Monday, June 04, 2007

The Long and Winding Road

Finally finished!

After nine years I graduated from Westminster Seminary in California on Saturday. The ceremony was very nice, the best part of it being Hywel Jones' address on I Corinthians 15:1-11 and God's grace. What he said continues to bounce around in my head. It was a very powerful and moving exposition of God's Word.

I'll write more later, but suffice to say here that one of the other highlights was that all my family was able to be there, including my mom and dad from Seattle. That was gift enough, but they also gave a very generous gift that KMR and I have decided to put towards a use that will benefit the church I hope to plant later this year.

We had a very nice lunch after commencement with all the family and some very good friends as well. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

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Monday, April 30, 2007

Southern California Travels

This was a busy weekend, but very fun:

Friday night KMR, Half Pint and a friend picked me up from work and we drove to West L.A. to see a girls high school drama production of The Wizard of Oz. Why? My little sister played in their "orchestra" or "band" or whatever it was. The play was great. All of the actors stayed in character very well and - bonus! - they could actually sing. They put in some additional dialogue that was also very good. Late night, but very enjoyable.

Early Saturday I went out to Hemet for Vikinglord's frosh-soph invitational track meet. I got stuck in traffic in Riverside for a half hour due to construction, so by the time I got there he'd already finished the long jump and ran in the 4X100 relay. His long jump was his best this year, but not his best ever. He was happy though: "I finally got my technique back." I got to see him in the triple jump and also run the first leg of the 4X400 relay. He had a good TJ and ran his best 400 time ever. If I remember right, he got 8th in the long jump and 6th in the TJ. If he'd jumped at or near his best in both events he probably would have come in 2nd in the TJ and 3rd or 4th in the LJ. So right now he's motivated to work on those events over the summer. The meet was sponsored by West Valley HS in Hemet, and they did a terrific job. It was incredibly hot, but they ran the events quickly and the meet was over by 12:30pm - often these meets go until mid to late afternoon. As I drove away I saw a sign saying the temperature was 95 degrees.

From there it was down to Escondido to see if I could catch the last couple hours of our presbytery meeting. They usually go until 3 or 4pm. I got to the church at about 2pm, and the parking lot was almost empty. I called a friend, already on his way up the freeway back home, who said they finished before 2pm. That's pretty unusual, but apparently there wasn't much business to conduct. The MNA Committee, which has oversight of church planting, did report to presbytery about my "preliminary proposal" to do a new church plant in north OC. That's pretty cool. God willing I will meet with them in July, while also continuing to talk with the session at my church. So, all that driving only to miss presbytery, but that's OK.

To back up a bit, on Friday during lunch I looked at a potential place for the new church plant to meet. The father of a co-worker owns some commercial property on Imperial Highway in La Habra. While we won't need it until much later this year, it would be a very good place to start a new church. They can't hold it for us, but if it doesn't rent out between now and then it could be ours. Very exciting!

Saturday night was supposed to be the annual dinner auction for Half Pint's school. But Tia, her sitter, got sick and had to go home. So I stayed with Half Pint while KMR went to the dinner. Half Pint is not as into Little House on the Prairie as she used to be. Lately it's been DVD's of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. She also likes the Robin Hood series on BBC America. So we're hanging on the couch and flipping through the channel guide and what's on? The classic Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn. Of course we watched it. After that they had several Robin Hood movie versions, which we recorded on the DVR.

Then Sunday morning we got up early and went out to Palm Desert to visit Providence Presbyterian Church (see at right), and our friends Clayton and Kristi Willis. We hadn't been out there in quite a while, so it was good to see them and the other people at the church. We've been visiting regularly since they started just over 4 years ago, but much less often recently. Clayton preached a very good sermon on Ephesians 2:1-2. It's a small congregation, but maturing strongly in Christ and the Word. If you know anyone who lives out that way, point them to PPC.

Today it's back to work, and then down to Escondido again for class. This may be my last drive down there to attend class, although we may decide to meet for two more weeks. It's hard to believe seminary is almost over.

Many miles and a very busy weekend. But, as I said above, very fun.

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Saturday, November 11, 2006

Student Life

Here are a couple fun links that came through the Westminster Seminary student e-mail list:
  1. FoxTrot is one of my favorite comic strips. This one from a couple days ago is fun.
  2. Check out the art by one student's wife. Very nice - and you can buy it!

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Hello? Puritans calling

Monday night I had my first class of the semester. As he always does, and does very well, Dr. Johnson began laying the exegetical foundation of the class by unpacking the early chapters of Genesis on the topic of "calling."

(The first time I took a class from Dr. Johnson I remember thinking, as he spent a good deal of time exegeting the biblical basis for the course, "When's he going to get to the real content of the class?" Then about halfway through I realized, "Wait, this is good stuff!!" and wished I'd been taking better notes. Those were the pre-laptop days. Now I type like a fiend to get as much as possible.)

In the course of his lecture Dr. Johnson referred to the Puritans and their view on God's call and the believer's vocation. A part struck me. In essence he described how the Puritans viewed those with ambition, envy and impatience with suspicion. Their focus was more on perseverance. Those overly ambitious were seen as lacking proper contentment.

There's a lot we can learn from the Puritans on this. Too much of the Church today lacks contentment, whether it's the church growth movement with its tendency to focus on attendance numbers ("If you're not growing, you're not a healthy church." Really?!?), the prosperity gospel with its focus on money, or the megachurch movement with its focus on success. Doing things with excellence for God's glory is one thing, as is seeking to be a good steward of the resources God has entrusted to us. The Puritans didn't have anything against wealth per se, but against covetousness. And against lack of contentment with the place to which God has called you.

But today we're consumed with being number one, of growing bigger, of being viewed as successful by the world. As a result Christian bookstores are full of all sorts of books borrowing from business and management techniques that really haven't passed the test of being biblical, and church and parachurch ministry leaders buy them up like so many treasure maps.

The Puritans had it right on this one. They knew where their treasure was really hidden.

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About me

  • Martin
  • From Orange, CA
  • Husband; Father; Son; Brother. Ruling elder at church. Loan Officer for Christian lending institution. Seminary student. I hope to be a pastor and plant a church in the near future.
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