I wrote something last Thursday and the Thursday before that, and today is Thursday, so maybe I should post something.
My time in Iowa is drawing to a close. It has been a fantastic 10 weeks and in about 5 days I’ll be saying goodbye to my summer home. I look forward to leaving, but it’s going to be tough at the same time. I was telling a friend that if the internship was a week longer then I’d be happy to stay a week longer. If it were 2 weeks longer then I’d be happy to stay 2 weeks more, but whatever the case, my final week will probably feel like this one. Now or later I’d have a week that feels like a final week. A week trying to focus on each day and not what is to come. I’ve been planning out next week and I’m excited to see many relatives and friends, but I need to finish strong. It’s a little more difficult than I expected!
On the 19th I gave my first sermon at West Union. (They post them online if you want to listen, http://www.westunion.ia.us.mennonite.net/Sermon) For the rest of the service, the MYF shared about their week in Columbus at the National Convention, and then I got to try my hand at preaching. I learned a lot in the preparation process and feel a lot more confident working on my current sermon for next Sunday. The church was really supportive after I preached giving a lot of affirmation. These people are great!
That Sunday evening, the MYF got together for a movie night outside projected onto a youth sponsor’s house. I can easily say that it was the most impressive outdoor home sound system! We watched “Slumdog Millionaire” with surround sound! With their yard surrounded by corn fields, a lot of horror films were suggested. I for one was content with “Slumdog.”
Most of that week was pretty uneventful. I kept myself busy and actually spent a good bit of time reading through my Middle East journals and looking at pictures. On Wednesday I went to an elders meeting where they discussed the homosexuality paper that I had been working on. With a few changes the paper was affirmed, but the main question was what to do with it now. There was no way to get anything going before I left for the summer, so I won’t be a part of the church-wide conversation. That’s unfortunate, but in a few months they’ll bring the paper out again and discuss the issue. I’ll just have to be a part of discussions elsewhere.
On Friday the 24th I went on my first pastoral visit in the hospital. Dave sent me alone with virtually no instructions, which was a bit frightening. He didn’t even want to tell me where the hospital was. I was just to go out and find Joe and see what I could do for him! Well, I found him and sat by his bed for two hours. His wife and granddaughter were also visiting, so we all had a great time talking and sharing stories. Joe is an amazing man! The doctor said I was lucky to have him be my first experience in the hospital and I totally agree!
Sunday the 26th was the first Sunday in Iowa this entire summer that I didn’t have some sort of responsibility! I didn’t read scripture or lead worship or lead singing or preach. I just sat and listened. That was nice for a change. A friend from EMU was out in Iowa for the weekend, so I was able to spend time with her in Sunday school and then late into the evening as well. There was a welcome home party for someone I didn’t know, so I met a bunch of people and had a fantastic evening of fire and talking and Rock Band and The Office!
Like I said earlier, this week I’m facing the challenge of focusing on each day instead of looking forward to next week. There aren't too many parts to highlight. On Tuesday, Duk (my car) was taken into the shop. Apparently a lot of ’92 Honda Accords have a problem with a fuel relay under that dashboard. When it’s hot and/or humid then they sometimes won’t start. Since that seemed to be the problem and it is now fixed, I hope not to have any more troubles with Duk.
Most of my last few days have been spent reading and writing and thinking about my upcoming sermon. It’s certainly not done yet, but it’s looking pretty decent at this point. I still have a few days left to iron out the kinks!
Oh, I didn’t mention that I’m living alone again. My hosts left last week, so I’ve been on my own. It’s a bit lonely in the evenings, but I’m getting by. John Grisham books and Facebook and my guitar do well to get me through! I need to make sure I finish “The Associate” before I leave Iowa next week. Just 5 days left.
If you want to watch/listen to an amazing guitar solo then check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsnFvEQYJPU
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
What if.
A glimpse into my journalling last night. I know it's nothing new, but it hit me anew last night:
Holy God, you are worthy. Of a child-like faith and of my honest praise and of my unashamed love. Of a holy life and of my sacrifice and of my unashamed love. You are worthy. Oh so worthy!
If I were he who lived as the Lord.
I don’t know, but what if I were to live as Jesus? My sermon was about witnessing. I said we are not witnesses of Jesus’ life. We are instead witnesses and living examples of the Good News of Jesus Christ in our lives. We were not blessed with the chance to live in the 1st century and observe Jesus, so we cannot witness him. But what if we let others witness Jesus by living our lives as Jesus?
