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Pillar Church Discovery Presentation

http://www.globaleducationfirst.org/220.htm How does the work with Global Citizen Education assist the work of pastoral formation in theological education? from Global Education First: Barriers to global citizenship Legacy of the current education system.  Schools have traditionally prepared people to pass exams, proceed to the next level and graduate into the workplace. We now face the much greater challenge of raising global citizens. Promoting respect and responsibility across cultures, countries and regions has not been at the centre of education. Global citizenship is just taking root and changing traditional ways of doing things always brings about resistance. This entails changing the way education is organized— making content more relevant to contemporary life and global challenges, introducing innovative and participatory teaching and learning styles. We must rethink the purpose of education and prepare students for life, not exams alone. Outmoded curricu...

I was invited to participate in a conversation with two students scheduled for the same day I departed for a consultation on the impact of globalizing forces in US seminaries. The two students are leaders in their ecclesial community, seminary students looking to pastor, and Spanish speakers from very different Latin American countries. They came to our office to ask “how can the seminary become a bridge for Hispanic or Latino/a communities in West Michigan?” The students shared something I did not expect: Holland, Michigan is home to more than 20 Spanish-speaking congregations. This news was jarring to me, and I am not able to shake this information. Really?!?.... Holland, Michigan, this assumed Dutch colony in middle America, has a vibrant Spanish speaking Christian community?!? I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. I am not sure that our faculty knows this reality; I am quite certain that our students, who are temporary citizens of Holland, know this reality. Leading the church in m...

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...