On the night of the 8th (Tuesday), I spent the evening entirely at work on an interpretation paper on Hebrews 10:1-18. Eventually I got to sleep and, before I awoke the next morning, had a rather bizarre dream in which I was using a device to record a sermon delivered by a deranged bearded preacher in a small brown wooden chapel; the preacher spent most of his time in the back of the chapel, only coming to the front at the end. And, for some reason, he spent the whole sermon pontificating on the Time Cube and on the symbols 'BOOBS', which he interpreted as a mystic acronym. I have no explanation for any of this, really.
The next day (Wednesday), during my morning class I worked on developing a first draft of a suburban ministry scenario. I wrote about four pages, going onto a fifth, during the class. After class, I met with my small group to discuss the project as a whole. I'm optimistic. I've been reading and taking notes on a number of additional books to help us in the project (even though, technically, my assigned part is just this ministry scenario, which is already about done). I also volunteered to do all the final editing, during which I hope to augment the paper with any extra ideas or citations I have from my reading. After this meeting, I went to lunch and then to my afternoon class, during which I did two things. First, I studied briefly for an exam I'd have the following day; and second, I did a great deal of the preparation of my homily on Psalm 58 for Friday. Basically, I went through all my notes and picked out some things from each source to organize into a coherent message. Also, during a group presentation in my afternoon class, one of the questions I provided sparked a lengthy discussion among the class about discussing Scripture and theology with Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-day Saints. Heh, go figure. That was fun. I got to give everyone a crash course on the Christologies of both groups and how they understand the phrase "Son of God". After class, I spent a few minutes talking with my professor about the discussion. That evening, I showered and shaved (prematurely ending my No-Shave November attempt this year) before driving over to the apartment of a great friend, where we had a DiGiorno pizza and watched two movies, Jonah Hex and Season of the Witch. Good times. Before I left, I also looked over a basic chart she'd drawn of what she knows so far about her family history; it was done for one of the counseling classes as a way of charting familial dynamics and their impact on subsequent generations.
The next morning I took my exam, which I think went passably well, and then spent some time doing a bit of freelance genealogical research for my friend before going to lunch. (Had some chicken cordon bleu casserole and mini-calzones of a sort. Pretty good.) After lunch, I slept from about 1:00 to 4:00, and then finished reading Arthur H. DeKruyter's book The Suburban Church: Practical Advice for Authentic Ministry. After that, I reviewed the general outline I'd developed for my homily, and then I went to supper. I initially went to the cafeteria, but after seeing that all they had was a load of Mexican food - which I despise - I went to Subway instead and got a six-inch Italian BMT sub with pepperjack cheese on Italian herbs and cheese loaf. I returned at 5:28 PM and ate it here while listening to a few podcasts. Then I drafted a manuscript for my homily before, at 8:00 PM, going to a first-floor lounge to watch Community and Parks and Rec with some of my friends. After returning here shortly after 9:00 PM, I practiced my homily from the manuscript a few times before transferring the bulk of the material to a set of six notecards. Then I spent a while practicing delivering it from just the notecards. I ended the evening by printing out my bibliography and making a photocopy of the notecards to turn in.
I'm really not sure that I slept at all that night, though not for lack of trying. I eventually got out of bed Friday morning and practiced my homily from my notecards again a couple times. Then I practiced it a few times without any notes whatsoever while in the shower. After a bit of post-shower practice from the notecards again, I put on my suit and headed over to the preaching chapel where I'd be delivering it. All the homilies delivered in my class were really great. If my classmates here keep it up, their churches will never be in want of good preaching. As for my own homily, you can see for yourself how it turned out:
The next day (Wednesday), during my morning class I worked on developing a first draft of a suburban ministry scenario. I wrote about four pages, going onto a fifth, during the class. After class, I met with my small group to discuss the project as a whole. I'm optimistic. I've been reading and taking notes on a number of additional books to help us in the project (even though, technically, my assigned part is just this ministry scenario, which is already about done). I also volunteered to do all the final editing, during which I hope to augment the paper with any extra ideas or citations I have from my reading. After this meeting, I went to lunch and then to my afternoon class, during which I did two things. First, I studied briefly for an exam I'd have the following day; and second, I did a great deal of the preparation of my homily on Psalm 58 for Friday. Basically, I went through all my notes and picked out some things from each source to organize into a coherent message. Also, during a group presentation in my afternoon class, one of the questions I provided sparked a lengthy discussion among the class about discussing Scripture and theology with Jehovah's Witnesses and Latter-day Saints. Heh, go figure. That was fun. I got to give everyone a crash course on the Christologies of both groups and how they understand the phrase "Son of God". After class, I spent a few minutes talking with my professor about the discussion. That evening, I showered and shaved (prematurely ending my No-Shave November attempt this year) before driving over to the apartment of a great friend, where we had a DiGiorno pizza and watched two movies, Jonah Hex and Season of the Witch. Good times. Before I left, I also looked over a basic chart she'd drawn of what she knows so far about her family history; it was done for one of the counseling classes as a way of charting familial dynamics and their impact on subsequent generations.
