the blog

i only update www.stevenspointtapestry.org/blog/

blog combination

i've finally decided that it doesn't make any sense for me to keep two blogs: 1) ministry related and the other 2) random stuff related. therefore, i have moved all of the posts from this blog over to my other blog (www.parkviewyouth.org/blog/) and i will only be updating it from now on. if you want to continue to read any of this stuff you'll need to go over there.

of course, i'll be moving it all over to my own personal website in about 4 months.

sunrise service

i know it's just a part of church culture and i am trying more and more to differentiate between what is church culture and what is biblical CHRISTianity, but i love easter sunrise services. tomorrow i'm preaching at one in a local cemetery and i still need to work on the message a little but i felt like wasting enough time to say that i really do enjoy sunrise services.

the above photo is from good friday's outdoor stations of the cross.

campolo on the hour

risk

One never dives into the water to save a drowning man more eagerly than when there are others present who dare not take the risk.

friedrich nietzsche

ships & port

a ship is safe in port,
but that's not what ships are built for."

grace murray hopper

just a reminder

They said, "Rabbi" (which means "Teacher"), "where are you staying?"
He replied, "Come along and see for yourself."
They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened.
John 1:28b-29

i'm just saving this as a reminder to "chew on" this passage and especially these two verses.

truth in advertising

i saw the above cartoon on bob carlton's blog. it's originally from cartoonchurch.com

once i was proud

i learned this from grant. apparently my alma mater decided that a woman could not teach hebrew to men. at one time i was proud to have gone to southwestern (yes it was a long time ago when i was actually proud but still i actually proud at one time). now i'm usually embarrassed to admit that i graduated from a school that now has paige patterson as it's president. i can't honestly recommend for others to go there.

speaching

i'm presently reading doug pagitt's "preaching re-imagined and i'm really enjoying it thus far. because of it i decided to focus on a more interactive approach to the preaching i was scheduled to do at zoar baptist church's college retreat. i use such an approach all the time with my students but i've never tried it with strangers. i think it went okay but i really won't know until i think about it for a few days and maybe hear from a few people i know who were at the retreat.

the thing that i have enjoyed the most from pagitt's book has been his focus on an interactive approach to preparing the message. i've tried this a few times and i always enjoy it. the biggest problem for me has been trying to find the time since our church has been without a senior pastor.

finished reading

this week i finished two great books:

• fast food nation by eroc schlosser - it was a great book that is already affecting my view on fast food, agribusiness, and consumerism in general and i am sure it will continue to do so.
  
• crucifixion by martin hengel - this is a scholarly discussion of the greco-roman view of crucifixion. it is not so much a discussion of the method of crucifixion as it is a discourse of how crucifixion was viewed in the ancient near east. it gives new insight into paul's meaning in 1 corinthians 1:18.
  

both of these books were top notch reads.

growing & going

within the households of our friends and our own it has become a tradition during the CHRISTmas season to write a "year in review" newsletter. pam and i always look forward to reading these. this year we've noticed a trend - some of our friends write nothing about themselves within their newsletters. they describe the changes that their kids have gone through but nothing of themselves. pam and i started talking about this and we are convinced that part of the reason for this may be that they have not changed any during the past year. their kids have grown and developed and thus need to be re-described to everyone. whenever someone grows they need to be "re-described" because they have changed. you can see this in the newsletters we enjoy the most. in these newsletters our friends describe themselves again because they have grown during the year. they have learned new things, developed within things that they were already a part of - they've grown.

of course, this probably isn't true. these friends probably have grown and developed and they were just so excited about their kids that they forgot to mention it. i'm thankful for their newsletters because they remind me that i want to continue growing and developing throughout my life.

i want this ringtone

last night during our interim pastor's speech during our church's choir musical someone's phone rang. that's not too big of a surprise because random ringtones are a common occurrence within modern gatherings. this ringtone was great because it was the cricket sound you always hear on t.v. when something boring is happening. it went off twice during his talk. i nearly busted out loud laughing.

random quote - crucifixion

a crucified messiah, son of GOD or GOD must have seemed a contradiction in terms to anyone, jew, greek, roman, or barbarian, asked to believe such a claim, and it will certainly have been thought offensive and foolish.

--martin hengel, crucifixion, p. 10.

i particularly like it when hengel demonstrates that "madness" or "amentia" may be a better modern translation of "?????" (folly) than the kjv translation "folly."

[Listening to: 'Til I Met You - The Swift - The Swift (3:52)]

terminator to save the day

we used this tonight.