December 31, 2008 by iMonk
Well 2008, here we are. The dance is almost over and it’s very nearly time for you to go.
We’ve been together for 12 months now, and there’s something I want to say before we go our separate ways. Something special, just for you.
2008…..I know you’re just a way of marking time, and I know there’s nothing all that personal between us. You didn’t know what the year was going to be like. It was as big a surprise to you as it was to me. The writing from day to day wasn’t there when we first met. It unfolded, a day at a time, for you just like it did for me.
But there is something I want to say, and I’m searching for the right words. [Continue reading]
July 20, 2008 by iMonk
Back in the day, many of you counted on me to write about my personal journey. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, almost all of that kind of material has gone into storage or been deleted. Hopefully, this piece will recalibrate us all on the journey, but not cause quite the chaos in my environment as before.
Many of you know the start of this story, but you may find some new things in the retelling.
In April of 06, I felt God instructing me to resign from the church I was serving. It was the church our family called home for a decade. I’d served them for 12 years. I had no idea that it was the end of almost any sense of spiritual “home” at all, and the beginning of a season of much change.
In May of that year, my son left home for college. In June, my daughter married. A few weeks later she would move to another state and temporarily quit college. (She’s graduating OSU in a few days, and I am very, very proud. But at the time, it was tough.) [Continue reading]
July 13, 2008 by iMonk
It’s 2:18 p.m. on Sunday, July 13th. The Reds are playing the Brewers. Denise and the dog are catching a nap. I’m getting ready to grill chicken tonight. Looks like it might rain.
Tomorrow, my eight weeks of sabbatical are over.
Tomorrow I’ll check my voice mail for the first time in eight weeks. I hate voice mail. (Fellow employees reading this- please send me an email, not a voice mail.) [Continue reading]
July 7, 2008 by iMonk
Technically my sabbatical isn’t over for another week, and I won’t be working for several more weeks, but I am eager to start writing some of my reflections on this time in my life.
On the last day of Cornerstone, as I finished my last seminar on “Transparency and Vulnerability In Community,” a woman was waiting to talk to me with several other questioners. I spoke with each one, and then came to her.
She began talking about her husband and, to be brief and to the point, she was basically talking about me.
His church and ministry experiences, his feelings and responses, what he was doing to cope….it was all very familiar.
She was deeply concerned for him, and wanted to know what to do. [Continue reading]
June 17, 2008 by iMonk
I’m on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois at the Ravi Zacharias Summer Institute. Outstanding conference. I am especially enjoying the teaching of Dr. Chris Mitchell doing an overview of the entire Bible.
Our sessions have all been in the massive Billy Graham Center. Part of this building is a Graham Museum, which is very interesting. [Continue reading]
June 10, 2008 by iMonk
I got a letter yesterday that asked how my chaplaincy training was going, which was a nice thing to ask, except I’m not in chaplaincy training or any other kind of training. I added this to my collection of communications telling me that I am resigning my job, joining the Roman Catholic Church and so on.
When I had sabbatical orientation, they told all of us that this sort of thing would happen. No matter how well you communicated what you were doing on your sabbatical, well-meaning (and otherwise motivated) people would make up all kinds of fiction to explain your absence.
So in order to help those of you who are reading this web page and drawing highly fictional conclusions about what’s going on in my life, I have decided to help you put together something that will, at least, be moderately interesting. [Continue reading]
May 31, 2008 by iMonk
Home is an interesting concept.
I have a “home” in western Kentucky, but I feel like a stranger there. I enjoyed visiting this week, but I really am like a man from another time and place.
I have a “home” in eastern Kentucky, but it’s very fragile. A few bumps in the road and difficulties, and I’m feeling “homeless.”
I have a home with my family, but with the kids gone, it’s a changed place, too. With recent changes in the spiritual directions Denise and I are traveling, it feels different as well. [Continue reading]
May 22, 2008 by iMonk
I’m completing my first week of sabbatical here in lovely Louisville, Kentucky. I want to thank all of you who made suggestions of things to do. I’ve visited many places that you recommended.
