What I Enjoyed This Week – 1. I’ve enjoyed being a husband and dad this week. Nathan and I really bonded on our trip to Phoenix and while I think kids should be born potty-trained already like cats (or at least with the ability to change their own diapers if control is a problem in the early stages of life), it’s been nice receiving the attention from the 1yr. old. I would only bore you with stories of these great moments. Also, and I know I’ve said this before but it’s been great seeing my wife pregnant and healthy, though I know it’s been so tough lately. 39 Days til baby boy’s due date! 2. Loved seeing Rob Bell’s Drops Like Stars in Providence. I highly recommend it. I think I may have liked it more than The Gods Aren’t Angry (although he said some extremely important things on that tour). It was great making the long drive with Tim Nye, Mark Allen and new friend Troy Davidson. 3. Enjoyed laughing at Scott Kent Jones’ Jabez twitter jokes. He’s usually not 
this funny. 4. My fantasy baseball season is over. It was a lot of fun and I really think I enjoyed the season more. I lost to a former student, future worship pastor-heartthrob (hey He calls some to be apostles, some to be evangelists and some to give up an inevitable boyband career and pick up his cross to become a worship pastor), and fellow Yankee fan Davey-boy. I beat him in fantasy football this week though ;-) Good luck in the championships, friend. 5. The tree that had dripped sap on our cars and the reason we don’t use our driveway has been taken down! Don’t worry, we’ll use the wood to heat a mcmansion around here and use the sap on the front doors and car doors of fundamentalists.
What I’ve Been Listening to – U2. Achtung Baby is my favorite U2 album (even though real U2 fans will stop listening to if you don’t say Joshua Tree), but No Line on the Horizon is fantastic. 2. The new Muse album – The Resistance. 3. Homebrewed Christianity Podcast – I am a bit behind but the last one I listened to was “God and the World Wide Web” with Donna Bowman. This is a good one to start with if you’re new to Homebrewed. A bit of pop culture, a bit of academia and whatever else it was, you can check it out here. Also for those interested, the previous one I enjoyed was Terrence Fretheim’s “Relational View of Creation“. I’m pretty interested on the topic of creation and all the meaning, baggage, and promise that 
goes with it. I need another listen to it but I think what I like about Homebrewed is that they don’t take themselves that seriously even though they are interviewing these brilliant academic voices. Most likely, I’m not going to read Fretheim’s books in the near future but I am fascinated about these figures and this podcast makes them accessible enough to listen to in the car or at the gym.
What I’ve Been Reading – In addition to my school reading (and in some cases instead of), some magazines and posts that I liked. Among them is Relevant’s Jeff Tweedy cover story. I’m a fan of Wilco and in addition to the great music, I think Tweedy has a few helpful things to say. If you’ve never heard of Relevant, you can read it free here. If you have allowed your subscription to lapse and are mooching their free service then read something else. Seriously, don’t be a mooch. I’d rather you return to your den of thieves and download Osteen’s new ebook illegally than to take advantage of their graciousness ;-)
What’s Going on in Student Ministry – So far, we are off to a solid start. If you saw last week’s post we talked about the reason for our creation. This week we are tackling what we were created with and among our talking points will be discovering our spiritual gifts. This is something that I’ve come around on because I’ve been pretty spiritually gifted out of that conversation. “Listen Pastor, what you need to do is shut up and listen to me and my friends because I have the gift of mercy and I’m biblical”. A couple years of that and you really start wondering about the importance of these gifts – lol. In any case, in the proper place, I see that an understanding of our spiritual gifts as an important aspect in our identity and calling. 2. We’re starting a new student leadership called Sugar. It used to be called SALT and we’ve made a few changes so the name had to go.
What I Plan on Blogging About One Day – I have 17 drafts that need to be finished. Among them are: What if Jerry Falwell Wasn’t A Televangelist?, my reviews of Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrom, Robert Wright at the Templeton Foundation from a few months ago, Rob Bell, and some student ministry stuff.
What I’m Looking Forward To – This Thursday – going to the U2 concert with my friends!
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