Sick

I just woke up with a gastro-intestinal problem. I really can't stand being sick.

I think I got it from Matt's blog. Thanks for nothing, Matt. ;-)

For some reason I have a pretty solid record of either being or getting sick around the time I preach. Seeing that I'm studying to be a pastor, this is probably not a good sign.

I Survived

At first I was afraid, I was petrified...

... but then I got past the first few words of my introduction and the sermon flowed pretty smoothly. I was fairly nervous getting up and it didn't help that half way through reading my Scripture passage (something we were to do before we started our sermon), Dr. Warren stops me and says "let me show you how to do it right." I should have been reading with more emphasis and looking at the audience when I read my scripture passage, he pointed out. He then read the passage and honestly did do a lot better than me.

"Did you practice this for tonight?" he asked.

"Do I get graded on this?" (I don't.)

"Surely a grade isn't all you should be worried about when reading the Scriptures."

"Well, I don't know. I sure think it is tonight!"

After that slight glitch I started my introduction and thankfully I didn't forget any major points or thoughts. I did almost forget my "sermon preview" and had to add it after I was already starting my transition to my first main point, but I don't think it was too obvious. I also forgot to state my first main point until slightly later in the sermon.

Other than that it felt great when I was done. Since I was the first preacher, I was able to enjoy the rest of the evening as everyone else preached. The only uncomfortable bit left is I have to watch myself preach on the video we made last night.

I survived.

Convicted

Unfortunately, I have been found guilty and will now be finishing up seminary and blogging from prison.

It's Sermon Time

I have to turn in my completed manuscript of my sermon today by noon for my Matthew 2:1-12 sermon. I don't have to deliver it until tomorrow night at 5:30. They have us turn in the manuscript early because they want to make sure we're not rushing to prepare at the last minute - I guess. DTS has you deliver your sermon entirely without notes which I do not appreciate one bit. They have their reasons, but having to go entirely noteless adds a good bit to my level of anxiety. I wish I could be focusing on issues of delivery, but instead I'll be spending a good portion of my prep time thinking, "I wonder if I will be able to remember my next point?"

The Moon Is Made of ....

Check out Google Moon and zoom in really close.

(This is the sort of silly thing I post when I am supposed to work on my thesis.)

Haloscan Problems

For some reason Haloscan, my commenting server, has been acting up lately. Yesterday at one point it wouldn't let me post a comment for no good reason. Right now the comment count is off. Anyways, I'm pretty much getting fed up with it. However, I really don't like blogger's commenting feature either. You can't use gravatars, it's a tad clunky, etc.

If you know of a good (and free) alternative, then let me know. I've debated paying for something like Typepad for a while but financially I really don't need to do that right now.

Really Jealous

Desiree got to do all sorts of things yesterday in her first day of training that make me insanely jealous (in a good, happy sense). She met for most of the afternoon with Stan Dobbs, one of my heros, and the founder of Apartment Life. They went to Starbucks and got some sort of yummy frozen coffee. They talked about the vision, organization, and strategy of Apartment Life, too. To top it off, apparently she gets her own laptop and printer to use on the job. (No - not a mac, you rabid onlyists!) I'm really glad she's getting to do this job but it just makes me look forward even more to being done with seminary and being involved in ministry more fully.

NRA and Assault Weapons

Why does the NRA think their constitutional rights are being violated when a city outlaws the sales of assault rifles?

Life Change

There are sometimes things that happen to you in life that you know are going to change things dramatically - you just don't know how. Well, one of those things just happened to us.

Desiree, my wife, just got a job as an Apartment Life area director. Basically, this involves overseeing other CARES teams (like us) and helping them interface with their apartment managers. It's a great job because about half of Desiree's work can be done here at home while much of the rest is also highly flexible. So this fits in great with the kids and seminary. It's also great because it fits in very well with Desiree's strengths and passions. Not only that, but Apartment Life is a great company to work for. (#1 Christian company to work for in their category for two years in a row.)

Financially, we certainly needed the money and is the primary reason we even considered pursuing this job. My summer classes had strapped us and some car troubles and health problems had only added to the bills. We weren't having bill collectors knocking on our doors, but any financial advisor would have told us that we were living in a financially dangerous situation. So this gives us an enormous sense of relief and is truly an answer to prayers.

Of course, we're still trying to figure out how this will change everything. But right now we're just grateful that God has provided in this way for us. Pray for us as we adjust.

Holy Ghost Enema

Thanks to Roy for finding this humerous link.

