Horseshoes and drooling dogs

So, its been awhile again. oh well.

A few months ago, in the summer, I started reading through a bunch of books I had picked up for free at school. On of the books was "The Forgotten ways", Alan Hirsch.
I was expecting the book to be pretty good, but found out that it was kind of frustrating. I found that the book came really close to making some good analysis, but missed it, and the result was pretty frustrating. I am sorry if you enjoyed it, but I disagreed with pretty much all the main points in the book.
One of the biggest points that got me was about the ways to successfully learn and change. It was kind of a flash back to a class I had taken called "teaching for moral growth" where some of the people in the class were advocating an approach to teaching that was fully focused on the teaching the right actions and expecting that to work into consistent behavior, upon hearing about Pavlov and his dogs, one of the class members became very excited about working on ways to work this into her teaching efforts. This made a friend of mine and I very uncomfortable and I very much disagreed with it, thinking instead that we need to develop a right understanding of the WHY's if we expected a different action as a result otherwise it won't really stick and won't be authentic. Hirsch stated that the reason we don't see change in the people of our churches is because we focus on the why's when we should simply focus on the action of change and the right understanding will come on its own.
While action is vitally important, absent of a right understanding and right teaching on the why, how can real change happen?

Readings

I had a plan, I was going to read some books I had talked about in my earlier post, and while doing that, have a light "fun" read at the same time, for when I didn't feel like diving into anything to heavy. First up for the fun read was Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy as I have the 5 part hardcover, and hadn't read it for some time. For any of you that have not read it and enjoy British humor, please stop reading after this paragraph and go get the book and read it. It's not that I am going to be saying anything else about this series, I just think you should read it (and as a few wise individuals once told me, read it with an English accent in your head and it is much better).
Sadly, this plan to read at the same time didn't come about, as I flew threw Hitchhiker in a few days time, having failed to even open up any of the other books. I decided to move onto the Narnia series, because we picked up a new copy of that series recently. This time I have actually opened one of the other books, but only so far as the third chapter so far and I am now just finished the final Narnia book. Oh well, it was good to read something light.
I do find, however, that the first books (in the Narnia series) are much easier and lighter to read, and by the final book, it is actually quite a heavy feel in the reading emotionally. I guess I am slowly running out of easy reads and I should focus more on the other books.
I guess this is what I get from actually making a reading plan for my summer reading...

Free Books

While doing this last semester of school, some of the staff and faculty started reorganizing their offices. The net result was a table with the lovely sign "free books" on it. This is a sign that can be a dangerous thing for grad students, it's just feeding the addiction. I, of course, went a bit nuts. And the lovely thing was that the table kept getting refilled. Each day, for four days, the table each morning was magically refilled. Now, many of the titles were dated affairs, not really resources in any real way, but there was a few gems. I managed to pick up a few old commentaries, some old books on some great topics and even a few new ones. The only problem is that I already have my whole library of books residing in our bedroom and there isn't much room. Thankfully my wife was very tolerant of my addiction, looking at it as a means of keeping me from actually spending money (that we don't have) on other books.
Now, since I have this source of free literature to peruse, I may be giving the odd review in here, just to give myself more of a reason for going through them. I just wish their was a way to pick which ones to go through first. Among the titles are "The forgotten ways" by Alan Hirsh, "Shalom, the bible's word for salvation justice and peace" by Perry Yoder, "Uprising" by Mcmanus, "The Connecting Church" by Frazee, "The ministry Playbook" by Klopp, and various old issues of "interpretation". If any of you have suggestions, feel free to let your voice be heard.

