Red Letter Revolution

When I began these weekly updates of life at Seminary, I warned you that I would inevitably fail to keep up with the weekly aspect. This was no prophetic declaration, a throwback to my namesake, but instead a recognition of something about myself: I am a horrible procrastinator. When Wednesday came and went without an update, I figured I’d do it that weekend. Then, it was Wednesday again, and did I really want to type out all that would be required for two WHOLE weeks worth of life minutiae. Now it has been three weeks, and before my parents resort to snail mail, I figured it was time to give the old blog an update. I am going to try to be less verbose than usual, both because I don’t think any of you enjoy reading something as detailed as I usually am and because I really don’t want this thing to become intellectually unwieldy, requiring a large time commitment to read. So, I will try to merely cover the highlights, but this post will probably end up as long-winded as the rest. Read further at your own risk.

Week Four

Week 4 was a weird week. I was in turns lonely and busy, but filled with an overall sense of optimism. I’m making friends pretty steadily, but it takes time to develop those relationships. I still don’t feel like I have many people I could just call at random to hang out. I decided to give that church another shot, just in case it was a fluke. The sermon wasn’t nutty like the last one, but it was pretty mediocre. He was supposedly working his way through the book of Acts, but he basically gave a topical sermon that he tenuously linked to the text for that day. That sort of thing annoys the crap out of me. If you want to preach on a topical subject then do so, don’t disguise the sermon as if it really belongs in the middle of your exposition of a text. Anyway, it wasn’t terrible and the people are nice so I decided to go a couple more times. That evening I went to see the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Phillies in NLCS Game Three. I went with Michelle, who is a die hard Dodger fan, and it was great fun. It helped that the Dodgers played well and won. I also had my first Dodger Dog which I ate plain. Michelle then kindly informed me that I was eating the Dodger dog incorrectly. She made a run to the concession stand and brought me back one done up the “right way” and I have to admit it was even better with mustard, ketchup, and onions though I’ll leave the relish next time. With all the celebration I got home a little later than was ideal since I hadn’t done my Greek homework yet. I woke up early the next day to get it done before my 8 am class. I hate doing that. Friday, I had a bunch of guys from the complex come over to play video games and hang out. Game Night turned out to be a huge success and I had lots of people in and out that day. Apparently, if you organize it, they will come. It was an excellent chance to get to know the guys in the complex. I think part of its success is owed to a corresponding Ladies Night all of their wives were having. Saturday Night I got to hang out with Trey. I like his friends a lot, and they seem to have a sense of humor that is a lot like my group of friends back home. Myself, Trey, and Ben went to this place called Luigi Ortega’s to grab some beers and watch a free UFC event being broadcast on Spike. When we got there we asked them to turn on the event which was supposed to start at 9pm our time. For whatever reason, Spike bumped it back 30 minutes, so when they turned it to Spike a show called Manswers was on. If you are unfamiliar, Manswers is a juvenile show that would not have made it past censors five years ago. We were mortified as the channel we requested suddenly began to talk about strip joints and which country had the highest percentage of women that participate in oral sex. We were so embarassed we walked outside during the worst of it. Finally, the show we really wanted to watch came on and we got to see three fights before they closed. We then headed over to Ben’s place to watch the rest. It was a full and enjoyable weekend.

Week Five

I went back to Kyle’s church again, mostly because it is conveniently located and I haven’t really made lots of plans to find other churches. I probably should, but this service was pretty good. I like the worship there, and the people. The sermon was decent this time, but the Pastor was gone so that probably had something to do with it. That night I went to a college group that I’m really enjoying. I skipped going out to eat afterwords to study for a Greek test the next day. The test ended up being really easy and I got a 97 on it. Greek has been pretty much a breeze so far. If I actually do the reading for that class I am bored during the lecture, so I have started doing my homework in class which is working out nicely for me. Wednesday, I had lunch with Ben which is always fun. That night I went to a new Mexican food place with Michelle called La Tolteca. It was pretty good, but my enjoyment was limited by the fact that I had way to much cheese on my In-N-Out at lunch which upset my stomach. L.A. Mexican food is flavored slightly differently than in South Texas which is interesting. The beef tends to be shredded which is not as good as the fajita meat but takes in the flavor better. It was a good night. Thursday morning I got up and went to a symposium on Global Theology. The first half was an African perspective on theology followed by a Latin perspective. There was a lunch break and I went home to grab a quick bite, and when I got back some jerk stole my seat. I looked for another but literally every seat was taken. I didn’t want to stand up in the back for 3 hours so I left, and I was pretty pissed. Saturday I went to Trey’s girlfriends place to watch a UFC event on Pay Per View. I stopped off at this amazing Liquor store, in fact liquor store doesn’t do it justice. It is really a department store for booze, and it rocks. It’s called BevMo and I picked up some Newcastle and Smythwicks then headed over to watch the fights. Despite the fact that everyone else there were a bunch of sissies and most of the beer was not consumed, it was a fun relaxed night.

