Gen-X Rising

Duke Youth Academy 2010

2009-11-07T08:27:00.002-05:00

Katherine Smith e-mailed me this week to say that the applications for the 2010 session of the Duke Youth Academy are now available online.There are applications for both students and staff members. You can access either by going to this link. Applications can be downloaded as a PDF, or they can be filled out and submitted online.Katherine Smith and Fred Edie are the Director and Faculty Advisor

Gratuitous Cat Post #4

2009-11-05T08:07:00.003-05:00

This is Lulu, who is one of the most awesome felines ever to walk on four legs. She's also a very gentle critter, unless you happen to be a chipmunk or a mole or some other small rodent who lives in our neighborhood. She's got just enough of her predator instinct to be bad news for those guys. But hey, we live in a fallen world.If you haven't ever done so, check out John Wesley's sermon, "The

Nurturing the Call

2009-11-03T07:49:00.003-05:00

I'm on a sabbatical from writing for the United Methodist Reporter right now, as I'm getting ready for some big exams coming up in the month of December.There has been a lot of good content in the Reporter of late, though. Allow me to point you toward some of it, gentle reader.My friend and colleague Eric Van Meter, a campus minister at the Wesley Foundation at Arkansas State University, has a

For All the Saints

2009-11-01T07:02:00.004-05:00

We bless your holy name, O God,for all your servants who,having finished their course,now rest from their labors.Give us grace to follow the exampleof their steadfastness and faithfulness,to your honor and glory;through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.(UM Book of Worship, 415)----------------------------------For all the saints, who from their labors rest,who thee by faith before the world confessed,

The Power of Holy Communion

2009-10-31T08:37:00.001-04:00

How often should we celebrate the Lord's Supper?Wesley Report's Shane Raynor recently wrote that he has received real spiritual benefit from weekly participation in Holy Communion. At my church, we celebrate monthly. But moving to that level of frequency after I arrived as pastor a year-and-a-half ago was a big change for my congregation. Previously, the church celebrated very infrequently.At our

News from the UM Reporter

2009-10-29T07:50:00.004-04:00

Robin Russell, my editor at the United Methodist Reporter, was in Durham this week for a conference of Christian publishers hosted by Leadership Education at Duke Divinity (LEADD). It gave Robin and me the chance to sit down for lunch and have a conversation - a rare treat, considering she lives in Dallas, Texas, and I live here in Bull City.There are changes afoot at the Reporter these days.

Vocatus Dei - Called of God

2009-10-26T19:12:00.003-04:00

In the midst of the blogging I've been doing around the issue of vocation, I came across a wonderful piece of counsel in Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. It speaks of the great honor and joy, as well as the freedom, to be found in serving God:"It is a great honor, a great glory to serve You and to despise all things for Your sake. They who give themselves gladly to Your most holy service

Do you have a calling?

2009-10-24T13:17:00.008-04:00

Do you have a calling? Have you thought about your daily work and tasks not just as your job or your hobby, but as your vocation?This is a question that has been on my mind a lot lately. And for some reason, I find myself in a lot of conversations about it as well.The English word vocation comes from the Latin verb vocare, which means to call, to summon, or to name. Thinking about what we do in

Putting my vocation into words

2009-10-20T12:11:00.000-04:00

I was filling out a 'profile' statement this morning, and I found myself wanting to name my sense of calling in a few short sentences. For me, that calling is both to academic research & writing and practical ministry. And the substance of the calling is the same in both areas, even if it gets expressed in somewhat different ways given the different contexts of university classroom and local

The Way of the Cross

2009-10-17T19:15:00.001-04:00

I've been reading The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, a book that was important to John Wesley. As a part of that, I've been sharing some of Kempis' thoughts and reflections that are particularly striking to me. (For previous posts, check out here and here and here.)Check out Kempis' thoughts on the Way of the Cross from the Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter 12:"In the cross is

The Church and Higher Education

2009-10-15T14:56:00.005-04:00

It's taking me a bit longer than I expected to try and catch up here in Durham after my recent mission trip to Chincha, Peru. I think that's a result of the time of year, both with respect to church life and university life.I'm going to write more about our time in Peru in the coming days, but until then, I wanted to let you know about a new feature piece in the United Methodist Reporter, in

Estoy en casa; mi corazon, en Peru

2009-10-10T20:50:00.003-04:00

Got home from Peru about noontime today. Wow. What a wonderful week. The group I was with from churches here in North Carolina saw God's hand at work in many ways: in ministry with children; in worship through preaching, testimony, singing, and sacrament; and in missional outreach in new and challenging areas around the city of Chincha Alta.It'll take a few days to get caught up on things here in

