Over-Spiritualization How-To

This was too funny to not re-post. Got it from Vitamin Z.



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New Church Role

When the church was first planted last year I found myself brainstorming a lot with the planting pastor, Donnie. After some tweaking of the focus of my responsibilities, it turned out that I was going to head the research, development and implementation of the small groups ministry. After the first three month semester I had to leave for four months of chaplain training at Fort Jackson, SC, and Fort Benning, GA.

Now that is all over I am back to serve my church as best as I can. This leads me to take on a new position as the children's ministry guy. Since this is a new ministry for us I am, once again, researching, developing and implementing everything that we will need to be successful.

We've decided to name the ministry WOW (a.k.a. Worship Our Way) because of the purpose of making it a church that they can call their own. For the curriculum we have decided to go with Elevate from Creative Pastors. I was able to see it in action at High Tide and fell in love with how simple it can be with few volunteers and with how it engages the kids the entire service.

Transitional Post

After taking a two-month sabbatical from blogging I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.  A lot has been happening and there is a lot to look forward to.  So this post is merely to get the wheels turning again.

Airborne Day 10

Today was the day!  We had our first two jumps.  It was quite invigorating to go through all of the emotions leading up the first jump...hearing all of the sounds, replaying everything that I've done to prepare myself for after I'm out of the aircraft, is that rope really attached to my parachute, and if so is my chute really going to open...  But once you start moving on the plane you can't help but do what you've been doing for the past two weeks...step out and work for a safe landing.  In a way it was a bit of a let down because the time in the air is very short lived before you have to worry about getting away from other jumpers and getting to the soft area of the drop zone.

They were both with only our shutes, no other equipment such as ruck sack or weapon case.  Tomorrow will be with all of our equipment, which shouldn't be very much fun...but I don't think it can take away from the fact that I'm jumping out of a plane again!  The weather was very good....clear and warm (too warm actually considering how much we had to run).  The great thing is that this type of weather is supposed to hold up for the rest of the week.

This was the longest line I've ever waited in for what turned out to be the shortest roller coaster I've ever ridden.  But oh so worth it!  I have to get assigned to an Airborne unit when I get back to active duty.

Separatist, Conformist or Transformist?

Anne Jackson gives a brief review of a possibly great book, "The Thin Line: Re-envisioning the Gap Between Christ and Culture."  Check out her review and book giveaway here.