Pilgrims' Home

The most difficult part of departing the pastorate is the desire to find a new location for worship. I remember realizing this fear early on after announcing our resignation. Lindsay could see confusion and sadness in my face and asked, “what’s wrong?” My body had the same anxious-tinge from when she asked me that question following our departure from Excelsior Covenant Church. I said to her, “I don’t want to go through the misery of finding a new church and of a new church having to find out who we are.” Starting over has always been a juxtaposition of excitement and misery for me. But mostly, in this case, starting over with a new church (where we are not pastors) is full of fear – the idea of it feels miserable. I have always had empathy for newcomers to the church; the initial decision to begin or return to attending worship is one of deep fear for most. The fear is not only for the newcomer but equally so for the church-folks who receive them in worship. I m...

I am confessedly grieving over the vocational change from pastor and teacher/administrator to solely being a teacher/administrator at Western Theological Seminary. (I went through my fb statuses since June and recognize that friends and blog-readers have known this longer than even I). I do not regret the decision to leave the church or believe that I made a mistake, yet I do miss the fullness of life that occurred at the intersections of my former life. I enjoyed sharing life between WTS and Harbert Community Church last year. If WTS was too complicated, I had HCC to occupy my heart and mind. If HCC was too exhausting, I had the work at WTS to enliven me. Now I have just one job, one community, and no pastorate. I did not enjoy the cost of this life on my family. I have spent more time with my children in the last three months than I feel I did in the last four years. I thoroughly enjoy evenings and weekends uninterrupted with Lindsay and the children. But nonet...

I had the original summer goal to run 100 miles in 15 cities. This work is still in progress, but now that I am "home" for a bit. I want to record where I've been and how long I ran. The runs included below were all very enjoyable with varying levels of difficulty. The most difficult was the first mile of the Swanzey Lake run and the last mile of the San Francisco run, but these two runs included celebrations for completing monster hills. Visit mapmyrun.com for the exact course details: http://www.mapmyrun.com/my_home/ 6/3/13 28 3.14 9 Holland, MI 6/6/13 42 4.30 10 New York City 6/27/13 25 2.51 10 Childwicksham, United Kingdom 6/26/13 22 2.33 9 Birmingham, United Kingdom 6/29/13 60 5.30 11 Paris, France 6/30/13 49 5.25 9 Amsterdam, Netherlands 7/3/13 48 4.88 10 Omaha, Nebraska 7/6/13 45 4.80 9 Grand Rapids, MI 7/11/13 28 3.00 9 Sioux Falls, SD 7/13/13 41 4.10 10 Minneapolis, MN 7/16/13 35 3.20 11 Crawfordsville, IN 7/17/13 50 4.35 11 Crawfordsville, IN 7/19/13 35 3.64 10...

I celebrate that I was able to sleep the whole night despite the time zone change. I awoke at 6am eager to begin my plan of 100 miles in 10 cities throughout June and July. I laced my shoes and ran the only path I knew (namely the path we walked last night to and from The Pavillion). The morning was beautiful and I enjoyed the exercise after two full days of traveling. Today we travel briefly from Birmingham to Evensham on the northside of the Cotswolds. I love this part of England and continually reminisce about my trip here with Lindsay and her parents several years ago. We made a brief stop in Broadway and walked through Lygnon Arms , a famous hotel and pub. In the center of town was a memorial from WWI that listed the names of many men. Supposedly, 1/3 of the young male generation was eliminated from this town during the First WW.  We left Broadway and travelled to our meeting destination, The House of the Open Door . This is a Charismatic Catholic Community's retreat h...

I arrived to Birmingham last night unsure of what to expect. Mary Publicover from Springdale College greeted me at the small airport and drove me just outside Birmingham near Selly Oak College (where Lesslie Newbigin taught following his retirement). I was received by Martin and Linda Robinson for the evening, and from the moment I entered their home I felt a new and much needed peace. Martin was once a pastor at the local church (The Pavillion) and is now the principal at Springdale College. He is no longer a pastor, but a wise disciple, who teaches and inquires, while also serving as an elder in his beloved chuch community. We spent the evening discussing not church, but gospel and culture. Oddly, during our conversation, we went for a walk around the town with a stop into the church and college building, where he was once pastor. We did not discuss programs or facilities of the church, but continued our discussion on gospel and culture, especially as it pertained to The Pavillion...

