the church geek

1.) Christine Sine offers an excellent centering prayer.

2.) While we use a prayer of confession in our service every Sunday, I’ve not given much honest thought as to what that prayer might look like for a pastor. The Naked Pastor gets the ball rolling for me.

3.) The ancient spiritual practice of Lectio Divina is becoming popular again as a form of devotional Bible reading. Here is a guide to Lectio Divina as introduced by the African Delegation to the Lambeth Conference.

4.) All I can do is say “Wow!” when it comes to this photo.

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Life’s been really busy this week, so things are behind schedule a bit and I didn’t have time or energy for a ‘meaty monday.’ But, here are a few links for you today:

1.) I’ve not looked at this thoroughly, but I really like the idea. It comes from the episcopal church and it is called “Put Your Faith to Work.” I discovered this by way of the Church Marketing Sucks website.

2.) My wife sent this link to me a long time ago, but I finally got around to checking it out. It’s a sort of a cyber-devotional site called d365. Looks like a good way to chill out and get re-centered on God.

3.) I’m always interested in making better use of electronic tools to help manage my work and productivity. Well, the smart pastor has done it again by telling us how he uses “Sandy,” his personal assistant, to keep track of what he’s doing. I’ve been meaning to explore ways to use Jott too, so hopefully when I get a free moment I’ll be thinking about ways to take the Smart Pastor’s advice.

4.) It’s not a wednesday roundup without a picture to point you towards.

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1.) Adam Walker Cleveland provides a list of resource books on youth ministry. Other suggestions follow in the comments.

2.) Emergent Village points to an interesting new idea: Lectio Divina for the iPod generation. I’ll be interested to see how this takes off.

3.) Christine Sine offers some thoughts on preparing for pentecost. More than anything though I love the cool icons she uses to illustrate her posts.

4.) What is the gospel? The Reformed Angler points to the answers provided by four candidates for moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly.

5.) I don’t have a favorite photograph of the week to point to, but Bill Tammeus points to a gallery of inspiring nature photos submitted by users of beliefnet.

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Earlier this week, I spent two days with the Dominican Sisters at Sinsinawa on a personal spiritual retreat. I didn’t have a lot on my agenda except to relax, read, and pray.

One book I took along with me and subsequently spent a whole day devouring was Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton. I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for some encouragement on how to integrate various spiritual disciplines in your life. Barton’s book is winsome and engaging and by far the best book on the spiritual disciplines that I’ve encountered in a long time.

As a result of my time away and specifically in reflection on this book, here are a few reflections I’ve come away with:

1.) The intrusion of technology on my life has robbed me of significant quality time in other areas of my life. Because of an always on computer: I read less, I spend less time developing my spiritual life, and I spend less quality time in relationship with my wife. So I’ve come away realizing that I need to set limits: No computer time between 9PM and 9AM. Cull down the number of blogs I follow in my google reader. Close the laptop on the desk in my office more often. Check e-mail 2-3 times a day, not constantly. Make Sunday a sabbath day from the computer.

2.) I need to find ways to spend more time cultivating my spiritual life. There are two disciplines that Barton speaks of that seem especially appropriate for me at this time in my life. The first is the discipline of prayer, especially focusing in on the idea of breath prayer and also dedicating specific time each day I’m in the office to just sit in the sanctuary and pray. The second is the discipline of honoring the body, especially getting more serious about excercising three times a week and doing more reading/studying on the connection between the body and the spirit.

All in all it was a great retreat. Even though I initially felt guilty about spending the time away from the office and from my wife, it was time well spent and that will prove beneficial to me, to my wife, and to the church I serve. And, hopefully, I will feel less guilty about doing it again!

Now, I’m going to close the lid on this laptop and head into the sanctuary to spend a few moments in prayer before I spend the rest of my afternoon working on my sermon for Sunday.

Peace be with you.

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Mark Scandrette’s book Soul Graffiti is a wonderful and compelling vision for life in the Way of Jesus. He does one of the best jobs to date of constructing a way between the gospel of social justice and of personal salvation. This is a truly wholistic expression of the gospel, and is a beautiful picture of the very best that the emerging church has to offer.

Each point Scandrette makes is woven not only with scripture but with compelling personal stories that serve to capture your attention and drive home his point. These are stories you will not easily forget. They serve to make it clear that Scandrette truly strives to live in the way of Jesus.

If you are looking to understand why simply ‘believing in Jesus’ is so difficult and not enough for us in this day and age, then I think this book will open your eyes and set your feet on a new path, one walking in the Way of Jesus.

Full of echoes of Dallas Willard and NT Wright, the best of thinking from these two contemporary giants of the faith is brought to a very accessible and readable level. From now on, this will be one of the first books I pull off my shelf when someone expresses a desire to explore the faith or to grow deeper in their knowledge of what it means to follow Jesus.

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I wrote the following piece a few weeks ago for our church newsletter. This morning, I got to thinking that maybe my blog readers & especially the photo lovers might enjoy this too.

