Archive | February, 2008

Dude Week

18 Feb

This week the men in my building, Samuel Morris hall will be participating in Dude Week.

No, its not about being misogynistic or homoerotic, but a week in which we help each other seek God and enjoy living together in relative simplicity.  Most of the men in the hall are engaging in spiritual disciplines at a more intense level starting at midnight on Sunday through chapel on Friday.  
We ask close friends to encourage us and return the favor.
The idea started when Justin Heth noticed that some of the best times around the hall are when the power goes out and guys chill in the hall.  It has become much more.
This year we are joined by a men’s hall at Bethel College, who is doing something similar during this week.
As part of my participation I will not be blogging (reading or writing).
Please pray.  

DUDE WEEK

Schedule of Events

 

SUNDAY NIGHT KICKOFF

-         Pancakes in the main lounge from 8-9pm

-         Jim Spiegel speaking on Spiritual Disciplines on Sammy II at 9pm

 

MONDAY NIGHT – MORRIS OLYMPICS

          13 Events Planned and the winning floor gets Root Beer Floats.

SIGN UP FOR THE OLYMPICS WITH YOUR PAS

          Crazy’s Apartment        – Scene It Competition @ 8:45pm

                                                – Dessert Bakeoff – Entries in by 10pm

Basement         - Corn Hole Bean Bag Toss @ 10:00 pm

       – Carpetball starts @ 9:30pm     – Billiards Competition @ 8:30pm

Foundation     - Foosball Tourney @ 9:00pm   – Washers @ 10:00pm

                        – Nerf Gun Dueling @ 9:15pm

Sammy II         - Euchre Tourney @ 9:00pm     – Bible Trivia @ 9:30pm

Brotherhood       – 4 Square Tourney @ 9:15pm

Penthouse                    – Ping Pong @ 9:30pm

Front of Morris   – Nalgene Toss @ 9:45pm

 

Sign up to win Crazy’s Parking Spot for the month of March @ the Front Desk!!!

Sign up by Friday Night at 1am!  One entry per person!

Winner will be announced through a hall email!

 

TUESDAY NIGHT – All Hall Dodgeball Game

                9:30-11pm in the Odle Gym

 

WEDNESDAY NIGHT –Power Outage Night-3pm-3am – power will be shut off at 3pm

-        Enjoy the Community of your floors

-        Taylor Basketball Plays at home at 7pm against Spring Arbor

= remember if you want to save food in your fridge bring it to the front desk with your name on it.

= if you want a wake-up call on Thursday morning come and write your name down at the front desk and the time you want woken up.

= let me know if you need your power on for a certain reason

                                      

THURSDAY NIGHT – WORSHIP NIGHT/DEBRIEF

9PM in the basement.  We will also spend some time singing and reflecting back on what was learned from the week.

 

Goals of Dude Week

1.     To devote the week to intentionally fellowshipping together.

2.     To grow spiritually and develop some spiritual disciplines.

3.     For all of us to agree to voluntarily deny ourselves something we usually partake in for the week.

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Don’t Read This

17 Feb
Sorry, in advance.  Constipation of thoughts recently.  
My task this week is to write a section of my Philosophy of Ministry paper that explains the Ultimate Purpose.  I know God, so I guess I can presume that there is a purpose.
I have heard Ultimate Purpose expressed in a variety of ways, and have written a similar paper previously.  Instead of simply ripping that idea off, I decided to poke around the thought world to see what the Tradition had to offer.  Brian McLaren‘s mentions the Eastern Orthodox view that that Christ’s coming to earth was a way of allowing creation to join in the perfect dance of the trinity.
I googled “Ultimate Purpose Trinity”.  It didn’t take long until I was bored of reading the debates between wether or not to call Jesus a “person”, “expression” or “distinctinve/indistinctive essence”.  I found a blog post that link to another, and another that had a cool name.

I read about how the author was shutting down the blog.  I also read some of the posts, mostly because some people are getting hurt.  The blog is re-opened and looks about the same.  My thought is: with things like this on the site, how do you expect people not to respond in a way that hurts someone, even if they are brothers in the faith?
Switch gears to the laundry room in Morris Hall last night.  My dear friend Christian Leman and I were about an hour into a discussion about what the Gospel means.  One of my guys from the floor comes down to hear the end of me ranting about about how debates in theology can be divisive, and how they can become “essential” rather than “important”.
Christian left while his clothes were in the dryer, and the other friend said to me, “I really didn’t expect to hear you say something like that.”
A little aback I said “What do you mean?”
He said, “I just think of you as kind of person who likes to think about all that stuff”
It strikes me that I would be the person that is perceived to place thought above love.  
            You are burning to know what I think is essential.
  LOVE GOD, LOVE ALL PEOPLE.

Eschatology and Missing Carol

11 Feb

It is lent again, which means that my mind should be focused on the life and passion of Jesus.

But, I miss Carol.
Rob Bell in “Sex God” talks about how the cup of the New Covenant that Jesus offers in the Upper Room could possibly be interpreted as having very strong ties to language used in traditional Jewish wedding proposals. I could look it up, but I like this thought.
Jesus and Paul both refer to bride / groom imagery. Jesus even says that there are many mansions (again, Bell says, a marriage reference).
So Jesus offers himself and his Father to the world, and then he has to leave, with a promise to return and meet his bride, the Church.
Carol is my fiance, and she is studying in Costa Rica this semester. We have had several periods during our relationship when we have lived in different places (Kentucky /Indiana, Mexico/Indiana) with varying amounts of communication. This has been the hardest time so far.
Christ must miss the Church, want to see her do well, and cannot wait until the time may come when they may be one.
Miss you, Babe.

Eschatology and Missing Carol

10 Feb

It is lent again, which means that my mind should be focused on the life and passion of Jesus.

But, I miss Carol.
Rob Bell in “Sex God” talks about how the cup of the New Covenant that Jesus offers in the Upper Room could possibly be interpreted as having very strong ties to language used in traditional Jewish wedding proposals. I could look it up, but I like this thought.
Jesus and Paul both refer to bride / groom imagery. Jesus even says that there are many mansions (again, Bell says, a marriage reference).
So Jesus offers himself and his Father to the world, and then he has to leave, with a promise to return and meet his bride, the Church.
Carol is my fiance, and she is studying in Costa Rica this semester. We have had several periods during our relationship when we have lived in different places (Kentucky /Indiana, Mexico/Indiana) with varying amounts of communication. This has been the hardest time so far.
Christ must miss the Church, want to see her do well, and cannot wait until the time may come when they may be one.
Miss you, Babe.

Jesus Votes on His Face

3 Feb

    I have heard the joke made about how certain groups do everything on one side or the other.  Two examples would be that 1)Episcopalians eat, drink, lecture about tolerance, serve soup, and sleep on their left side,  and 2) that most Southern Baptists eat, drink(well…scratch that one), preach about personal sin, hand out tracts, and boycott Disney on their right side.

      Jesus didn’t do much sleeping when He was here.  
I am starting to realize that getting comfortable either on the left or the right is a bad move.  St. Paul  taught the early followers of Christ that they should take on His attitude of humility.  Philippians 2 sums up in this:  Jesus gave up being God to be a man who died.  He humbled Himself.
Jesus Christ had one agenda, THE WILL OF THE FATHER.  And since it involved redeeming all things, had to involve the political. He chose to be one His face in loving obedience to the Father instead of laying on one side or the other.
The prayer of St. Francis leads us closer to that:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

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