Kontakion

My wife bought me this book for my birthday because she had heard some of the stories from it at the school she worked at. This book tells the story of Dean Karnazes (who is also the author) and how he came to run ultra marathons, an ultra marathon is a distance of 50 miles or more (the last story in this book is where Dean runs 199 miles). For those of you that don’t know a marathon is just over 26 miles long and was made to commemorate an event in ancient Greece. Dean’s story reminded me of a lot that I used to love about running. I also read this book thinking the entire time that this guy is crazy, and in some levels I’m right. I do recommend this book it is a fast read but good as long as you can get by how individualized the story is. Over all I give it a 3 out of 5 a comfortable middle ground

After talking with a friend I realized that my last post sounded a little mad. I guess I should throw in some context. I am dealing with why God called me to the ministry and I haven't been called to a place (and not for lack of trying). And I'm trying to see how all of my education fits into a place where the people don't care about the issues that I have grown to see as important. I have great faith in the UM and God's ability to work through the church. Yet in the context I'm in I am honestly struggling with what these people need to see about Christ and his work in their lives. I believe that John Wesley was able to do this and that is why the UM has potential. I hope I didn't offend anyone with my rant last week, but as I have always stated on this blog, I am on a journey and I have no problems talking about my raw emotions and things I feel, if anyone reads anything here and doesn't know how to take it...just talk to me and I will explain myself

Working at the printing plant this week has given me some much needed reflection time. Much of the work I am engaged in is mindless and repetitive, so I then have the ability to let my mind wander. This week as I was stacking CVS magazines, the junk mail you get everyday, I began to reflect on how much of the official church stuff really matters and how much I learned in seminary really matters. The conclusion I came to is not much. When I spent time talking to the people I worked with this past week, they didn't care that annual conference was going on, and what decisions were made where, and what the latest "cutting edge" or newest trend in ministry is. They didn't care about feminist issues, womanist issues, black issues, any issues in general. These people we're worried about their paycheck, whether or not the plant will be there for another couple of years so they could retire, how I was doing, and how my dad (who worked there for 25 years before gettin

There are several reasons I have not blogged in the last two weeks, first off there were a number of interviews at churches I needed to take care of. Regrettably I didn’t get any of those positions because I lack experience. Since nothing has come through I had to get a job at Quebecor Printing, a place I had tempted at for a number of years. I did this so that we could move out of seminary housing and into an apartment. I start the plant on Monday. So after I got that job we promptly have gotten an apartment and moved out. Of course when that happens we had to cancel our internet, cable and phone and it wasn’t until today that we got the internet back. Currently I am interviewing at several churches, and I have my resume out at some local Christian schools in hopes of getting a teaching job. I thank all for their prayers and as that you continue them in the weeks ahead.