After a very hectic first month, it's good to have things settle down a bit. Sort of... I guess.
First, a church update. One of the pastors resigned, and it's a sad day for the church as a result. He was at the root of the only "new" types of ministry being done there, starting up both our weekly basketball games and a theology class (that I've been asked to take over in his absence). The class is just a reading group for the book "How to Read the Bible for All its Worth" and so it's really just a guided discussion instead of a lecture (which equates to a bit less prep work for me).
There's still plenty out there that worries me, but at this point there's not much I can do about any of it, so I've shifted back to a posture of waiting to see what happens. In the meantime, I'll keep close to my oikos and make sure they're taken care of (and allow myself to be taken care of by them).
I've been very busy this week, with something going on every night for the entire week. Going backwards...
Super Bowl Sunday: Go Saints! We had the small group over to watch the game and eat food. I fired up the new grill for the first time, and it worked very well. I can tell that I'm going to need to spend a little time getting used to the three-burner setup, getting used to managing both the hot and cool (well... less hot) zones, as well as learning the natural hot spots (the front is cooler than the back).
UNLV/UCF Saturday: I got a free ticket to the UNLV/BYU game on Saturday (thanks Jenni!). I went with Sean, Daniel, and Nathan. It was my first UNLV game, and it was good fun. The Rebels got out to a quick start, and rode it all the way to the end of the game. That evening, we had a few people over to watch some UFC. I'm not a huge UFC fan, but there must be something about testosterone that makes watching people beat up other people (in controlled settings) very interesting and enjoyable.
Avatar Friday: I saw Avatar in 3D on IMAX. The visuals were very nice and the story was very predictable. In spite of that, it was still a fun movie to watch. I feel like I'm supposed to have more to say about it, but I don't.
Basketball Thursday: Our weekly basketball is up and running, and I'm playing better than I have in a while. My outside shooting feels much more rhythmic and I feel like my court awareness has started to creep back up again (I'm seeing passing lanes that I felt like I was missing before). This is still the only exercise I get.
Church Wednesday: This is the night of the class that I'm supposed to take over. There are 15-20 people in the group, and it's a good group of people. Part of it is self-selection. People who aren't interested in being challenged about how they think about the Bible won't sit in a class on how you should think about the Bible.
Small Group Tuesday: Our group has grown in spite of the church stuff going south, which is an indication that we're doing something right. Unsurprisingly, it's really about the simple things, like listening to and caring for each other, as well as challenging each other to grow into a more mature understanding of our faith. We're currently going through some Stand To Reason materials, and it seems to have connected very well with the group.
Board meeting Monday: The meeting started at 6:30 PM and lasted until about 12:30 AM. We listened to a lot of people talk (there was quite a bit of nonsense, but there were some sensible statements in the mix). We received and accepted the resignation of our associate pastor. Some other business happened, but I'm not about to try to remember right now.
Tomorrow begins a new week and life goes on.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Taking the time to ponder church stuff...
Life has gotten interesting on the church front in the last couple weeks, which has caused me to once again draw into a pensive mood while I wait to see what happens next. I've had a lot of thoughts since mid-November, many of which have not been appropriate to express, but now that certain events have come to a close, I feel more comfortable expressing myself in a semi-public manner.
As I look at my friends list on facebook, I see how few people there are who currently attend Warm Springs that are on that list, and most of them already know much of the story. For everyone else who bothers reading these long notes, this is really something much closer to a prayer letter, since there is much prayer necessary in this situation.
Much of this is still being sorted out both at the church level and at the personal level, but there are a few facts to put out on the table.
1) I am not moving forward in the elder process.
2) Dr. Speer was not called by a 72-28 margin, which is short of the 75-25 super majority required by the documents.
3) Some people are taking it better than others.
Each of these thoughts merits its own analysis.
