Sunday, June 26, 2011

61459

back_in_boston


back home after two great weeks in california with both sides of our families. lots of laughing, crying, fun, relaxing, visiting favorite spots, and eating really great food!


Friday, June 10, 2011

61359

Vacation


time to go to california...to rest and relax after a crazy busy year...to spend some sweet quality time with the fams...to go to a giants game...and, of course, to read some books.


see you in two weeks boston!

Monday, June 06, 2011

61259

in_honor_of_dad

yesterday my dad preached his last sermon at salinas valley community church, the church he helped to found and to flourish for 27 years. as usual i find other's words more adequate to the task on this occasion. when i think of my dad, these are some of the things i think about:

from II Timothy: "preach the word. be prepared in season and out of season: correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. but you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, discharge all the duties of your ministry...

"...i am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. i have fought the good fight, i have finished the race, i have kept the faith." (4:1-7)

and from eugene peterson: "the norm for pastoral work is stability. twenty-, thirty-, and forty-year-long pastorates should be typical among us (as they once were) and not exceptional. far too many pastors change parishes out of adolescent boredom, not as a consequence of mature wisdom. when this happens, neither pastors nor congregations have access to the conditions that are hospitable to maturity in the faith...

"...it is interesting to listen to the comments that outsiders, particularly those from third world countries, make on the religion they observe in north america. what they notice mostly is the greed, the silliness, the narcissism. they appreciate the size and the prosperity of our churches, they energy and the technology, but they wonder at the conspicuous absence of the cross, the phobic avoidance of suffering, the puzzling indifference to community and relationships of intimacy...

"...what i object to most is the appalling and systematic trivializing of the pastoral office. it is part of a larger trivialization...there are other days, though, when we catch a glimpse of glory--a man here, a woman there determined to live nobly: singing a song, telling a story, working honestly, loving chastely." (from under the unpredictable plant)

determined to live nobly...that pretty much sums it up perfectly. that example is a good, good gift. thank you, dad!