It's now Saturday night, and we've had a full five days of class work and reflection. We finished up Romans chapter 2 this morning. One of the more interesting issues raised in our study is the doctrine of imputation of Christ's righteousness and what that means. This is a pretty hot topic in certain quarters of Christendom these days. If you'd like to read more about it, you could click here for an overview.
The conversation with fellow pastors continues to be really good. It's been good to see that the "problems" we face aren't all that unusual. I'm also encouraged by the caliber of pastor's here--it's hopeful for the church.
We had some time off tonight and more tomorrow. I ate over at Woodmans in Essex this evening, which is one of the area's best for seafood. I had a plate of fried sea scallops with fries and onion rings. You just can't find places like this in Hardin County!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Spurgeon Sabbatical
I arrived in Boston on Monday to attend the Spurgeon Sabbatical at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (my alma mater). It's Thursday, so I'm at the start of the third full day. We're meeting for worship each morning at 8:45 and then moving into a study of Romans from about 9:30 - noon. So far we've covered about the first 7 verses.
We're working through a lot of the material in Greek and it's been really invigorating and exciting to study at this level again. It's about 30 hours of content altogether, so it's like a full seminary course (but without the grading and papers!).
So far one of the more interesting issues has been how to understand the phrase "obedience of faith" in vs. 5. The theme of obedience creeps up in Romans more than you'd think at first glance. We've been talking a lot about how obedience is an organic expression of our faith.
After class, we meet for lunch and a pastor will take a turn sharing some of his life story and then we pray for him. We have time off in the afternoons then reconvene around 5:30 for dinner followed by more pastoral reflections about issues in our churches. Then we conclude with worship in the evening by about 9:30.
I made it over to Manchester, MA yesterday afternoon, which was where Deb and I lived when we were here. Took a walk on singing beach, which is a great little place to see the ocean here.
The weather however has been typical New England stuff. I haven't seen the sun yet. It's been foggy, drizzly, and cool since I got here. Yesterday, the car was telling me the temperature was 59 as I was driving around.
We're working through a lot of the material in Greek and it's been really invigorating and exciting to study at this level again. It's about 30 hours of content altogether, so it's like a full seminary course (but without the grading and papers!).
So far one of the more interesting issues has been how to understand the phrase "obedience of faith" in vs. 5. The theme of obedience creeps up in Romans more than you'd think at first glance. We've been talking a lot about how obedience is an organic expression of our faith.
After class, we meet for lunch and a pastor will take a turn sharing some of his life story and then we pray for him. We have time off in the afternoons then reconvene around 5:30 for dinner followed by more pastoral reflections about issues in our churches. Then we conclude with worship in the evening by about 9:30.
I made it over to Manchester, MA yesterday afternoon, which was where Deb and I lived when we were here. Took a walk on singing beach, which is a great little place to see the ocean here.
The weather however has been typical New England stuff. I haven't seen the sun yet. It's been foggy, drizzly, and cool since I got here. Yesterday, the car was telling me the temperature was 59 as I was driving around.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Is Teen Rebellion Inevitable?
I recently watched the movie Astronaut Farmer staring Billy Bob Thorton.
Thorton plays an eccentric farmer who builds a rocket in his barn on his rural farm and dreams of flying into space. He has a family, and the amazing thing about the movie is the way his family supports him in his craziness. He has a teenage son who worships him. In nearly every other "family" movie I watch, the teenage children hate their parents or are embarrassed by them. Here, when the father pulls his children out of school to help with the project, they support their dad and want to be part of what he's doing.
The most memorable line in the movie comes from his father-in-law, who complains that when he was growing up, he could barely get his family to eat together, but he (Thorton) has his family dreaming together. The movie has one or two sexual references that may not be appropriate for younger children (but they'd probably go over their heads). It's definitely one of the more pro-family movies I've seen out of Hollywood.
There is a sense, even among Christians, that children will naturally rebel and dislike their parents. It doesn't have to be that way. In fact, the whole teenage experience is a recent social creation. See Mardi Keyes excellent article for more on this point.
Thorton plays an eccentric farmer who builds a rocket in his barn on his rural farm and dreams of flying into space. He has a family, and the amazing thing about the movie is the way his family supports him in his craziness. He has a teenage son who worships him. In nearly every other "family" movie I watch, the teenage children hate their parents or are embarrassed by them. Here, when the father pulls his children out of school to help with the project, they support their dad and want to be part of what he's doing.
The most memorable line in the movie comes from his father-in-law, who complains that when he was growing up, he could barely get his family to eat together, but he (Thorton) has his family dreaming together. The movie has one or two sexual references that may not be appropriate for younger children (but they'd probably go over their heads). It's definitely one of the more pro-family movies I've seen out of Hollywood.
There is a sense, even among Christians, that children will naturally rebel and dislike their parents. It doesn't have to be that way. In fact, the whole teenage experience is a recent social creation. See Mardi Keyes excellent article for more on this point.
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