August 27, 2008
On Monday, I start my new position as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at Asbury United Methodist Church. I’m excited, and also a little nervous about getting back into ministry. I know I’ve grown a lot and learned a ton since I was last doing youth ministry, but I’m still a little overwhelmed by the responsibility and privilege that comes with working with students.
Obviously, one of the first things I want to do is just start getting to know the students, the volunteer leaders and the church community. But other than that, I’m really just beginning now to think about “What do I want to do first…?” I’ve been told by numerous people to “blow up the program” and start from scratch. But, we all know how well that eventually works out in a church setting. And one of the rules I was always taught in seminary was to make very small, minor changes and do that very slowly. So, it will be my challenge to negotiate those two lines and figure out what I think should be blown up and what is important to keep.
For those of you who are in ministry right now (particularly youth/young adult ministry), what are the things that you would do in your first month of ministry? What is the first thing you’d do? Obviously, relationships are key - and beginning to develop those. But, what are the important first things to do as I begin? When I first started youth ministry in Idaho four years ago, the first thing I did was pick a name for the youth group and made t-shirts. I’m guessing that’s not the most important thing to do - so…what would you do?
Tags: Getting Started, Ministry, Starting Right, Youth Ministry
Posted in Ministry, Youth Ministry | 
16 Comments »
August 26, 2008
I have great hope for the Presbyterian Church (USA). Why, you ask? Is it because Bruce Reyes-Chow is our current moderator? Nope. I mean, that’s great, but - that doesn’t truly give me hope. Is it because Presbymergent is helping church leaders around the United States think creatively about the future of the church? Nope. That is exciting, but it’s not truly giving me hope for the PC(USA).
So, why am I hopeful for the PC(USA)?
Because Jeffrey Zeldman and the creative team of Happy Cog will be redesigning the PC(USA) website before the next GA in 2010. There isn’t an official announcement on the PC(USA) site but I spoke with someone on the PC(USA) web-team and it’s official. So, Bruce will probably help the denomination, and Presbymergent can help, but…perhaps Happy Cog will be the true savior of our denomination.
Tags: Design, Happy Cog, Jeffrey Zeldman, PC(USA), Presbyterian, Web-Design
Posted in Design, PC(USA) | 5 Comments »
August 25, 2008
I just finished giving a keynote presentation at the Midwest Regional Conference for the Presbyterian Communicators Network. I think that I’ll be able to get a video of my presentation up on YouTube soon, and I will try to get a copy of the presentation (in PDF) up as well, but until then, here are a few links that I promised I would have up on this site:
Tags: Blogging, faith, Ministry, new media, social media, Technology, Web-2.0
Posted in Ministry, PC(USA), Technology | No Comments »
August 21, 2008
The Rules
- In about 25 words each, answer the following five questions.
- Tag five presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged.
- Be sure to link to this original post.
- Leave a comment or send a trackback to this post so others can find you.
1) What is your favorite faith-based hymn, song or chorus?
To say that I’m a sucker for Irish ballads and hymns that could also double as drinking-songs is an understatement. So, currently I think my favorite faith-based him would be “The Canticle of the Turning” (you can hear the tune here). It’s got a great melody and some wonderful lyrics about looking toward the future of the kingdom of God and being aware that “the world is about to turn.”
2) What was the context, content and/or topic of the last sermon that truly touched, convicted, inspired, challenged, comforted and/or otherwise moved you?
Well, this summer it’s just been Sarah and I preaching, and while I think we’ve both done a good job there, I can’t remember much from either of our sermons. Last week we did hear a very good sermon by Will Scott, an Associate Pastor at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. You can listen to it here. The sermon was on the persistent Canaanite woman and her ability to show Jesus how to live up to the kingdom that he was proclaiming. My favorite line from the sermon was “even Jesus needs a little help.”
3) If you could have all Presbyterians read just one of your previous posts, what would it be and why?
