Thursday, August 28, 2008
Job Update
Hey guys, got an email from the director of student life at CIU today, where I am applying for that first-year experience coordinator (working with first-year students in their transition to CIU) and he told me I made the first cut, and he was planning on starting to setup interviews soon, but he was honest and told me there were other applicants with more life/work experience relevant to the position. I can only get work experience relevant if he gives me the job :) Please continue to keep this in your prayers, I would really like to get out of the restaurant and into the college age ministry of some sort.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Charismaticism
So I'm interested to hear you guys' thoughts about the "revival" going on down in Lakeland, FL led by Todd Bentley. I first heard of this during my honeymoon and saw this guy preaching asking God to change people's silver cavity linings to gold, and was pretty skeptical. But I mean supposedly like 13 some people have been raised from the dead, people are growing new limbs, all sorts of crazy NT kinda-stuff, that we typically only hear about happening in third-world countries, is now happening here in America.
Of course you have the traditional naturalists and secularists of our day doing everything they can to discount him and mock him, and you have the conservative evangelicals (of which I would most likely be placed if placed in a grouping) that use hermeneutics to make the things he does look somewhat ungodly, if not for any other reason than the bizarre methods he is known for, such as kicking people in the face or kneeing them in the gut.
The thing that really started me thinking about this was recently when Megan and I were at her home in Pennsylvania, her dad (who is into healing) and I started talking about this, along with her mother (who is not really that into healing). They told us how several members of their church (which is barely even an it's allowed to raise your hands during worship kind of church) traveled down to Lakeland to see what this was all about. Those members have, according to the witness of Megan's parents, come back from the Lakeland meeting "annointed" (whatever that means) and have been the vessels of numerous healings.
I am split. Part of me says it's all non-sense and the guy is crazy. (One of the things he says he was told by God was not to preach Jesus, but to preach the angels, because everyone believes in Jesus, but no one believes in the supernatural. Kinda makes sense, kinda is iffy, in my mind.) The other part says what if I am missing out on experiencing God in a way like I've never experienced him before. Charismatics seem to experience God so intimately, and Christianity Today recently had an article entitled "Teaching a Calvinist to Dance" which was about a Reformed Charismatic. The link is below, but it has just made me wonder if there is a better balance to the Christian life than I am living, is it possible to have the theology of a Calvinist but the experience of a Charismatic? I have never been close to Charismatic in my relationship with God but I used to note hesitate at asking God to heal people and even seeing them healed (much lesser things than regrowing limbs) but now I feel as if I have been so educated in my faith as to have shut that part of me off, and I want it to turn back on in the most Biblical way possible.
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/may/25.42.html
I want to hear your thoughts on this, and if anyone wants to take a weekend down to Lakeland, let me know, could be interesting.
Of course you have the traditional naturalists and secularists of our day doing everything they can to discount him and mock him, and you have the conservative evangelicals (of which I would most likely be placed if placed in a grouping) that use hermeneutics to make the things he does look somewhat ungodly, if not for any other reason than the bizarre methods he is known for, such as kicking people in the face or kneeing them in the gut.
The thing that really started me thinking about this was recently when Megan and I were at her home in Pennsylvania, her dad (who is into healing) and I started talking about this, along with her mother (who is not really that into healing). They told us how several members of their church (which is barely even an it's allowed to raise your hands during worship kind of church) traveled down to Lakeland to see what this was all about. Those members have, according to the witness of Megan's parents, come back from the Lakeland meeting "annointed" (whatever that means) and have been the vessels of numerous healings.
I am split. Part of me says it's all non-sense and the guy is crazy. (One of the things he says he was told by God was not to preach Jesus, but to preach the angels, because everyone believes in Jesus, but no one believes in the supernatural. Kinda makes sense, kinda is iffy, in my mind.) The other part says what if I am missing out on experiencing God in a way like I've never experienced him before. Charismatics seem to experience God so intimately, and Christianity Today recently had an article entitled "Teaching a Calvinist to Dance" which was about a Reformed Charismatic. The link is below, but it has just made me wonder if there is a better balance to the Christian life than I am living, is it possible to have the theology of a Calvinist but the experience of a Charismatic? I have never been close to Charismatic in my relationship with God but I used to note hesitate at asking God to heal people and even seeing them healed (much lesser things than regrowing limbs) but now I feel as if I have been so educated in my faith as to have shut that part of me off, and I want it to turn back on in the most Biblical way possible.
