So I have a plan…Since I am not taking classes this fall (due to several factors including my trip to Bolivia), my thought was to catch up on some reading that I have been meaning to do over the last year and just spend sometime nurturing my pastoral/personal soul. In thinking about that, I had an idea and I wanted to see if anyone else was up to doing the following with me…

In that fall I was thinking about reading the Bible and 30 other books (on various topics of interest) in 90 days. As part of that I would commit to blogging approximately every three days about the books I’ve read. In short, it would be a journey into areas of interest that I hope will challenge, stimulate and energize me. I have done a ton of reading over the last two years for school and want to take the opportunity to read the stack of books I have on my “too read” list. Although I have several books I plan on getting to over those 90 days, does anyone have any suggestions?

Last week I was in a week long intensive seminary class called “Learning from the History of Preaching.” Although it was a long week, the following is a summary of the interesting things I learnt through the process:
1) The idea of people “downloading” or preaching other people’s sermons isn’t new but can be traced back as far as Caesarea of Arles in the early medieval period. It would seem that although it was done for good practical reasons, it had negative long-term results.
2) I was amazed at the genius of many of the prominent preachers throughout history. These individuals, for the most part, are the cream of the top, many of them literally geniuses.
3) I was intrigued with the correlation between liturgy and preaching and the development of both throughout history.
I also found the contrast between the Alexandrian school of interpretation and the Antioch school of interpretation through the Patristic period very interesting. I fact, I am doing my major research paper for the course on this.
4) I also found that knowing the history of preaching puts many of the contemporary books of preaching into context. Not that they are good or bad per se, but knowing the history of preaching puts an interesting perspective on the present and future of preaching.

All in all, it was a good class…I just hope I remember at least a fraction of what I learnt.

It has been so long since I wrote in this blog that I am not sure if anyone even checks it anymore. Well…for those that still check it once and a while…I’m sorry I haven’t been keeping this up-to-date. I could make excuses like how busy life has been with Church and school stuff, which is true, but that seem to be a lame excuse when I am caught up on TV shows like House, The Unit, CSI, LOST and 24. So I confess, I have been a bit lazy about my blog but I want to get back to doing this regularly…SO…….here it goes.

So the countdown is officially on as I plan and prepare for a personal mission’s trip to Bolivia in the fall. I am not sure what exactly I will be doing once I get there but it will probably include speaking, music stuff and other ministry opportunities – we are in the process of working these details out.

I’m excited because I get the awesome privilege to watch, learn, encourage and serve alongside one of my close friends who serves there full-time with International Teams (K. Switzer).

One of the things I am committing to in my preparation is to purposely pray each day for six months for the ministry I will have while in Bolivia. I want to be used by God for his glory and purposes and so I am praying to that end.

I will no doubt be Blogging about the preparation and developments as they arise in the coming weeks/months.

I saw this story on CNN about God’s iPod and was immediately ready to go crazy. I am not against using technology – I love it, but it was the guy’s rational for using it that was getting me upset – ready to violently yell at my TV set. His rational was that if Jesus was around today, he would use all the available technology he could to reach as many people as he could. I think reaching people is admirable, but that rational doesn’t jive with the picture of Jesus seen in the gospels.

In the gospels, Jesus is seen often retreating from people and unlike others in his day, stayed out of the large theatres and instead, spoke from hills with poor acoustics and gave many of his profound messages and miracles to a select few rather than to the masses.

In terms of technology…I am for it. In terms of using it for ministry, I am also for it with some provisos. I think technology should be used only if it adds to community and our human, God created, need for it rather than replaces or detracts from it.

For the most part I am in favour of the idea of podcasts for church. I think it is great for those who attend a local community and have missed a week so they can catch up with what is happening with the community. I also think it is a great resource for additional teaching or listening to the Bible in MP3 format. But it will NEVER replace the communal element of church and if it is used to substitute it, I think it then detracts for the very message it is trying to communicate. For those reasons I am for technology but with thought and critique so we don’t blindly accept or institute something that will in fact detract from church and the Good News. The problem is we rarely reflect on the possible effects of using a certain technology before we embrace it.