Return of the Taleings

It has been a long while since I last wrote in this blog... three years have passed, and a lot has changed. Before I reboot the blog with some new content, I thought it would be a good idea to share where life has taken me!

In 2012-2013, I worked for KNOM in Alaska. My morning show co-host and I ended up winning five communicator awards between us for our spots and promotions. She alone out of the five of us volunteers stayed at KNOM for a second year. The rest of us went off into the lower 48, in various positions and to various new lives, enriched by our living together, and by our work at the station.

Communicator awards!

My position was to be a Teaching Elder (that's Pastor, for non-Presbys) for two small, rural churches in central New Mexico. Soon after submitting my PIF to the Church Leadership Connection, I received a call from the Pastoral Nominating Committee (PNC) of this yoked call. They had me fly out to preach to them in April, and I accepted the position that evening, though I wouldn't start working at the churches until October 2013.

My first blessing over the table at Corona - at the installation service!

Meanwhile, my best friend from Seminary and I started to realize that we were called to be more than friends. We dated long-distance, as she was still in Kentucky, and ended up getting engaged in September 2013, and married in March 2014 - in a city that neither of us lived in, Greensboro, NC (though it was her hometown before Seminary). We like to joke that we have the shortest time of anyone we know between first kiss and engagement - only a month!

From the wedding - we asked everyone to wear hats!

So, since May 2014, Elana and I have been living in New Mexico, putting our lives together, and adjusting to married life. It sounds simple, putting it that way, but there have been some significant challenges - including an 8-month bout with low blood pressure that kept her confined to the couch that was resolved only after realizing she was one of the "lucky" 1-in-10,000 that have a low-blood-pressure reaction to a particular asthma medication.

Recently, I've been asked by several of the church members to make the written text of my sermons available online - and I recalled that I had set up this blog three years ago! To that end, then, I will be posting my weekly sermons here - and perhaps some other thoughts as appropriate, too. I know it marks a shift in tone for the blog, but since it's been three years, perhaps that's appropriate!

Sometimes, we even worship outside!

Experiencing the Divine

Over the past month, I've been agonizing over my PIF (Pastoral Information File), that piece of Presbyterian bureaucracy that functions as a resume and "church-dating" profile, matching me with churches that I might serve (or be a good fit for). One of the questions of the PIF is about a theological issue facing the church today, and I will reproduce my answer here:

The biggest theological challenge facing the Church today is the lack of value placed on our daily experience of God. This often translates into a perceived lack of imagination on the part of the Church – a one-for-all idea that says your experience isn't valid because there's no scriptural basis for encountering God in that way.  Experience and scripture both reveal God's actions in the world, and must be checked in light of each other. Jesus is revealed within Scripture – but so too are the all-too-human reactions of greed, selfishness, and untruth. For many within society, if one interpretation of Scripture doesn’t hold up against experience, then all of scripture must be rejected. For many within the Church, if an interpretation of scripture doesn’t hold up against experience, then all that is experienced must be flawed. I maintain that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of these extremes – a balance must be found between scripture and experience. I believe that many of the conflicts that our denomination faces are the result of this tension. Whether historically or today, this balance underlies flare-ups over most of our issues. My ministry, then, tries to refocus our attention from the bottom of our own entrenchments to the Sun that we share, the light of God's love. 

PIF Writing Blues

Like many a seminarian
Whose views some say are contrarian
I've got to write myself in a box

The box's lines are well defined
though the question's been refined
to summarize the pastor's talks

Oh, I've got the PIF writing blues
Haven't you heard the news?
When you write a PIF on all the issues -
You're sure to get a call,
Just as long as you're Paul -
It's the PIF writing blues you can't refuse...

What's a PIF? you ask -
In short, it's a task
A resume and online-dating ad in one...

It's for churches and for pastors both -
To see what the other "hath quoth"
A service for Presbyterians

Chorus

With the multitude of churches
To find no smears or smirches
Is frankly, inconceivable

But remember, we're all people
And we fit beneath one steeple -
God connects the right and liberal!

Chorus


Oh, I've got the PIF writing blues
Haven't you heard the news?
Where you have to write on all the issues -
I may not be Saint Paul
But I hope to get a call -
It's the PIF writing blues I can't refuse