I haven’t been much of a hobbyist. I haven’t had a craft to work on, and it hasn’t been my habit to collect things (though I do remember being president of the Stamp Club in elementary school.) When asked, “What are your interests?” my list usually boils down to watching movies, reading (good thing I’m a pastor, huh?) biking, and of course eating!

Those are all great and wonderful, but I’ve often felt like something was missing. I was lacking a passion or a ‘real’ hobby. I didn’t have anything I worked and played at or really loved doing.

A few years ago, we bought a digital camera for a trip we took to Scotland. When I returned, lots of folks commented how great the photos were from that trip. I took out our camera on subsequent trips, but after each one it would go back in its case, never to be seen again until the next vacation rolled around.

Late last year, I started thinking that maybe photography was a hobby waiting to be discovered, and then, serendipitously I ran across a photography project called “Photo 365.” The premise of the project was to commit to take and post a photo a day for one entire year. “Perfect,” I thought, “what better way to begin developing photography as my hobby?”

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Looking for some ideas to improve your life and better your spiritual self? Check out the Ship of Fools’ 40 Ideas for Lent. I guarantee you’ll find something to help you along in your lenten journey.

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Miranda at Presbyterian Bloggers highlights a number of on-line advent calendars. Go and check them out. I especially like the Praying Advent Calendar.

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This is a little longer than my normal “sermon snippets” mostly because there wasn’t much I felt I should cut out. Also, as is sometimes the case, my sermon title doesn’t quite match with where the sermon actually went, but I did sort of work it in at the very end…

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of my great heroes of the faith. In 1933, Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address chastising his fellow Germans for following after a “leader” who wanted to make himself an idol and would in the end only become a ” misleader.”

Before he finished, the broadcast was cut off. Not too long after this, Hitler was in total control of Germany. Bonhoeffer moved to London to serve two German congregations until he was called back to Germany to head up an ‘illegal’ underground seminary.

The students there didn’t just learn theology; they practiced the faith together. They prayed, meditated, sang, broke bread, confessed their sins and worked along side one another. And as they engaged in those practices, they encountered God’s abiding and sustaining presence. (Bonhoeffer writes of this experience in his book “Life Together.”)

The most recent Christian Century has an article about a church located in Kansas City called Jacob’s Well. The church is part of what is known as the ‘emerging church movement,’ a loose grouping of likeminded pastors and churches exploring new ways to be the church.

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This week in my sermon, I daringly admitted a weakness to my congregation: “I don’t know about you,” I said, “but even as a Pastor, I have a tendency to see prayer as a difficult task. It’s easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking that it’s something I must do because I’m supposed to. So usually when I think of prayer the first thing that usually comes to my mind is a sense of guilt. I often think “I don’t pray enough” or “I don’t pray like God wants me to.”

I suspect this is how many of us feel about the work of prayer, especially if we’ve grown up in a tradition where “true” prayer is always spontaneous and from the heart. Scot McKnight in his recent book “Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today” offers a way of refreshment to those of us who are tired or feel pangs of guilt whenever we think about prayer.

Scot does not offer a new way of prayer. Instead he helps us look afresh at an ancient way of set prayers at fixed times of the day which has been tried and tested throughout the centuries of church history. Scot helps us discover that this way of prayer actually goes back further; to the practice of the ancient Hebrew people, and even more importantly, to the practice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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I am pleased to be joining in on this special blog tour featuring Scot McKnight’s new book Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today. My post will appear on June 8th.

Paraclete Press announces a blog tour of Scot McKnight’s Praying With the Church - We hope you will take the time to find out what people are saying about this important new release, and take advantage of our special offer below!

Schedule of Blog Tour
June 5th:
www.jesustheradicalpastor.blogspot.com
June 6th:
www.theocentric.com
June 7th:
www.transformingseminarian.blogspot.com
June 8th:
www.thechurchgeek.com
June 9th:
www.inamirrordimly.com
June 12th:
www.willzhead.typepad.com
June 13th:
www.mattritchie.blogspot.com
June 14th:
www.inhiscourts.blogspot.com
June 15th:
www.vans.missionthink.org
June 16th:
www.thetimehascome.wordpress.com

Special Offer for the month of June only:

Purchase Scot McKnight’s Praying with the Church and McKnight’s best selling book The Jesus Creed and you will receive your copy of The Jesus Creed for free! Reference coupon code PRBLOG and call 1-800-451-5006 or order on-line. (when ordering on-line you must enter both books on the order)

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This is way cool: I just discovered that the Emerging Church info website has a “lava prayer lamp.” You open up the lava lamp, click on a bubble and then type your prayer in the dialogue box. When you’re done click on “pray” and then your bubble floats around the lava lamp. Don’t worry, it’s all confidential- no one else can see what you pray. I don’t know about you, but I am so used to “thinking” on the keyboard that I think I will find this a truly helpful way to pray.

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