Exiled Community

The Week That Was: What a week. I finished up my last week of classes this past week. I turned in a 16 page paper. Andrea’s parents came down for a visit. As soon as they left, my cousin Shannon came in for a visit. I wrote an 11 page paper. I preached. It has been a whirlwind week. But, I am finished with all my work, and now just have to study for a final tomorrow night. Then I can breathe for a couple weeks.

Church Review: I preached at our 9:30 and 11:07 services. I thought, after the fact, that I could have done the end of my sermon a little differently to be a little more effective. I talked about whether we are preparing for Christ or Christmas. My cousin Shannon is a missionary in Peru and she was in all the services sharing about what God is doing there through the ministry she is connected with. It was exciting to hear, and I was really proud to have family who is serving God around the world.

Where I Am At the Moment: I am in my office, getting ready to go home to eat lunch and begin studying for my BIblical Interpretation final. I have Abbie tonight while Andrea has a girl’s night out. I’m looking forward to the time with my little girl!

On My To-Do List This Week: Besides the already mentioned final, I need to put up some Christmas lights and work on my Dec. 21 and 24 sermons. Friday is my first Sabbath with no school work. I am planning on spending the morning reading and then watching a movie…something I haven’t done in a while. Andrea and I are going out for our anniversary Friday night.

What Abbie is Up To This Week: Abbie has had a cold. She has been fussy. She is an amazing blessing. She is copying more and more words. The best is when she says “Touchdown!” just like her daddy!

Book I am in the Midst Of: I’m going to finish The Great Emergence on Friday. It talks about the major shifts in Christianity that seems to happen about every 500 years. Pretty interesting stuff.

Music That Caught My Attention This Week: I listened to Enya’s “O Come O Come Emmanuel” this week. Haunting.

How I Feel About this week: I can’t wait until Friday.

I’ve not blogged in awhile because I am finishing up my seminary work for the semester. I’ve finished one 16 page paper, one 6 page paper, and have to write a 10-12 page paper while studying for a test. But I thought I would mention something that will be on T.V. tonight.

December marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nation’s Genocide Convention which was a reaction to the Holocaust. The countries that comprise the U.N. vowed that they would not allow something like the Holocaust to happen again. The problem is, it has and is happening. In the 1970’s there was Cambodia; in the 1980’s Iraq was in a state of ethnic cleansing; in the 1990’s was Rwanda and Bosnia; and today we are aware of the horror in Darfur. (The article on cnn.com does not mention what is happening in Congo, which is also genocide.) Genocide continues to affect countless people while the leaders of the U.N. do little to stop it.

Tonight at 9 p.m., CNN is airing Screaming Bloody Murder, about the killing fields around the world and the people who tried to stop them. I believe that this is an issue that the church needs to be more proactive on. It has been exciting to see the Church get more involved in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, but we can do more. I beleive that we are to be a voice for those without a voice. Will you speak up?

The Week That Was: This was certainly not a normal week by any stretch of the means. Monday-Wednesday, I was in at pastoral leadership training along with our pastoral staff down in Rehoboth Beach. I have to admit, my expecations were pretty low for the training. Thankfully, the training was excellent. While I have heard most of what was taught, it was a really good refresher, and really good to process it with some of our staff. We have more to process, but it could lead to some interesting discussions. As soon as I left training, I headed up to Philly for school. I spent a lot of time in the library, which was good. I only have two weeks of class left. It so hard to believe because I have a lot of work to get down yet.

Church Review: Church went pretty well today. I did not preach, so played a little different role as just the worship leader. Pastor Phyllis gave a good message and the gathering structure was good. I wish our 11:07 gathering had a little more consistency. We’ll finally do some marketing about the gathering when our community mailings go out in December.

Where I Am At the Moment: It’s actually Sunday afternoon as I write this. I just finished my theology paper and watching the Eagles try and blow a game to the Bungals.

On My To-Do List This Week: On Monday, I have to pick my mom up from the airport as our daycare is closed and she is watching Abbie for the week. I have to pick out music for the community thanksgiving service next Sunday. The rest of the week will be devoted to school work. I have two 10-15 page papers due, plus I have to build a small website on an aspect of Methodist History.

What Abbie is Up To This Week: Abbie finished up one round of teething about two weeks ago, and I think that she has another round coming up. Some of her “I” teeth are ready to come in. Abbie is beginning to enunciate more and more words.

Book I am in the Midst Of: I am mostly reading seminary stuff. Not much else.

Music That Caught My Attention This Week: I purchased two CD’s this week. The first was a Vineyard Worship CD called Sweetly Broken. The title track is by Jeremy Riddle and is powerful. I don’t know that I could pull that song off, but it speaks to me every time. Otherwise, I didn’t immediately hear anything that stood out. I also picked up Charlie Hall’s new CD called Bright Sadness. It was pretty good.

How I Feel About this week: I can almost begin to smell the turkey and pumpkin pie!

I am in Rehoboth Beach for the next three days for a effective pastoral ministry workshop. So far it is pretty decent. Because of this, I won’t be doing my monday morning update (Especially since it’s Monday night). But I thought I’d give you a link or two.

Click here to read a story about how children are being tortured as witches. How do you tell there a witch? No, they don’t sink or float like wood (monty python reference), they cry at night, don’t sleep, and get sick. Geez, my girl must be a witch. At any rate, this is a horrible story that is fueled by a pastor in Nigeria.

More to come later.

I stayed up long enough last night to hear NBC call the election for Barrack Obama at 11:00 p.m. It is certainly a historic moment in our country’s brief history. I will be in Philadelphia later today at Palmer Seminary where most of the students are African-American Pastors from in and around Center City Philly. I am anxious to hear and see their perspective on the outcome of the election.
There is a lot of hope riding on Obama’s presidency. It is a good thing to have hope. But we must remember that Obama is human, and that Obama has to work with the House and the Senate…both of which are filled with, ah, fallen people. There are several things that I hope will happen when Obama takes office in January.

1. I hope the new president will stop the culture of war that the Bush administration focused on. The Bush administration was quick to call nations ‘evil’ and created an “us” vs. “them” mentality. I hope that Obama will use every available diplomatic means and extend olive branches rather than weapons. The Bible speaks of loving our neighbors, and that includes our global neighbors.
2. I hope the Obama administration will tackle the issue of poverty and injustice in our country and around the world. I could write more, but certainly the world economic crisis is one area, the situation in Sudan (Darfur region), and others areas.
3. I hope that the Obama administration will go beyond party politics and create a spirit of unity in our nations government and in our nation.

Yeah, all of these (and plenty of other areas) are tall task. But not impossible ones. I also hope that we will pray for the Barrack and the other leaders of our nations that they will lead with honor, integrity, and love.