The New Usual--July 19

Just as water seeks its own level, life is finding its new routine as we inch past the newness of our experience and into the daily grind of studies. Travis isn't really sleeping in the above picture, he's just striking a pose--though I had to get anti-bacterial spray to clean up the drool.
They give us lots of breaks when we are in class. Not only that, they provide SNACKS for all of the breaks. Here Dr. Martyn, Alicia, and Nolan enjoy conversation along with sweets and savories.
I get going each morning by reading, sometimes at the local coffee shop (I'll have to supply some pictures of that!), and sometimes on a balcony outside of the Beeson Manor hotel. I read until class starts. Dr. Martyn's class started at 9am every day. I have the distinction of being late on the very first day of class--nothing like making a good first impression.

That's okay, though, because he was teaching about spirituality and . . . well . . . grace is such a large part of Christian spirituality that I was the first example of one who receives grace. The class is over now. We met for the last time yesterday. That means that today and tomorrow we return to Dr. Kalas' preaching class.

Again, I can't seem to get a good picture of the man. I'm just going to have to ask him to pose for me. This taking pictures secretly doesn't produce great results when you're worried you'll get caught.

Last night we went to a large bookstore in Lexington. It was pretty cool. It's called "Joe" something. A lot of people know about it, I'm just drawing a blank right now. Here is Cora standing in front of the water fountain that's just outside the store. She threw a penny in the fountain and made a wish, but I'm not allowed to tell you what it was. So, as you can see, there is no one thing dominating my time right now. I read, I write, I spend time with the family, I play racquetball, I run, and I blog!

Another Quick Trip to Indy-July 16-17

We took advantage of a free day and a half and the fact that we're only 3 1/2 hours from Indianapolis to run up there to see my grandfather, who isn't well. On Saturday at 2pm, Cindy hosted a tea part for our neighbor, Kate.

At 5pm we took to the streets as family. Here is a picture of us in the van on the way. We made it to my brother's house about 9pm.
The morning sun streamed through the woods around my brother's house as we left for church. It really was a beautiful morning. After church we went to see my grandfather. We had lunch with my Uncle Phil and Aunt Carol, my Aunt Marsha and her husband, David, my Dad and Wendy. We also posed for a picture in front of the soap making shed that grandma used to enjoy.


On Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to Eric, Missy, Ethan, Marcus, Lily, and Catherine. Then we stopped by Connie and Deon's house next door to see Olivia and Gideon. Then we made our way back to Wilmore.

From Thunderstorms to Birthday Parties

Seeking shelter from the storm, the birthday portion of the evening was moved to Scott and Kate's house. Their daughter, Anna, is now 3 -years-old. She blew out the candles on her "Dora the Explorer" birthday cake. And I, apparently, need to teach my daughter that the "no elbows on the table" rule extends to knees and feet as well.Aiden the Artist painted the Asbury logo on my forehead as part of the fun of the birthday party. I think Asbury should hire him. You can tell by his eyes that he is on the ball.
He's going to have to find a better looking canvas for future projects.
Trav and Becca stopped by for the festivities as well. While I like them personally, they are my football enemies. Becca is an FSU Seminole. Trav is an Auburn War-Tiger-Plainsman. I finally got a breather from Vol fans, but I'm not free at last.


No medical condition here. Just blue icing from the cupcakes for John David and his dad, Travis!

God Frowns on Grilla-palooza 2

I can't imagine anyone needs to see any more pictures of Beeson picnics, but here they are nonetheless. The foreboding clouds gathered even as we did. We grilled as quickly as we could. Nolan said a prayer asking a blessing on the food, adding a request for a rain delay.

We ate in the sure knowledge that we had to enjoy the food and the company while we could.

When you scroll through the pictures you will see the progessing darkness. I would have taken a picture of everyone scattering , but I was scattering with them and I didn't want to get my phone wet. So, picture it for yourself: lonely toys, tables, chairs and grills in the middle of the front lawn.

The Leadership Challenge

I almost forgot to mention Kouzes and Posner's The Leadership Challenge. Bob (the younger elder at church) has been after me to read secular books on leadership for some time now. Soooo, this one's for you, Bob!