I don’t mean that we should all have some strange Christ-complex so that people think we should be in a mental institute. And I don’t mean people should abandon modern life and choose a 1st century lifestyle. I don’t even mean we should be wandering teachers without a home or family or possessions. I mean, what if we all lived our lives just like normal people, but as we did so, we did it with Jesus-like attitudes?
So we’re engineers and farmers and teachers and taxi drivers and attorneys and bakers and athletes and pastors and doctors and writers . . . and we live in love. Not romantic love, though that may be part of some of our lives. No, I mean a broader, all encompassing, ever present, unconditional, unashamed love. And we’d all have that love in common.
So we’d share and smile and help and serve and listen and use our talents, and we’d do it all not for our own glory or fame, but for the glory of the One we serve. That means sacrifice. That means spending less money on ourselves. Not so that we suffer, but in order that other suffer less. It means living consciously and loving generously. It means stepping into the role you’ve been called to and living it like Jesus for Jesus.
What if people really did that? What if I really did that?
Then what would life look like? What would the world look like?
I don’t know, but God would be smiling! And I’d like that.
Holy God, you are worthy. Of a child-like faith and of my honest praise and of my unashamed love. Of a holy life and of my sacrifice and of my unashamed love. You are worthy. Oh so worthy!
If I were he who lived as the Lord.
I don’t know, but what if I were to live as Jesus? My sermon was about witnessing. I said we are not witnesses of Jesus’ life. We are instead witnesses and living examples of the Good News of Jesus Christ in our lives. We were not blessed with the chance to live in the 1st century and observe Jesus, so we cannot witness him. But what if we let others witness Jesus by living our lives as Jesus?
I don’t mean that we should all have some strange Christ-complex so that people think we should be in a mental institute. And I don’t mean people should abandon modern life and choose a 1st century lifestyle. I don’t even mean we should be wandering teachers without a home or family or possessions. I mean, what if we all lived our lives just like normal people, but as we did so, we did it with Jesus-like attitudes?
So we’re engineers and farmers and teachers and taxi drivers and attorneys and bakers and athletes and pastors and doctors and writers . . . and we live in love. Not romantic love, though that may be part of some of our lives. No, I mean a broader, all encompassing, ever present, unconditional, unashamed love. And we’d all have that love in common.
So we’d share and smile and help and serve and listen and use our talents, and we’d do it all not for our own glory or fame, but for the glory of the One we serve. That means sacrifice. That means spending less money on ourselves. Not so that we suffer, but in order that other suffer less. It means living consciously and loving generously. It means stepping into the role you’ve been called to and living it like Jesus for Jesus.
What if people really did that? What if I really did that?
Then what would life look like? What would the world look like?
I don’t know, but God would be smiling! And I’d like that.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
At least it wasn’t Easter
So I messed up. There are two retirement communities/nursing homes in this part of Iowa. They are named Pleasantview and Parkview. Pleasantview is in Kalona and Parkview is in Wellman. I’ve been in Iowa for almost 2 months now and I most definitely know the difference between the two. When I came though, I most certainly did not know the difference. And that would be when I messed up.
Probably 6 or 7 weeks ago, the staff here at West Union were trying to figure out different things I could get involved with this summer. One thing mentioned was a Sunday morning service at Pleasantview. Each Sunday they have a short service for the residents and try to get local churches to take responsibility for them. I had never done anything like that before, but a 30 minute service on a Sunday morning didn’t sound so bad. So I was signed up for July 12th.
Probably around 4 or 5 weeks ago, I was talking with the chaplain at Parkview, who happens to attend West Union. He wondered if I might want to get involved and do a Sunday afternoon service at Parkview. It would just be 30 minutes and pretty low key. That sounded doable. So I was signed up for July 12th at Parkview.
That should have registered as a problem pretty quickly, but I didn’t write it down on my calendar right away. I turned my focus to Crooked Creek and Conference meetings and MYF Bible Studies and National Convention. In that time I got involved at Parkview several more times, just attending Bible studies and singing with the residents. Sunday afternoon, July 12th was constantly in my mind. I had a small group from West Union lined up to help me out and I was working on a short message to share.
