Keep 'em Entertained

I usually don't watch more than 4 or 5 hours of TV a week anymore and one day while flipping through channels saw this infomercial and had to comment on it. It is probably appropriate that since TV has become a god for us in America that it is only fitting to gather around the tube and listen to someone else read the bible for us! Let's just hope that the electricity doesn't go out or the DVD doesn't get scratched or we won't be able to hear or see the word of God. Pathetic people...

Sightings

I live in a very interesting part of the country. What I mean by that is there are a larger variety of mammals to be found out there than in the eastern part of the Midwest where I've lived (Ohio, Indiana). It has a lot to do with being so close to the Mississippi River and in a more northern part of the region as well. Some of the larger apex predators (notably bears, wolves and cougars) have been reported in this region (SW Wisconsin, NW Illinois, NE Iowa & SE Minnesota).

This summer I had the chance to do some really great tracking with the girls at Scout camp and kids at our local church camp. I want to share two stories of our tracking adventures.

I regularly took the girls out tracking in a nearby ravine that sloped down into a small brook. This was the perfect place to do some tracking because there is always more animal activity near a water source. They were really getting into it as we trailed a right dominate female coyote for a good 30 yards or so. Then I had a girl spot a circular compression shaped track (circular means cat family) that was about two inches by two inches. After taking a few minutes to locate the next set of tracks, we discovered that they were from a bobcat! I've never tracked a bobcat before so I was excited! We followed the tracks into the brush and another girl pointed out some markings on an eastern hemlock. Cats usually sharpen their claws on trees and I was certain that this bobcat had done just that. Now bobcats are more common and it shouldn't be a surprise to find their sign out here.

A cougar however, that is a different story!!

When I was at our church camp this summer, I also took the kids tracking. Again they really got into it once they learned some tricks like determining the sex, dominance of the animal by studying the track. It was there that I discovered another circular compression shape, only this time the track was almost twice the size of the bobcat track (3 1/2" x 4" - almost the size of the palm of my hand). Could it have been a really big bobcat or even a lynx (which has larger tracks than a bobcat)? Possibly, but my mind had already shifted to the next largest feline... the cougar.

When we got back, I asked the camp manager about bobcat sightings in the area. He said yes there had been. I then told him about the track that I came across and saw his eyes get big. I suggested "cougar?" He said that his wife had thought she spotted a cougar about a year or so back but wasn't entirely sure since she didn't get the best look at it.

I was at the camp this past weekend and the camp manager told me that a cougar had been spotted over in the neighboring county! You can click here to read other sightings of cougar in this area.

No doubt you've probably seen the news clip about the cougar in Chicago and even the coyote in Chicago. If not check them out!

Next Steps for Me?

Too Open?

After looking over the past few posts, I've come to the conclusion that maybe I have been keeping myself too open for possibilities. I've been so open that I have not been able to focus in and really work towards one thing for fear that I might be shutting out other possibilities.

So today I am staking my claim and focusing my efforts more on my knowledge and further developing my wilderness living skills & outdoor education.

I hope that by focusing my attention on the possibilities that present themselves right now I can get a better sense of direction for my life's vocation.

Old or New Paradigm? Or Both?

Thinking more about the new paradigm that I mentioned briefly in my previous post.

I was flipping back through some of my older "emergent" books recently and trying to get more of an idea of where I am in the midst of this whole modern/postmodern debate. It's important to note that the "new paradigm" isn't necessarily postmodernism but has elements of both periods.

I'll list the nutrients that are found in their respective "soils" that are the foundations for both Modern and Postmodern then list where I fall in relation to the soils. (Taken from Dan Kimball's book "The Emerging Church" pg. 61)

Modern Soil: monotheism, rational, religion, propositional, systemic, local, individualistic, truth
Postmodern Soil: pluralism, experiential, mystical, narrative, fluid, global, communal/tribal, preference

My Soil: monotheism, experiential, mystical, narrative, fluid, local, communal/tribal, truth

I am approximately 2/3 postmodern and 1/3 modern. I'll expound a bit on why I am where I am. Growing up, my experience was profoundly rooted in a monotheistic tradition and though I am accepting of a pluralistic thought I find that my rooted-ness comes back to a simple understanding of a trinitarian God. I place a greater emphasis on the experiential methods of learning and find that it offers me more insight than a rational/logical approach. If there was ever a category that I feel most "at home" it would be that of a mystic! Narratives, anecdotes and storytelling makes things more palatable for me. I despise the systemic "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" thought. I believe that often the sums of its parts must have fluidity to make the argument of the "whole" even a possibility. The next nutrient of local/global really depends more on where I am at the present. I consider my thought to be more of a hybrid "glocal" but still focusing more on the good of the local community/tribe. I break with most post moderns as it relates to truth because I still believe in absolute and knowable truth.