(1) Before the Dr. Speer vote, I was asked to sign a letter of commitment to the church. But because of my deep concerns with Dr. Speer as a leader, and because of various aspects of his theology, I found that I could not commit since I felt that I would leave the church if he were called there. Knowing what I know about him, if I were just visiting a church, heard him preach, and heard his theology of ministry, I would not remain at that church, and it would not be a hard decision for me to make. So rather than sign now and rescind later in the event that Dr. Speer is called, I simply refused to sign in the first place.
I know that this will cause questions to be asked of me. I know that some would view this as a lack of commitment to the church. And in a very real sense, they're right. I'm not blindly and permanently committed to Warm Springs. And I'm especially not committed when I'm at a point of decision, knowing that there's something around the corner that might cause things to go in a place that I will not want to follow.
I'm slightly disappointed that it has been expressed to me that I should now "show" my commitment to the church over the next year, as it feels like an affront to my integrity. The reason I didn't sign before the vote is because I take such a commitment seriously. But to now ask me to essentially prove my commitment comes across as if my word is not sufficient for them because I lack integrity. It's as if I'm viewed to have less integrity because I took a stand regarding my integrity. This makes me wonder whether there is something much more political going on under the surface, but I can't tell from where I sit. (See "scapegoat" in (3).)
(2) There was a very large turnout for the vote, much higher than previous votes. We had around 230 votes cast, whereas the governance change came in at around 160 votes. It's hard to know precisely why there was a 50% increase in voter turnout. Certainly, some of it can be attributed to the fact that more people are interested in voting for a senior pastor than they are a governance change. But I had anticipated that the vote count would not exceed 200. I heard some comments that people were there who haven't been to the church in a while, but that seems to be the modus operandi of the church (I heard similar comments regarding the first governance vote over a year ago).
What's more interesting to me is that over 60 people voted no. This is a significant number of people, given that a 90% threshold (which many pastors use) would allow only about 20 no-votes. This is a significant number and warrants significant attention. I'm not in a position to know who all those people were, or why they voted the way they did, but it does seem that it would be useful to have a forum in which people's concerns are addressed openly and honestly. I hope this happens as things move forward, so that the thoughts and emotions of these people are not overlooked. You simply cannot ignore over 25% of the active congregation.
(3) It's clear that some people were very invested in having Dr. Speer be the next senior pastor. Some people are merely disappointed that he didn't come, but some are also quite angry.
As I've become more and more involved at church, I've come to realize how desperate some people have become for a Senior pastor. I've started to call it a "Waiting for Godot problem" as people keep pinning their hopes on a senior pastor who will arrive to heal the church and start to move things forward ("into the promised land" as one person has prayed). And at the end of the play, they discover that Godot has not yet arrived, but they just keep going through the motions and hope that he will show up in the next act.
I have talked to people who insist on the necessity of a senior pastor in order for things to get set straight, and how other churches in the region are growing strong because they have good senior leadership. It has an eerie echo of 1 Samuel 8:19-20, where Israel clamors for a king: "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
I don't believe that a senior pastor is really the answer. (I also don't believe there is one on the horizon. It's likely going to be at least another 9 months for the search committee to find another candidate, but I would anticipate that number being closer to the 12-15 month range.) One man will not show up on the doorstep some day and suddenly all the problems that this church has been having will magically be healed. I think if people would just start dealing with problems truthfully and honestly, and dealing with each other truthfully and honestly, they might find that it's possible to be a healthy and growing church WITHOUT a senior pastor, and that a senior pastor (who does serve an important role) simply adds to what is going well, and is not the one who makes things go well.
I've seen some comments from people that frame the vote as "Us vs. Them." I saw a very disappointing comment that read something like "72% of us voted for unity." I was equally disappointed to see comments about people being "deceived." I'm glad to see that some of those comments have since been removed and hopefully the anger that was expressed has since passed so that we can get to work on the important things.
Somewhat rhetorically, I want to ask what it means when you pray "The Lord's will be done" and then find that the results were not what you had thought they would be. Does this mean that the Lord's will was not done because you thought it was supposed to go one way and not the other? I fear that some people have started to look for scapegoats because things are not how they wanted it would be.