The thing that makes this book hard to review is that it was good, but a little repititious. Part of what makes it good is that I've read so little on leadership that it's all new to me (until it becomes repititious).

Dr. Martyn wanted us to read it because of its insistence that a leader "challenge the system." The system that Dr. Martyn believes needs to be challenged is the idea that the church minister should simply be a chaplain. Chaplancy for too many souls can become a drain on the spiritual and physical life of anybody. This is the model that was held up in seminaries in the late-60s and early 70s. He believes it's been killing the mainline church, making it simply a caretaker of the sick (those aren't his words, i may be mis-characterizing him).

The book insists that a leader have integrity and competancy. The leader also needs to communicate his or her core values clearly and often, leading from the strength of that core.

The book insists that a leader have integrity and competancy. The leader also needs to communicate his or her core values clearly and often, leading from the strength of that core.

(did I mention it was sometimes repititious?)

All kidding aside, it's the kind of book that sparks ideas while it is being read. I had to keep a separate note pad for writing things I should start doing. Hopefully I'll be able to find that notepad even after we move back to Johnson City.

DM818 Spiritual Formation

It's time to meet Dr. Steve Martyn. I know, that was my reaction too when I first heard the name. Nobody in the class, though, has gone for the obvious "arrow through the head" or "The Jerk" jokes. I think we all know that he has heard more than his share of that stuff.

Dr. Martyn is a West Texas boy who now teaches spiritual formation at Asbury. He got his PhD at Dusquene in Pittsburgh. His hobbies include hiking, pottery, and orchids.This is Scott Layer (dark hair) sitting next to Jason McIntosh. They are from the Holston Conference of the Methodist Church, which means we might get to be friends even AFTER this year is over. I'm hoping that's the case.

The rest of the pictures below are just to give you a sense of how class looks. As you can tell, we reach times during the day when we aren't especially perky.

DM844 Preaching with Dr. Ellsworth Kalas

I took this picture as surreptitiously as I could (with my phone), and it makes Dr. Kalas look rather stern. I should receive a lower grade just for posting this picture. He is an amazingly gracious and genuine man. I could listen to him talk for hours (ohh, wait, I WILL listen to him talk for hours). We will be meeting twice a week for most of the year. It is in his class that I will be forced to hear the things all of you who hear me preach would love to tell me but are too nice to say (thanks, by the way, I kind of prefer it that way).

Maybe, if I do well in the class, I can talk him into preaching for us at Grandview. I'll just tell him we don't have any Methodist churches near us--never mind that I could walk to three without breaking a sweat.

The only thing bad about the class is that there are maintenance issues on campus right now that make the preaching chapel (where we meet) cold enough to hang meat. My core body temperature drops so low that I take notes by breathing on the desk and then writing in the mist.

The Workbook on the 7 Deadly Sins

I forgot to review this workbook that we had to do as a part of our Spiritual Formation class with Dr. Steve Martyn (I'll introduce him in my next blog). This workbook started off slow for me and I wasn't at all sure it was a good idea to spend our time on it. That was at the start.

By the end of the book I was really glad to receive the insights that I had gained into my own soul, into my own sin. If you are leading any small groups or studies at your church I would recommend considering this for an 8 week study.

I won't quote it to you. It will be best experienced at your own pace, in your own time.

Ropes Course (Last Saturday)

It's time for me to introduce you to Dr. Randy Jessen, the director of the Beeson Pastor program for Asbury. Dr. Jessen arrived in February. We are his first complete class. He spent much of his career in the United Methodist Church in Colorado. We're just getting to know him, but we've already found him to be welcoming and gracious. His wife, Sue, will be involved with the spouse portion of the program. They have (living with them) a daugther, Ana, whom they adopted from an Eastern European country when she was four or five years old. She has HIV and was not expected to live long. She is now in her late teens and a powerful part of their witness to the love of Christ.We went to a ropes course for team building and adventure last Saturday. I love those things. They are like a boyhood dream come true, climbing around in the trees, walking on beams high in the air, zipping down 300 foot zip lines. Aaahhhh! Great fun.
Here is my "leap of faith" from a platform to a hanging bar. We were 3000 feet in the air (okay, closer to 15 or 20, but you can't be sure from this picture).
Here is the lot of us . . . Shaker Town is just over the ridge behind us. This was at the end of a fun day. I know it's early in the program, but we're getting along great. I would name them all for you but I just finished my first paper and it's getting late. I'm going home! Good night.

