A Permanent Home

www.livelypace.com   I have moved, domain name & everything.  Come visit my new home! (you might have to hit “refresh” – there is a random bug that still needs to be fleshed out).

I Have Not Lost “It”

While I have lost my mind, I have not lost "it".  "It", in this case, defined as wonder – wonder at God's magnitude, His love for us, His creation, etc.  Jeff, over at the Dawn Treader, posted his thoughts on losing the wonder and asked how does a Christian go about not losing the wonder.

My upbringing and the various things that have happened to me during my formative years (I will not go into that here) should have caused me to lose the wonder.  I should have become incredibly jaded. Very, very jaded. Somehow, in His grace, God preserved me from that. 

Not Just a Theological Position

Being the research rat that I am, I offered to do a large share of information hunting for our search committee. In the last 48 hours, I have read through 90+ doctrinal statements of various undergraduate and seminaries/graduate schools.

I ran across this pamphlet written in 2005 by Paul W. Powell of Truett Seminary.  He was attempting to explain to the average lay person the nature of the changes and conflicts in the SBC (at least, in Texas).  I found the following quote very "spot on":

Singing & Making Music

I know it shouldn't surprise me when God puts something in my path that I just can't miss.  This is one of those moments.

As noted in my previous post, I was asked to serve on a search committee at church – a search committee for a minister of worship.  Shortly after I accepted the position, I was doing my daily blog reading and saw Tim Challies's review of this book.  Feeling the need to further educate myself in the area of worship, church music and the like, I ordered the book. (On a personal note, I don't need much reason at all to purchase and read books – I can't go long without a "fix").  The book showed up today and I managed to read a little in between rehearsals tonight.

I am only 30-some pages into it and it's already proving to be worth more than the cover price. Paul Jones, the author, is the organist and Music Director at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.  I really appreciate his insight into the trends and issues in church music.  While I may not completely agree with all of his conclusions, his points are well-made and his thoughts are worth pondering.  I have been very involved in the music portion of ministry, both at my previous and current church (I'm a pianist). Jones's propositions cause me to evaluate how music is utilized and presented in church. Not to mention the fact that, with a new perspective, I am also critiquing my methods of playing the piano.

I may have to buy copies of this for the entire search committee.  Call me selfish, but there is no way I am parting with my copy.

(drumroll) … And the Winner Is …

Me. I think.

 Our church is a very healthy one and growing.  Growing to the point that we now need 3 services.  People are being stretched, which can be a good thing and can be a bad thing. 

It has been decided, on an elder level and with the blessings of the congregation, to seek a minister of worship. I was asked to prayerfully consider being on the search committee. I eventually accepted and we had our first meeting tonight.

I have every reason to believe that this is going to be a great experience.

(If you happen to know of someone looking for a full-time position as a minister of worship, let me know and I can point you/them in the right direction).

Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead ….

"Wake up – sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed. Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead."

 

The Wicked Witch of the East was permanently silenced by an object falling from the sky.  Her reign of tyranny over the pint-sized inhabitants of Munchkinland came to a sudden and crushing end.  And there was much rejoicing (yay!). 

Odd how Abu Musab al-Zarqawi met his end in a similar manner.  All of us "sleepy heads" woke up to the news.  However, I didn't hear any vertically-challenged people with unnaturally high voices singing in the streets.  Could just be my neighborhood, though…

Each Day Has Enough Trouble of Its Own …

Various folks were all hyped up about 6/6/06.  Please don't get me started on that. The basic consensus was that you should stay home, under a blanket, quivering until either a)the world ended or b)the "curse" passed.

Given the nature of this week so far, I would vote for staying under a blanket but for other reasons:

1. As noted earlier, my co-worker's son was involved in a significant car accident
2. Also noted was the fact that another co-worker had to put her dog down over the weekend.
3. There was a bad motorcycle accident yesterday that tied up a major intersection in our neck of the woods.  Turns out that the motorcyclist was the brother of someone my husband works with.  He died later yesterday afternoon, leaving behind a wife and two children, ages 6 & 9.
4. Just got a call from the co-worker in item#2.  She won't be in because her daughter is being admitted to the hospital with a severe infection in her mouth/side of face.

Remember playing games as a child and being allowed to have "do-overs"? I'd like to start this week over and pretend none of this ever happened…

Update

update (3:11 PM) - Of course, the newspaper has its own agenda and, therefore, a certain type of story to maintain. 

 According to our bookkeeper, her son was home with her all evening until she went to bed at midnight.  Much later, her son got a call from the teen that died who wanted a ride home from a friend's house.  He went down, picked him up (at some point, another passenger also entered the scene), and started back home.  They were coming down off of a hill when a deer jumped into the roadway.  Her son swerved to avoid the deer, lost control of the car and it rolled up the embankment, hit a billboard which then crashed down on top of the car.

Mondays Are Hard Enough

I was going to post a really funny story that was told to me over the weekend, but I am in no mood for jocularity right now.

I came in to work this morning and was checking messages left overnight/early this morning.  There was only one and it was from our bookkeeper, saying that she wouldn't be in until tomorrow.  Her voice didn't sound good, but I couldn't tell if she was sick or upset. 

Brush Up on Your Middle English

Just ran across this in my search for something else.  It's the Da Vinci Code a la Chaucer.

Brings back odd memories of The Canterbury Tales.

(HT: BHT-Michael Spencer)