I’m bad at picking just ONE post, and I really wasn’t sure which one to put here. But these are a few that address some issues that we need to be thinking about. The first is “Fencing in the Table” (with a similar one entitled “Epiclesis Necessitates Open Table“) ad the second is entitled “Can Presbyterians Be Co-Creators?”
4) What are three PC(USA) flavored blogs you read on a regular basis?
- A Wee Blether by Adam Copeland: a good friend from my days at Columbia Seminary and he’s got a great blog (he’s even a CC Blogger!)
- Serendipity by Sarah Walker Cleaveland: she’s my wife. And when she does blog, it’s great. But…don’t hold your breath (but do add her to your RSS feed - you won’t be disappointed).
- Presbymergent by so many cool Presbyterian folk.
5) If the PC(USA) were a movie, what would it be and why?
Bruce(!), I’m really bad at these types of questions. My answer for the “If the PC(USA) were an animal…” was totally unoriginal, so I don’t have much hope for my answer on this one. So I guess I’ll open this one up to readers here - what do you think?
Tagged: Erin Dunigan, BJ Woodworth, Matt Knapp, Don Coleman and Jessica Patchett Anderson.
Tags: Blogs, Church, Meme, PC(USA), Presbyterian, Theology, Web-2.0
Posted in Ministry, PC(USA) | 1 Comment »
August 21, 2008
I’ve had the chance to preach three times this summer at The Macrina Community, which Sarah and I have been leading throughout the summer. It’s been an interesting experience, preaching to such an intimate and small community (the first time I preached, there were 2 people; this last time there were 4). When I was writing the first sermon, I sat down and took care of it the good ‘ole Princeton way - manuscript style: thought through what I wanted to say, typed it up, had my manuscript with me and preached from it. To two people.
So, that was probably more my fault than Princeton’s (using a manuscript while preaching to two people) - but I’m not the first to think that perhaps taking preaching courses at Princeton Seminary messed up my ability to preach. It’s not like I was the world’s best preacher before going to Princeton, but I felt very comfortable in front of a church, working off an outline, engaging in a more conversational style of preaching. After just one year of preaching at Princeton, I felt like I was 100% stuck to the manuscript. I’d type it up, and then try to preach a more conversational sermon, and it just didn’t work.
So, like others I’m sure, after a preaching course and post-seminary, I think I’m (re)learning how to preach and perhaps figuring out what style works well for me right now. The past two times I’ve preached at Macrina - it’s gone very well. What I’ve been doing is to start out by sitting down with the text, thinking about where I want to go with it, and then begin by typing out a stream-of-consciousness style of manuscript. It’s normally about 4 pages single-spaced.
Then I sit with that for a day or two - make edits to it - read it through a few times. The day before I’m going to preach, I’ll sit down with the manuscript and make a rough outline based off of the manuscript. Then by the time I’m actually preaching, I find that I’m not even really reading the outline, but I have it there as a “safety” in case I get stuck or need to remember the direction I wanted to go. I’m sure this is nothing life-changing for any of you who have been preaching for years(!), but it’s simply what I’ve been doing recently and find that it’s working very well for me.
What is your process for preaching? And did anyone else have to (re)learn preaching after graduating from seminary?
Tags: Episcopal, Macrina, Preaching, Princeton-Seminary
Posted in Ministry | 18 Comments »
August 17, 2008
So, I gave it a shot. This is Sarah and I at the right. I’ve seen everyone on Facebook/Twitter trying to make these Manga faces. I first saw them on April’s blog here (she’s very good at them!) and then today decided to give them a shot.
I’m not sure that I did a great job, but it was fun. However, I think that someone could probably do a better job. So, here’s a fun little contest. All you have to do is make a Manga face of me and Sarah (you can find some photos here or at Flickr - but keep in mind Sarah has curly hair now). You can make the manga faces here. Whoever makes the closest one - or the one we enjoy the most - will get the following books:
The contest will run through midnight on Wednesday.