---
I don't know where things go from here. I just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I'm going to keep doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing, which is to take care of the people in my oikos. They matter to me much more than my 501(c)(3).
As I look at my friends list on facebook, I see how few people there are who currently attend Warm Springs that are on that list, and most of them already know much of the story. For everyone else who bothers reading these long notes, this is really something much closer to a prayer letter, since there is much prayer necessary in this situation.
Much of this is still being sorted out both at the church level and at the personal level, but there are a few facts to put out on the table.
1) I am not moving forward in the elder process.
2) Dr. Speer was not called by a 72-28 margin, which is short of the 75-25 super majority required by the documents.
3) Some people are taking it better than others.
Each of these thoughts merits its own analysis.
(1) Before the Dr. Speer vote, I was asked to sign a letter of commitment to the church. But because of my deep concerns with Dr. Speer as a leader, and because of various aspects of his theology, I found that I could not commit since I felt that I would leave the church if he were called there. Knowing what I know about him, if I were just visiting a church, heard him preach, and heard his theology of ministry, I would not remain at that church, and it would not be a hard decision for me to make. So rather than sign now and rescind later in the event that Dr. Speer is called, I simply refused to sign in the first place.
I know that this will cause questions to be asked of me. I know that some would view this as a lack of commitment to the church. And in a very real sense, they're right. I'm not blindly and permanently committed to Warm Springs. And I'm especially not committed when I'm at a point of decision, knowing that there's something around the corner that might cause things to go in a place that I will not want to follow.
I'm slightly disappointed that it has been expressed to me that I should now "show" my commitment to the church over the next year, as it feels like an affront to my integrity. The reason I didn't sign before the vote is because I take such a commitment seriously. But to now ask me to essentially prove my commitment comes across as if my word is not sufficient for them because I lack integrity. It's as if I'm viewed to have less integrity because I took a stand regarding my integrity. This makes me wonder whether there is something much more political going on under the surface, but I can't tell from where I sit. (See "scapegoat" in (3).)
(2) There was a very large turnout for the vote, much higher than previous votes. We had around 230 votes cast, whereas the governance change came in at around 160 votes. It's hard to know precisely why there was a 50% increase in voter turnout. Certainly, some of it can be attributed to the fact that more people are interested in voting for a senior pastor than they are a governance change. But I had anticipated that the vote count would not exceed 200. I heard some comments that people were there who haven't been to the church in a while, but that seems to be the modus operandi of the church (I heard similar comments regarding the first governance vote over a year ago).
What's more interesting to me is that over 60 people voted no. This is a significant number of people, given that a 90% threshold (which many pastors use) would allow only about 20 no-votes. This is a significant number and warrants significant attention. I'm not in a position to know who all those people were, or why they voted the way they did, but it does seem that it would be useful to have a forum in which people's concerns are addressed openly and honestly. I hope this happens as things move forward, so that the thoughts and emotions of these people are not overlooked. You simply cannot ignore over 25% of the active congregation.
(3) It's clear that some people were very invested in having Dr. Speer be the next senior pastor. Some people are merely disappointed that he didn't come, but some are also quite angry.
As I've become more and more involved at church, I've come to realize how desperate some people have become for a Senior pastor. I've started to call it a "Waiting for Godot problem" as people keep pinning their hopes on a senior pastor who will arrive to heal the church and start to move things forward ("into the promised land" as one person has prayed). And at the end of the play, they discover that Godot has not yet arrived, but they just keep going through the motions and hope that he will show up in the next act.
I have talked to people who insist on the necessity of a senior pastor in order for things to get set straight, and how other churches in the region are growing strong because they have good senior leadership. It has an eerie echo of 1 Samuel 8:19-20, where Israel clamors for a king: "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
I don't believe that a senior pastor is really the answer. (I also don't believe there is one on the horizon. It's likely going to be at least another 9 months for the search committee to find another candidate, but I would anticipate that number being closer to the 12-15 month range.) One man will not show up on the doorstep some day and suddenly all the problems that this church has been having will magically be healed. I think if people would just start dealing with problems truthfully and honestly, and dealing with each other truthfully and honestly, they might find that it's possible to be a healthy and growing church WITHOUT a senior pastor, and that a senior pastor (who does serve an important role) simply adds to what is going well, and is not the one who makes things go well.