It's done...for now

Well, for those who are keeping track, I have not been managing to accomplish my goal of once a week blogging. It was a nice dream, but did not take into account the sheer volume of assignments, reading and other draws on my time that this semester had in store for me. There were quite a few times when I thought of something that I would love to blog on, but actually sitting down and writing it out seems a gross waste of time when assignments were pushing in rapidly. But as of today, I am done for this semester. So, with the exception of finding a job to pay bills, spending time with family and finishing up a bunch of assorted things that have been put on hold till now, I am totally free to blog to my little hearts content. I even think I can remember a few of the ideas I had while in the thick of things. So, for the one or two people who may check the blog still, I am back.
And here is a picture of the one of the coolest libraries I have never been too, I think I could be smarter if I worked in a library like that...hmmm.

Lament

For some time, I have wanted to do a lament service. It seems, from my reading of others blogs, that I may not be the only one with this desire. There is, apparently, a lot of desire out there to incorporate this element of worship into the local church. It is the "how" of doing this that always gets us stuck.
Well, today at church, I found myself in a Lament service. I was shocked...someone actually had the intestinal fortitude and the opportunity to do it.
Now, I could go into it and highlight both the positive and the negative on how it was pulled off, but I think I will instead leave the inner critic alone and applaud the fact that it happened, and in a MB church no less. The congregation received it very well and you could see that there were a lot of congregants who needed a chance to express sorrow and pain to God. I was glad I was there today (I had debated skipping it to get some homework done). Just one of the reasons why I am happy to be hooked in at this church while I am doing some school.
Just one question to all you service planning virtuosos out there...do you know any genuine lament songs out there, the ones they used were close sometimes, but they never quite hit the right note. So feel free to leave a comment with any ideas.

Valentines Day

I love candy as much as anyone, but maybe this is not what its all about...

I have always had some issue with the whole Valentines day tradition as it exists today. It all just seems to much a part of the consumer culture. Where we measure how romantic we are based on the money spent and the items purchased for others we love. This being said, I can say that I do applaud the need to appreciate those we love in our lives, and that this needs to be more than just a general thing done spread throughout the year. So, for the sake of something being done, I guess it is good that there is a day for it, since without that, many of us men would simply never get around to it. So what is wrong with the current iteration?
I think the first thing is that we have substituted money and gifts and cards written by companies for any genuine thought, feeling or real meaning. Which means instead of using our wallets, maybe we should use things that are more valuable and rare for us in North American culture, things like undivided attention and time. This might actually show our love better than money quickly spent.
I think that the other thing that we need to do is find some sense of the history of why we are doing this. This is one of my hobby-horse issues, but I find that we have no historical understanding of nearly anything these days. But we might just find a more full meaning of why things are the way they are.
For St. Valentine's day, this might be harder than some other instances. There is some fairly major disagreement over which St. Valentine is the one who is associated with Feb. 14th. Apparently, Valentine was the john or bob of its day, it was a very popular name of the time, and a few people were sainted. The most popular on is the Valentine who was a priest in Rome who was martyred under Claudius II. Even the exact reason for his death is debated, but most agree it had something to do with marrying Christians, which was bad either because helping Christians in any way was not allowed in that time of persecution or because Claudius had a ban on marriage in order to get more recruits into the army. Either way, the action was that of going against the rule of Rome in order to follow Christ's call to Shepard and care for people. I think this is where we can really derive some meaning to the day beyond a good excuse to "love the ones your with". It is a call to Love as Christ loved, sacrificially giving of ourselves.
So please, treat your loved ones well on Valentines day. Get them gifts, including your time, but may we also remember to love as Christ calls us to love, sacrificially and giving of ourselves to others. To our wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. To the world and all those in it, pouring ourselves out as Christ calls us to and did himself.

PS> please, it is not a chance for candy evangelism...

Football and Papers

For the last few years, I have found myself becoming more and more into the NFL season. It may have something to do with how the last few years have played out, with teams like New England making huge years followed by a injury that makes everything change at the start of the next year. And now one of my favorite teams has made it to the Superbowl. Now, the problem arises that I have a paper due Monday and the Superbowl is tomorrow. Hopefully, the game will be a blowout like it often is for the Superbowl and I can just check in on it from time to time, and also watch some American commercials of course.
And yes, I am aware of how pathetic that is.