The next morning I took my exam, which I think went passably well, and then spent some time doing a bit of freelance genealogical research for my friend before going to lunch. (Had some chicken cordon bleu casserole and mini-calzones of a sort. Pretty good.) After lunch, I slept from about 1:00 to 4:00, and then finished reading Arthur H. DeKruyter's book The Suburban Church: Practical Advice for Authentic Ministry. After that, I reviewed the general outline I'd developed for my homily, and then I went to supper. I initially went to the cafeteria, but after seeing that all they had was a load of Mexican food - which I despise - I went to Subway instead and got a six-inch Italian BMT sub with pepperjack cheese on Italian herbs and cheese loaf. I returned at 5:28 PM and ate it here while listening to a few podcasts. Then I drafted a manuscript for my homily before, at 8:00 PM, going to a first-floor lounge to watch Community and Parks and Rec with some of my friends. After returning here shortly after 9:00 PM, I practiced my homily from the manuscript a few times before transferring the bulk of the material to a set of six notecards. Then I spent a while practicing delivering it from just the notecards. I ended the evening by printing out my bibliography and making a photocopy of the notecards to turn in.
I'm really not sure that I slept at all that night, though not for lack of trying. I eventually got out of bed Friday morning and practiced my homily from my notecards again a couple times. Then I practiced it a few times without any notes whatsoever while in the shower. After a bit of post-shower practice from the notecards again, I put on my suit and headed over to the preaching chapel where I'd be delivering it. All the homilies delivered in my class were really great. If my classmates here keep it up, their churches will never be in want of good preaching. As for my own homily, you can see for yourself how it turned out:
Promptly after we'd all finished, I came back to my dorm and slept from 10:15 AM until 3:20 PM, after which I downloaded Windows Live Movie Maker and trimmed down the above video (omitting unnecessary bits from the beginning and end), and then began trying to upload it to YouTube. This process, as it turned out, would take virtually the whole rest of the night. While I waited, I listened to a podcast dealing with polygamy and then some music while catching up on some blog reading. At 6:40 PM, I went grocery shopping (got two gallons of citrus punch and two bags of jalapeno-flavored potato chips) and then picked up a footlong chicken marinara melt sub from Subway for supper. I got back here at 7:12 PM and watched with dismay as the upload continued to take forever... but at least I had good food while doing it. I listened to more podcasts (this time, old episodes of EconTalk from 2006) and, thanks to access to the Ancestry.com record archives courtesy of my neighbor's mother, did more genealogical research while downloading a plethora of relevant images pertaining to the families of both myself and my friend. Finally the upload finished. The rest of the evening consisted of talking to some friends on Skype while doing still more genealogical research; I sketched out a bunch of charts on pieces of paper.
I ended up sleeping from 3:30 AM until 10:30 AM, and then woke up and read some of Barnabas Lindars' The Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews and then took a bunch of notes on DeKruyter's book. When that became too exhausting, I took a break to catch up - via Hulu - on the latest episodes (latest available to view via Hulu, that is) of Bones, Burn Notice, and Covert Affairs. Love all those shows. Then I got a shower and headed out to visit a friend in Nicholasville. After arriving, we relaxed for a while and then grabbed supper at Zaxby's, a restaurant I'd never heard of before coming down here and had never been to until last night. Apparently it's a fast food place specializing in chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches, and buffalo wings. Awesome. I got a 10-piece boneless buffalo wings in their Tongue Torch sauce, which was hotter than I expected, considering it was rated roughly the same as 'Original'. Fiery! Also had a side order of Texas toast - three pieces of delicious, soft, scrumptuous, thick toast.... Awesome. After supper, I showed my friend some clips from Community on YouTube, and then went on Netflix and watched a 2008 horror movie called Dying God, in which a corrupt police officer and his affiliated network of pimps faced off against a serial killer targeting prostitutes, with the killer eventually turning out to be a minor deity of a previously-thought-extinct Amazonian tribe; that creature, a kurupi, was desperate to successfully mate while also facing its own impending death from cancer. Definitely an odd movie. Anyway, I got back to my dorm shortly before midnight and then caught up on House. Finally got to sleep around 1:30.
