Inside the Minds of Valerie and Mike (and Anna)
Everyone has a calling or vocation, or even several. We just don’t tend to think about it using those terms. The word call, or calling, I suspect tends to be heard and understood as churchy. People feel called to ministry, and ministry itself is strongly tied to church language. Churches which select their own pastors... Continue Reading →
The right, or opportune, time is the meaning of the ancient Greek word kairos. And no, I did not learn it in my ancient Greek language class, I knew the word prior to the class. In church circles kairos is used to differentiate from chronos…our time, linear time, measured in hours, days, etc. Theologically, kairos... Continue Reading →
Early last month I “attended” (I Zoomed in) the ELCA Youth Ministry Network conference known as The Extravaganza. The theme this year was “Enough”. Between workshops and speakers, we covered “Enough” from numerous angles. And I’ve been pondering the theme since. For those who observe Lent and engage in a Lenten disciple, giving up something... Continue Reading →
During Lent this year I will be posting a series of weekly reflections with a specific community in mind, but which I hope will resonate with a wider audience. Many of the themes, if not all, are fairly universal in nature and have been recurring themes in my ponderings lately…lately also meaning the past few... Continue Reading →
I write this on the eve of the start of my second semester at United Lutheran Seminary. I started the first semester this past fall with a bit of apprehension, a general idea of a plan, and a good dose of excitement. And the semester started with a pre-semester crash course (also known as an... Continue Reading →
It’s early January, still New Year’s. During the last weeks of the old year and the first weeks of the new year there is always media postings and sharing of new habits, new resolutions, new dreams, new goals. Usually these are worthy aspirations to be healthy, learn something new, to slow down, etc. But sometimes,... Continue Reading →
“Politics is about the organization of society and public affairs” “Basically,…politics is about how groups of people organize themselves…’political’ can be used to describe organizations and the dynamics of relationships of groups” Per Merriam-Webster, origins of “politics” - politikós "of citizens, civic, of a state, political, public" These quotes are from a chapter titled The Bible and Politics,... Continue Reading →
As a bonus, for fun, assignment we were asked to find some artistic (any format) depiction of the story of Abraham and the sacrificing of Isaac. The artist, Domenico Gargiulo, was an Italian painter from the 1600s. He received his training from a battle-painter and his father was a sword maker. This image is obviously not... Continue Reading →
There’s nothing quite like going back to school after decades away than by jumping into a semester long class in biblical Greek and cramming it all into two weeks. I guess this is my “What Did You Do This Summer?” essay. Because that is exactly what I did…started a new graduate degree with what is... Continue Reading →
I’m writing this in the closing hour on the eve of a new journey. Tomorrow, today by the time this piece is posted, is the first day of class…Biblical Greek. Welcome to seminary. Let’s start by learning a new, but ancient, language and grammar that really was glossed over all those years ago in primary... Continue Reading →
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