A Two Goal Lead is the Most Dangerous Lead...

When I first began to sense a call to the ordained ministry in my own life, I felt as if I had been sent out into the great and vast wide open sea in a small insignificant life raft. It was mostly scary, it was sometimes fun, it was, to say the least an adventure. At one point when I was asking questions about how God was working in my life, I emailed an Episcopal Priest who was the Episcopal Chaplain at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I had met him at a young adult conference in St. Louis and was drawn to his wisdom. He wrote to me shortly after that and, during a particularly bumpy time in my life, said: If you are confused – Thank God! If you do not have all the answers – Thank God! If you do not know exactly what God is up to – Thank God! If you have to wait up on the Lord – Thank God! There are no shortcuts to grace. Our home is NOT the destination, but the journey St. Anselm said, “I do not understand so that I may believe, I believe so that I may understand....

Greetings All, May GOd's blessing be upon you and your beer! Here is some more info about the blessing of the Maibock on Saturday, I hope I will see some of you there! LINK TO MORE INFO... Be well, Aron

I have been meaning to post this for some time, thanks to Joe who emailed it to me and thanks to the person at "Fr Jake stops the world" Read this.

Before my junior year in college, the fall of 1995, I had a vision. Not like Peter’s in today’s Acts reading, but one that was transformational. The vision I had took place one starry night on a dock, somewhere in Wisconsin. You see, I had discovered a calling I thought I would enjoy, I was about to embark on my first year of being a resident advisor. I was excited, and eager to find out what the year would have in store; I was looking forward to being a leader, being present to the students in the dorm, and to the opportunity to be transformational in some way. That evening, shortly after arriving at the cabin, I wandered down to the dock to get away from all the energy and extroversion of my friends. As I lay on the dock, I decided to pray. I had discovered a piece of my calling, and being an introvert, it required me to take some time to reflect, so on the dock I began to reflect about my life, about the gifts I had as a child of God, about the joys I was beginning to anticip...

Eliot has arrived at his, I WANT TO EAT EVERY HOUR OF THE NIGHT BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT STEROIDS DOES TO ME phase. Saturday night Sara had him, and I told her that I would take him on Sunday night since I was going to be at Clergy Conference all week. Anyway, he woke up earlier than usual and we sat at the table eating pasta with his little fork talking to each other and just hanging out. What got me was as he cleaned his plate, picking up every scrap of pasta leftover, he looked at me and said "Eyot go to sleep now." I asked him if he wanted to have me help him get down and he said, "Eyot got it." Then he looked at me again and said Daddy, Eyot go to sleep now" as if he was telling me something, I asked him if he wanted me to carry him up to his bed, and he said, "Eyot got it." As he crawled up the stairs, carrying his blanket I was amazed by him, just watching him and thinking about how much he has gone through and how strong he has been through the ...

More ?proof? that theology flows from mission. Our current idea of the mission field, of the mission we have to do is that it is out there, in some distant land, far away from us, far away from this place. It is a place that is only visited by the bold, the people called to uproot themselves and be changed. The people that are called to explore. Our current theology is a God that is far away from us, think Bette Midler's song, "From A distance, God is watching us". God is distant doling out punishment and forgiveness upon other people, people we do not know. God's work here is done, we have civilized this country and made it in the image of God and therefore God is no longer needed, at least no longer needed in an intimate way. So what if the mission field is in our back yard. What if the mission field is here and now, what if we are surrounded by the other, surrounded by people and places that have never experienced the Good News of God in Christ? Or have neve...

Monica met with me today to talk about all that is going on for us around family and children ministry. She always causes me to think about very profound things, thank you Monica! Anyway, today's thought is Mission is the mother of Theology. It hadn't occurred to me, but this is a VERY profound thought. Mission is the mother of theology. Out of our mission comes our theology. Out of how we see mission comes our theology, out of mission comes our theology. It is what we do that shapes our theology, maybe not quite that, but it is what we do that helps form our theology. All of this was from a conversation about the Theological Position Paper drafted recently and the fact that we started not with our mission, not with what we do as a Diocese or even as a local judicatory in the midst of many organizations in this state, but rather we started with theology. We started with the heady theological stuff that always gets in the way of doing and being mission. Paul Allick and I had...

Are you ready? You better get ready! May 19th, around 6PM. The blessing of the Maibock!!! Yeah! Townhall Brewery, here we come! I have 6 special seats, whoever donates the most money to Gethsemane before then will get a special seat! WooHoo! Be well, A+