Tag: News

I am not dead, honest.

Well, I’ve officially started hearing grumbling from family members that Kyle is saying too many high thinky things on the website and that there is not enough content in the way of what’s going on lifewise for us. I just want you to know up front that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth and that I had planned to do more writing and haven’t had the chance to clean the apartment properly let alone post real life stuff on the website or write real letters. It has been an extremely busy semester for both me and for Kyle, but hopefully I can take a short break and send a note to you all.
Continue reading “I am not dead, honest.”

Making the Transition

Monday morning, our tax returns came in. It’s amazing what a difference it can make to *pay* taxes as a single man, and then to file your return as a married couple. The amount returned to us was almost to the dime the amount we needed to get a laptop for Valerie, which she’s been pining for ever since she realized she had a 4 hour commute every day to and from school. We immediately went to Best Buy and bought the thing.

But the great news for me is not what we’ve so suddenly acquired, but what we now have the opportunity to *get rid of*: The Internet. I anticipate this very week making the great transition to The Quiet Home. Halelujah. Continue reading “Making the Transition”

Pass/Failing a class

Due, I think, to the nature of the MDiv degree at Gordon-Conwell, where nearly every class you take is mandatory, we are allowed to take 4 classes as “pass/fail” courses. Basically this means that you would fulfill your requirement by passing the class, but it would be taken out of the equation when determining your GPA.

Now, I’ve never been one to worry myself about my GPA. Either I liked a class or I didn’t, and my grade reflected that accordingly, and that was that. But lately… how you say – there has been no direct correlation between my interest in the class and my grade in the class. I love all my classes, more or less. I’m finally getting the education I’ve been wanting for 10 years! But these classes, they’re hard. Suddenly the best grade correlation is how much time and effort I dedicate to the class. Eww. Continue reading “Pass/Failing a class”

On Calling

Those of you who know me have probably heard me agonize over my prospects of becoming a “professional Christian” at some time or another. With his famous “don’t muzzle the Ox” line, Paul makes it clear that it isn’t *wrong* to receive financial remuneration for ministry, so that isn’t it. But there’s always been something unnerving for me about treating the role of pastor the same way as a management career. Somewhere the parallels between the MBA and the MDiv just go away.

Our church right now is going through what seems to be the standard process of looking for a new pastor. The old pastor announces that he’s retiring (like ours) or leaving the church for whatever reason, and then the church begins to oil the machinery for searching out and appointing a new person to be in charge. I know this is the common procedure, but it’s jarring whenever I think about it. Especially when I think about myself as the prospective “new person in charge.” I can’t imagine sending out resumes asking to be overseer of a church I’ve never before attended. Why is it that it’s only the pastor who joins a church by application? Who else ever actually applies for membership and is politely declined in favor of another candidate? It’s *odd.*

And so I’m predisposed to make tents. Continue reading “On Calling”

OK I’m going to cheat.

I just finished my half of the new grents letter and I don’t want to pick and choose parts to put up here so you get to read my half.  I will let you know that I plan to have pictures of Christmas break and Brookwoods up in the gallery soon, but right now I need to go eat lunch and get back to my homework.

So here’s what I wrote: Continue reading “OK I’m going to cheat.”