If I was following the pattern I used before, I technically should have week 6 up here too, but I don’t want to bog this thing down. So another update will show up Saturday (maybe).

I’m thinking this will be a shorter entry than the previous examples of my ramblings. Not a whole whole lot happened, so I’m going to try not to rehash too much. Thursday morning I woke up and drove to Altadena Baptist Church to talk with the Pastors. One of them is a grandfatherly fellow at that stage of life that is just past middle aged but not yet geriatric. He bears a striking resemblance to my Great Uncle Bill, and he laughs like my grandfather. Next to him sat a fresh faced middle-aged woman with close cropped hair and a look of intensity. They spent some time learning about me, which means they learned about Windsor and my upbringing. The three of us chat politely for quite some time. I am told anecdotes about the Baptist convention to which they belong. It began as a Swedish Baptist denomination but later expanded to include non-Swedish churches. The Swedes are lovers and not fighters, he tells me, and uses this to segue to the questions I emailed him. They are ok with Calvinism, and their denomination has never addressed it. I find this very agreeable and much more desirable than that whole SBC mess. The conversation turns to my second question: What role does Connie play? I was unclear as to whether she was co-pastor, assistant pastor, or whatever else when I emailed, but when he told me that they were co-pastors I had to know how that came about. It turns out she went into ministry full time in a lesser capacity and over time sort of got promoted to co-pastor status. The truly shocking thing was that it happened 20 years ago! They don’t consider themselves progressives, and their doctrine is conservative, but on this issue they went against the grain. It turns out that even to this day some of the members aren’t comfortable with it, but continue to attend anyway. We continue to talk and it becomes clear to all of us that Altadena is not the place for me. I do not mean to imply that it was in any way unpleasant! It was quite the opposite, and they even offered to help me find a church more in line with my beliefs and comfort! I left there feeling like I had found a piece of the Body that was good, but even so was not for me. After some closing anecdotes about some of the more bizarre happenings in the local churches (including a story about a liberal church’s pastor becoming a Buddhist then refusing to give up the pulpit), we said our goodbyes and I folded into my Prius and drove away in search of lunch. I honestly can’t remember what I did the rest of the day except that I eventually did my Greek homework which was mind-numbingly easy and did a bunch of reading for Systematic Theology Class. Then I listened to the Dodger game. Friday morning I woke up at 7 am and followed my Greek days routine: I make coffee then have my morning constitutional and get ready for school. I grab my 32oz mug of coffee and head to class with my neighbor Zach. It’s over the Dative and Genitive and I occupy myself by drawing the cartoon you see in the youtube video below. I spend the evening wasting time and watching Saw IV which was also a waste of time. Saturday was a great day. I slept in until about 9:30 (my God what is happening to me!) and woke up feeling really rested and good. I grab some breakfast and watch some TV, then head to the greatest bookstore on the planet. It is called Archives Bookshop and is devoted exclusively to Theological Books. To see it in all its glory, visit the website for pictures: http://www.archivesbookshop.com/archivesphotos.html I spend about an hour and a half in there and leave 80 dollars poorer, which is why I need to limit how often I go there. Yeah, it is that awesome. I drive down to Whittier to hang out with Trey. I plan on doing an assignment, but I don’t. Instead I play this amazingly addictive game called Gang of Four that I described last week. I win decisively. Life is good. After a while we head to Ambrose pizza to watch the Dodger game. Trey and some of his friends watched with me as the Dodgers swept the Cubs. It was a great time over some pizza and pitchers of beer. In truth we actually left in the 6th before the game was over. We went to Trey’s girlfriend’s place to watch some MMA fights on CBS. It was a good time especially since I got to see that bum Kimbo knocked out by a poof 30 lbs. lighter than him. Trey’s best friend Kyle invites me to his church the next morning. I drive home tired but content and looking forward to visiting the church. I woke up the next morning at about 6 am because of the amount of liquid I drank the day before. I groggily decide it is way too early to be awake for an 11am service, so I plop back in bed and go to sleep. I wake up 3 and a half hours later and after getting ready for church head out the door for the 10 minute drive…except that when I put the address into my GPS the place is actually less than 5 minutes away. Yes! This church looks great already! I enjoyed the worship service despite the absence of hymns. The Sermon, however, was exceedingly weird. The Pastor argued that Paul incorrectly preached the Gospel at Mars Hill, and this is why the Philosophers didn’t convert. He further argued that this was the catalyst for Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians to preach the cross instead of with words of wisdom. Uh…..Yeah….Uh…..I don’t even know what to do with that. I’m going to give him another shot in case it was an off day…and because you can’t beat a 5 minute drive! That evening my neighbor invited me over for soup. You can’t pass up free soup and the chance to make friends inside the complex, so I skipped Epic Life and went. I’m really glad I did. I became much more acquainted with two guys in the complex that I had really only spoken to in passing. The only awkward part is that EVERYONE else was with their spouse. I was the lone bachelor and I was also the guy that increased the group total to 7 which made it hard to find a board game to play. We settled on playing DVD trivial pursuit men versus women. The Men won of course, but considering two of us had beards it was practically cheating. One of the Women, whose name I forgot and am kicking myself for forgetting, made a delicious apple pie. Over pie, the three remaining men (one left to do homework) discovered we are all nerds and like the same sort of movies and video games. So consequently we are supposed to all hang out together to play Xbox, which will be cool. I’m glad that my neighbors are slowly becoming my friends. Tuesday night I went to week two of Systematics class and I am really enjoying it! The professor is such a happy little guy, and I wish I could just download all the information he knows into my brain. Today, I had lunch again with a friend of Trey’s. I have a feeling we’ll probably end up hanging out pretty regularly. So, my friends, all is well! I miss and love you all. If any of you want my mailing address, just send me an email!