Preaching from the Soul

This book is written by my new professor of preaching, Dr. Ellsworth Kalas. On the chance that he should read this blog I suppose I should be careful, but that won't be necessary. My first thoughts while reading this book were, "This would be a good book for beginners . . . I wish I was not in such need of this basic stuff."

One of the things I was hoping I would get in this program at Asbury was simple, straight-forward sermon helps. This book fits that bill well. Kalas (our first class with him was this morning) is fun to hear. He has a likability that allows him to make comments on the side, comments that make it clear that he is disappointed in a lot of the preaching he hears--without seeming bitter or angry.

He told us that this would be the last opportunity of our careers to receive honest critique of our preaching. He said he would be honest, but not brutal.

Back to the book . . . Kalas covers the nature of scripture, preaching, sermons, sermon titles, introductions, the meat of a sermon, conclusions, and how one delivers a sermon. This may sound a bit ambitious, but his style is quick, down to earth, and refreshing.

Here are some enjoyable quotes from the book:

• "As a teacher of preaching, I feel that one of my greatest challenges is to develop the gifts of students without diminishing their souls."
• "I have great regard for good theater. But the pulpit is not a performance; it is an incarnation."
• "I respect the importance of working, whenever possible, with the original biblical languages, but the issue here is not one's skill with Greek and Hebrew; it is one's willingness to sit patiently before a passage, turn it from side to side, imagine it from varieties of human experience, and to love it passionately."
• "The secret is to go deeper, not broader. Thrust yourself into the very blood and sinew of the passage."
• "I've found the subconscious mind to be one of my best allies. I consider it particularly hospitable to the work of the Holy Spirit. But the subconscious can't be expected to work ex nihilo. We must give it some soil in which the soul can germinate."
• "[Sara Lowery and Gertrude E. Johnson] taught that a great voice depended, first, on an adequate instrument, and second, upon a magnetic personality. And what makes a magnetic personality? 'Kindness, tolerance, appreciation, and unselfish interest in others.'"
• "Sometimes even the preacher forgets [his or her] sermon after a week or two; this darling child, about which any criticism once seemed a mortal blow is, in ten days, homiletical dust."

I will be telling you more about Dr. Kalas in future blogs. I can tell there will be some moments of "ouch" in this class, but I'll just have to remind myself that I didn't uproot the family and move to Wilmore in order to be affirmed. I came to get better.

Broken Worlds

Rebuilding Your Broken World, by Gordon MacDonald is my latest book completed. MacDonald writes from the perspective of having been a well-known preacher whose world fell apart after marital infidelity. The danger of a book like this is that it could easily have become prurient and self-involved. MacDonald deserves kudos for focusing instead on the larger issue of what to do when our poor--sinful, evil--choices have caused our world to implode around us. He was able to let us know a little about what happened without parading his personal life before us.

Without covering the whole book, my favorite chapter was 15, where MacDonald shares principles for how to live once the "broken-world" person has been restored. I'll list them:

• Listen to the deep things: Be still, be silent! He adds, "How insignificant in God's eyes is the applause that comes with organizational leadership and public recognition. How relatively empty the overly busy life no matter how good the goals and objectives."
• Receive the Mercy: Live Like A Forgiven Person: "Don't be defensive; keep your fists unclenched. Serve every chance you get. Keep your new acquisitions to a minimum. Be quick to pray with others. Watch for addictions to busyness and excitement."
• Don't Dodge the Pain; Walk Right Through It
• Look for Those Who Need Grace and Aren't Getting It
• Join with Those Who Know How to Praise God
• Look for New Themes

There are some good nuggets in this book. It's probably a bit longer than it needs to be but if you've been through a "broken world" experience, if someone you love is in (or on the brink of) a broken world experience, or if you are flirting with making the kinds of decisions that could unravel your witness for Christ; then I would recommend this book.

