Thinking about church

I've been thinking a lot about church, trying to process my core reactions to things I see.

Then I found this, which is just about right:



These thoughts I'm experincing feel dangerous and potentially wrong (a specifically ambiguous term - I'm not exactly sure what's wrong). However, the further I delve into these thoughts, the more powerful the Holy Spirit becomes inside me. This seeming incongruence between my entire life perspective about church and what I feel the H.S. telling me - well, let's just say it's awkward.

Summertime...the results

GUESS WHAT? WE LOOKED LIKE AMATUERS!

Go figure, right? It was fun, though. Each group had problems. I know I learned tons. I just hope my grade doesn't suffer. There were so many variables to the performance that actually quantifying anything beyond a participation grade would be unfair.

Hope this works out!

Summertime for Degree Completion Students

Our current class has lots of lab work. We're in a television studio on campus creating our own newscasts. The fun level is high; the learning is fantastic with the hands-on approach.

But we've had one consisent problem. The spring semester ended, and all the lab workstudy students have gone home. Normally the studio is fully staffed for most of the day. However, starting last week, the normal workstudy students are gone for the summer. This means checking out the equipment we need for a filming project is nearly impossible, given that the point of the DC program is that we need to study on our own time because we have daytime jobs.

Also, the lab is closed in the evening. So we had 11 of the 14 members of my class show up to work in a lab, and we were on the schedule to be there from 7p to 9p, but no one was there to unlock the rooms we needed. Nobody had our teacher's home number, and security would not come unlock it without our teacher's permission. So we hacked the lab computer (it was unlocked) and found his phone number and called him at home. He called security, who then let us in.

It's just been frustrating not having someone there to answer our questions. I've heard we're the first DC class to do these lab projects. It's a great idea. But when the teacher forgot to factor in the end of the semester workstudy program (and you could see the shock on his face when the implications hit him last week), the "out of our control" elements wreaked havoc with our ability to prepare.

So tonight's lab work will be interesting, considering the lack of assistance we have been able to receive. I began meditating on one of my mottos - what comes, comes. And also a school philosophy I have - grades are like bears; all I have to do is run a little faster than the other students to avoid getting eaten.

:)

PS. And to top it off, our teacher has been really busy outside of class with his daughter getting married. I don't blame or condemn him for something like this. The entire experience is just a nexus of many issues outside of class arrayed against us as students.

Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I have seen several movies which I have not reviewed, mostly because most of my writing is for my classwork. However, now and throughout the summer, I will try to blog all the movies I will watch in the theater, which is a lot.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the prequel to the X-Men movies, covering some of the flashbacks Wolverine has in that trilogy.

Gains: +5
You basically get what you expect from this movie - lots of action, fighting, metal claws, war, intrigue, super powers. The movie delivers lots of great action sequences. The main characters are layered, sometimes even breaking stereotype roles. The acting is solid, even brilliant at times. The interplay and relationship between Wolverine and Sabertooth is worth watching.

The storyline is intriguing. The plot, when measured as a tragedy, is fantastic.

I need to add a point for the opening sequence alone, after the "kid" scene. It shows Wolverine and Sabertooth's participation in several different wars in a montage sequence - a powerful piece of cinematography.

Losses: -1
Not to be too picky, but the claws often looked fake. Between that and the lack of friction when they cut things (never requiring him to use muscles or meet any friction resistance) definitly took something out of the movie. It interrupted suspension of disbelief a couple times.

I'm not going to take any points away for violence. You should know that it's violent, though fantasy, bloodless violence. Even with giant claws of all types piercing bodies, slashing, and just killing in general, no characters bled much. There was no gore. This ends as a wash in my book. It breaks even, and I don't really mind this kind of violence, but it's there.

Final Judgement: +4

I feel this score is a point too high. The answer for why lies in the case of expectations. If you expect a solid comic book action flick, it will meet your expectations. If you expect much else, you'll be disappointed. I was the former.

If I have high expectations, a movie has greater scoring opportunity. However, it will suffer a more severe penalty if it fails to meet the hype. This movie was exactly what I expected.

Cohort Rep

So, our class Cohort 41C has a position for representative - basically, the front person for our little group who acts as the student liaison between the faculty and the cohort. Our original rep has dropped out. So they asked for new applications to be submitted.

After a long and arduous process in which I filled out a paper requesting consideration for the position, I got the job! They were so wow'ed by my qualifications and experience that they picked me. (Or maybe I was the only applicant.)

