Singing Along the Journey

seminary

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More

Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
Read More

Let’s talk about…questions

Ever since I can remember,  I have been chasing my ideas about life with a single solitary question.  That question? The question is this: where did that (that being anything peeking my curiosity) come from (I know, I just ended a sentence with a preposition, sorry).  One of my earliest memories is of the day I followed my then-beagle companion Toby into the dog house because I wondered where she was when she went through that little hole.  My father's reaction was not one of amusement. It was one of the few times I remember being punished as a small child. Well, maybe the punishment came because once inside the dog house I tried to hide…
Read More

What I’ve Learned so Far…Learning is Fundamental

I am sitting here at my desk on a frigid bright morning, missing a class on Genesis 22 because of car fires and accidents on the highway that takes me out to the seminary.  My brain and my soul are still full from last night's discussion of the Holiness Code and its role in the land promises of the Pentateuch.  And, if I haven't lost you already in the face of this biblical techno-speak, I would point out to you what might not be obvious -- I GRADUATED IN MAY.  WHY AM I TAKING TWO BIBLICAL STUDIES CLASSES? Because, my friends, over the past months, I have understood some important…
Read More

Who are you?

One evening in Church History class the lecture began with this question:  who are you?  It was a good opening; it made me start, it made me pay attention.  It was not the words I expected in that place at that time.  And it was a great question with which to frame the discussion of the early Christian persecutions that followed.  I did not at that time realize the ways in which that question would echo forward through my life.   I certainly did not then nor do I now have as clear an answer as our Gospel reports that John the Baptist offered when asked the same question: This…
Read More

What I’ve Learned So Far…Part 3 — The Movie

I had the opportunity to pursue some independent study this semester along with my more conventional classes.  And as my chosen project to explore the use of new technologies in faith development and congregational life, I decided to make a movie.    Susan, a movie?  You decided to make a movie?  Yes, indeed. Why, you might ask?  Well, for a lot of reasons.  First, I like to stay current with technology and I live in world now where every time I turn around someone is taking a video of something and posting it somewhere for the world to see.  Second, of all the technologies that are "current", video was the…
Read More

What I’m learning in seminary…and the story continues…

It is once again that time when my colleagues at Virginia Theological Seminary are writing their Ember letters to their supporters and most of all to their supporting Bishops in their home dioceses.  And once again, I thought that I would join in the fun with my very own Baptist version of the ritual...a blog post. The topic "What I'm Learning in Seminary" is simultaneously a broad one and a limited one, because the truth is that my learning in my seminary classes only succeeds when that act of learning and the information I take in works to transform my life, my relationship with my God, and my ability to…
Read More

A first semester report card…

Not that kind of report card.    Well, a little bit that-kind-of-report-card. I've had the chance to learn a lot about what it means to be part of a liturgically-based denomination in my first months at seminary and I must admit that I'm intrigued by some of the traditions,how they developed over the years and how they manifest themselves in the 21st century.  One of these practices refers to something called  Ember days.  Mostly, I hear people talking about Ember days because those are the days that, by tradition, the students are expected to communicate in some way (the format often depends on the technology-savvy nature of their individual bishops)…
Read More

What’s my style, anyway?

This week we read a variety of works on writing style.  It was interesting to go back and read Strunk and White's essay on style again, many years and many words after the first reading.  And it is an even more interesting task to answer the question of the week:  what's my style, anyway?  That wasn't specifically the question we are asked to answer, but it is my summary of the exercise. Actually, I realize after reading our assigned writings that the question of style almost never crosses my mind.  Because I have done so many different types of writing (almost everything except fiction and poetry), the primary concern for…
Read More

Let’s talk about the Hebrew language…ancient, that is

It is Sunday evening, and I am sitting at my desk attempting to memorize the Qal Imperfect paradigm of the ancient Hebrew language.  There is a catchy little song attached to the learning process (which you now know if you just followed the link in the previous sentence) but I am going to take a break for a minute to talk to you about what it is like for me to finally have the opportunity to study Biblical Hebrew. First of all, many of you may not know that I have a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies -- from a very, very long time ago, on a planet…
Read More

Writing Theology Well

That, my friends, is the question of the day...at least the question of the day in my writing class.  The true answer is:  I have never thought of myself as a writer of theology.  Until I began this class, if you had asked me the question "What kind of writer are you," I would have said that I was an observational one, a commentator on life as it swirled around me and on myself as I moved through life.  After all, wasn't "theology" a big word that applied to the work of scholars and deep thinkers?  Doesn't writing  theology mean creating exegetical essays on the meaning of one pivotal word…
Read More