I have been a huge fan of legal pads since my debate days.

This week has not been nearly as eventful as my arrival was. Thursday was spent in the task of acquiring bookshelves. I made the 20 minute drive to the Burbank Ikea. Once I arrived I discovered that the only place to load what you buy is a temporary 15-minute parking area. The problem was, I was alone and could not leave my bookshelves to move my car out of the parking garage across the street into the loading area. So, after grumbling I drove another 40 minutes to the Ikea in West Covina. For those not familiar with the Geography of the area I have made this handy map:

Yeah, I was not very happy about that, but it was my fault for deciding to try a new Ikea. Once I finally arrived, I walked through the show room to write down the locations of the items I wanted. I also looked up desk measurements while there and discovered that I can squeeze a desk in and I have a feeling I’ll need it. Then I went to the proper areas and loaded the 4 book shelves onto a cart thing they have there. Altogether it weighed around 500 hundred pounds. I purchased the bookshelves thanks to a generous donation from my mother and then began the task of loading all 500 pounds of bookshelf into my Toyota Prius. You’d be amazed how much you can fit in one of those things, but even so it was a tight fit. I drove home with my arm resting on one of the boxes. When I got home the space next to me was mercifully empty, and I got ready to unload. The spot is owned by this boisterous young woman who owns both a Ford Explorer and a motorcycle. She fits them both in her spot by pulling her Explorer so far forward that I can’t get past her hood to my car, forcing me to walk around. Luckily she was gone and I began the arduous process of unloading. It wasn’t super difficult but I was exhausted by the time I got everything inside. The bookcases weren’t all that heavy, but 3 of them were seven feet long and quite unwieldy. After I got everything inside and took a little break, I decided to get started. I was just about finished when I realized I had put it together incorrectly and had to start over. I finally got it together and this is the final product:

Pretty good storage capacity for the amount of space it takes up. I put the other three together that evening and the next day. I found my drill so that saved lots of time. The storage capacity for these shelves is immense. They are wider than normal and almost seven feet tall. Here is a picture of the three side by side along the back wall of my living room:

