Holy Spirit Baptism

On the way back from Tennessee (after Thanksgiving) I was thinking and driving at the same time, which, ya know, is illegal and I could have been arrested. Reflecting upon an earlier conversation from the previous weekend, I started thinking about Holy Spirit baptism and a postmodern, emerging context and culture. It does seem to me that the way many in previous generations have talked about this is in very modernistic terms. Phrases like 'initial evidence' seem to denote a scientific worldview. It is an observable phenomenon which the observed does not actually have to be engaged in relationship with the subject to determine the results. In fact, the observer does not even need to know the subject in any real way in order to determine whether or not he/she has been baptized. This manner of thought seems to fly in the face of an experiential, subjective culture. One cannot know anything without being in relationship. In other words, one cannot know whether or not someone has been baptized unless they are in relationship with that person. Would it be a move towards looking and focusing more upon the fruits of the Spirit as a whole? (But wouldn't this, even, be something "observable" to label someone) Even then, the pomo culture begs the question, why do you want to know in the first place? Is it a matter of being able to establish some sort of number for stripes on a belt to show how good the preacher was or how much God was present in a meeting? Was the presence of God more manifest in a gathering where 27 people were baptized as opposed to one where only 2 (or perhaps even 0) were baptized? In other words, do we need to know to assure ourselves that God was present?

Could we (should we/can we) even think of Spirit Baptism in more communal terms, i.e. the community is baptized in the Spirit? In this manner, our thinking and speaking would become less individualistic and less focused on the individual and more communal. Just a thought.

Rules are Rules

So, the Wal-Mart here in Gulfport is open and apperently everyone thinks that the rules no longer apply. Let me explain. I'm in the quick check-out, express, 10 ITEMS OR LESS line at WallyWorld trying to buy a birthday present for this 3 yr. old daughter of a guy here. Total, I have 10 items in the cart, the maximum allowed number of items for the designated lane. I feel proud about this, knowing that I have followed the rules for this line. I look in front of me (at this point I am beside the candy aisle, you fellow Wal-Martians know what I'm talking about) and there are about 5 or 6 carts that have exceeded the 10 items limit. Now, I don't really mind if someone has 11 or 12, or even 15 items while in this line, but that isn't the case here. These folks have full carts. When the lady in front of me began to ring her stuff up, I counted how many items she had. Yeah, thats right... I counted. THIRTY-THREE!!!!!!! This lady thinks it's okay to have 33 items in the 10 items or less line. What is this? Do these folk think that just because they experienced the worst natural disaster in U.S. history that anarchy has now begun? We are neart 3 months removed from the storm. I think we can restore some sort of order now. Thats just ridiculous!

Roofing Business

Gulfport, MS, is an interesting town. I had the opportunity to visit the coast the other day, and I was extremely overwhelmed. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It looks like somebody dropped a bomb on the place. Literally, nothing is standing for about a quarter to half mile inland. It is all just ruble and foundations. I had seen the coverage on the news channels, but it just doesn't convey the level of destruction that has taken place.

I found out yesterday that the average roofer is a high school dropout, which was encouraging as I know nothing at all about roofing. I am learning quickly, so I should have it all down in a week. Seriously, it isn't that hard. It comes down mainly to being able to sale someone on the company and its product. This week has been pretty slow, which I am told is not normal. We are doing soem major advertising starting next week, so they expect things to pick up quiet a bit and get real crazy. I'm looking forward to it.... the crazier it gets means the more money that will make it to my wallet!

I'm also glad to hear that some of you are enjoying my thesis. It is not in the library, yet, as I need to correct some spacing errors which were actually Staples error. I told them to use the pdf file, but apparently they printed off from the Word file, so they spacing got all screwed up. I still agree, mostly, with what I put in there; however, as I have continued reading emergent material, I have come across some things that challenge my critiques, which is encouraging. I have my own issues now with church and how it is structured, which I may share on here on another post sometime. Life in the Gulf Coast is hectic and I don't know when I can get to internet access. We are living in a single-wide trailer with another family and a single female who is getting married in December. Privacy and convenience is not always abundant. We just started thinking about possibly finding a small, one bedroom apartment to rent while we are here. We'll see how that goes.

Paradox and Irony

From what I can gather, I am supposed to start this blasted thing with a post about this being my first post. Well, here it is. This is my first blog entry, though I have posted elsewhere. I am officially in the blog-community since I now have my own site. I decided to begin this now, as I am also beginning a new chapter in my life, and hopefully I can make sense of it all... or at least be able to have a record of it. We just left the Outer Banks (North Carolina) to pursue opportunities in Gulfport, MS. We (being my wife and I) were in OBX to plant an "innovative, postmodern church" with some friends of ours. Without going into too much detail, it didn't work out as we had anticipated. In a nutshell, after sharing some "out there" ideas, I was told that I couldn't find a church anywhere that did it that way, which I thought was the point of "innovative," so my 'dictator-implying' ideas were shut down faster than Virginia Tech's offense last Saturday night. So, it turned out I was wrong about the meaning of innovative. Apparently, it means doing the same things while wearing jeans and cool glasses. Once we were presented with the option of going to Miss. to join some friends in the roofing business, the decision to go wasn't very difficult. This is not to imply the 'wrongness' of anyone, simply that their vision and our vision of the church were not the same. Anyway, thats where I'm at... as close to being 'out' of the ministry as I have ever been and as sure that I am hearing God's voice as ever. How's that for paradox and irony?