Posts from — July 2008

I continued our Sunday School series on the Emerging Church today.

I continued our Sunday School series on the Emerging Church today.

• You can listen to today’s presentation in this series here.
• You can download my handout for this series here. This file includes all the pages I have handed out to the class so far; I will continually update this file as I hand out new pages for it.

(My first presentation in this series is available here. A running list of all the audio files will be added to this page as they become available.)

Calling yourself too considerate is like calling yourself too humble. It’s a bad idea—one that will make you look bad in front of others, probably because you deserve it.

Nevertheless….

Yesterday, I had carpet cleaners scheduled to come to my house at 1:00. This was a LONG OVERDUE cleaning to make my disgusting home look like the exurban palace that it used to be.

Or, something like that.

A little after 9 as I was studying away on the emerging church, the carpet cleaners called me. Could they come right now, or anytime soon?

Ummm….. Hmm…..

The one o’clock time was chosen very deliberately. The Son Person would be home from school camp at noon. The Daughter Person would be up from her nap. Grandma would be able to take them to her house to swim, so the Daddy Person (that would be me) could stay there and work while they steamed away evidence of my parental failures, pet neglect, personal sloppiness, etc.

But, for them to come any time before one would cause problems. One problem is that it would interrupt my desperately needed morning study time. A bigger problem would be that it would wake up the Daughter Person who desperately needs her naps.

I told them they could come at noon. The guy on the phone seemed a bit unhappy. They did come at noon and the Daughter Person woke up immediately after they started running the van-mounted vacuum motor which was positioned right in front of her bedroom window.

Still, even though they changed the perfectly planned schedule, I felt bad that I didn’t throw the whole plan in the trash and just let them come right then—at 9:01 A.M.

Do you think that my feeling bad is evidence that I am far too considerate of others?

I don’t normally post audio from my Sunday School lessons here, but there is enough interest in this topic that I thought it might be worthwhile in this case.Yesterday (7/6) we began a series on the emerging church.

• You can listen to my first presentation in this series here.
• You can download the first few pages of my handout for this series here.

NOTE: This is a post wherein I whine about what I have to read vs. what I want to read. You’ve been warned.

In the past year and a half, most of my reading has been confined to four subjects:

• commentaries on the Gospel of John
• books on NT Survey
• commentaries on the book of Hebrews
• books about the Emergent Church

On these subjects, I have read dozens of books, thousands of pages. But I’ve read all of them because I have to. The commentaries on John and Hebrews were part of my preparation for our Sunday morning preaching series on these books. The NT Survey stuff and Emergent Church garbage books were for Sunday School lessons on these topics.

Most of this reading was informative. I understand all of these subjects much better now for having read them. The works on John and Hebrews have been spiritually stimulating as well as informative. I don’t regret having read any of this.

What I DO regret is the long and ever growing list of books I WANT to read, but that I just can’t find time for. I have been so immersed in reading for research that I cannot simply read for pleasure. There is a bookshelf just to my left here with two feet worth of books that my heart and mind are drawn to like the North Pole draws the needle of a compass. A few of these are:

• The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God by John Frame
• Brain Rules by John Medina
• Guard Us, Guide Us: Divine Leading in Life’s Decisions by J. I. Packer.
• The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin
• The Attributes of God by Arthur W. Pink
• The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs: Caution–this book is not what it seems. It is a polemic against Christianity cloaked in humor. I want to read it for hermeneutical and apologetical reasons.

And, speaking of apologetics, one more from the list of books to be read:

• The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

There are also books on that shelf that I started reading, and was really enjoying, but still need to finish. There are some on a nearby shelf that I have read all the way to the end; these I would like to write reviews on, but again cannot find the time.

[sigh]

When I was a seminarian, I looked forward to becoming a seminary graduate so that I could read all the books I wanted to read instead of ones my professors required me to read.

Man, was that ever naive, wishful thinking!

Maybe when the Emergent church series is over, I’ll finally be able to start whittling this list down. Of course, by then, several more books will be added to that “to read” shelf. Count on it. For now, I must return to books I must read. Next up? The Epistle to the Hebrews by Paul Ellingworth in the NIGTC series.