Finally

The semester is finally over. I finished my last of 3 15-20 page papers yesterday at 7 PM. It was a great feeling. I hope to have more free time between now and the Spring semester which begins in late January. I am taking one 3 hour course between now and then; it's an "immersion" course through Perkins. 15 students, and one professor will be going to Germany from December 27 to January 7. I am really excited about it. We will be spending a lot of time at seminaries in Germany, including the one United Methodist seminary in Germany. The best part is that we will spend some time at the University of Tubingen, where we will meet with Jurgen Moltmann. I have read several of his books, and am very excited about speaking with him. We will also be visiting several castles and other historical landmarks. Before we embark there are 6 or 7 books we have to read, and afterward a 20 page paper is due. Between now and then I'm going to be visiting the great American cities of Amarillo, TX and Knoxville, TN.

Irenaeus

I've spent the last few days exclusively reading the works of Irenaeus for a paper in my Patristic Anthropology and Soteriology course. It's pretty interesting stuff; very foundational for our Christian tradition. Besides all my reading for seminary, I have "read" some interesting books lately on CD while driving around in my car. This list is affected by what is available at a local library. Recently I've read (listened to) "Freakonomics", "Will in the World" (a bio of Shakespeare), "The Testament" by John Grisham, "To Kill a Mockingbird", "How to Read and Why", maybe a couple others I've forgotten. It's been interesting; in particular the Freakonomics book (from 2005) has been illuminating, though somewhat depressing because it reveals many of the ways in which all the things we do are related to the desire for money. I've pondered the fact that an economic analysis of the church would likely be quite enlightening and disheartening. How often is our message influenced by the desire for money? What are we afraid to say, or afraid not to say, because of the threat of a loss of cash? Have we ever said things we don't even believe, simply because of economic incentives?

Life

I started this blog during the summer, when I was on a break from Seminary coursework. At that point I was able to post every few days, but since classes have been in full swing I've been suprised how hard it is to keep this blog up to date. One thing I've been thinking about is how many different segments there are in all of our lives. We have our work life, our home life, our friends life, our family of origin life, and for some our school life. This blog has mainly focused on my involvement in the church, but I've been struck by how this is only one part of my life. I think one thing we are all seeking is a wholeness-an integration of all the disparate parts of our lives. When these parts are sharply divided I think we tend to feel somewhat hypocritical. How can we learn to integrate all the parts of our lives?

Wikipedia

I found a few Perkins School of Theology faculty members on Wikipedia. Here is the page for Charles Curran, a professor of moral theology (ethics). Here is the page for Bishop William Oden, Bishop in Residence at Perkins. Here is the page for Bishop John Wesley Hardt, Bishop in Residence Emeritus at Perkins, who is a really cool guy.

William Willimon, John Cobb, and more

Here is an cool website with a bunch of articles and sermons. I enjoyed some of the sermsons by William Willimon, Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the UMC. Also, somewhere in there is an article or two by John Cobb, the process theologian who is also a United Methodist.

Father Joe

I have been incredibly busy lately with classes and work at the church. The amount of reading has been ridiculous, though enjoyable. I also spend quite a bit of time driving to all corners of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (officially called the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex according to Wikipedia), and I've begun to listen to books on CD so this time is well-spent. I just finished listening to "Father Joe" by Tony Hendra, a recent New York Times Bestseller. This memoir is about the life of Hendra, a comedian who was in "Spinal Tap" (he may have wrote it-don't know), and his lifelong relationship to a Benedictine monk on the Isle of White. Sounds sort of boring I guess, but it's actually great. I'd like to do a book study of it here at the church, probably with adults since parts of it are, I suppose, PG-13 (church people can be such prudes). (On a side note, it's always interesting to me that church goers would be offended to watch certain movies or read certain books within the walls of the church that they just gobble up when they're at home. Come on-let's just be honest with ourselves. First of all, the Christian life is not contained within the church building. Second, prudes just get on everyone's nerves).
Anyway, I highly recomend Father Joe. Father Joe is a great example of what good ministry can be.

New Beginnings

Well this has been my longest blogging hiatus since I began this thing. For the past few weeks I've sort of been in "limbo", as the summer seemed to be ending yet the fall just wouldn't start. Last week I spent the week visiting my family in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was a great break, and I loved being with my parents and brother. The high in East Tennessee (where I was) was about 83 every day, while it was about 107 degrees in Dallas/Fort Worth. Oh yeah-my youth were telling me last night at UMYF that their high school band changed their policy for how hot it has to be outside for them to not practice marching. It used to be that if it was 100 degrees, they were not allowed to march outside on the field. This year they changed it to where they are allowed to march unless it's over 105 degrees. And Republicans still try to say that Global Warming is fiction. Oh, and my youth also said that the football team has a similar rule, but with them, the coaches just openly lie and say, "oh it's only 94 degrees today". Apparently, if they just assert this, then it's okay to practice. Someone help us.
I went to Perkins today for chapel and to buy books, and my first classes are tomorrow. I'm taking a lot of courses that end in -ology. I'm actually really excited about the beginning of the semester. I'm really interested in the courses I'll be taking, and I've also missed the aspect of community that I find at Perkins. Having people you can talk to honestly, and who understand the trials of church work is absolutely crucial to survival in ministry.
Incidently, the books for just one of my classes cost $200. Also, here is an article about how Pluto has been demoted to "dwarf" status.
Fall is a really cool season. This is an exciting time of life!

Billy Graham

I thought this was an interesting article.