Televangelist Benny Hinn is threatening to sue the religious satire magazine The Door for the video clip it is distributing that shows Hinn's wife, Suzanne, preaching at their former church in Orlando, Florida. She says if you're a lifeless, blackslidden Christian, you need a "Holy Ghost enema... right up your rear end."

View it here.

No Blogging Today

I'd blog more today, but I have this trial I have to go to.

Beauty and the Beast in Seminary?

I'm in the middle of my Preaching II class at DTS right now. It's on Tuesday/Thursday nights from 5:30 - 9:30. Last night Desiree had a jewelry show so I had to take the kids to a friend's house while I was in class. I battled rush hour traffic for an hour (these friends live near Addison so it was up and then back for me). Then I get to class and I am absolutely not kidding here, we watched the entire Disney movie of Beauty and the Beast. ?!!

At first I was upset that I had spent so much time getting my kids to a babysitter only to come to class to watch a kids movie. Then I was upset because I was watching a movie that I have seen at least a billion times before. Not just with my kids - my sisters and I loved this movie when I was growing up. I can literally quote large sections of dialogue from memory. It took a few moments to get past that initial frustration. I briefly thought of leaving class early but then decided against it.

Strangely enough, I ended up enjoying the movie. Since we've been discussing how to read the gospel of Mark as literature, we were practicing some of our literary analysis skills on the movie. I ended up being both surprised at how tightly structured and intentional the movie was and enjoying the creativity of a movie I already liked a lot even more.

At the end, Dr. Warren asked a question that really got me. After we analyzed the movie and discussed it's message (true beauty is internal, not external) he asked, "Now imagine someone asked you to speak only on the song, "Be our Guest," how would you do it?" It was at this point that I got what he was getting at. An enormous "ah-ha" moment for me. I thought, "How could you divorce that song from the movie? How can you cut out that snippet of the story and communicate it apart from the overall narrative story? It is only a piece of the message." But then I realized that is exactly what we do with narrative in the Bible. We cut out a small chunk of the narrative and regularly communicate little chunks of it and only rarely discuss the overall message. We tend to amputate stories from their context in the overall story. We often teach them contrary to their purpose in the overall story. We analyze the pebbles and miss how they make the mountain.

Anyways, good stuff. Should keep me posting for several days. :-) Tomorrow: Mark as Narrative.

My son, Caleb, and I got free tickets to the Texas Rangers game today. They won (9-8) over the Toronto Blue Jays, though they almost gave the game away in the 9th. Also, it was very hot.

Bad Blogger

I know I've been a bad blogger this past week. I was just chastized over on Matt's site (even though - or perhaps because - I correctly spotted an urban myth he was propagating). It's been nicely debunked here. WARNING: Don't click through on that link to picture #3 unless you want to be really grossed out. Really. Don't do it. Okay. Now you're going to do it, but don't say I didn't warn you.

But thanks, Matt, for the brotherly rebuke on my blog laziness. I will be better this week. Now that class has started back up I've got all sorts of thoughts swimming around in my head - especially on preaching (the class I'm taking). Preaching is a tough task. I wonder, though if we haven't placed too much stress on the sermon in evangelical churches. Why not other forms of communication that produce life change for God's kingdom? Why are sermons by a preacher so central to our way of doing church?

Anyway, that inspires thoughts of ministry in my mind and the difficulties of navigating the waters there. I just read what I thought was a very transparent post by Tristan over on his blog about the frustrations and difficulties inherent in ministry. It's definitely not easy.

Thesis Thoughts So Far

Here's an update on my thesis research so far. I've discovered that emergent models of small groups aren't introducing anything new. However, they are placing a renewed emphasis in certain areas. Here's a summary of a couple areas that I've noticed an increased emphasis as they relate to running effective small groups:

• Community over Bible Study – while old models don’t devalue community and emergent doesn’t devalue bible study, Emergent works emphasize the frustration felt in old small groups where community was lacking. Community is a priority and a precious thing to postmoderns.
• Experiential over Abstract – “bulleted points” mean little. Since truth is looked at with skepticism and experience is valued as the ultimate reality, then to teach truths, this is best done through experiential methods. For instance, when talking about spiritual growth, a small group could plant a peanut seed and discuss its growth as it relates to the spiritual life over the few weeks that they cover this material.
• Spirituality over science – while small groups often spent times countering the problems of modernism such as a disbelief in God’s existence, postmodern small groups need not do this as modern problems aren’t postmodern problems. Instead they will have to spend time dealing with problems such as relativity and syncretism.