Another term that has been used is ancient future and I would say that I am somewhere to be found in that term as well. Again, I have to ask myself if my place is still in the church. Honestly, if it wasn't for that 1/3 of modern thought still apart of who I am, I'd have probably left the church altogether. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for people ten years younger than me that have grown up in a predominate post-modern way of thinking.

Hope this gives some insight when I speak of the new paradigm that we are stepping into but not there yet. We are in a liminal space.

Wondering

For as much as I believe that I am called to be in the church (vocationally); I sometimes wonder if the church is really the best place for me? Two instances this past weekend that made me ponder these very things.

First, I spent a total of 4 hours on the road with another Brethren pastor who I had never met until I showed up at his church to catch a ride. We did as expected, spent most of our time talking about the state of the church as it related to our experiences. I've often wondered if people really get me because I am a pretty deep guy and have thought more than a time or two that people have just been tolerating me and my views because they don't want to discourage a young adult from ministry. I've even wondered if this was the reason my home church would keep re-licensing me to ministry, even if I was not representative of who they are. So I was elated to spend time with another pastor who in essence "got me" and shared our common experiences. I got to district conference feeling pretty good like "hey I just might fit in here."

Second. For the majority of the time that I was at conference, I sat in on business sessions and reports. There was one item of business that was pretty divisive among delegates and discussion for and against the lasted for nearly an hour. For the first time ever, I stood up to share on the item at hand. I quoted God's response to Job as a way of presenting (a prophetic?) an ambiguous argument for both sides of the issue. What I got was the sound of crickets and some heads shaking a visible "no." I sat down wondering if I had made the wisest choice... after all I usually don't make a statement in that environment unless I sense the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to do so. Then I started thinking... why did I make that statement? This was my first introduction into the district after all. Did I make it to be liked? Or did I make it to speak truth? I'm not entirely certain and only time will tell on that one.

It got me thinking though. I see the North American Church as clinging to the old paradigm and patterns of doing things. This way is failing and I cannot understand why the church insists on doing it this way. My other thought was "Am I still operating out of the old paradigm as well?" My sense is a strong NO. As I reflected back on the situation, my words may have been decidedly in a new paradigm way of thinking and that is why I got the response that I did. So I ask the question again, In my attempt to get people thinking in a new way am I being misunderstood? Maybe.

Is my vocational life best suited to be in the church or with one foot in and the other out (i.e. outdoor ministry, wilderness living education)? I've mentioned before that in some ways I feel like John the Baptist, returning to the church after having spent ( literally and metaphorically) time in the wilderness and bringing back to the church what the wilderness experience taught me.

This is part of the intentional discernment process that I am now in. Keep me in your prayers that this time of discernment would be fruitful.

Believe Again

Last night was the start of something new in my life. What was it?

Hope.

Until last night it was just another word thrown around in a political campaign, and honestly I'd become a little skeptical of that emotion. Today it has become embodied in my spirit. I feel like for the first time in my adult life I am able to really hope for a better tomorrow. That is something that I have not had in my 20's, which is supposed to be the most exciting time of your life. It hasn't been for me. I have had some amazing things happen to me along the way (most importantly a loving, supportive wife) and if it hadn't been for their intercessions, who knows where I'd be today.

My life had become a semblance of what the Architect in Matrix: Reloaded stated:

"Hope, the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."

Hope, as it seemed in my life was more of a weakness than a strength.

Now it is different. It feels different. This isn't about political parties, it's about believing in yourself and your country again. Honestly for the last 8 years, I have been ashamed of my country and didn't support it like I should have. But I am beginning to believe in the possibility of a new day for America.

I haven't felt like this in a long time and I pray that this good energy would spill out into all the other avenues of my life as well. I don't acknowledge what happened last night exclusively in a secular light, I know there are spiritual implications as well. And for that I am excited about what tomorrow holds.