So July 12th came. I went to West Union in the morning and Parkview in the afternoon. The service went fairly well and I was feeling pretty good until afterward when someone asked me how the service at Pleasantview went. What service at Pleasantview? Uh oh.
I’ve been keeping a very good calendar all summer! My first week I printed off the months I would be here and I’ve kept everything written down. Sure enough, there on July 12th was penciled in “Pleasantview service.” I wrote that about 7 weeks ago and hearing nothing about it since then, but plenty about Parkview, I assumed I had mixed the two places up from the start. I hadn’t even been to both places yet when I wrote it down. So I had assumed “Pleasantview” really meant “Parkview,” when really that was not the case. Bummer.
So I missed the service at Pleasantview Sunday morning. I’m not sure what they did that morning without me. Since then everything has been straightened out and apologized for. Dave reassured me that it wasn’t as bad as several years ago. Someone at West Union forgot once before, except that was Easter Sunday. Yeah, at least I didn’t forget on Easter Sunday!
I’m doing well here in Iowa. I’ve been to a Church Council meeting and a Worship Commission meeting. I had worship band practice and sang with the band on Sunday. I went to Men’s Luncheon and shared a devotional. I had two pastoral visits to older couples in the congregation with health issues. I spent some more time at Parkview and sat in with a meeting of all the Mennonite pastors in the area.
Recently I’ve been working on a sermon for Sunday. They’re finally going to get me up and preaching! It’ll be a part of the MYF’s sharing about their time at Convention, so it’ll be a low key service. For a practiced procrastinator, I’m pretty pleased with how far along I am with the sermon still three days before Sunday.
For the next few days I will be home alone. My hosts, Wilbur and Helen, are in Oklahoma for a few days at a wedding. Then they’ll be home for a little over a week before heading out for a family reunion. My last week in Iowa will therefore be spent in an empty house. It’ll be quiet and I won’t eat quite as well, but it won’t be the worst thing in the world.
If anyone previously cared about my computer golfing update, then you’ll also like to know that I golfed a tournament at -87. -87 through 72 holes seems pretty decent.
Probably 6 or 7 weeks ago, the staff here at West Union were trying to figure out different things I could get involved with this summer. One thing mentioned was a Sunday morning service at Pleasantview. Each Sunday they have a short service for the residents and try to get local churches to take responsibility for them. I had never done anything like that before, but a 30 minute service on a Sunday morning didn’t sound so bad. So I was signed up for July 12th.
Probably around 4 or 5 weeks ago, I was talking with the chaplain at Parkview, who happens to attend West Union. He wondered if I might want to get involved and do a Sunday afternoon service at Parkview. It would just be 30 minutes and pretty low key. That sounded doable. So I was signed up for July 12th at Parkview.
That should have registered as a problem pretty quickly, but I didn’t write it down on my calendar right away. I turned my focus to Crooked Creek and Conference meetings and MYF Bible Studies and National Convention. In that time I got involved at Parkview several more times, just attending Bible studies and singing with the residents. Sunday afternoon, July 12th was constantly in my mind. I had a small group from West Union lined up to help me out and I was working on a short message to share.
So July 12th came. I went to West Union in the morning and Parkview in the afternoon. The service went fairly well and I was feeling pretty good until afterward when someone asked me how the service at Pleasantview went. What service at Pleasantview? Uh oh.
I’ve been keeping a very good calendar all summer! My first week I printed off the months I would be here and I’ve kept everything written down. Sure enough, there on July 12th was penciled in “Pleasantview service.” I wrote that about 7 weeks ago and hearing nothing about it since then, but plenty about Parkview, I assumed I had mixed the two places up from the start. I hadn’t even been to both places yet when I wrote it down. So I had assumed “Pleasantview” really meant “Parkview,” when really that was not the case. Bummer.
So I missed the service at Pleasantview Sunday morning. I’m not sure what they did that morning without me. Since then everything has been straightened out and apologized for. Dave reassured me that it wasn’t as bad as several years ago. Someone at West Union forgot once before, except that was Easter Sunday. Yeah, at least I didn’t forget on Easter Sunday!
I’m doing well here in Iowa. I’ve been to a Church Council meeting and a Worship Commission meeting. I had worship band practice and sang with the band on Sunday. I went to Men’s Luncheon and shared a devotional. I had two pastoral visits to older couples in the congregation with health issues. I spent some more time at Parkview and sat in with a meeting of all the Mennonite pastors in the area.
