Good bye to Elissa

Our dear friend, Elissa, is moving to NYC. We're all very sad about it, though we know that "Friends are friends forever." That really helps us keep moving on. Also the fact that we will see her in in July when we are visiting NYC.

For her going away, we had a party. Part of this party was a game called "Pin the Trendy Accessory on the New Yorker." It was pretty fun. I took a video of Karisa playing. She did very well. The best of the whole night in fact, despite being spun about 3 zillion times!

Here it is:



P.S. If you know how to rotate an AVI file, please let me know!

P.P.S. There are more pictures of the event on my Facebook.

Major Rethinking

Part of my job these days in the Admissions Office is to go around to different academic departments on campus and find stories about students going on to graduate school, career choices, and the unique strengths of our programs. This is a great assignment because I get to hear about all the fun things going on.

It's also a terrible assignment.

It's terrible because I walk out of meetings kicking myself in the butt for having majored in Christian Education instead of History or Secondary Ed. or something else. I truly appreciated the Christian Education program at Wheaton. In fact, I think there were many ways that it was instrumental in my life. As with many things, though, it is much easier for me to point out the things that I missed out on rather than the things I gained.

Without a doubt, my spiritual walk has been edified through classes with Jerry Root, Lyle Dorsett, Barrett McRay, Scottie May, Jim Wilhoit and David Setran. I can tell you stories of how each one impacted me spiritually in a way I cannot even begin to comprehend the full implications of. Jerry Root got me excited about the whole CE program and helped me come to a breakthrough in my identity in Christ while at Honeyrock (a white stone in heaven with my REAL name on it). Lyle Dorsett instilled the desire to be passionate and tireless in the thirst for the Holy Spirit. Barrett McRay put up with my many insecurities and issues as he mentored me through college during our (roughly) monthly lunches. Scottie May taught the value of silence and waiting on the Lord to a guy who had never sat silently before in my life ("Wait... do nothing for 20 minutes?!"). Jim Wilhoit opened the door to the spiritual classics and disciplines ("God as Vindicator" is still a spiritually humbling experience to this day). Dave Setran modeled humility and care for his students (though he did back out on a ping pong challenge once).

The downside is that in many ways I went through the program selfishly. I was not really in a place to learn how to help others, to build strong ministies, or even to produce solid academic work. Instead, I went through the program like one of my wife's foster kids who is craving attention and care. I wanted to receive personally from the program and professors.

And I did. I received tons from the professors and classes. Praise God! I know He is using the love and care from my professors.

Today, though, after having received so much, I look back on my college time thinking more about skills and abilities and academics. If I went through Wheaton starting now, I would be in a very different spot (I hope!). A place where I would be more prepared to take advantage of what a wonderful college like Wheaton has to offer.

Even if I did the CE major again, there would be much more I could learn from it. Instead of taking advantage of the more lax academic requirements, I would want to learn and make as much as possible of the classes.

Lord, help me to see the great good You brought out of my 4-years at Wheaton, rather than look back on all the impossible "if onlys" that I am tempted by!

Fun Times

These photos are from a 70's themed Murder Mystery Dinner we had this winter. They are simply too good NOT to be shared with everyone. This first item is Keith, showing us all how to do a vampire dance. He was quite good.



As a part of the party, we had a dance competition. Brett looks like he isn't just playing the part of a 70's character, but he is a 70's character.



The big coup of the night was that Meg and I did not win the dance off despite this amazing performance:



But I did win after all because when the night was over, this is who I went home with:

To Err is Humarn...

...but to really screw it up takes a computer.

I've been trying to work that comment into as many conversations and situations as possible. At this moment it is relevant because Blogger is not letting me upload pictures, but just keeps timing out. But maybe that's a good thing because pictures are like selling out. A Blog is a journal which means thoughts and writing, not fancy pictures. Posting pictures is like selling out and trying to bribe people into checking your blog with eye candy.

Karisa and I are leading the Newcomers ministry at church now. We spent time last night calling our newcomers to thank them for coming and invite them back. It is very interesting the different reactions you get. Karisa talked to one person who was a virtual waterfall of information and they talked for quite a while. I, on the other hand, talked to a person who was not interested in visiting again and you could tell.

Over all, though, I think that people really appreciate the calls. Even those who never come back like to know that we were glad to have them.

