Reclaiming Revelation in Progress

Well, my first session with the Reclaiming Revelation course launched last night... and I'm still here, and I'm still breathing. Overall it was a great response, with around 24 people out for the first night. Hopefully I can keep the same level of enthusiasm, but this is very encouraging. I'm also test driving a new part of the website which will serve as an online classroom. I've even managed to record the evening's lecture to a downloadable mp3... I'm going to try posting it along with the Powerpoint presentation and see how it goes.

Simply trying out some new tools...

Hymns and Big Ooopses

This is a post I really should have put up a week ago Sunday instead of today. During the last hymn on our service on October 15th, I found myself smacking myself in the forehead.

As I always try to do, I usually try to keep closing hymns as familiar as possible... if not in words, certain in the way of music. On October 15th, the closing hymn was #370 "Hallelujah, Sing to Jesus." The words are not as familiar, but the tune is the same as "Come, thou long expected Jesus." --Generally a well known one.

But there was a small problem... people were getting lost when we were singing the hymn.

There are some small instances when I realize that the Book of Praise, took some shortcuts in order to save page space. They put in musical notation that the first line of the first verse needs to be repeated. For someone like me, who is quite musically literate, this is pretty much a given. I followed it without even thinking about it, but to my horror, I could hear the congregation losing track of where they were... and with the start of each verse they were getting lost again. I could also hear that people were getting frustrated.

In retrospect, whenever hymns like this come up that the music notation makes the verses difficult to read, I am going to take a moment ahead of singing the hymn to make sure we're all on the same page and going in the same direction...

Sigh... live and learn...

Preparing for Revelation

I spent much of my time yesterday working on the upcoming Reclaiming Revelation Bible Study. A number of my colleagues have wished me the best of luck on this, although I sometimes get the sense it's more in the adage that "Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread..." kind of thing.

I think the main challenge is going to be working against what has become popularized belief of what Revelation is about... hence the name Reclaiming Revelation. That having been said, am still amazed at how utterly misguided the pop beliefs around the last book fo the Bible are... and yet they're so ingrained that it may take some time to break through it.

I decided that for at least a half-hour in the first Session, I'm going to be looking at the current pop-beliefs around Revelation, and showing how that line of thought developed... and why it does violence to the orginal intention of the text.

Wish me luck... Pray for me... both are applicable ;-)

Earlier than Usual

It's Sunday morning, about 8:20 am., and I've already been at the church for about 20 minutes. Much earlier than usual. Sarah has a friend visiting, so in order to stay out of the way of the big bathroom rush in the morning, I shaved last night, and then got up to have my shower far earlier than I usually do on Sunday morning. My sermon is already printed, and the prayers should find their way to hardcopy very shortly.

Don't get me wrong, I am still not a morning person, but I will admit I occassionally catch glimpses of why my father-in-law likes this time of day. It's given me a lot more time this morning than I usually have, and there's something to be said for being able to collect my thoughts.

This past Thursday, I drove up to Stratford to see a friend and colleague. On the way, I was listening to CBC Radio One. Towards the end of Sounds Like Canada, there was a fascinating show called Terry O'Reilly and The Age of Persuasion. Which explored the history of advertizing, and explaining why in the 21st Century our societal and personal attention spans have become so short. There's a lot more than I can fit in here... I looked to see if there was a podcast available for download, but alas, not that I can find... at least not yet. I'll keep you posted, but it's very much worth a listen. He does a show every week, usually Thursdays around 11:30am... I'll try and tune in this week and see what he has to say...

However, listening to this reveals a lot of how the age of advertizing has had a tremendous impact on the ability of congregations to participate in worship... especially with reduced attention spans... I'm going to give this a bit of thought and write something more later.

Surprising Forgiveness

I stumbled across this article on another blog today. It's fascinating how the media is fumbling all over itself to try and explain what seems to be an incomprehensible response to an incomprehensible crime.

This is of course tied to the horrific crime in Pennsylvania, where a troubled man summarily executed a number of young girls at an Amish school.

Instead of the expected cries of revenge, or the usual political grandstanding, the members of this Amish community attended the funeral of the man who committed this crime, to mourn him and most of all forgive him.

In the aftermath of such an appalling crime, the media is dumbfounded by this sense of forgiveness. Yet the Amish remind us something profound about our faith, that Jesus was one of love and forgiveness. Expressing God's unconditional love. Most of the time, we see this as purely a divine trait, that only God can have, which allows us room for our own cries for vengeance, even inside the Christian faith. Yet as the Amish community in Pennsylvania have shown us, it is entirely possible for us as human beings to reflect that sense of forgiveness. That we can really live out that sense of forgiveness that Jesus embodied.

The Amish make it look so easy... maybe its something we need to learn again.

Late Night Musings

It's 1:11 am... far past my bedtime.

My daughter Megan woke up just as I was settling in for the night. She didn't really fully wake up, but either a bad dream or some soreness from teething saw her begin to fuss. I wanted to let Sarah get some sleep, she needs it more than I do. After changing her diaper, I gently rocked her back to sleep, still not being entirely sure of what inspired this case of the fussies. I shouldn't complain too much, my daughter normally sleeps like my wife does, like a rock. I'm spoiled, actually.

With Thanksgiving approaching this weekend, it's just occurred to me that this will be our first Thanskgiving since Megan was born. I guess I had almost taken it for granted, that I've gotten so used to her being around, that it hasn't really occurred to me how much in my life has changed over the past year. The vast majority of it for the better. I find myself far more mindful of the meaning of Thanksgiving, at least on a personal sense... reflecting on what has changed, and being grateful for all these new opportunities. I once regarded myself as a professional student of sorts... and now that I'm a new parent, I've been able to reclaim that sense of wonder that comes with learning something new. Much of it has been with my daughter to be sure, but it has also extended into other areas as well. Hopefully, I can share the fruits of that labour soon.

In the meantime, it's time for me to finally go to bed...

Mission Being Accomplished...

Well, the website is now officially public. We unveiled it to the congregation yesterday, but I suspect that it will still take some time for people to build habits around frequenting it. The next stage is to listen to feedback, to listen to peoples comments and questions, and then start incorporating them into "Stage 2" of the design.

I've been very pleased with this process, and am particularly indebted to Christine who has made sure that the "good enough" mantra hasn't crept into the design. Trust me, she's had to work pretty hard at it... and I didn't think that I would fall victim to it myself. However, in the intially rush to get this website up, I found myself tempted to cut corners, rather than to look at the cohesive whole.

That having been said, the website is certainly not perfect. It actually embodies, in some respects, the principle of being a "Reformed and Reforming" church. I've commented in other settings that as part of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, we are part of a tradition that considers itself to be "Reformed and Reforming." The trouble is, most of the time we stop with simply the first word and stay there.

The reality is, God calls us to be constantly adapting and changing to the new challenges that life throws at us. To be a "Reforming" church means that we are responsive to the need for change, adapting and growing as we learn more about our environment. The development of this website, is a genuine an exercise in being precisely that. Instead of saying "Mission Accomplished" we are better to say "Mission Being Accomplished."