We are one TIGHT community

Yesterday we trained on our new laptop computers. After two days of training, they are now turning us loose. Today we met with the counseling professor to go over our DISC profiles and another tool they used to evaluate us. My tools revealed what I already knew, but drove it home with new force. Painful day. We were all kind of stung, I think. And so . . .
. . . we had a picnic. This was put together by Nolan and his wife (for two weeks now), Susanna. He tabbed it "Grill-a-polloza". It was another chance to get to know our new neighbors. Good folks. It turns out that Rebecca (one of the wives) used to work with my sister, Marjorie, in Indiana. Pretty cool!

But, good times come to an end. The girls are going to bed and I've got to get work on this preaching book. Good night!

You Only Have to Die: Leading Your Congregation to New LIfe

James A. Harnish (who may be coming to speak to us during our Beeson year) writes about his ministry with Hyde Park United Methodist Church in the Tampa area. This is a downtown church with a proud past, but that was decline when he was called to serve there.

Using the language of Congregational Cardiomyopathy (he has had two bouts with cardiomyopathy) he leads us through the process of this church finding renewal. Toggling back and forth between his own physical health and the health of the church (it gets a little annoying at times), he calls the church to be willing to change. I appreciate that the change for which he calls is to be rooted in the mission of the church and the gifts and traditions of the church. He isn't the kind who wants to throw out the baby with the font water and start a mini-mega-church.

He correctly states that, "As long as a congregation's mission is vague or undefined, people can get along pretty well by pretending the church is what they believe it to be."

He states that the process of defining the vision of the church "had to emerge through the existing sturctures of the congregation. It could not be something I imposed from without; it had to be the congregation's thing, emerging from our life together, growing out of the long history and spiritual tradition of the congregation."

The vision statement they wrote has many similarities to our own at Grandview, though I won't reproduce it here. The more impressive document was the one that followed the vision statement. It was specific in nature, labeling actions the church planned to take. It helped to keep them focused as they learned to say "no" to some good ministries.

Harnish also shared the story of the French military in the days leading up to WWI. The French Minister of War recommended that they change their uniforms from bright red caps and red trousers to gray-blue or gray-green. The nation protested. One retired military leader declared in a hearing, "Eliminate the red trousers? Never! Le pantalon rouge c'est la France!" One newspaper declared that trading "all that is colorful, all that gives the soldier his vivid aspect" for some muddy, inglorious color, was "contrary both to French taste and military function."

The change was voted down and French soldiers wound up being slaughtered on the Western front by the field-grey wearing Germans who were able to hide in the mud and spot the red-clad French. All this because the government had lost sight of the true mission of the army . . . the army that was never meant to be on a Paris runway.

Harnish goes on to ask: "What are the 'red trousers' in your congregation? What might be the consequences of your loyalty to them? Where do you experience tension between tradition and change, taste and function, mission and method; between something old and something new?"

This is an excellent book. It takes a little while to get going, but once you get past the first couple of chapters, it's worth the read.

Happy 4th!

We went with our neighbors to the Wilmore 4th of July parade today. From left to right in the 1st picture is: Hannah, Cora, Anna, and Meghan.
We all lined Main Street and waited for the parade to begin.

Soon the bells and whistles and lights and sirens were impressing the young ones!

I was impresed, though, by the synchronized lawn mowers--all powered by college and seminary professors.
Cora wore my goofy hat (it looks much better on her) while we ate 15 cent hot dogs.
Then we got free rides on the horses!


Cora was in a spelling bee, which was an interesting experience (Cora is in the maroon shirt). The lady leading the spelling bee asked one kid to spell "dirt." Because he is one of the Beeson kids who just moved here from Ohio, he thought she said "dart." She gave it to him. Cora lost on the word "construct." She thought the lady said "stuck." Cora tears followed . . . I predicted a) a win, or b) tears. I'm quite a prophet.

We had a good time. Tonight is a Beeson cookout at the dean Jesson's house. Tomorrow we go back to orientation (we get our new computers!).

I have been reading my books and I'll report on those soon. It may not look like it, but I've been able to squeeze a lot of work in already. Our first class (for which we were given 2000 pages of reading), is suddenly our SECOND class. Before it starts on Wednesday of next week, we have two days of a preaching class on Monday and Tuesday of next week. I have one book I didn't anticipate needing to read before next week (and two less days to read the other books). It's all doable . . . I'll just have to be careful to blog less and read more!