Connecting with people is also a lot about personalities. Sometimes I will talk to a visitor and we can hit it off really well. Other times it feels like a chore. I'm sure my mood and sleep levels affect that too, though!

Leading this ministry together with Karisa is also pretty awesome. It's a challenge to learn to work together. I've done a lot at church, but always by myself. So I have to figure out co-leadership. It's also a great chance to see Karisa's gifts and skills in action. She always undersells herself, but she's full of giftings. She's a great leader, too! One day, before we die, I look forward to hearing her describe herself as a leader... :)

Softball

I have wanted to prove that I actually played softball, but none of the previous pictures had me in them (because I took them myself). So I convinced my wife to come to a game and take pictures of me. It sounds pretty vain doesn't it? haha

She did a great job though despite the fact that she was using our personal point and shoot camera instead of the fancy-shmancy one that I had been using when I took pictures. (Thanks to Brooke for trusting me not to destroy it!)

So here is the proof:




See? I even got on base!

Women in Ministry and Sacramentalism

I have been reading this book, "Slaves, Women and Homosexuals" by William Webb. It's fun to me because my high school dorm parent was named William Webb. He wrote a book too: a chemistry text book!

This book is really good, I have to say. It was first recommended to me by Kevin Miller when I asked him for an explanation of how he viewed women in ministry and the hermeneutic that remained consistent. I am sad to say that his recommendation came more than a year ago and I am just finishing the book. :)

Webb does use language that the truly conservative evangelical might find a put off. I say that as one who grew up surrounded by very conservative evangelicals. (An interesting aside would be a discussion about the connection between "conservatives" and moral development theory, but that is for another time). Mainly, it is phrases like "move beyond" Scripture and referring to Scripture's statements as being "insufficient."

Now, I don't think he means what it may sound like at first. He does not mean that Scripture is not enough or that we need to move beyond it in the sense of it's out dated and unhelpful. What he means is that we must allow Scripture to carry us through to the end. It is unfortunate that he uses negative language to describe this instead of positive language.

Webb builds an excellent case, however, for the movement of Scripture towards greater and fuller inclusion of women in ministry, leadership, etc. while still maintaining that homosexuality is not consistent with Scripture or the Christian faith.

What this book does not engage in is the sacramental understanding of gender at all. It does not touch on the meaning of male and female. (Obviously, that is outside the boundaries of Webb's topic). So that leaves questions there.

My main question at the moment is: How does one respond to the argument that the symbolism of Eucharist is a wedding feast and since the church is the bride, the priest needs to be male to prevent symbolic confusion? That may not be the best wording of the question ever, but it's the best I've got at the moment.

Or another way of putting it: what would it look like to be truly sacramental but to take Webb's hermeneutics seriously? What symbolism would need to change? How do we stand in coherence with the history of the Church while still making the forward movement?

I think it is definitely possible. I look forward to the continual fleshing out of women in ministry and sacramentalism.

Softball Photos

Mike is about to clobber that ball!



Rachel gets a hit!



David is ALMOST safe!



Paul, ready to homer!


The fans.



This is a great pic of Grant's pitching.




This one makes my day! The other team's hitter is literally watching the ball hit the carpet.

Embarrassed

Whoops! Well, I never said spelling was my greatest gift, but it took me more than a year to realize that I had spelled Journeys wrong in my blog title. (To my own defense, I didn't look at it for 12 months in a row). But maybe "journies" is some nickname somewhere for journal entries. Y'know, I wrote a "journie" in my "journal."

No?

Well, that's my story to future generations who ask but don't bother to read this post.

Sacrament of Softball

This summer I am the co-captain of our church's summer softball team. It has been a real joy and pleasure so far. We have tons of fun playing against other churches. We aren't the best team in the league (2-6 so far). However, we do have more fun than any team we've played so far!

Some of my team was suggesting that softball needed to make it into the church's vision and mission statement. We have the Bringing Road, Sending Road, and the Softball Road. In fact, we decided that we were engaging in the sacrament of softball.

Now officially in the Anglican church, a priest is supposed to administer the Sacraments. So, I guess Grant and I are sort of sneaking in the back door into ordination. I don't think many aspirants have caught on to this little secret yet. But in the future, I expect our softball team to be full of the aspiring deacons and priests in our church.

Okay, well maybe not. But softball is still really fun.