I've seen some comments from people that frame the vote as "Us vs. Them." I saw a very disappointing comment that read something like "72% of us voted for unity." I was equally disappointed to see comments about people being "deceived." I'm glad to see that some of those comments have since been removed and hopefully the anger that was expressed has since passed so that we can get to work on the important things.
Somewhat rhetorically, I want to ask what it means when you pray "The Lord's will be done" and then find that the results were not what you had thought they would be. Does this mean that the Lord's will was not done because you thought it was supposed to go one way and not the other? I fear that some people have started to look for scapegoats because things are not how they wanted it would be.
---
I don't know where things go from here. I just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I'm going to keep doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing, which is to take care of the people in my oikos. They matter to me much more than my 501(c)(3).
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Before the new semester begins
The first couple weeks have gone by in a blur, and it's just about time to start classes again.
The first week of the year was filling with scrambling around to get my syllabi put together as well as my first few sets of notes. Usually, this happens the week before classes begin, but I was going to spend the second week of the year in San Francisco at the Joint Math Meetings, so my procrastination week actually ended up being "on time" (or really, ahead of schedule).
Most of my stuff is printed up and ready to go. For the first semester ever, I don't have any evening classes. When I had fewer things going on, I enjoyed having evening classes because it meant I didn't really need to show up all that early, and I felt as if I had a lot more time to get things done. But with small group and basketball being added to my weekly schedule, I needed to reclaim my evenings. So now all my classes are condensed between 11AM and 5PM, which makes my work day look sort of like a regular work day.
The Joint Meetings this year were in San Francisco, so I commuted to and from the meetings on BART and stayed with my parents. I didn't attend any technical talks, but I did sit in on some education-related talks, plus some miscellaneous talks (history of math, mathematics of origami).
But I think the most intriguing idea I had the entire week was that I think I'm going to get an actuarial degree. Given my background, it doesn't seem like it will be all that hard to do. I spent 10-15 minutes talking to the actuary people in the exhibit hall (http://www.BeAnActuary.org/) and they sounded as if I would probably already know about 90% of the math, so all I would need to do is familiarize myself with the some terminology and practice working on a few problems.
I don't know what I would do with an actuarial degree. I don't think I'm going to be changing professions any time soon (but given the economy... you never know). I might be able to leverage it in some way at NSC, but given how hard it has been to just get a normal math degree going, I don't see any reason why this would have a chance of going anywhere.
I've been looking into buying a grill for the backyard, and with the Super Bowl coming up and with friends coming over, I think I've found sufficient motivation to spend the money. I've been doing a little research, and I think I've found a grill in the right price range. I'm going to check out a couple places just to see if I can't do better, but I'm closing in on a 3-burner gas grill in the $200 range. I'll also need some back yard furniture... but one thing at a time.
In one week, we vote on the Senior Pastor candidate. I know a lot of people have heart ache about the consequences of the vote (both yes and no), but nobody really knows what will happen until it happens. There are lots of things that I can say about the candidate and the process, but there's very little value in expressing those things (at least in this venue at this moment in time). My feeling at this point is that most people already know where they stand, and so everything is just waiting for the vote and then counting the votes when they come in.
The first week of the year was filling with scrambling around to get my syllabi put together as well as my first few sets of notes. Usually, this happens the week before classes begin, but I was going to spend the second week of the year in San Francisco at the Joint Math Meetings, so my procrastination week actually ended up being "on time" (or really, ahead of schedule).
Most of my stuff is printed up and ready to go. For the first semester ever, I don't have any evening classes. When I had fewer things going on, I enjoyed having evening classes because it meant I didn't really need to show up all that early, and I felt as if I had a lot more time to get things done. But with small group and basketball being added to my weekly schedule, I needed to reclaim my evenings. So now all my classes are condensed between 11AM and 5PM, which makes my work day look sort of like a regular work day.