Carter, I hope that you remember me – Flat Carter. I have had an exceptional few months of life here. I live in Sawyer, Michigan now, and I have traveled quite a bit since I last saw you. First of all, my travels and energy have increased partially due to your Uncle Kyle's green friend, Starbucks First, I have traveled to Holland, Michiga n almost everyday. This is where my friend and your uncle works. He is a teacher at WesternTheological Seminary . He teaches young women and men to be people who lead others to believe in God. Right now Holand Michigan is celebrating Tulip Time . Tulip Time is some Dutch tradition that includes a parade, people walking in wood shoes, and a celebration of the invention of the windmill. Holland has tulips everywhere! My first weekend in Holland, I traveled to Washington, DC . I flew from Grand Rapids, Michigan through Cincinnati to Washington D.C. I was able to meet two important people. The first was Gordon Cr...

The following is a letter I drafted for our church yet never formally sent. I post this here as a public offering that is intended for our church. This was originally drafted in mid-February. Dear Harbert Community Church, I write to you in regards to our recent resignation. Following Sunday morning worship and the congregational conversation, I returned home saddened that we spent more time together trying to understand and to justify the decision than sharing our hearts with you and you with us. I think our inability to clearly communicate was merely out of the newness of the news - not only to you but also to us (odd as it may sound). I returned home unsettled by the conversation and tone. I was primarily unsettled because I didn't find a clarity in speech from my own mouth that was satisfactory. I was also unable to hear your words in a manner of gratitude. My guess is that what I said about anxiety doing odd things was apparent in our conversation already. I have come to...

Well....after four days of a public course (Leading CHristian Communities), I pulled its publicness. I realized that I include copyrighted material in my course, for which Western Theological Seminary seek permissions to use. Therefore, CC does not continue for me. I must, and rightly so, honor the permissions given to WTS and me. This means that the fair use of CC is void unless I pull all copyrighted material from my course (Which I am not willing to do since my students deserve access to articles). Anyway, realizing this, I sent the following to a guru of LMS and DL (Distance Learning) education: "Name, I just realized one issue of making my course public: I use articles that only WTS students have permission to access, so if these are available to the public, then I am breaking ccl rules and using copyright material in a public way.... in order to do this all of my internal posts/files/content must also be cc or public domain. Well, the process of trying true open...

I eagerly celebrated that my spring semester course was public under the laws of Creative Commons . I read the details of the license and chose specifically attribution and non-commercial, meaning that I was willing to let anyone use the course and modify it (make derivatives) according to their need. I was willing to share - a lesson we are constantly teaching our children, and then I hit an obstacle. Though I am willing to share, I load content onto my page from other thinkers and teachers, for which I have acquired permission, yet their work is copyrighted material distributed to me for [formal] educational purposes. Therefore, my creative commons license is in violation of the borrowed copyrighted material. Copyright trumps creative commons, which I support, and creative commons holders must respect works that do not adopt open-policy. I have now removed my course from the Creative Commons domain, yet I have kept it public, albeit now with very limited access. This is the joy...

**This post is affiliated with my current MOOC Course: Introduction to Openness in Education .  I am enlightened tonight as I switch back and forth between student in a MOOC and professor for a traditional in-residence class. The intersection of the topics is helpful, also. I am teaching Leading Christian Communities and am required to load the course on CANVAS (LMS). Normally, my online LMS is for student-eyes only, yet CANVAS has a built in feature where anyone can view my course by way of a Creative Commons License . There is fear in moving toward free and public work. Much like students feel about their own writing and assignments, I do not always want everyone looking at my stuff. I just want a few committed students to use-what-I-create. Yet my fear needs to be defeated, especially because I espouse to have a reflective drive to make my teaching and learning even better. Therefore, by persuasion of my MOOC and by possibility of Canvas, I am embodying my MOOC learn...

I'm beginning my first MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) . This is a course offered through CANVAS , a LMS or Learning Management Software. Western Theological Seminary invested in Canvas, and as a teacher, I am impressed - it is built for teachers and students. Anyway, I'm taking this online-free-notforcredit-course to boost my pedagogical and scholarly practices. I'm interested in this course for several reasons: 1.   Adult learning is self-porpelled learning. Adult learning is an under-explored aspect of learning (especially in churches), yet is essential in the rise of higher education. Adult learners need the habits and skills of self-propelled learning. Digital learning is most easily self-propelled learning under a teacher's willingness to guide and a community's willingness to share understanding. 2. I am curious about open content . I live in-between wanting to control my publications and  openly distribute and share. I have written published...

Today we, the Western Seminary Faculty, received news that one of the most brilliant minds belonging to a most hospitable heart has been diagnosed with cancer (multiple myeloma). He is not defeated in this diagnosis and neither is the Western Seminary Community. As a matter of fact, we are even more strongly rooted to the promises and laments in Scripture, and the convictions of our confession (yes, I did, as a Covenanter, include myself in the claim of a confession): Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; Lindsay and I walked alongside a good friend two years ago who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. We watched him survive and celebrate that he is in remission. We trust this same path now for our colleague. Yet we know that the path to remission and recovery is medically intense, physically complicated, and a great stress on a family. Thi...