I’m not gonna tell you a whole lot here, because 1) it’s the internet so you might be an axe-murderer, and 2) some of you won’t find it interesting or helpful.
Minister?
It can be known that I’m a young adult clergyperson in the United Methodist Church from South Carolina. For the beginner out there, “clergy” is what you may know as a preacher, parson, pastor, priest, reverend, etc. Those titles stir up all sorts of different feelings in different people, but I’m gonna ask you to just not sweat it too much. If it helps, focus your attention on George Clinton here. A friend once said if he was a pastor he’d prefer to known as a “minister” — because it could be expanded into a more majestic title like George’s “prime minister of funk”. Another girl also said “minister”, but so that she could pretend to be a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Magic (it’s a Harry Potter thing; the staff entrance is down a public toilet). To each his/her own.
Being a minister and young adult colors my experience and is the reason so many posts here deal with faith and the Church, and culture. My recent life has been all over the place: from college to a 6-month stint in the Bahamas for hurricane-relief mission, to seminary and now the local church; including a good experience of and desire for both campus ministry and camp & retreat ministry; plus a strong attraction to a missional lifestyle and intentional community (in the US or abroad). My early life (family, many people and places) weighs in as well. Overall, the relationships and fellowship along the way have been the most powerful force in my deeper story of getting to know and love God, and believing that God loves me fiercely.
Intentions
Sure, the blog is a record of observations and reflections, on most anything. But there are some other particular guidelines/goals of mine, so let’s just have a list:
- To pass along some of the best and worst of what I run across in the news or social media. Like all those Facebook shares that we “like” or like to hate.
- To point out the ridiculous, and generally try to hold culture accountable. Americans seem to be in love with satire and sarcasm, and mocking anything/everything. At the same time, culture has continued to get more and more absurd. Even the mockers need mocking.
- To share the highlights of my preparation for Sunday morning worship, which is basically digging into the week’s lectionary passage and making connections.
- To occasionally supplement worship or other special observances. Case in point: committing to making daily devotional posts for the 40 days of Lenten season (and inviting comments/conversation).
- TBD.
One more word for the rookies, the lectionary (in #3) is a calendar that assigns Scripture readings to each Sunday over a three-year cycle. It coincides with different themes/seasons, and I like following it most of the time because it provokes me to preach on texts that I wouldn’t have chosen on my own (over the three years we cover much of the diversity of the Bible).
Anyway, I want you to know the intentions so you can help hold me accountable. So, read away, keep track of the updates, and comment often, if you will. And please do.