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/may/25.42.html
I want to hear your thoughts on this, and if anyone wants to take a weekend down to Lakeland, let me know, could be interesting.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Mepkin Abbey
Well, I've been back from Mepkin Abbey for a week now. Mainly I've just been packing things up and getting ready for the big move tomorrow to Philadelphia (I'm not sure how long I have to live there to be able to call it Philly without being a poser). The parental units came up yesterday and loaded up all of my furniture to take it back to Conway so now I've just got to pack all of my clothes and books into my car and make the 11 hour trip up to Glenside, PA and move into my mansion. I kind of feel like the Fresh Prince.
About the abbey. It's an amazingly beautiful place. If I was going to be a monk, I would definitely go be a monk there. It feels like an awesome summer camp for adults. If you could swim in the river there, it would be absolutely perfect. I went down to the abbey with my friends Jeremy and Jeff who I led in a Bible study when they were freshmen. They're two of my favorite guys I've ever had in a Bible study, and now they're two of my closest friends. We decided to go down there to spend some time for ourselves as individuals (they started their last semester at USC on Thursday, and I'm starting grad school in two weeks), and also to spend some time together since we won't be seeing each other for awhile. I think it was successful on both fronts. I was able to read a lot, pray a lot, and spend a lot of great time with those two guys. We didn't do much in the way of monk stuff; we mainly just used it as a place for personal time of reflection.
What did I learn . . . One of the main things I was thinking about was Randy's question about how we keep our private worlds in order. As luck would have it, there was a really helpful chapter in The Reason for God that gave me at least one way to answer that question. In his chapter on the problem of sin, Keller says something to the effect of this: one of the problems of sin is that we build our identity on things other than God and our relationship to him, and when we build our identity on temporal and non-universal things, it inevitably leads to pride, exclusion of others, and anger at those who don't meet our expectations or the expectations of our group. Of course, Keller had much more reasoning and examples to back the statement up, but if you haven't read the book you'll just have to trust me when I say that his argument was convincing. So, I spent a lot of time thinking about who I've been bitter towards and cynical about and what that might tell me about what I'm building my identity on rather than God. As I get ready to go to a relatively conservative school that's way more reformed than I am, it's been really helpful to realize that my cynicism towards people who I think are unreasonably conservative stems a lot of times from the fact that a big portion of my identity is seated in being opposed to the unhealthy aspects of the type of person I used to be (unwaveringly, unthinkingly conservative and really really naive as a result). It's not a bad thing to be opposed to some of the unhealthy aspects of the type of Christian I used to be, but if being opposed to something is what I'm basing my identity on (instead of positively being rooted in Christ, and then being secondarily opposed to that which Christ is opposed) then I'll always tend more towards exclusion than embrace.
I'm getting tired of writing right now. I hope what I just wrote made at least a little bit of sense. It was sort of stream of consciousness so it might not be organized very well. Oh well.
About the abbey. It's an amazingly beautiful place. If I was going to be a monk, I would definitely go be a monk there. It feels like an awesome summer camp for adults. If you could swim in the river there, it would be absolutely perfect. I went down to the abbey with my friends Jeremy and Jeff who I led in a Bible study when they were freshmen. They're two of my favorite guys I've ever had in a Bible study, and now they're two of my closest friends. We decided to go down there to spend some time for ourselves as individuals (they started their last semester at USC on Thursday, and I'm starting grad school in two weeks), and also to spend some time together since we won't be seeing each other for awhile. I think it was successful on both fronts. I was able to read a lot, pray a lot, and spend a lot of great time with those two guys. We didn't do much in the way of monk stuff; we mainly just used it as a place for personal time of reflection.