My sleep schedule caught up with me nearly as brutally as that kurupi... never mind. Anyway, I severely overslept, only managing to move myself from bed at 12:15 PM. (During that sleep, I may have had a dream that involved some of the characters from Arrested Development, but th the details are incredibly fuzzy.) Blast... large section of the day lost. I spent the afternoon continuing to take notes on DeKruyter's book (a task I finally finished) while also finishing reading Lindars' book and making some more progress in Harold Attridge's commentary on Hebrews. Also listened to episode 160 of the Mormon Expression podcast. Then in the late afternoon and early evening, I set aside some time to take all the genealogical data for my friend that I'd jotted down on paper, and input that into the digital version of her tree that I've been constructing. I've made considerable progress, as it turns out. I think she'll be pleased when I have a chance to see her and show her the results.
That should about bring things up to date. After I finish this post and upload it, I should toss some clothes on and go to Subway for supper. (I blunted the hunger cravings earlier with a few handfuls of those delicious chips.) Also, tonight I need to begin taking notes on the book I started after DeKruyter - namely, Glenn C. Daman's Shepherding the Small Church: A Leadership Guide for the Majority of Today's Churches. I've finished the first two chapters already in terms of reading it (but have yet to take any notes), and it so far looks really fantastic.
I ended up sleeping from 3:30 AM until 10:30 AM, and then woke up and read some of Barnabas Lindars' The Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews and then took a bunch of notes on DeKruyter's book. When that became too exhausting, I took a break to catch up - via Hulu - on the latest episodes (latest available to view via Hulu, that is) of Bones, Burn Notice, and Covert Affairs. Love all those shows. Then I got a shower and headed out to visit a friend in Nicholasville. After arriving, we relaxed for a while and then grabbed supper at Zaxby's, a restaurant I'd never heard of before coming down here and had never been to until last night. Apparently it's a fast food place specializing in chicken tenders, chicken sandwiches, and buffalo wings. Awesome. I got a 10-piece boneless buffalo wings in their Tongue Torch sauce, which was hotter than I expected, considering it was rated roughly the same as 'Original'. Fiery! Also had a side order of Texas toast - three pieces of delicious, soft, scrumptuous, thick toast.... Awesome. After supper, I showed my friend some clips from Community on YouTube, and then went on Netflix and watched a 2008 horror movie called Dying God, in which a corrupt police officer and his affiliated network of pimps faced off against a serial killer targeting prostitutes, with the killer eventually turning out to be a minor deity of a previously-thought-extinct Amazonian tribe; that creature, a kurupi, was desperate to successfully mate while also facing its own impending death from cancer. Definitely an odd movie. Anyway, I got back to my dorm shortly before midnight and then caught up on House. Finally got to sleep around 1:30.
My sleep schedule caught up with me nearly as brutally as that kurupi... never mind. Anyway, I severely overslept, only managing to move myself from bed at 12:15 PM. (During that sleep, I may have had a dream that involved some of the characters from Arrested Development, but th the details are incredibly fuzzy.) Blast... large section of the day lost. I spent the afternoon continuing to take notes on DeKruyter's book (a task I finally finished) while also finishing reading Lindars' book and making some more progress in Harold Attridge's commentary on Hebrews. Also listened to episode 160 of the Mormon Expression podcast. Then in the late afternoon and early evening, I set aside some time to take all the genealogical data for my friend that I'd jotted down on paper, and input that into the digital version of her tree that I've been constructing. I've made considerable progress, as it turns out. I think she'll be pleased when I have a chance to see her and show her the results.
That should about bring things up to date. After I finish this post and upload it, I should toss some clothes on and go to Subway for supper. (I blunted the hunger cravings earlier with a few handfuls of those delicious chips.) Also, tonight I need to begin taking notes on the book I started after DeKruyter - namely, Glenn C. Daman's Shepherding the Small Church: A Leadership Guide for the Majority of Today's Churches. I've finished the first two chapters already in terms of reading it (but have yet to take any notes), and it so far looks really fantastic.