The Joint Meetings this year were in San Francisco, so I commuted to and from the meetings on BART and stayed with my parents. I didn't attend any technical talks, but I did sit in on some education-related talks, plus some miscellaneous talks (history of math, mathematics of origami).
But I think the most intriguing idea I had the entire week was that I think I'm going to get an actuarial degree. Given my background, it doesn't seem like it will be all that hard to do. I spent 10-15 minutes talking to the actuary people in the exhibit hall (http://www.BeAnActuary.org/) and they sounded as if I would probably already know about 90% of the math, so all I would need to do is familiarize myself with the some terminology and practice working on a few problems.
I don't know what I would do with an actuarial degree. I don't think I'm going to be changing professions any time soon (but given the economy... you never know). I might be able to leverage it in some way at NSC, but given how hard it has been to just get a normal math degree going, I don't see any reason why this would have a chance of going anywhere.
I've been looking into buying a grill for the backyard, and with the Super Bowl coming up and with friends coming over, I think I've found sufficient motivation to spend the money. I've been doing a little research, and I think I've found a grill in the right price range. I'm going to check out a couple places just to see if I can't do better, but I'm closing in on a 3-burner gas grill in the $200 range. I'll also need some back yard furniture... but one thing at a time.
In one week, we vote on the Senior Pastor candidate. I know a lot of people have heart ache about the consequences of the vote (both yes and no), but nobody really knows what will happen until it happens. There are lots of things that I can say about the candidate and the process, but there's very little value in expressing those things (at least in this venue at this moment in time). My feeling at this point is that most people already know where they stand, and so everything is just waiting for the vote and then counting the votes when they come in.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Another year...
And another failed Christmas letter. But at least this year, I tried. I might even try to finish it up and send it out late (better late than never?). Why am I making a note here instead of writing that Christmas letter? Good question. I'm not really sure. Maybe it's because I feel a deep sense of inadequacy when I compare my plain-text draft of a letter with the richly colored and elaborately decorated letters that people send me. Or maybe it's just because I just want to ramble for a while and that's much easier than trying to put together a more formal letter. Either way, the Christmas letter isn't getting done right now.
I'm sort of in a pensive mood right now. It's probably because another year has just about come to its conclusion, and throwing away my old calendar makes me feel that way. It's definitely been a good year for me, filled with much newness.
I bought the most expensive thing I've ever bought in my entire life. My house is a nice place to live, in a nice neighborhood, located a nice distance from work and other things. I've been told I need to work on the interior decorating (what's wrong with blank white walls?), but not before I get a grill. This has been a great experience for me, if for nothing else than it gives me a sense of grounding in one place. When I was a student, I felt myself as being somewhat transient because I knew that when I graduated, I was very likely going to go somewhere else. When I lived in an apartment out here for two years, I always felt as if that was not home because I was going to move somewhere else eventually. So in some sense, I spent 11 years drifting about, and it's good to be "home."
Even though this house is probably not my "forever" home, there's an "indefiniteness" about home ownership that makes it feel different. I guess this is what Suze Orman is talking about when she talks about owning a home outright gives a sense of security. Of course, I don't own it outright, and probably won't for quite some time (or perhaps ever, if I move before I pay it off).
(In that half-written Christmas letter, I also pointed out that I've had the new experience of getting into a fight with an HOA. But I don't have anything else to say about that one.)
I've had the new experience of preaching. Only once, but apparently it had a decent impact on people. I got an email from the church office yesterday to tell me that someone who claims to be a pastor from around here heard the sermon and wants to get in contact with me. It's very weird to me. I haven't figured out what church this guy is from, and I haven't decided whether to follow-up on it or just shrug it off.
On the topic of church, there have been a lot of new experiences (both good and bad) that I've had through the church. I never believed that churches were always supposed to be a nice and sanitized place to be, but I guess I've been exposed to how messy things can really get sometimes. But I know that challenges cause growth, and I think I've started to learn a bit more about myself that I may not have discovered otherwise.