What did I learn . . . One of the main things I was thinking about was Randy's question about how we keep our private worlds in order. As luck would have it, there was a really helpful chapter in The Reason for God that gave me at least one way to answer that question. In his chapter on the problem of sin, Keller says something to the effect of this: one of the problems of sin is that we build our identity on things other than God and our relationship to him, and when we build our identity on temporal and non-universal things, it inevitably leads to pride, exclusion of others, and anger at those who don't meet our expectations or the expectations of our group. Of course, Keller had much more reasoning and examples to back the statement up, but if you haven't read the book you'll just have to trust me when I say that his argument was convincing. So, I spent a lot of time thinking about who I've been bitter towards and cynical about and what that might tell me about what I'm building my identity on rather than God. As I get ready to go to a relatively conservative school that's way more reformed than I am, it's been really helpful to realize that my cynicism towards people who I think are unreasonably conservative stems a lot of times from the fact that a big portion of my identity is seated in being opposed to the unhealthy aspects of the type of person I used to be (unwaveringly, unthinkingly conservative and really really naive as a result). It's not a bad thing to be opposed to some of the unhealthy aspects of the type of Christian I used to be, but if being opposed to something is what I'm basing my identity on (instead of positively being rooted in Christ, and then being secondarily opposed to that which Christ is opposed) then I'll always tend more towards exclusion than embrace.
I'm getting tired of writing right now. I hope what I just wrote made at least a little bit of sense. It was sort of stream of consciousness so it might not be organized very well. Oh well.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Keeping up in busy times...
Just put out a bigger post on my blog about all that is happening in this busy season feel free to swing by and catch up.
Mr. Martin i'm interested to hear how your time at Mepkin was?
Mr. Martin i'm interested to hear how your time at Mepkin was?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Job Possibility
Hey guys, so I am applying for this new position at CIU called the First-Year Experience Coordinator. Basically I would be responsible for building relationships with first-year students and helping them in their transitions to CIU and helping out with first-year classes. This is pretty much my dream job but there are 30 other applicants so I would really appreciate your continued prayers about this over the next two weeks.
Thanks!
Thanks!
My world...
This is the kind of things i have to deal with in youth ministry...
Yes it's a cat... well was a cat... and yes that's it's brain.
the back story is I have a really smart girl who's in AP Bio she posted this after her first day back at school. Pray for me.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A little housekeeping.
Hopefully after another week or so, I'll stop screwing around with things on the blog, but for now here's a little note.
I changed the permissions on the blog so that anyone can see it. When I changed it to "Authors Only" it stopped being sent to my feed reader (Google). So, if you haven't been getting updates on your reader, that's why. I had to delete the feed and then resubscribe to get all the updates that were supposed to be there.
Also, I've added all of our emails to the "Notify after comments" list so when someone comments on blogs, you should all get an email about it. I figured that would help us keep up with the conversations.
Last, I looked far and wide for a good picture of dark beer, but alas, there were none to be found. Dave, if you want to take a picture with our fancy camera like the one in our header but with dark beer, you can send it to me and I'll switch it out.
I think that's it. Pretty uneventful post. I'm going to Mepkin Abbey this weekend with two friends and I'll be trying to finish up "The Reason for God" by Keller and "The New Testament and the People of God" by Wright, so hopefully I'll have something interesting to say after that.
Hope you guys are doing well.
Very last thing: Mr Conley, we're all waiting for your first post.
I changed the permissions on the blog so that anyone can see it. When I changed it to "Authors Only" it stopped being sent to my feed reader (Google). So, if you haven't been getting updates on your reader, that's why. I had to delete the feed and then resubscribe to get all the updates that were supposed to be there.
Also, I've added all of our emails to the "Notify after comments" list so when someone comments on blogs, you should all get an email about it. I figured that would help us keep up with the conversations.
Last, I looked far and wide for a good picture of dark beer, but alas, there were none to be found. Dave, if you want to take a picture with our fancy camera like the one in our header but with dark beer, you can send it to me and I'll switch it out.
I think that's it. Pretty uneventful post. I'm going to Mepkin Abbey this weekend with two friends and I'll be trying to finish up "The Reason for God" by Keller and "The New Testament and the People of God" by Wright, so hopefully I'll have something interesting to say after that.
Hope you guys are doing well.
Very last thing: Mr Conley, we're all waiting for your first post.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
prayer...
I'm off tomorrow to spend a few days teaching and being with students at the Growing Leaders Camp at St. Christopher on Sea Brooke Island. I'm looking at Luke's account of Peter in his gospel and then tracing it through Acts.