I’ve stayed at the Legacy Center on the Campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Accommodations are outstanding. Great bookstore, coffee shop, cafeteria, library and health center all right here on campus. [Continue reading]
May 11, 2008 by iMonk
Sabbatical begins a week from tomorrow. Here are some of my goals. (Goals will vary from week to week depending on where I am. Some weeks- like my week at Wheaton- most of my time is scheduled.)
1. Prayer from Celebrating Common Prayer in the morning and the evening.
2. Extended Scripture reading with meditation and notes, probably on Matthew.
3. Reading on my reading list (Jesus books mostly.)
4. Daily Exercise
5. Discipline my eating regiment at breakfast and lunch.
6. Reading poetry each day: Dante, Charles Wright, Wendell Berry. [Continue reading]
May 9, 2008 by iMonk
Sabbatical begins in 9 days. I’ll be spending May 19-23 in Louisville (and some more time later in the summer.)
I know most of Louisville pretty well, but I’m always looking for something new and different to do.
Do you know of anything unusual in Louisville I should check out? Coffee shops (with or without wireless)? Good eateries (not too expensive)? Used book stores? Churches with worship during the weekdays? Interesting places? Shops? Libraries? Local baseball games? (The Bats aren’t in town.)
I’ll be staying at Southern Seminary, and I’m open for any breakfast/lunch suggestions. I plan to work in the mornings and early afternoon, then kick back a bit. I have plans most evenings.
Experts on Louisville, speak up!
February 20, 2008 by iMonk
I’m back home from sabbatical orientation and my three days with Eugene Peterson. Thank you Louisville Institute for your investment in my life and your incredible graciousness for these three days.
Last night, Peterson talked about his own sabbatical experiences, which took place 23 years into his pastorate. He took off an entire year, wrote 3.5 books and learned many important lessons for the rest of his ministry. This was a helpful talk for pastors, but I’m not going to comment on it very much here. (One interesting thing. For his sabbatical reading, he read the Septuagint, and said he was shocked at what a loose translation it was as compared to the original Hebrew. Much more like “The Message.” Says he can’t understand how the literalists in translation studies miss this.)
This morning, however, David Woods read us more from the “emerging” fifth book in Peterson’s current series, a book that is devoted to the church and to understanding the church by way of the book of Ephesians. After framing the direction for the talk, he introduced Eugene Peterson for his last talk. I took many pages of notes and I’ll share just a few of them here, including one-liners without context, so don’t blame Peterson if I leave the wrong impression. [Continue reading]
February 19, 2008 by iMonk
It’s am amazing privilege to spent this time with the man who has been a spiritual director in absentia to so many of us. Based on what I’m hearing in this sessions, Peterson’s next two books should be real expressions of his heart. No one anywhere has a more encouraging message on the possibilities within any church for being God’s people.
Eugene Peterson was back leading our seminar this morning, and a night’s rest put him back on his game.
He spoke from some of the material in his upcoming book Tell It Slant, which is about the language of Jesus in Luke’s parables. He divided all pastoral-ministry language into the kerygmatic, the didactic and the pericletic. It was this third kind of language he was most interested in today.
Pericletic language is hard to define. It is not the announcement and pronouncement of the preacher and it is not the systematic teaching of the teacher. It is the language of the “between.” It is the place that words are formed and we meet God in the empty place between the angels at the ark. It is the language of coming alongside. It is the language of conversation, not the delivery of content. It is primal language, the domain of children and the old. Peterson is fascinated by the connection between breath, Spirit and words in scripture. [Continue reading]
February 18, 2008 by iMonk
UPDATED: I’m sortof liveblogging the Eugene Peterson/David Wood sessions.
My first step in my sabbatical is a three day orientation here on the campus of the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. Denise and I are staying in Laws Lodge and we will be hearing Eugene Peterson later tonight.
This is all a very different world for me than my home in Eastern Kentucky, but this is a gift God is giving me as well. We intend to enjoy it.
I’ll add some reflections to this post as we go along through each session. [Continue reading]
