In the Meantime Reboot
After a three month sabbatical from this blog, I’m eager to be back. The time away was very helpful with navigating a move and the need to make some sustained progress on a few larger writing projects, but I was surprised at how much I missed the regular discipline of bible study and reflecting on faith and life that this blog has provided me. So tomorrow I’ll start posting daily bible devotions in the morning and share thoughts and resources on connecting faith and life later each day.
As I’ve been thinking about jumping back into this daily routine, I’ve realized there are a few things I’d like to focus on a bit more in the coming year. One is worship, as I hope to think with you about the nature and shape of our worship services and both 1) explore with you the roots of our worship tradition and also 2) wonder together how we might experiment and change things in order to reach a new generation with the gospel and have worship be a time of faith formation.
Another is popular culture, as I want to think more deeply about the stories we are telling and listening to in movies and television and offer guides to discussing these in our adult and youth education settings.
A third thing I’ve been thinking about is trying to do something of a “Christian vocabulary project,” taking classic Christian terms like “grace” or “first use of the law” or “atonement” and finding ways to make these more accessible, perhaps providing pop-cultural references that try to illustrate what is at stake.
Well, these are a couple of thoughts. If you have other things you’d like to learn more about or have a chance to take up in this space, please let me know in the comment section of this post.
Thank you – it was good to be away and very, very good to be able to come back.
It is good to see you returning here!
It is good to have you and your thoughts and ideas back on the web!
Great to see you back! i am looking forward to new thoughts and teaching.
I am also glad that you are back. Just last night, on the first night of confirmation with 6 seventh graders looking at me, I talked about God’s grace…an accessible, pop-cultured example from such a vocabulary of faith would have been invaluable!
It is so good to have you back and I like your ideas for the daily blog. I am looking forward to day feeding from your blog.
You’ve made my day. I have missed your daily blog. Welcome back!
Welcome back David! Hope everything went smoothly in your transition. Excited to be having conversation and hearing thoughts about the topics you mentioned. Many blessings.
Your readers welcome you back David!
Glad you’re back, as I’ve missed your writings and insights. I would also like to see you think/write/invite conversation about what it means to be a disciple in this present world. Let’s go beyond the “6 Marks of Discipleship” – I mean what does discipleship really look like day in and day out? What kind of stories can be shared that will help others grow in their own faith and walk of discipleship?
Welcome back!
We’ve missed your throught-provoking blog! This is the very thing that is helping reach modern believers and non-believers. It’s a good discussion and anyone can join in. Just what the Holy Spirit ordered!
Good to see you back. In addition to your ideas I’d like to see more discussions about translations from the Greek and Aramaic.
I have been surfing around the Christian blogosphere this summer, and it has been enlightening to find that various Bible versions seem to have used the least sensible interpretation of words or phrases.
Welcome back – like so many others I have missed my daily ‘feeding’
Yes, welcome back – what a pleasant surprise to find this in my email stack this afternoon. You have mentioned many good subjects to chew on. If I think of others I’ll be sure to let you know. I look forward to seeing you in Winchester, VA on the 29th!
I am so very happy that you are back!
welcome back. you were missed!
Great to have you back, David. I am much looking forward to engage with your ideas and reflections. Welcome back!
Welcome back. After 3 months, I still have a few of your old posts to read.
I love exploring worship. I am especially interested in reaching out to non-classically trained musicians, who learn by ear and chords, and who have little or “none” church background. How is it we move past hiring them to do a “gig” each Sunday to offering their gifts as a part of a fuller worship service and nurturing them as disciples? There is a huge community of talented people willing to do their music without becoming part of the worshipping community. How do we move them, and their friends to the next level of inclusion on the Body of Christ?
Welcome back! I am especially interested in your thoughts for worship. The congregation that I serve recognizes the need to change to reach today’s generations with the Gospel but we are often without direction. Look forward to your thoughts.
Thanks for coming back. I have missed your clear thinking and innovation. Bill
I too am glad you are back! And I welcome your explorations re: worship, especially for young people hanging around the doors of the church, that they may be eager to come in, because they feel God’s grace and are hungry for more.
Welcome back!
Very glad to have you back! You and your family have been in my prayers during the time of transition.
Welcome to Pennsylvania! Hope we have been good to you thus far!
So glad your back. Thank you for your ministry.
I’ve missed you! Thank you for all you do. Looking forward to your future posts. I love the idea of making Christian terms more accessible! And, exploring how to reach a new generation of folks through worship is high on my list. Can’t wait!
Great to hear from you again! I’m looking forward to your work with all the topics you mentioned. One word I’ve being trying to figure out how to say is a designation for non-rostered folks that isn’t “lay member.” They don’t have to be “members,” and I can’t imagine what the word “lay” really communicates!
Susan, this is a great topic for discussion. I like the term “ministers” and often use the designation “volunteer ministry”. This thinking comes right out of the idea of “priesthood of all believers”. Like you, this is a conversation I would welcome.
I just balk at volunteer.
Ahh, David, your post today feels like a refreshing drink of cool living water. Thank you for your blog today and in the days ahead. Welcome back!
It would be good to include the notions of “God” and “faith” in your vocabulary review also. We throw these words around a lot at church, but I am finding that there are many different concepts of both of these.
I, too, am very glad that you are back!!!
Dear David: I am looking forward to your musings regarding both worship and pop culture….and the intersection of each with the other and with the deeper church. Thanks.
I’ve missed you! Welcome back! Your blog is thought provoking, inspiring and refreshing. Love the poetry you choose too.
any thoughts on preaching on Holy cross Sunday?
On Holy Cross and John 3:16: I’m always struck at the extravagance of what God gave for the sake of the world – God’s own Son – and the fact that God didn’t ask us ahead of time but just gave us so much. It’s hard to believe that and it definitely makes a claim on us. But God just went ahead and did it. The other thing that strikes me is that while Nicodemus fades away at the end of this scene, he shows up again at the end of the story as a disciple. Sometimes it takes a while for Jesus’ words to sink in!