PhD work (which I'm continuing) and my feelings of vocation in ministry, and we decided that I should look for pastoral positions outside of the region. Turns out there was a good "call" in the Kansas City area, where I have lots of family and close to where my wife grew up. We explored it, and the fit was strong for me and for her. I had offers in the Chicago area--good ones--but when we considered all the pieces this seemed quite right for us.

So we moved. We put our condo on the market and accepted offers here. And fast forward past the headaches of getting all of our crap here, saying good bye to good friends and trying to meet new ones, and here we are: blue people in a dark red state. Maybe we'll turn them a bit less crimson.

Wish us well...

Ousted because he officiated at his daughter's wedding.

2005-02-12T07:28:00.000-06:00

Well, it didn't help that she married a woman. Still, I think it shows a lot of courage on his part.

Every Child a Wanted Child

2005-02-11T16:15:00.000-06:00

I long for the day that this kind of story doesn't happen any more:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Feb 11, 2005 — The woman who claimed to have seen a baby being tossed from a moving car fabricated the story as a cover to abandon her newborn and hide an unwanted pregnancy from her family, authorities said Friday.

"It's not as horrible as we first thought," Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne said. "The baby was never thrown out of a moving car. This is the case of a disturbed woman who gave birth and did not want to keep her child."

So what happened?

2005-02-11T14:39:00.000-06:00

You could say that things were quiet around here in January. That'd be because I've been working so damn hard at my job, and trying to find a full time call (that's how we Presbyterians talk about full-time job offers in ministry). But I'm still here. I'll use this chance to record two blogs that I stumbled across today that my friends run:

One of my condo neigbors is moving to a new single-family home they bought and are renovating. They're using their own blog to journal their progress.

An old acquantance/friend from my days surfing over at rec.pets.dogs.behavior (a place full of loving people, on the one hand, and a lot of senility or apprehension, on the other, occasionally overlapping) apparently has a blog of her own.

Very cool.

A Mournful Christmas

2004-12-26T20:38:00.000-06:00

Word from south-east Asia tonight that tsunamis caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquate have killed more than 10,000 people, and predictions are for the toll to go up.

Its hard to know what to say. How horrible.

A Buck O'Neil Christmas

2004-12-26T20:30:00.000-06:00

My father-in-law surprised me this Christmas with a KC Monarchs baseball cap and bobblehead doll signed by legendary coach and first baseman Buck O'Neil. (More on him here) My FIL has done some work on education and outreach development for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and asked Buck to sign these for me. I'm honored to have them.

A White Christmas...

2004-12-26T20:25:00.000-06:00

Reggie White, the incredible defensive force in the NFL for Green Bay and Philadelphia, died today of a heart attack. He said some rather hateful things about gays and lesbians once, but I hope that he rests in peace and that he is remembered more for the best ideals he expoused than for his glaring faults as a pastor.

Transitional Transitions...

2004-12-22T14:02:00.000-06:00

Well, I just ended my three-month run as a Chaplain Intern at the Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values of Rush University Medical Center. I'm going to miss the work. Chaplains are a unique sort, and do very hard work for not enough compensation or recognition.

Since I still haven't found a call yet, I'm going to pick up a part-time fill-in roll at my local church. They're going to be searching for an associate pastor and I'll cover until he/she gets here. I'm still looking for a call, but if I don't get one by September maybe I'll go back to Chaplaincy.

BTW, the other associate preached a wonderful sermon the other day, making full use of the UCC's ad hype. Bravo.

Not being bigoted is too controversial for NBC, CBS

2004-12-04T08:15:00.000-06:00

Unbelievable:

The CBS and NBC television networks are refusing to run a 30-second television ad from the United Church of Christ because its all-inclusive welcome has been deemed "too controversial."

The ad, part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign set to begin airing nationwide on Dec. 1, states that -- like Jesus -- the United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation.

See the ad for yourself here: http://www.stillspeaking.com/default.htm

Because they ain't Americans...

2004-12-03T10:10:00.000-06:00

Nice exhibition of American values (please note sarcasm here):

Attorneys for the prisoners argued that some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the detainees “have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court.”

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon asked if a detention would be illegal if it were based solely on evidence gathered by torture, because “torture is illegal. We all know that.”

Boyle replied that if the military’s combatant status review tribunals (or CSRTs) “determine that evidence of questionable provenance were reliable, nothing in the due process clause (of the Constitution) prohibits them from relying on it.”

Leon asked if there were any restrictions on using evidence produced by torture.

Boyle replied the United States would never adopt a policy that would have barred it from acting on evidence that could have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks even if the data came from questionable practices like torture by a foreign power.