Recently I’ve been working on a sermon for Sunday. They’re finally going to get me up and preaching! It’ll be a part of the MYF’s sharing about their time at Convention, so it’ll be a low key service. For a practiced procrastinator, I’m pretty pleased with how far along I am with the sermon still three days before Sunday.
For the next few days I will be home alone. My hosts, Wilbur and Helen, are in Oklahoma for a few days at a wedding. Then they’ll be home for a little over a week before heading out for a family reunion. My last week in Iowa will therefore be spent in an empty house. It’ll be quiet and I won’t eat quite as well, but it won’t be the worst thing in the world.
If anyone previously cared about my computer golfing update, then you’ll also like to know that I golfed a tournament at -87. -87 through 72 holes seems pretty decent.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
silly thought
I just had a silly thought.
Looking in the mirror I realized that I have a lot of hair. It's pretty long at the moment. Then I jokingly thought that at least it keeps my brain warmer!
That's not actually true though, is it? More hair doesn't actually effect the warmth of your brain, does it? It seems pretty ridiculous, but it could explain some things. Like, why generally women are slightly more intelligent than men (at least I think test scores show this). Like, why older people with thinner or balding hair think a little more slowly. Could the tiniest heat fluctuation in the brain make any difference?
Just a silly thought.
Looking in the mirror I realized that I have a lot of hair. It's pretty long at the moment. Then I jokingly thought that at least it keeps my brain warmer!
That's not actually true though, is it? More hair doesn't actually effect the warmth of your brain, does it? It seems pretty ridiculous, but it could explain some things. Like, why generally women are slightly more intelligent than men (at least I think test scores show this). Like, why older people with thinner or balding hair think a little more slowly. Could the tiniest heat fluctuation in the brain make any difference?
Just a silly thought.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Conference, Convention
I've done a very poor job of updating here. Sorry to those of you that have looked for my updates and have probably given up by now. I have been busy the past 3 weeks, but I really haven't been too busy to write up something. Now I have a lot of catch up work to do!
After my time at Crooked Creek I had one day in Iowa before heading to Conference. For that one day I spent most of my time getting ready for an MYF Bible Study in the evening. This was the second of three Bible studies to be done before the Mennonite Convention. The Bible study focused on Ezekiel 37 and it didn't seem to be a real productive time. Some people apparently got something out of it though. That's good!
The next day, on the 18th of June, I left for Freeman, South Dakota and the Central Plains Mennonite Conference Annual Meeting. Central Plains Conference spans something like 9 states and 55 congregations. Freeman is actually somewhat close to the upper middle of the geographic area. For parts of 4 days I sat as a delegate at the business meetings, went to worship services, listened to Jack Suderman, and hung out with the youth. I have since written 26 pages (nearly 11000 words) of reflection from those 4 days. It was a tremendous experience and I learned a ton! It really served to excite me for a future of these types of meetings even though to most they seem really quite boring and tedious. I knew I had some political bones in me!
I was in Iowa for the next week. Mostly Dave had me working on a paper to frame a town hall type discussion on homosexuality. Later this summer (hopefully before I leave), he wants to have the congregation sit down and discuss this issue. Before that happens he wants to hand them all a paper to read to explain the history of the issue in the Mennonite church and explain why this conversation is important. He wants me to write that paper. Oh boy. It mostly was finished that week, but not quite.
Also that week I followed around the chaplain at a retirement home, made my first solo pastoral visit, and joined in a small group Bible study. The week ended with my second time being worship leader here at West Union and my third MYF Bible Study. I should also add that it was my first week of severe Iowa weather. Tornado warnings and 80 mile an hour winds and the like. Storms are beautiful to watch in this great big sky!
On the last day of June, at 4:15am, I left with a combined force of 5 Mennonite youth groups in 2 buses to head to Columbus, Ohio. For the next 5 days we would be a part of the semi-annual Mennonite festival called Convention. About 7500 Mennonites from all over the country came to meet together, learn, discern, and worship. About 750 delegates sat through 16 hours of meetings to determine the direction of our denomination. I was not a delegate, but I sat in that room with them. I couldn't participate, but I observed. I now have a pretty good idea of what I will be inheriting some day. It's kind of a mess, but I love it!