UPDATE: We’ve received one entry and….it’s pretty good. Just so you all know. So, if you want these books, I’d get cracking if I were you…
Tags: Contests, Manga
Posted in General | 1 Comment »
August 13, 2008
I was reading Neal Locke’s blog a few weeks ago, and he wrote about how his son asked him, “Daddy, is Jesus God?” He wasn’t sure whether to just give him the “easy Christian answer” or to engage in a theological discussion with his three year old. He chose somewhere in the middle and engaged in a conversation with his son about why he asked that question and asked him what he thought. Reading the post made me think about God and our knowledge of God. We really are so limited in our ability to make statements “about” God, one might wonder if we can really make any at all?
One of my favorite books is “How (Not) to Speak of God” by Peter Rollins. Rollins’s book focuses on the emerging church conversation, and gives both a philosophical and theological background for why this movement is so important in today’s religious landscape. In his book, Rollins reflects on our ability to speak about God. He has a great section that I wanted to share with you briefly:
“For the mystic, God was neither an unspeakable secret to be passed over in silence, nor a dissipated secret that had been laid bare in revelation. Rather, the mystic approached God as a secret which one was compelled to share, yet which retained its secrecy. The union can be articulated like this: That which we cannot speak of is the one thing about whom and to whom we must never stop speaking.”
I love this paradoxical idea of God being “that which we cannot speak of” and yet, that doesn’t mean that we never speak to God or speak about God. Just as my friend - though certainly not knowing everything of God - was still able to have a conversation with his three year old, so too can we speak to God and not be ashamed to speak of the things we do know of God. This doesn’t mean that we know everything of God - surely not! Yet, we live in the tension of both being humble about our knowledge of God and desiring to share with others our experience of God.
Tags: mysticism, Pete-Rollins, Theology
Posted in Theology | 5 Comments »
August 12, 2008
I am embarrassed for admitting this, but I’m having the hardest time figuring out how I want to set up my email on my iPhone. I went through and set up IMAP on my Apple Mai land iPhone last night, and it was just being a huge pain, was trying to download stuff all night long, and still wasn’t working right this morning - kept disconnecting, and I’m not sure what else…so I switched back to POP email this morning with my Gmail.
I would love any advice for what I need to do to make my iPhone email experience a good one. As you can see from above, I love my folders. And many of those folders have sub-folders, with folders in them as well. It’s how I like to stay organized. But if I switch to IMAP, then it seems like I have to re-create all those within Gmail (although they’ll be labels) and I’m just not sure how I want to organize everything.
At any rate, I know everyone tells me that IMAP is the way to go and how I should be doing my email, but it didn’t seem to work too well last night and seemed to make my Apple Mail (where I spend most of my time with email) more chaotic and confusing than it needed to be. But I also want to be able to use my iPhone in the most efficient way, and I’m guessing with POP, I will be able to access all of my email with it, and then when I come home, it’ll all just get downloaded to my computer again, and I’ll have to go through and delete and sort…which is okay - but seems like there would be a more efficient way to do email. I, for some reason or another, just can’t seem to figure it out.
Tags: Email, Gmail, IMAP, iPhone, POP
Posted in Technology | 5 Comments »
August 8, 2008
I put in my two weeks notice today at Apple. As much as I’d like to be working at the Apple Store and sharing about the products that I use every day and love, I’m also looking forward to being able to put to use my years of education and ministry experience.
Starting September 1st, I’ll begin my position at Asbury United Methodist Church in Livermore, CA as Minister for Youth & Young Adults. My primary responsibilities - as I understand them - will be to work with the junior high and high school youth ministry (I’ve been given permission to “blow the thing apart” and start new), help coordinate fellowship activities for young adults (18-35), do some creative alternative worship and help assist with with other pastoral duties when necessary (preaching, sacraments, pastoral care, visitation, etc).