The problem is i'm kind of jumping into the middle of this camp so it's going to be really hard to just drop in and hit the ground running. Would appreciate some prayer for Lisa too, she'll be alone here at the house.
The problem is i'm kind of jumping into the middle of this camp so it's going to be really hard to just drop in and hit the ground running. Would appreciate some prayer for Lisa too, she'll be alone here at the house.
Monday, August 11, 2008
PS
PS - Any other changes you guys think should be made to the blog? I can make it so that we all get emails every time one of us posts a comment. Right now I've got it set so that only authors of the blog can access the blog. Should it stay this way? Also, the little slogan thing under the blog title is just a line from a cheesy rap song. No significance whatsoever. If someone wants to change it, go for it.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
I don't have to wait til I get to heaven to have a mansion
Literally. I don't have to wait until I get to heaven to have a mansion. I get to live in one when I go to PA for school. Due to the best set of coincidences ever, I'll be living in the South House on the historic Milmoral Estate in Wyncote.
I looked for apartments in Philadelphia last week and all I could find were one-bedroom places that were going to cost at least $1000 a month once you included utilities. That is just too much to pay for any kind of dwelling that you're not going to ever own so I called a friend of a friend who goes to Westminster and asked him if he knew of anything. He sent an email out to all of his friends and heard back from just one guy. This guy is the manager of the online bookstore for Westminster and his wife is a Hebrew professor there. They are the caretakers of this mansion on a 6-acre estate and they rent the other five rooms in the six room house to Westminster students. It's a 6-bedroom, 6000 sq ft house that is fully furnished and is basically set in a private park. Best of all, the rent is only $450 a month with all utilities included and free laundry. It's amazing.
I looked for apartments in Philadelphia last week and all I could find were one-bedroom places that were going to cost at least $1000 a month once you included utilities. That is just too much to pay for any kind of dwelling that you're not going to ever own so I called a friend of a friend who goes to Westminster and asked him if he knew of anything. He sent an email out to all of his friends and heard back from just one guy. This guy is the manager of the online bookstore for Westminster and his wife is a Hebrew professor there. They are the caretakers of this mansion on a 6-acre estate and they rent the other five rooms in the six room house to Westminster students. It's a 6-bedroom, 6000 sq ft house that is fully furnished and is basically set in a private park. Best of all, the rent is only $450 a month with all utilities included and free laundry. It's amazing.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Personal Reflection
OK, I admit it. I've never done this blog thing before. I am a blog virgin. Let me know if I violate any international blogging codes.
The weight of responsibility of being a godly man, husband, and father has been tugging at me lately. It's awakening me further to the effect that my life will have on my wife and children.
Meg and Sophia took a last minute trip to Florida with my Mom and sisters. So, I have the house to myself this weekend. I'm going to take advantage of this evening alone by trying to take some time to reflect on my life. To see how I'm doing in all the different areas of my life and how I can apply myself better. I ran into this quote last weekend in a book Meg and I are reading through: "If my private world is in order, it will be because I make a daily choice to monitor it's state of orderliness."
Is there any resources or methods that you guys have found helpful in regularly watching your own souls and ordering your private world?
The weight of responsibility of being a godly man, husband, and father has been tugging at me lately. It's awakening me further to the effect that my life will have on my wife and children.
Meg and Sophia took a last minute trip to Florida with my Mom and sisters. So, I have the house to myself this weekend. I'm going to take advantage of this evening alone by trying to take some time to reflect on my life. To see how I'm doing in all the different areas of my life and how I can apply myself better. I ran into this quote last weekend in a book Meg and I are reading through: "If my private world is in order, it will be because I make a daily choice to monitor it's state of orderliness."
Is there any resources or methods that you guys have found helpful in regularly watching your own souls and ordering your private world?
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Answered Prayer
So I just wanted to let you guys in on some good stuff. While I was at home, on Saturday night I received a call from an old friend of mine, Norris Cartrette.
(This guy was the first and last guy I ever did drugs with, and he has continued using and abusing his body even after losing a leg as a result of a partying accident. Ricardo and I used to cry out to God for his salvation, and nothing ever seemed to phase him.)
