First Day

One would think that the first day of your new career, would seem quite extraordinary. I have been preparing for this exclusively pretty much the last decade of my life. However, today, did not seem extraordinary. I am not trying to imply that I am not excited about this change in my life, the potential and possibility leave my head spinning a little bit to be quite honest. Just getting a lay of the land though, did not seem as thrilling as I had expected. Perhaps though this is a good thing, the simple familiarity, the jovial camaraderie, and the candid expression of expectations, felt natural and mundane. As if I had been there before, and was now returning, rather than showing up for the first time. Though before I wax on, it was only the first day...

Potentially Useful

This is more to remind myself to check this out more when I'm not knee deep in transitions and sermon preparation.

I ran across this site when I was doing a presentation on Twitter for my "Pop Goes Religion" course in the GTU. The site "Church Marketing Sucks" came up in my search results. I honestly haven't looked at it in depth, so I don't know if it is good or not. It is apparently a division of the Center for Church Communications, which is also a group/non-profit that I am unfamiliar with. However, as someone who is going into the ministry and is also a tech-aficionado it seems to have some potential. I will take some time to review it later.

Interview

Well I have an interview coming up pretty soon, next Monday in fact. I'm excited about the site as there seem to be some unique opportunities. I'll be interviewing for an associate position, so a lot will be on whether or not the senior pastor and I mesh well.

In the meantime the synod has been giving me plenty of opportunities to preach. I'll be supply preaching at several churches around the area. That should be helpful for getting me back in the groove of sermon preparation. Speaking of which, I'm going to get back to that now.

Moved

So we're back east now, and no longer on the left coast. I'm keeping this blog name the same though, just because I still came to where I am at now from the Left Coast. Even though I went there from right where I am... A rose by any other name right?

Juxtaposition

I'm a big fan of alternative, grunge, and punk rock. (I also like emo too, but that's another story) So one day I happened to decide to read Ecclesiastes, and I decided to listen to Bad Religion's "New Maps of Hell". It was a strange juxtaposition, but it was really kind of enlightening. I will have to do it again when I get some time and share more thoughts. As for now I will just say that it was a fairly surreal experience to hear the lyrics ringing in my ears that call religion to account, and to see the fatalistic "vanity, vanity" of Ecclesiastes over and over again.