Bad blogger

Oops, haven't written anything really for over a month. April has been kind of a blur.

Lecture on Mentoring

At the LDN conference we had a great lecture on Mentoring. Here is the MP3 that you can download: http://leadingchurch.com/weblog/audio/mentoring.MP3

If you want to listen to it by streaming you can click on this link: http://leadingchurch.com/weblog/audio/mentoring.m3u

Grace's Banner Articles

Grace Vander Klay, my grandmother, contributed in the late 50s, early 60s to The Banner. Here are some of her articles. I'm scanning them and posting them as I have time to do.

Road to Emmaus

I'm preaching on this text this week and tonight I had the (almost always) delightful priviledge of working it through. What a wonderful text on so many levels. I'll be working on its connection with Luke 9, the mission of the twelve, Herod's fear of resurrection and his seeking but not seeing Jesus, and the feeding of the 5000 where Jesus starts with what seems like the ridiculous command "YOU give them something to eat." which now in chapter 24 seems to make so much more sense, even though these poor two disciples are clueless. Their minds are blurred and their eyes are closed (to the one who is present but quickly invisible) by their expectations and assumptions about Jesus. "We had hoped that he would redeem Israel" which of course he had. They hoped he would be the Christ, which he was, but their had no idea what the redemption of Israel or the Christ would really be because their expectations blinded them.

I just also read a review of "The Best of Youth" on Jeffrey Overstreet's website. I had the same reaction after reflecting on the text and reading the article. I live life poorly and squander my time. I am blind to what is in front of me. I have Moses and the Prophets but I live like everyone else who doesn't have clue one about them. Life flies by and I pay little attention, and seem to learn even less. hmmm.

Why Pastors Should Blog

I believe pastors should consider blogging. There are a lot of good reasons not to, and I understand that, but I think there are some good reasons why pastors and church leaders should blog.

Understanding the Blog:

Blogs do not normally reflect someone's polished work or their final thoughts on a subject. Nearly everything in a blog is "off the cuff" and it is important to understand this in reading a blog. You will find typos, unfinished sentences, immature thoughts, etc. On a blog that is OK because it is supposed to be a work in progress, not necessarily the publishing of a final position. Why is this helpful? For many of us "thinking out loud" is an important part of the thought and reflection process. "Thinking out loud", however, is of little use if no one else hears and no one else pushes back or responds. A blog simply allows you to articulate some thoughts you may have today on a subject with the understanding that these thoughts are tentative and in process. Everything on a blog is stamped with a date and time. That means that this is what I thought and wanted to express at that time. It may change in the future. It is part of a process.

How Blogging Helps the Community of Christ

CRC Stuff

These are items and projects of interest to me that specifically pertain to the CRC

• Leadership Development Networks Websites
• CRC pastors who blog
• CRC Minister's Database

Movies for Sermons

Here are some movies that I have used for illustrations in preaching. I'll include the Power Point I created for the sermon and some comments on how I approached the movie and used it in the sermon. (This is an aggregating page. I'll keep adding to it as I build the site.)

By Texts/Topics:

• Easter
• Temptations of Christ
• Bread of Life: John 6
• Advent/Abraham
• Matthew 4: Temptations
• Resurrection and Money

By Movies:

• Troy
• Millions
• Supersize Me
• The Terminal
• Footloose

Leadership Development Websites

Leadership Development Networks are training programs to equip leaders through adult education for work in the church. Here are some websites of LDNs within the Christian Reformed Church. Here is a list of their websites:

• Sierra Leadership Network: Classis Central California: http://www.sierraleadershipnetwork.org Directors: Paul Vander Klay, Kevin Adams
• British Columbia Leadership Development Network: British Columbia: http://www.bcldn.ca/ Directors: Martin Content, Henry Devries, Andrew Turkstra
• Midwest LDN: South Dakota: http://www.midwestldn.com/ Director: Jim Hoogeveen
• Ascending Leaders (was Texas LDN): http://www.ascendingleaders.org Director: Mike Johnson
• Eastern Canada LDN: http://www.ecldn.org Directors: Kevin DeRaaf