Friday Personal-News Dump

So it's been awhile since I blogged - over a month! Yikes, clearly I have a lot to learn about building my brand. Friday afternoon is a popular time for organizations and governments and teams to release 'bad news' in what's been dubbed a "Friday news dump", when you want to attract as little cultural attention as possible. This is not the case with these things, but the timing is what it is.

But to the question of the day, "What have I been up to?"

So glad you asked - quite a bit it turns out. Here's an update complete with pictures and fun extra stuff. Apologies for some of the formatting stuff, I don't have the time or expertise right now to make it perfect.

Center for Pastor Theologians Conference

In late October, I spent three days in Chicago attending the Center For Pastor-Theologians annual conference. They intentionally address topics each year that the American Church is wrestling with. This year's theme was on "Reconstructing Evangelicalism" and it featured a terrific line up of speakers. 

The experts they brought in represented a diverse spectrum - from Kristin Kobes DuMez to Gavin Ortlund to Russell Moore to Walter Kim. I am still pondering some of the insights that were shared. I haven't sat down to really figure out my own conclusions, but the gracious-yet-assertive discussions offered many convicting truths and views. 

As with most of these kinds of events, the fringe benefits matched the direct purpose of going. I thoroughly enjoyed my time interacting with my denominational friends and peers. As we continue to consider our "Brethren identity", this conference assisted in helping us understand our place and station within American evangelicalism. The additional fringe benefit of constant access to the book publishers was worth it too. I came home with a bag full of resources and commentaries purchased at a discounted rate.

Milford First Brethren Fun Fair

Halloween is kind of a big deal in Milford Indiana. We're a smaller farm community but the townspeople turn out for the various holiday events on the calendar. Every year I've pastored here, our church has hosted a Halloween Fun Fair in our gymnasium. Kids do the ring toss, corn hole, Plinko and other games to get pieces of candy. I've arranged the games to give a subtle Gospel presentation though I'm not sure it kids really notice it. We do give out Bibles as part of our Grand Prize table. It's a fun way to connect with our community and redeem the holiday (even if in a subtle small way). 

This year, a highlight was adding a Face Paint station which allowed my son to be both Capt. America (in costume) and Spiderman via his paint.

Grandma Guiley's Funeral

On the other end of the spectrum was the home-going of my last remaining grandparent. Grandma Sue was a wonderful grandma and beautiful light for Christ. We had family come in from all over the country and it was neat to reconnect with aunts, uncles, and cousins who I hadn't seen in year. 

I'm grateful for my grandma's legacy and encouraged that we were able to celebrate her life and witness well. 

Miscellaneous

I would like to mention that I'm serving as chaplain for the Grace Lancers men's basketball team for the fourth year. It's been a good start to the season with some clear indications God is doing things in the lives of these young men. They are good people and good players - currently #3 in all of NAIA!

Please pray for our one true freshman, Hagen, who has been diagnosed with cancer and will be undergoing some surgery and treatments within the next month. 

And as I've alluded to in past posts, I have been listening to the old CCM records I got from my grandma. Some future posts reviewing the albums will be forthcoming.

Music Mondays

Halloween is right around the corner. Growing up, we never celebrated it for all the standard conservative Christian reasons. 

I definitely respect that decision my parents made. But my own opinion has softened on the subject. At our church, we've begun a tradition of hosting a Halloween Fun Fair in our gym. Milford's a small community but there are a lot of kids and families who go trick-or-treating. We use the 'pagan' holiday for kingdom purposes, offering a inside option full of games with subtle Gospel tie-ins, a ton of candy, and even passing out Bibles as part of our Grand Prize table.

While it is not too much of a stretch to redeem Halloween for ministry purposes, it felt like a stretch to do a Music Monday around it. I did a half-hearted search for Christian Halloween songs, expecting little to no results. To my surprise, I found something I could use. 

Thanks to this video breakdown, I realized there are some cringe-worthy old-school options along with some more current ones. I also realized I had been forgetting one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums of my late high school/early college years. 

Audio Adrenaline's "Some Kind of Zombie" isn't overly campy and by-and-large still holds up. Notice the good and bad imagery in the video and how the song itself goes back and forth between the harsh and light tones, fitting pretty well with the overall themes of the lyrics.

The Walking Dead has brought Zombie Apocolyptic-ism to mainstream culture. This song reminds us that we can actually see spiritual truth in the horror trope. One could of course embrace the idea that we are born to new life in Christ (1 John 5:1-5). But this takes the opposite approach, that we are the zombies, dead to sin (Colossians 3:1-9). It's presence is still there, but it holds no power over us if we walk by the Spirit. In that sense, we are some kind of zombies.

 

Personal Opinion Side Note: For my money - when it comes to back-to-back albums - "Some Kind of Zombie" and "Underdog" are as good as any CCM artists ever not named dc Talk.