(once again posted on Tuesday)
Highlights of the Week Will Now Be Called Brighter Moments for this Week … yeah for Lent I gave up pastoral exaggerations and highlights just seems to overstated. 1. There were some good moments and among them was celebrating my mom’s first birthday as a grandmother. If I being objective, Nathan hasn’t always been kind to my mom. We don’t hold that against the 10–monther but on Saturday, they had a ball together. 2. Had some real solid conversations with several people throughout my church. 3. Spoke to a different youth group about worship this past Friday night. It was well-received. 4. Lost – brilliant. 4.5. 24 has been pretty entertaining too.
Disappointed by … nothing personal that I can remember. I think lately, I’ve just been burdened by my family/friends who live in fear of being laid off or have been laid off and now job hunting. God’s grace to them.
Listening to … U2’s New Line On the Horizon (available thru Amazon mp3 store for $3.99). As part of Lent, I’m trying to spend money on only essentials. But I’m pretty sure that the Lord Himself will be buying this tomorrow (that is assuming He hasn’t already downloaded it, legally of course, since God’s Ipod exists beyond the time-space continuum). 2. Heard a great Mars Hill Podcast by Jeff Manion called a Life that Shines available here.
Loving … that some of my friends started blogging over the last two weeks. My favorite youth pastor, fellow brother in Christ and in the Yankees, Tim Nye just started blogging. Also there is my seventeenth favorite seminary cohort member KJ (also a youth pastor) is blogging again and my favorite prodigal son story of 2008 Jeremy Stephens who was delivered from being a car salesman and is now serving the Lord as an underpaid youth pastor and bivocations at a board game company. I think his job is manufacturing the top hat game piece in the classic game Monopoly. I know what you’re thinking, don’t they just outsource that to a like a steel company? He told me otherwise and a former car-salesman doesn’t lie. Hey check out their blogs.
Reading … a little of everything. No class this week at school so I got back to Pete Enn’s Inspiration andIncarnation. Also reading Cross-Shattered Christ by Stanely Hauerwas as part of my Lenten reading and … Also the new Relevant magazine just came in. I urge you to subscribe, it’s the best $12 you will spend all year.
Watched … Slumdog Millionaire finally. Loved it, was beautiful but not sure if I can ever watch it again. There are some movies that are too moving for me to sit through again. Saving Private Ryan comes to mind. The first hour, I was just so broken by the poverty, abandonment, violence and exploitation. Further, it’s not just a movie, this not only happens but it’s happening. Beautiful movie that takes these terrible circumstances and offers some redemption and a great love story. They deserved all their awards. Speaking of awards, still have yet to see the “Mickey Rourke was robbed” in the Wrestler. Some people are angrier about that then the bailout. Also watched on the dvd documentary “Escape From Suburbia” which deals with energy and the American way of life. I ended up watching it twice. Here are my two cents. Good info, I agree with the crux of it, but the documentary was not that well done, way too many interviews, and while I know they were intending on waking people up, it was a little too over-stated. I’m curious in knowing if there are better documentaries that do a better job with this issue.
Youth Ministry Update … Our Video Series They Like Jesus but Not the Church (by Dan Kimball) is still going real well. Small groups have been lively and this past week we discussed the issue of women in the church. Controversial huh? Not really. Dan does a real good job cutting to the issue. Here was his point, “The church has been charged by some by being male-domineering and oppressive to women. How do we as Christ-following Christians respond?” We can discuss women in ministry, interpretations of passages like I Timothy 2, remind each other the role women played in Jesus’ ministry and in Paul’s but we have to agree that the we need to affirm and encourage our sisters in Christ.
Looking forward to … Playing fantasy baseball with my friends. I just registered and my team name is “I Am Wolverine!”
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