There Is No End to the...

boxes, boxes, and more boxes.

I've officially moved in to my new place. Of course, there's no room to move around yet. The worst part is that I can't find my coffee pot. I bought this cool new Chocolate Silk coffee to try out, but I have no way to make it at home. I've had to bring it to the office. It's good, but not as good as I'd hoped.

I posted flyers around downtown yesterday. We're starting up an "Experimental Worship" service at Second Con and we want local musicians to play.

What we're looking for:

• Street music that speaks to people spiritually (which does not necessarily mean "Christian" music)
  People who can commit to participating regularly in the Experimental Worship
  
• Several groups with different styles (since we want to rotate different artists regularly)
  
• People intersted in helping to carve out their own spiritual niche
  

What we're not looking for:

• Contemporary Christian music (there's plenty of places that have that; we want somethign different)
  
• Artists who only want to come if they are playing that night

And, some suggested styles:

• Etheral
  
• Drumming
  
• Reggae
  
• Other sounds from the neighborhood

I'm not sure the of the actual start date, but I do know that it will be tied into our Wednesday Night Live. We will begin with a community meal around 5:50pm, and then around 6:20 we will adjourn to the chapel.

I'm looking forward to starting this up. If anyone who reads this knows of someone who might be interested, please give them the head's-up.

Also, we're considering starting up a Living the Questions group. If we go in this direction, I'm toying with the idea of having it over at the Minglewood. That would open it to the public.

Read More

Is that Queen I Hear in the Background?

Title: Stained Glass at Second Con
We won! Second Congregational Church is officially the soft-ball champions of the church league as of last night. The final score: 14-9.

On a different note, I got a bit of feedback for my sermon last Sunday. It came in a beautiful card with our stained glass windows on the cover (see above).

Here's what she said:

Dear Bo,
A church service such as yesterday's inspires me the rest of the week. Welcome to Second Congregational Church! Youre sermon was great.

I'm not going to give the name of the author, and she probably won't stumble across this blog, but just in case she does....thank you!

For those interested in hearing the sermon, it can be found on my Eclectic Podcasting Mass. Or you can just click on the following button.

Read More

Preaching

This Sunday will be my first sermon at Second Con. I just finised the nearly-final draft. As I try to think about where this congregation is, I realize that I may have to take a pretty different approach to sermons. I have effectively moved from a conservative, rural congregation to a liberal, urban one. The extent to which I have to adapt I don't yet know. It has made this first one tough though.

I'm also thinking about doing another DVD discussion group at a local coffee shop (much like the Historical Jesus Discussion Group that I did at the Common Grounds BookCafe). Mike has suggested a "Fundamentalist Recovery Group." It's a neat idea. I think Bart Ehrman's New Testament DVD series would be great for that, but I'll have to do a quick review to see how complicated it is.

Now, off to check out a coffee shop that my predecessor haunted.

Read More

No More Anonymous Comments

I got tired of the "anonymous" comments that were actually spam postings (or whatever they're officially called). Therefore, I've turned off the option to post anonymously. If anyone out there wants to post on here, sorry, but you've got to get a blogger account. That doesn't mean that it ever has to be updated, but you'll have to at least set something up.

Tomorrow, I'm going back to Spring Valley. I think I've found a temporary appt up here, so I think I can bring some stuff back. The new place would start at about mid-month. After (if?) I take it, I can rent and load a truck and finish this transition.

Read More

And She's Off

Mission Bound is off to Japan tomorrow. Tim, her, and I were going to go to the India House (she's a big fan of anything Indian), but apparently they saw us coming and decided to be closed on Tuesdays. So, off to get Giordano's pizza. I'm very sad to see her leave, but I'm sure she will have a ball over there.

The car is back in my possession. In fact, now it works much better than it has in a long time. Woo hoo! I can finally go down to Spring Valley and continue dismantling my appt for the move.

I should be working rather than blogging right now. About 1/2hr before I left work today, the Senior Pastor and I had a discussion about doing some sort of "alternative worship" on Wed nights. Theoretically, I should be able to go back in tomorrow with something tangible on paper. Part of the problem is that I have too many ideas. The question is: "What approach will enable new people to give voice to their own sense of spiritual connection?" The next question is: "How do we advertise this effectively when the start date is 28 Sept?" So much to do; so little time.

Quite exciting though.

Read More

Where's the Dunce Cap?

I just got the call from the mechanic. He has figured out what is wrong with my car. Apparently, in my mad dash to make it to the softball game, I topped off the tank with diesel. He'll get it fixed up and back to me some time during the beginning of next week.

I feel like such a bonehead.

Read More

Losing Internet Access

While in transition, I will be losing some of my internet access. I can connect where I'm staying with friends, but I don't want to monopolize their computer. Obviously, at work I'm limited by...well, work. And in Spring Valley I'll be canceling my service since I'm not there.

This isn't as big a deal for my blog as it is my podcast. (Though it does mean I won't be surfing many other people's blogs much.) I'm glad to say that I've got at least 20 subscribers now with about 40-50 hits a day. I need to update. It has been too long. I'll try to get another spot out there as soon as I can, but it might be a while. Hopefully, I'll be able to connect enough in the near future to at least get an explanation out there.

I finished watching the movie Alexander tonight with friends. Not good. In fact, very bad. Okay, atrocious is really more like it. I might have to watch The Incredibles again just to cleanse my memory of all the bad acting.

Oh, and for all those interested, Second Congregational will be renting parking spaces for $5 for Waterfront. If I remember correctly, the $$$ goes to our gym and youth group activities. I'll be out there off and on with the youth group if anyone wants to drop in and say "hi."

Read More