Checkin’ in…

Religious, Knitting & Tatting, Websites, Church August 21st, 2007

I haven’t written in a long time (duh… you figured that out, huh?!) Partly because I switched over to my Ragbrai Blog for a while, partly because - despite the fact that it’s summer - life has been unbelievably busy. In any case, here’s a quick catch-up (Note: I will be posting a Harry Potter spoiler in a few dozen lines. Don’t read much further if you care.):

  • I have grown to LOVE Akismet. It’s a blog thingey (actually, it’s a “gadget”) that sorts out real comments from spam. Thus far, Akismet has caught 3,126 spam comments on this blog. ugh.
  • The Consistory meeting I blogged about (my most “recent” post) has started on it’s way to fruition. So far I haven’t preached on any of the three pillars, but I’ve introduced the concept and we’ve started some surveying of the congregation. Sunday’s sermon was on the concept that “It doesn’t all stop at ’saved through faith’ ” - in other word (as I’ve been preaching for 7 1/2 years at Dunningville) Christianity is not a religion primarily about “getting people saved.” As I’m fond of saying: Heaven is a glorious side-effect of Christianity.
  • Ragbrai went well. If you didn’t follow that blog, I rode my bike 494 miles in a week. (If I’d have added it up sooner I might have done an extra 6 just to hit the 500 mark, but oh well. That’s one of those problems of having been a music major - I can easily count to 4 or 6…12 on a good day… other than that I usually turn to a calculator).
  • Harry Potter, as I predicted, was the last horocrux and didn’t die (well… didn’t stay dead).
  • Angel Food Ministries, at Dunningville, is taking off like gang-busters - Come order a box, it’s worth a try.
  • Sing with Me, the leaders’ edition, has finally come out. I had a small hand in helping with it — How exciting!
  • Church is getting ready to grind up into full-swing for the new school season.
  • It looks like we’re going to have a small Sr. High Youth Group again this year, but that’s ok — we’ve been doing Mega-script studies for about a year now and it works REALLY well. Mega-script studies are something I’ve developed by creating a gigantic version of a manuscript study (as taught by InterVarsity) — It’s a great way of studying the scriptures - FAR better than anything I learned in seminary.
  • We’re a little short on Sunday School Teachers. This may be my fault, but I don’t care. Dunningville has historically expected parents with children of Sunday school age to teach Sunday school. I have a problem with this. It seems to me that our “more mature members” should be teaching our children. This, for several reasons (in no particular order):
  • It gives parents a break from caring for their own children
  • It said parents to go to the Adult Sunday School Class (thereby [hopefully] maturing in their own faith)
  • It ensures that children hear other adults telling them the same things their parents are teaching them (thereby reinforcing what their parents are saying during the rest of the week)
  • It helps people fulfill the vows they took when many of these children were baptized
  • Our first fall potluck is scheduled for the last Wednesday of September — mmmmmmm.
  • The Thursday evening service has settled in. I don’t know if this is good or not. Although I wish there were more people involved, it has developed into a pretty good community. The struggle is that it takes up a full day each week (with prep., etc) and it’s another evening away from the family. I’m not sure beyond that.
    • The Adult Sunday School will be finishing the Isaiah Vision… If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, do it. You won’t regret it.
  • Zondervan has FINALLY come out with an inexpensive, digital NIV Bible that works on Vista (despite a few glitches) … what took you so long!?
  • Palm has still NOT come out with good software for Vista… come on, you’re a major company, this is absurd!
  • Trillian is still working on it’s new ASTRA version — I don’t know what’s taking so long. I might move over to Pidgin.
  • I’ve found some new favorite websites:
    • Google Reader (for following blogs and RSS feeds)
    • Choose Responsibility (a group dedicated to lowering the drinking age to 18… I know, some of you will hate the idea. Check it out though; what they’re saying actually makes sense.)
    • Men who Knit (self explanatory … right?)
    • The Lead Inspector (have kids? your kids like toys? They’re probably made in China and contain lead. OK, a little cynical, and I’m not convinced the amount of lead in a toy is going to actually cause problems, but here’s a place that sells lead-detector kits)
    • Project Vote Smart (see what the candidates really think)
  • My D.Min. hasn’t gone anywhere this summer. It’s been a crazy-busy summer and I allowed myself to put it off until the fall. Gotta get started again pretty soon.

    • Well, that’s about it for now. Guess I’d better go work on Thursday’s Service and Sunday’s Sermon while Sophia’s still asleep.

    Grace and Peace,

    `tim

    2 Responses to “Checkin’ in…”

    1. James Brumm Says:
      August 21st, 2007 at 10:29 pm

      Welcome back.

      I’ll have to talk to you about the Thursday evening service sometime. Not now: I’m still trying to pretend to be on vacation.

    2. teejtc Says:
      August 21st, 2007 at 10:56 pm

      James… Any time. Let me know :-)

      Grace and Peace,
      `tim

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