I spent a lot of time on Friday unpacking my books from the many boxes and tubs they were in. I have begin the long process of organizing them, but getting everything else unpacked is kind of a higher priority. The only other thing of note that occured that weekend that I can remember is that I managed to get some Dodger playoff tickets. Of course, they have to beat the Cubs before the ticket is any good, but I’m pretty sure they will. Oh, I did watch the debate, but it just made me want to punch kittens so I had to take a break in the middle of it. Saturday I called Trey Allen to see if he wanted to watch a fight. He called around to some friends and set something up, only I had the day wrong and the fight isn’t til this weekend. My mistake, but I ended having a great time with Trey, as usual. We went to this great pizza shop called Ambrose. I ordered a pint with my pizza for which I received a blank stare. If the worker had been a naturalized citizen I might have understood, but she was pure home-grown American retarded. She rang up a small which is 12oz, and I clearly was not dealing with someone who could easily modify the order so I let it stand. We ate our pizza and drank our beer then headed back to Trey’s place. After arriving and hanging out for a little bit, we played this amazing card game called Gang of Four. It’s like a cross between Uno, Hearts, and Poker. Yeah. Amazing. Trey’s house reminds me of the Bluff house which is a nice sort of feeling. Various people seem to float in and out, including a girl who arrived, ate some dinner, then went into another room to talk on her cellphone for a while, then left. Hahaha. I bid Trey goodbye relatively early that night so I’d be ready for church in the morning. I attended a small Baptist church in a nearby city called Altadena Baptist Church. I felt really comfortable there, but that might have been because it was so much like Windsor it was spooky. 60′s style building? Check. Mixed hymns and praise music? Check. Time to share prayer requests in the middle of the service? Check. Prolonged greeting period in the middle of service? Check. Pastor that prefers a narrative structure? Check. At least for that morning that is true, as it turns out there are two pastors there. One of them is a woman, and no they aren’t married either. It is a little bizarre, and I have been invited to chat with the Pastor I heard preach about the structure of the church tomorrow. It was a disappointing development because the church in so many ways mirrors Windsor, and the superficial similarities served to underscore the differences. Theologically, I am not convinced very solidly either way on the egalitarian/complementarian debate but I do lean complementarian. Moreover, my entire normative pastoral experience is rooted in the paternal, and I can see no reason to reject what makes me comfortable when I am not particularly convinced there is any fallacy in it. Some may read that and be offended, if that’s you, get over it. I don’t snidely going around telling Feminists they shouldn’t be ministers, but I can recall even at the School of Christian Studies a guest speaker being condescending and snide about the complementarian view. I don’t think it is one of the big issues anyway, and it wouldn’t hinder me in any way acknowledging that a person with the opposing viewpoint is my brother or sister in Christ. I am personally just not comfortable with having a woman pastor, and I doubt this meeting will change that. Monday morning, I groggily woke up and brewed 32 life-giving ounces of coffee. I made my way to my 8am Greek class with my neighbor who is in the same class. In walks the professor, and I am slightly taken aback. He is a short balding man. He wears the strangest glasses I have ever seen, and his heavy lids mostly conceal darting eyes. His tongue darts in and out of his mouth in barely perceptible movements. He places his laptop on the table, and when he starts to hook up the cables he thrusts his face close to the connectors. Then it clicks. He is nearly blind. The strange movements which seemed simply ungainly were in fact the results of a struggle to discern shapes. He explains that he has two seperate eye conditions that cause him to have poor vision. I quickly learn that He is probably a genius and that like so many who live with afflictions he has a great sense of humor. The idiosyncracies and slight social awkwardness has already become endearing in it’s own way. Most important of all, he is passionate about Greek, and how often do you find someone like that? He is only an adjunct, but hopefully he will become more as he wishes. I have forgotten plenty of what I learned about Greek, but I have not forgotten the alphabet so the class was a little boring. I went to that class again this morning and have discovered that there are five of us from the same housing unit in the same class. I have been recruited to tutor as necessary, which is cool because I rather enjoy helping people understand concepts. Tuesday night I went to my Systematics class. I can tell I’m really going to enjoy this class. It’s taught by a Finnish Pentecostal who began his studies under Lutherans, and did doctoral work under Benedictines. He is an enthusiastic man who clearly enjoys his subject. We talked about Revelation and Natural Theology, and I’ve decided that I’ll probably write my paper for the class on the subject and defend Barth’s stance on Natural Theology. Hopefully I can make it some of my best work, as I’ll probably have him as a professor for my other two Systematics classes. That is everything that I can remember at the moment, but I am undoubtedly leaving stuff out. Anyway, it’s off to bed with me!