So I get a call and he and his girlfriend, Jessica, say that they really want us to come down to the beach and hang out with them. Megan and I do, and end up chilling with them until around 2:30am, just listening because they have a lot they need to say. Long story short, they make it sound like they have decided to pursue the Lord and I am all at once excited and yet skeptical just because I know Norris and the people that know us best are the best skeptics of us sometimes. I get a phone call from Norris on Sunday asking if Megan and I would be back in town the following week, because they wanted us to go to Christ United with them. I'm somewhat suprised. Then, on Tuesday, I receive a call from Norris telling me that his new articial leg is giving him serious problems and so he had to come to Columbia to see his doctor. He then proceeds to tell me that on the way up there, "I was praying that God would give the doctors wisdom in what to do with my leg, and give me wisdom in how to deal with the doctors." That's not something people tend to say when they are not prodded to or when they are trying to play church, that's something people who are learning to be dependant on God and not on themselves say.
(Yes Dave, I know I'm breaking the rule of succintness, but I'm ok with it.)
Norris calls me yesterday (Wed.) to ask if Christ United has anything going on that night or the rest of the week that he can attend. He called the church and left a message, but never heard back, so he ended up doing a Bible study with his girlfriend and her mom (who are pretty charismatic). I call Ricardo and find out that the Leadership Summit (whatever your feelings about it are) is going on today and friday and that he happens to have access to free tickets. Well since Norris' leg is acting up he has some time off work, so it is possible for him to attend. You guys don't really know Norris so it might be hard for you to appreciate this, but numerous people have been praying for this guy for years, and God has finally breached his heart, and it is going to be crazy. I mean, can you imagine, a week into following the Lord attending the Leadership Summit?
I know it's not holy to rank Christians and stuff, but I'm telling you, this guy has major satan wrecking potential. So the point of all of this is, pray for Norris. He told me that he feels like ever since he has tried to change his life that the devil is just throwing all these things at him, and I think we can all attest to how hard those times are. Norris needs a new group of friends, he needs people as passionate as he will be, he needs love and support through anytime that he might struggle, and since we are all not around his area, the best way for us to do that is to pray for him.
(This guy was the first and last guy I ever did drugs with, and he has continued using and abusing his body even after losing a leg as a result of a partying accident. Ricardo and I used to cry out to God for his salvation, and nothing ever seemed to phase him.)
So I get a call and he and his girlfriend, Jessica, say that they really want us to come down to the beach and hang out with them. Megan and I do, and end up chilling with them until around 2:30am, just listening because they have a lot they need to say. Long story short, they make it sound like they have decided to pursue the Lord and I am all at once excited and yet skeptical just because I know Norris and the people that know us best are the best skeptics of us sometimes. I get a phone call from Norris on Sunday asking if Megan and I would be back in town the following week, because they wanted us to go to Christ United with them. I'm somewhat suprised. Then, on Tuesday, I receive a call from Norris telling me that his new articial leg is giving him serious problems and so he had to come to Columbia to see his doctor. He then proceeds to tell me that on the way up there, "I was praying that God would give the doctors wisdom in what to do with my leg, and give me wisdom in how to deal with the doctors." That's not something people tend to say when they are not prodded to or when they are trying to play church, that's something people who are learning to be dependant on God and not on themselves say.
(Yes Dave, I know I'm breaking the rule of succintness, but I'm ok with it.)
Norris calls me yesterday (Wed.) to ask if Christ United has anything going on that night or the rest of the week that he can attend. He called the church and left a message, but never heard back, so he ended up doing a Bible study with his girlfriend and her mom (who are pretty charismatic). I call Ricardo and find out that the Leadership Summit (whatever your feelings about it are) is going on today and friday and that he happens to have access to free tickets. Well since Norris' leg is acting up he has some time off work, so it is possible for him to attend. You guys don't really know Norris so it might be hard for you to appreciate this, but numerous people have been praying for this guy for years, and God has finally breached his heart, and it is going to be crazy. I mean, can you imagine, a week into following the Lord attending the Leadership Summit?