We’ve been meeting more and more people from the church, and learning more about the worship and community life at Asbury UMC. They are a very musical church, and are actually putting on a production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at the end of September (they’re also trying to get me to play the role of Perchik). There is also the possibility that I could be ordained into this position, as long as the appropriate Presbyterian and Methodist folk are equally excited about the possibility.
Sarah and I will also be moving out to Livermore in a month or so - I’ll put up photos of the place as soon as things are finalized, but most likely we’ll be moving to a house (a “duet” actually - similar to a duplex) - similar square footage as our apartment right now, but it feels like a home, has a washer and dryer, a HUGE nicely landscaped backyard and a finished garage that can be used for a study, den, hang out space…lots of possibilities. Livermore is about 36 miles south east of Berkeley, so this means Sarah will be commuting, but she doesn’t have to go in every day, and Livermore is about 10 degrees warmer than Oakland (which Sarah is really looking forward to), so there are some things we’re really looking forward to. The house we’re looking at is in a nice neighborhood, near a park, about 1 mile from downtown and close to Livermore’s 40 wineries!
Anyway - that’s the news. I have a job. I’m looking forward to seeing how this job will affect pomomusings, as I will hope to be blogging more about youth ministry and theology (as I give myself some time to set aside for reading and continuing growth and learning). We’d appreciate your prayers as we enter this time of transition and moving, and as I prep for starting this ministry position, and Sarah gets ready to start her PhD program.
Tags: Job, Methodists, Ministry, United Methodist Church
Posted in General, Ministry | 26 Comments »
August 7, 2008
This summer, I have a couple jobs. I’m working on some Cleave Design projects, co-leading the Macrina Community with Sarah and putting in around 30 hrs/wk at the Apple Store. For those of you who know me, this is a pretty sweet job for me. I got my first Mac about 4 years ago when I bought a 12″ PowerBook. I was excited but a little skeptical about it - being that it was my first Apple product, and I had grown up in a family where we used Gateway 2000 and DELL computers. But it took hardly no time at all before I was in love with the computer, and became a full-fledged Mac-evangelist.
My friends at seminary used to joke with me that I “converted” more people from PC to Mac, than I did people to Christianity.
So, for about 30 hours each week, I’m a salesman. We use different language at Apple though, so my job title is officially Specialist. But still - I’m trying to sell MacBooks, iMacs, iPods and iPhones. However, there is a big difference that sets the Apple Stores apart from other retail stores, and especially other types of sales people - we don’t get commission. Some people are shocked when we tell them that - they expect that we’re making money off the sales, just like so many others who do similar work.
But that’s the difference. For the most part, we aren’t “trying” to sell anything to anyone. I personally love Apple - I love my MacBook, my iPod and I especially love playing with the new iPhone I bought Sarah. And I love telling people about why I love these products - but there is no pressure. I’m okay if they don’t want to get one today. It’s fine with me if they just want to speak with someone else, someone who might be more able to understand their perspective. And if, in the end, they just don’t want an Apple product, I respect that and trust that they are making the right decision.
Sometimes I wonder if Christians try to sell Jesus and Christianity too hard. Sometimes I wonder if we should even “try” to sell Jesus. If people have spiritual questions, I’m more than willing to tell them why I have chosen the path I’m on and what circumstances and decisions have brought me to this place, but I’m not going to try and force anything on them. It’s not like we’re working on commission or anything. Jesus never said “Go out and convert people!” Jesus did command us to share the good news - and one way we can do that is by witnessing to the ways in which we’ve experienced God. We’re certainly not called to be “sales people” for Jesus - and while we may not be Specialists in many things, we do know about our own experiences and life, and that is what we can share with others.
Tags: Apple, Computers, Evangelism, iPhone, Jesus, sales
Posted in Theology | 18 Comments »
Adam Walker Cleaveland: I am a 28 yr old 
