All good things must come to an end…

Thrashers stop Sabres Streak

Alas, the Sabres couldn’t go 82-0 but 10-0-1 and collecting 21 out of 22 points in the month of October isn’t too bad.

On a side note, how about the Penguins? Not as good as the Sabres but compared to last year a big improvement.

Weekend

So, ever since my time at Hampton began in one sense I’ve focused on the Sr. High portion of the ministry – not because I like them better, but simply because everything I’ve read says when you come into a new church you need to make a concerted effort to keep your Sr. High group together or else you’ll lose them completely.  Your Jr. High group on the other hand, is more likely to keep together regarldess.  The other reason is that the majority of events planned the the latter half of the summer we for Sr. High students.  Finally, and this is the biggest reason, is that I spent a week on a mission trip with the Sr. High and didn’t have the chance to do that with the Jr. High.

Anyway, knowing that this wasn’t a good situation I scheduled for Jr. High retreat for early in the year (this past weekend).  The downside was that this turned out to be a bad weekend for a whole bunch of our kids so not as many of them could go as I would have hoped, but we still had a nice sized group (11) go.  We went to Camp Crestfield, which is my personal favorite place to go for retreats because (1) I worked there – so I know where things are (2) It tends to be very quiet so its a good change of pace for people.  So, although it was a very tiring weekend for everyone involved, it was a great opportunity for me to get to know this amazing group of kids.  The other really cool part of the weekend was to see how the Jr. High students have bonded with the Sr. High leaders.

All in all – a fabulous weekend.

Are you kidding me?

A headline from today’s Democrat and Chronicle (the paper of my hometown)

Intruder breaks in, changes clothes, sleeps 

Wow, what a bad way to get caught

A Good Word…

Yesterday as I was working away “You Alone” by David Crowder Band was playing on my iPod.  I’ve heard the song a hundred times before, but for some reason it really stuck out to me yesterday.

You are the only one I need
I bow all of me at Your feet
I worship You alone

You have gven me more than
I could ever have wanted
And I want to give You my heart and my soul

You alone are Father
And You alone are good
You are alone are Savior
And You alone are God

One sign you’re working in a (post-)mainline church…

Last night at our Jr. High youth group I asked our middle school students who helped them learn what was right and wrong.  They came up with a list that included parents, media, friends, bible, Jesus, teachers, etc.  Without any objection I narrowed the list to two (the bible and Jesus) as not always being the best source of knowledge for what is right and wrong.  For example, I pointed out that probably for a lot of them their parents were good sources of knowledge of what is right and wrong, but that not everyone can say that.  So I then ask them the following question:

Me: So of the last two isn’t always the most reliable either…

6th grade girl: Oh, I know, the bible, becasue people can do all sorts of weird things with it

Me: That’s right, can anyone give me an example of this?

Sr. High Guy Leader: Oh, sure, the bible was used to defend the practice of slavery during the 19th Century

I have to say, I was pretty impressed with them.  I then drew the distinction and said that if we’re listening and following Jesus he will never lead us astray, the challenge is learning to listen and follow.  Then (just so people out there reading don’t think I’m a bible-bashing heretic) I talked about how the bible is how we learn about God and one of the ways God speaks to us, but it can and has been misused.

Interesting Reading…

I would encourage you to check out Letters to Christians in the USA posted on Brian McLaren’s site.  I found these interesting to say the least.

Doug Pagitt

This weekend Emergent Pittsburgh hosted Doug Pagitt, Pastor of Solomon’s Porch as the keynote speaker for “The Heart of the Missional Church.”

Doug has been gracious enough to post his comments on his podcast in 17 15-minute mp3 files. This is especially helpful since we lost the emergent pittsuburgh recordings for the whole afternoon session. We’ll have our recordings of the morning session available this week (they’re slightly better quality since we recorded them out of the sound system) and eventually we’ll have a video of the event available.

Enough about the uniforms…

So it would appear that now that people can’t mock the Sabres for being (1) bankrupt (2) pathetic on the ice people have taken to mocking the new uniforms.

So, just for the record, I really like the new uniforms.  I grew up on the classic blue and gold uniforms and when they were replaced by the red/black uniforms I liked the new design but didn’t really like the new colors.    Frankly, I think the design is sharp and the color scheme nice.  So there…

An Excellent Assessment of CPE…

I came acros this on Michael Walker’s (the outgoing director of Presbyterians for Renewal) blog.  It’s a honest assessment of CPE done by  a Princeton Theological Seminary student that gets to the heart of the issue.

Some of you have heard me describe CPE as the “best worst experience of my life” and that is precisely what it was.  While I learned a great deal, I also learned a lot of what not to do and that is abandon the foundation as Jesus Christ as the ground and being of all pastoral care. 

Ministry of Reconciliation or Clowning Around?: A Seminary Student Reflects On “C.P.E.”

Off to a good start…

Tonight the Buffalo Sabres, my beloved team, began their season in style beating the defending Stanley Cup Champion Caroline Hurricanes in a shootout…