When absences and tardies need to fearlessly recorded, I am there. When the cohort cries out in need of a contact list, I am there. I am the cohort rep.

PS. Also, there is a 10% tuition discount!

Classes #4 and #5 complete

I meant to get these out as two seperate blogs, but since the grades came in at nearly the same time, I'll combine them into one post. This is for my communication degree, Jon. I didn't forget your comment; I just thought my first teacher would have my grade soon, so I'd have mentioned what degree I'm going for about 5 weeks ago.

Class #4 was my first senior-level course, entitled Communication Through the Eyes of Faith, though it was basically easy, lots of thinking and writing (which I enjoy). Unfortunately, I missed 1 point, thus narrowly missing the 100 percent for the entire class. I laugh at myself for how much that 1 point rankles me. Sadface. (Yes, I know I could put :( but using words to describe emoticons is funny to me.)

Class #5 was called Media and Feature Writing. The teacher was super fun. She expected quite a lot of us, but I really like to perform well for my favorite teachers. I got an A in her class, scoring about 10 points above class average on each test. This class was difficult at times because several questions on the tests were marked wrong when they were right. This destroyes my faith in "the system," despite some "this system is flawless" rhetoric from the teacher. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR TESTS FOR GRADING ERROR! Also, the teacher's work-study student who graded most of our grammaticals was wrong 80 percent of the time when marking my paper. This is fact, not conjecture. I was keeping score.

So 5 classes with all A- or better. This is good, because I'm a momentum kind of student. I'll keep trying this hard until I get a B. If and when I do, I'll likely slack off more because the straight-A's opportunity will be gone. Momentum.

Daniel Hannan

This British guy speaks for me (both clips are worth watching if you have 15 minutes):

With Joe Scarborough:



With Glenn Beck:

Friday Fun

Videos like this make sleepy, cranky Fridays more tolerable:

Worship Songs Cause a Black Hole in Springfield

So, Sunday, our exuberant music leader at church chose the song "You're Grace Is Enough" followed closely by the wonderful hymn "Amazing Grace."

Then in chapel at work today, we sang exactly the same two songs in exactly the same order, including the horrible, repetitive, annoying "Praise Him" verse to "Amazing Grace."

As I sat there, realizing the implications of two different worship leaders singing the same songs in the same order, slowly I could feel a tiny black hole forming in my brain and sucking away my patience, even though I really love "Amazing Grace."

I'm poised to rant about modern worship music. Stay tuned.

Why method matters to the Holy Spirit

As many of you know, I am simultaneously more and less aware of my surroundings than most other people. I am quite aware of the minutia and the influences involved but can be ignorant of the big picture stuff. In other words, I study the method and form, and oftentimes the message is lost on me.

Spiritual Emphasis Week around AG headquarters means 5 days in a row of chapel services here at work. Our speakers have ranged from the screeching old lady to the hilarious guy to the apostle-style, all-Jesus'-business guy.

This year our speaker is a young evangelist (probably 36 or 37 years old). His message and attitude immediately struck me as being Holy Spirit-filled and anointed.

My problem with how the service went down is entirely in the method of presentation. After a long intro (we sang 3 choruses, which is a lot in a 1-hour program) and prayer, our speaker got up with his wife. She talked while he stood politely in the background, then she sang a special number while he sang politely in the background. Then he began to speak. The message felt a little disjointed, though he had some poignant points, and he cut out the final story and, apparently, the conclusion due to time constraints.

In my experience, S.E. Week often succeeds or fails based on the relationship the speaker has with God, followed closely by the relationship the audience develops with the speaker. The former is the most important, and the latter takes time to build but is crucial.

The problem is that on Day 1 the speaker must build that relationship foundation with the audience as strong as is possible. By letting his wife take charge initially after he was introduced and giving the audience a special music piece, our first impression was of his wife, not of him. In the baby duckling sense, we bonded more with her when we should have been bonding with him. She will have the rest of the week to sing or could have even at the end of today's service, but he should have been the one to initiate the audience.

Then to top it off, in the middle of his message about the power of the Holy Spirit, he forgot to conclude and jumped right to everyone standing and praying. I guess my main point in all of this is that God can move in extreme circumstances but that humans are mundane, systemic, relational beings. The speaker's job is to streamline the avenue from the spiritual to the earthly. His method felt abrupt, and the service suffered for it.