Though I went with the youth, I was officially registered as an adult, which gave me excellent floating potential. I went to adult worship in the mornings and youth worship in the evenings (the youth ones were way better!). In the afternoons I went to youth seminars or adult seminars or theater performances for all ages. For many people, Convention serves to give Mennonites a time every two years to rekindle social connections. It was fantastic to see my parents and brother and to spend most of my time with Ruth Ellen. In Iowa all summer I've seen no one I know well, but at Convention I saw familiar faces all over the place!
I would have to say that my favorite speaker was Greg Boyd, though they were all pretty fantastic! I went to a seminar with Greg Saturday afternoon and then heard him speak at worship that evening. I'm not sure I've ever listened to someone that I agreed so fully with on so many issues. I look forward to learning more about him and maybe reading some of his books.
In not important news, I've been playing golf on my computer over the last 3 weeks. The game has set in goals of sub-60 rounds and rounds without a bogey, but I hit a sub-50 round and a round without a par. Through 18 holes I was at -23 strokes! I'm proud, but it amounts to little more than that.
Well, I guess that's it then.
After my time at Crooked Creek I had one day in Iowa before heading to Conference. For that one day I spent most of my time getting ready for an MYF Bible Study in the evening. This was the second of three Bible studies to be done before the Mennonite Convention. The Bible study focused on Ezekiel 37 and it didn't seem to be a real productive time. Some people apparently got something out of it though. That's good!
The next day, on the 18th of June, I left for Freeman, South Dakota and the Central Plains Mennonite Conference Annual Meeting. Central Plains Conference spans something like 9 states and 55 congregations. Freeman is actually somewhat close to the upper middle of the geographic area. For parts of 4 days I sat as a delegate at the business meetings, went to worship services, listened to Jack Suderman, and hung out with the youth. I have since written 26 pages (nearly 11000 words) of reflection from those 4 days. It was a tremendous experience and I learned a ton! It really served to excite me for a future of these types of meetings even though to most they seem really quite boring and tedious. I knew I had some political bones in me!
I was in Iowa for the next week. Mostly Dave had me working on a paper to frame a town hall type discussion on homosexuality. Later this summer (hopefully before I leave), he wants to have the congregation sit down and discuss this issue. Before that happens he wants to hand them all a paper to read to explain the history of the issue in the Mennonite church and explain why this conversation is important. He wants me to write that paper. Oh boy. It mostly was finished that week, but not quite.
Also that week I followed around the chaplain at a retirement home, made my first solo pastoral visit, and joined in a small group Bible study. The week ended with my second time being worship leader here at West Union and my third MYF Bible Study. I should also add that it was my first week of severe Iowa weather. Tornado warnings and 80 mile an hour winds and the like. Storms are beautiful to watch in this great big sky!
On the last day of June, at 4:15am, I left with a combined force of 5 Mennonite youth groups in 2 buses to head to Columbus, Ohio. For the next 5 days we would be a part of the semi-annual Mennonite festival called Convention. About 7500 Mennonites from all over the country came to meet together, learn, discern, and worship. About 750 delegates sat through 16 hours of meetings to determine the direction of our denomination. I was not a delegate, but I sat in that room with them. I couldn't participate, but I observed. I now have a pretty good idea of what I will be inheriting some day. It's kind of a mess, but I love it!
Though I went with the youth, I was officially registered as an adult, which gave me excellent floating potential. I went to adult worship in the mornings and youth worship in the evenings (the youth ones were way better!). In the afternoons I went to youth seminars or adult seminars or theater performances for all ages. For many people, Convention serves to give Mennonites a time every two years to rekindle social connections. It was fantastic to see my parents and brother and to spend most of my time with Ruth Ellen. In Iowa all summer I've seen no one I know well, but at Convention I saw familiar faces all over the place!
I would have to say that my favorite speaker was Greg Boyd, though they were all pretty fantastic! I went to a seminar with Greg Saturday afternoon and then heard him speak at worship that evening. I'm not sure I've ever listened to someone that I agreed so fully with on so many issues. I look forward to learning more about him and maybe reading some of his books.
In not important news, I've been playing golf on my computer over the last 3 weeks. The game has set in goals of sub-60 rounds and rounds without a bogey, but I hit a sub-50 round and a round without a par. Through 18 holes I was at -23 strokes! I'm proud, but it amounts to little more than that.
Well, I guess that's it then.