Methodist ministry in Chincha, Peru

2009-10-06T08:07:00.005-04:00

I'm in Peru this week, working with the Iglesia Metodista here in the area of Chincha (about three hours south of Lima on the Pacific coast). I feel like Peru is a second home to me - this is my seventh trip since 2001, and every time I leave here I leave a little more of my heart behind. My last visit here was in May 2008. If you want to read a little about that, check out my posts on "A

A letter to Mrs. Bennis

2009-09-29T07:41:00.000-04:00

Came across this in my research yesterday and wanted to share it:A woman named Mrs. Bennis wrote to John Wesley in March of 1766 to ask about her religious experience and to seek advice. Wesley wrote back in a letter dated March 29th, with encouragement to share her experience with others. He also included some advice about Christian perfection.One of the things most characteristic about Wesley's

Wesley on Kempis

2009-09-28T08:54:00.003-04:00

I read a couple of months out of John Wesley's Journal every morning - a part of my daily reading discipline that is both spiritual edifying and helpful to my academic work. Last week I came across a reference by Wesley to Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ. Wesley quotes Kempis as he reports his pastoral engagement with some struggling members of one of the Methodist societies:Friday, May 5,

Old friends in a new venue

2009-09-27T20:31:00.003-04:00

Before Emily and I moved to Durham so I could pursue a Doctor of Theology degree at Duke University, I served as an associate pastor back home in the Arkansas Conference.My appointment was at the First United Methodist Church in Searcy, Arkansas. Our time in Searcy was way too short, but we made lots of great friends and have many wonderful memories from our years there. I saw a couple of days

Swine Flu fears

2009-09-26T10:10:00.002-04:00

Apparently, the fears over a swine flue epidemic are really affecting relationships down at Pooh Corner.I wrote not long ago about my own thoughts on how we react to looming threats. You can find that story at this link.

E.T. - The Sequel

2009-09-24T06:58:00.005-04:00

I woke up at 4:40 am this morning with a movie script in my head. This will work, I tell you. Check it out:E.T. 2: E.T. Skype HomePlot: E.T. returns to earth to find out what has happened to his friends Elliott, Gertie, and their family. His spaceship accidentally crash lands, once again stranding him in northern California. Remarkably, he finds himself in the backyard of a now-grown Elliott, who

Privileging People over Process

2009-09-20T07:35:00.004-04:00

A few days ago I posted about how the church can often be its own worst enemy when it comes to the ordination process.Posts about ordination candidacy tend to generate a lot of response - both in terms of e-mails and reader comments. I've always seen that as an indication of the level of frustration people often experience in the process itself. Having received a call from God to enter ministry,

Thinking about death

2009-09-18T07:36:00.002-04:00

Live each day as if it were your last.That's a slogan as likely to appear on an inspirational calendar as it is in anything connected with Christianity. But the idea is one that is rooted in Scripture. "The end of all things is near," Peter instructs us (1 Peter 4:7). We know that the eschaton is upon us, for, as the Apostle Paul teaches, "The present form of this world is passing away" (1

Christians on Campus

2009-09-16T13:33:00.004-04:00

I've been around a lot of college and university campuses over the past 15 years - as an undergraduate student, seminarian, campus minister, and now as a doctoral student.University life has always been exciting to me. The people there are bright and earnest, pursuing dreams and developing abilities. The exchange of ideas is stimulating. And the monotony of the work-a-day world never really seems

The Imitation of Christ

2009-09-12T18:28:00.005-04:00

I've been re-reading some books from the "holy living tradition" that were very influential for John Wesley during his early adulthood. They're good sources for understanding how Wesley was influenced in his thinking about holiness of heart & life. But the real joy in reading them is that they are all spiritual classics that offer great insight into the way of holiness for Christians today.One of

The Long Road to Ordination

2009-09-08T20:45:00.000-04:00

What if the biggest obstacle in responding to God's call to ordained ministry turned out to be the church itself?And what if, with the very best of intentions, the church was ironically hampering its own witness and compromising its own future in the way it had laid out the path to ordination?For a lot of candidates for ordination in the United Methodist Church, this worst case scenario seems

'Graced response' and pro-vita faith

2009-09-06T07:25:00.002-04:00

I've used the term pro-vita for the past few years to describe the view of many Christians I encounter - particularly Gen X'ers, but others as well - who are dissatisfied with the conventional liberal and conservative positions on "life issues," such as abortion and capital punishment.Those positions tend to be insufficiently theological in their expression, and hence, insufficiently

What's up, awesome wave?

2009-09-02T09:38:00.002-04:00

"Not much. Just crashing the beach party."