I know it's not holy to rank Christians and stuff, but I'm telling you, this guy has major satan wrecking potential. So the point of all of this is, pray for Norris. He told me that he feels like ever since he has tried to change his life that the devil is just throwing all these things at him, and I think we can all attest to how hard those times are. Norris needs a new group of friends, he needs people as passionate as he will be, he needs love and support through anytime that he might struggle, and since we are all not around his area, the best way for us to do that is to pray for him.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Daves suggestions about blogging...
These are some basic principles that have helped me...
- Blog forcefully : I shoot for once a week. If i don't aim for anything i end up not pursuing it.
- Blog purposefully : I use a blog as a place to get teaching ideas out of my head, summarize books I've been reading so i can remember them better, jot down random thoughts to come back to, and update family on what's going on with Lisa and I.
- Get a "reader" I use google reader and added it to my home page. It automatically tells me when a new post has come up and eliminates the need to keep checking back.
- Short and sweet beats long and rambling. They don't all need to be super deep. Remember the reason for this is to keep each other involved in each others lives despite the fact we all live hours apart.
I'm excited about this new dimension of community. Chris the template looks good, a little bland maybe some pic in the header.
Any thoughts on reading through a book together in a few months?
Any thoughts on including the James Conley experience or Joel Sewell in this mix?
The First Post!
Well, men, here it is. The first post on our blog. I'm a little intimidated.
First things, what do y'all think of the theme? Keep it, change it, add more to it? Should we have a slogan up there at the top? Let me know. I'll give each of you admin privileges as soon as I can so you can change things about the theme, etc.
You guys can post whatever you want here. I'm not sure what I'll post; probably a mix of serious questions or comments and just update type stuff. I may just link to update type stuff from my other blog if I end up writing on that again.
I really enjoyed hanging out with y'all the other night. I've been up in Philadelphia since Sunday night and I've realized something that I don't think I ever would have thought back in my more self-assured (arrogant?) college days: it's going to be hard to move up here and leave all my friends, family, and familiar places behind. A year or two ago, I probably would have scoffed at the idea of being scared of moving somewhere new, mainly because I would have thought that anyone who has dedicated their lives to God should have so much faith that it overrides fear. I know the verse about not having a spirit of fear or timidity so you don't have to quote it to me; maybe in a perfect world that would be the case all the time. But, I think I used to believe that having faith in God overrode your humanity, and the best way to handle things like being afraid of doing what you're pretty sure God has called you to do is to just push those feelings down and pretend you don't have them. I'm glad that now that I'm actually doing something that is already and is going to be very hard for me (seriously, I majored in Media Arts, what kind of education training do I have to prepare me for the type and amount of work I'll have in seminary?) I'm more secure in my understanding of God, Christ, and myself; secure enough to engage and acknowledge my feelings of fear and inadequacy rather than just ignoring them or even regarding them as evidence that I'm not a Christian after all.
First things, what do y'all think of the theme? Keep it, change it, add more to it? Should we have a slogan up there at the top? Let me know. I'll give each of you admin privileges as soon as I can so you can change things about the theme, etc.
You guys can post whatever you want here. I'm not sure what I'll post; probably a mix of serious questions or comments and just update type stuff. I may just link to update type stuff from my other blog if I end up writing on that again.
I really enjoyed hanging out with y'all the other night. I've been up in Philadelphia since Sunday night and I've realized something that I don't think I ever would have thought back in my more self-assured (arrogant?) college days: it's going to be hard to move up here and leave all my friends, family, and familiar places behind. A year or two ago, I probably would have scoffed at the idea of being scared of moving somewhere new, mainly because I would have thought that anyone who has dedicated their lives to God should have so much faith that it overrides fear. I know the verse about not having a spirit of fear or timidity so you don't have to quote it to me; maybe in a perfect world that would be the case all the time. But, I think I used to believe that having faith in God overrode your humanity, and the best way to handle things like being afraid of doing what you're pretty sure God has called you to do is to just push those feelings down and pretend you don't have them. I'm glad that now that I'm actually doing something that is already and is going to be very hard for me (seriously, I majored in Media Arts, what kind of education training do I have to prepare me for the type and amount of work I'll have in seminary?) I'm more secure in my understanding of God, Christ, and myself; secure enough to engage and acknowledge my feelings of fear and inadequacy rather than just ignoring them or even regarding them as evidence that I'm not a Christian after all.
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