I have a camera?

Here are a few pictures that I've taken over the past couple of months....

These are buffalo. I saw buffalo! In Huntington! It was awesome.

This is a sunset that I took outside of my church. It was a pretty rare sight!

And another picture of the sunset.....

Some leaves from a tree outside of my house....

And soccer......


The end.

Monday

I woke up late. 7:40. I was supposed to be there at 8. I threw my clothes on and ran out the door without doing my hair or brushing my teeth. Awesome. I was about 45 minutes late and felt really bad but when I pulled into the long gravel drive way I saw two men smiling as if caring weren't worth there time. Jeff and Fred. Jeff greeted me and started explaining his philosophy to me. He said that farming, working with a flock, is like leading a church. He said that today we would learn about the slow processes of pastoring.

We walked through a field of high grass towards a mobile chicken coop. Jeff told me that he and Fred had already collected the eggs but when we got there more had been laid. We picked up the eggs, gave the chickens water and feed and moved on to the turkeys. The turkeys just needed their coop moved over a fresh patch of grass.

People started showing up slowly after that. One by one they would mosey (quite literally) onto the field; one holding a cat, the next telling jokes from afar. After a while we went and looked at the pigs while Jeff hypothesized about the best way to move the turkey fence. Fred whistled and all of the turkeys ran under a coop. They had no idea what the noise was and instinctually hid. We moved the fence so the turkeys would have new grazing grass. All of the animals were free-range. It was beautiful.

We had tea and shared a morning devotional. The pastors joked about swear words and wine (most of them were Lutheran) and we ate homemade muffins and prayed brief but wonderful prayers.

A tractor was pulled near the house and we all jumped on the trailer. We ended up at a large garden cleaning up rotten and near rotten produce, sampling the romaine and banana peppers along the way. We loaded gourds and cucumbers and tomatoes and squash onto the trailer and took it back to the pigs. They lovingly accepted our offering and feasted until it was gone.

In the afternoon we had quiet time and then met together. We discussed a Wendell Berry article about the necessity of home and farmings dependence on new and exhaustible resources. Jeff encouraged us to replace the word "farm" with the word "church" in the Berry essay. It worked quite well. We talked about what home meant to us and what it might mean to have a church home.

My favorite memory of the day was during lunch. We were eating a wonderful beef stew when one of the pastors asked, in jest, "So Jeff, who are we eating." Jeff looked off in the distance for a moment. He turned his head, smiled and said, "Bruno." He wasn't joking. He had raised Bruno. He'd given him a name, knew his identity, and was now using Bruno to sustain his own life and to share with others so that they, too, can partake in the blessing of his flesh. We thanked God for Bruno.

Tending the soul....

Sometimes I still wonder what I want to do when I grow up. Then I remember that I'm mostly considered grown up now and I'm a youth pastor. Right now, I'm where I am supposed to be.

A challenge that comes with working in a church is finding time for reflection and prayer. Paul says that people who teach within the church are held to a higher moral standard. I think that also means that people who teach within the church need to be intentional about taking opportunities to grow and learn, to find people to invest in them.

A few weeks ago my pastor put a newsletter on my desk that I didn't read. I picked it up today and started reading through it. It's from a teaching ministry in North Manchester called Hope CSA that offers a course on experiential learning and academic study through the context of a small diversified farm. They focus on both theology and ecology. Essentially, those who participate learn about God through His creation -- through farming, and gardening, and study.

They are offering a mini-session this year that meets once a month for four months and only costs $10 a month. I think I'm going to do it.

I've always wanted to learn how to garden. There is something special and meaningful about eating food you have planted and nurtured. There is something spiritual about being so intimately connected with the things that you consume. Maybe this will be an opportunity for me to learn more about that.

Here is what the back of their newsletter tells me:

The mission of HOPE CSA, Inc. is to provide a ministry of continuing education and vocational renewal to clergy and other church leaders, using the resources of the Christian faith and of Creation in the context of a small, diversified family farm.

The purpose of this ministry is to teach clergy and other church leaders new ways of thinking and function as leaders living in interlocking family, congregational, collegial and natural systems.

The goal of this hands-on teaching ministry is to promote the well-being, and leadership skills of glergy and other church leaders by promoting "holy health," which is health in all seven dimensions: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, vocational, environmental, and spiritual.

The vision of this ministry is to involve clergy and other church leaders in the natural "household" of a healthy, small, diversified family farm as a natural system that functions according to the same natural process as their family, congregation, and collegial systems. As clergy are led to function healthily in the natural system of the farm and are guided to reflect on the natural processes that work toward life and health in that setting, they are instructed and shaped to function healthily in their other systems as well.

What do you all think?

Sojourners

I had the opportunity to see Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics (New York Times Best Seller) and The Call to Conversion, speak on two different occasions yesterday. The first was a panel discussion where four pastors and professors from the Church of God (Anderson) responded to chapters out of Rev. Wallis' book The Call to Conversion. There was a pretty small Audience of no more than 50 or so for this discussion.

The second time was when he presented the sermon for the Church of God's national convention service. This was a much larger setting, probably before some 2,000-4,000 people.


I haven't read any of Wallis' books, though I have both of them sitting on my desk now. He had some wonderful things to say about Christianity, partisanship, politics, the right, the left, and living the Christian life but I won't bore you with those. He did, though, say something about the nature of evangelism that struck a chord with me. He pointed out that Christians in the west are answering questions that aren't being asked.

The first century church lived a radically different lifestyle than the society of their time. They lived a radically different lifestyle than Christians today live. Their life was marked by their commitment to one another, their commitment to the poor and the oppressed, and their willingness to share everything so that all needs were met. They were known for preaching "good news to the poor" with both their mouths and their lifestyles and numbers were added to them daily. People were asking questions.

"Why would you live this way? What's in it for you? Who is this Jesus character you keep talking about? Is he the reason you are living so differently? Is he the reason you sold all you had? Is he the reason you won't join the army? Is he the reason you would rather be killed than fight back?"

These are the questions being asked in the Bible. These are the questions Peter urged his fellow believers to always be ready to answer. Today we try to sell something we don't have. We advertise a lifestyle of passion, hope, change, conversion, radicalism but what we sell is dramatically different. We sell moralism. We sell suburban hopes and dreams. We sell 401Ks and stewardship. We sell political agendas that are too narrow to encapsulate all of the things that God loves and cares about. We sell Christian alternatives to every conceivable form of recreation and it just isn't working. It isn't working because all it is is a cleaned up substitute for what people already have. It isn't working because we're selling a re-packaged version of the materialism that our society is already trapped in. It isn't working because what we are selling isn't good news to anybody, especially the poor.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
-Jesus-

Pointing to Heaven....

Richard and Jenna got married
Just a few shots....I don't want to post too many until the couple gets to see them!

Peace

speaking with color...

More photos
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and...
and...
and...

Worth 1,000 Words....

I got a new camera. It's a Canon Rebel XT. I don't really know how to use it well yet. Practice!

A few photos....

I couldn't think of anything to shoot other than flowers....

more flower....

I'll post more here as I get better and practice.