Thoughts on the Possibility of Pastoring, part 2

Charles Spurgeon, in his Lectures to My Students, lists four main evaluators of what he deems “the heavenly call” to the pastorate. Walking through each of these, I am encouraged that, if I have perhaps rightly heard his voice, God has been and may be calling me to the pastorate:
“The first sign of the heavenly [...]

Thoughts on the Possibility of Pastoring, part 1

(Below is the first of three posts pulled from a recent paper for my Pastoral Theology class. As I continue to think/pray through the possibility of pastoring, I’d like to let you in on some of the process. Quotes are from Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students.)
“It is a fearful calamity to a man to [...]

Yep, We Were There

Megan and I got invited to our first Cubs/Cards game on Sunday night (thanks, Ted and Jill). In case you missed it, the Cards pulled a win out in the bottom of the ninth inning with Gary Bennett’s walk-off grand slam (his second in a week). The place went nuts. And so did we.

Nation of Israel (in a Semester)

As promised (and after way too much time spent on it – i.e. since the end of July), here’s the plan for the fall Bible class I’m teaching at Wildwood Christian School. The class begins this afternoon. If you’ve got nothing better to do the next four months, why not study along with us?
Objectives
The intent [...]

Endless Playback

A mentor of mine, Scott, once shared with me how he tries to keep from grumbling as he goes through life. In his early 60’s and yet to really come into the digital age, Scott says he imagines his mind as a kind of reel-to-reel tape recorder, with his thoughts and conversations with God and [...]

I Hate To Say “I Told You So…”

…so I won’t. Instead, I’ll let the guy at Viva El Birdos do it for me, as I’ve been saying this about the Redbirds all summer long (talk to Megan to verify – she’s tired of hearing it by now).

Euphemisms for “Stupid”

I just finished listening to Slate’s follow-up podcast for their Euphemisms for “Stupid” contest, which aired Friday, August 17th. The original aired at the end of July.
Though I didn’t win, they said my entry was one of three euphemisms they’d never heard before, which always counts for something in my book. The three novelties were:

“One [...]

Matthews Chapel Concert: Yeah, Baby

Took Megan and the little ladies to the show – good time had by all. Thanks to Caleb and Jude for a nice evening. (To see more of Megan’s cool concert pics from the night, click above.)

Links for the Weekend

If all goes well, you probably won’t hear much from me until early next week. Now that my two-week Pastoral Theology intensive ended this morning, I’ve got a couple papers to write, the larger of which is a ten-pager on “whatever aspect of your understanding, personality or character you consider might be most problematic for [...]

Stop Doing List

I like lists. One of the more helpful lists I periodically create is a “stop doing” list, which catalogs a few (or a lot) of things that, over time, I find myself doing that I don’t need to be doing anymore. These lists can be very practical (stop checking email every five minutes) or more [...]

Live at The Matthews Chapel

Here are two posters I created for my friend, Caleb Travers, who along with Jude, is playing Memorial’s Matthews Chapel this coming Saturday evening, August 19th. Caleb and Jude write and sing songs about life, love, and other various and sundry “l” words guaranteed to be important to most all of us.
Influences include Lucinda [...]

Oh, to Have the Energy of Children Again

Megan and I went to bed late last night – about 2 a.m. – which is atypical for us. She was planning school for the girls; I was reading Spurgeon, after which I watched a few episodes of season four of The X-Files until Megan finished up.
As God would have it, the kids woke up [...]

Introducing the Newest Poster Family for the YMCA

A couple days ago, Megan sent me this link with the subject header, “You’re going to love this!”
Don’t get me wrong: we’ve enjoyed our time at our local YMCA. And, as we do receive a scholarship in order to belong, we were glad to lend our name (as well as our daughters’ picture, though the [...]

One Book Is Enough, But…

One of the best things about seminary is the amount of time the professors save you by focusing your reading on the “best” books and articles published, as read during their own life of study.
And yet, there is so much of the “best” that I will unfortunately never get around to reading, that in thinking [...]

When Was the Last Time…?

Here’s a short creative thinking exercise I came up with about ten years ago. I still like it.
When was the last time…
…you thought of how you do something as an art form?
…you needed more than 256 colors to describe what you saw?
…you got frustrated by the limits of the English language to describe what you [...]

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

I’ve never “vacationed” well. This has something to do with the fact that my father (and thus my family) rarely went anywhere when I was a kid (two words of legitimate excuse: farm animals).
Now that I’m an adult, I also have never seen the point of spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on oneself and [...]

Could Be Interesting, But the Practicum’s a Killer

Megan took this picture on her way to the YMCA tonight. Sign up today; spaces are filling fast.

Some Housekeeping Details

In case anyone might be wondering what a seminary family’s living space looks like, we’ve posted a pictorial tour of ours to satisfy your curiosity. (And no, it isn’t always this picked up.)
In addition, in the upper right corner of the homepage here, I’ve made public our supporter section, which you’re welcome to check for [...]