I know A LOT more people at church now, some of whom are becoming good friends. This is one thing about Las Vegas that I was told when I arrived and have found to be true. It's not that easy to get to know people out here. The pace of life and the lifestyles people have can make it difficult to get to know people well. Everyone is generally sort of isolated from everyone else because that's what "normal" looks like out here. Hopefully that will change. I know that it's an ongoing effort of many groups to create a sense of "community" here. This is something that we try to do on campus.
Using that as a smooth transition to work, there have been new things there as well. I've written a 500-something page textbook in the last year, which is a new thing. I'm still in the revision process, as there are a number of things I want to add and a few other things to clean up. This has been a different sort of challenge. I've never really had a grueling writing process. Even my PhD thesis was "easy" when it came to actually writing it out (the work was hard, but that was a separate process than the actual writing).
There are a number of other little things that were new this year at work. I've got a couple web-based programming challenges that I've started to work on, I've got some more committee-driven experiences, and I'm starting to feel as if I'm becoming more influential within our school. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that it will lead to more work.
I'm done rambling. And if you read all of that, sorry for taking up so much of your time. You probably won't be getting a Christmas letter this year. Maybe next year.
Have a Happy New Year!
I'm sort of in a pensive mood right now. It's probably because another year has just about come to its conclusion, and throwing away my old calendar makes me feel that way. It's definitely been a good year for me, filled with much newness.
I bought the most expensive thing I've ever bought in my entire life. My house is a nice place to live, in a nice neighborhood, located a nice distance from work and other things. I've been told I need to work on the interior decorating (what's wrong with blank white walls?), but not before I get a grill. This has been a great experience for me, if for nothing else than it gives me a sense of grounding in one place. When I was a student, I felt myself as being somewhat transient because I knew that when I graduated, I was very likely going to go somewhere else. When I lived in an apartment out here for two years, I always felt as if that was not home because I was going to move somewhere else eventually. So in some sense, I spent 11 years drifting about, and it's good to be "home."
Even though this house is probably not my "forever" home, there's an "indefiniteness" about home ownership that makes it feel different. I guess this is what Suze Orman is talking about when she talks about owning a home outright gives a sense of security. Of course, I don't own it outright, and probably won't for quite some time (or perhaps ever, if I move before I pay it off).
(In that half-written Christmas letter, I also pointed out that I've had the new experience of getting into a fight with an HOA. But I don't have anything else to say about that one.)
I've had the new experience of preaching. Only once, but apparently it had a decent impact on people. I got an email from the church office yesterday to tell me that someone who claims to be a pastor from around here heard the sermon and wants to get in contact with me. It's very weird to me. I haven't figured out what church this guy is from, and I haven't decided whether to follow-up on it or just shrug it off.
On the topic of church, there have been a lot of new experiences (both good and bad) that I've had through the church. I never believed that churches were always supposed to be a nice and sanitized place to be, but I guess I've been exposed to how messy things can really get sometimes. But I know that challenges cause growth, and I think I've started to learn a bit more about myself that I may not have discovered otherwise.
I know A LOT more people at church now, some of whom are becoming good friends. This is one thing about Las Vegas that I was told when I arrived and have found to be true. It's not that easy to get to know people out here. The pace of life and the lifestyles people have can make it difficult to get to know people well. Everyone is generally sort of isolated from everyone else because that's what "normal" looks like out here. Hopefully that will change. I know that it's an ongoing effort of many groups to create a sense of "community" here. This is something that we try to do on campus.
Using that as a smooth transition to work, there have been new things there as well. I've written a 500-something page textbook in the last year, which is a new thing. I'm still in the revision process, as there are a number of things I want to add and a few other things to clean up. This has been a different sort of challenge. I've never really had a grueling writing process. Even my PhD thesis was "easy" when it came to actually writing it out (the work was hard, but that was a separate process than the actual writing).
There are a number of other little things that were new this year at work. I've got a couple web-based programming challenges that I've started to work on, I've got some more committee-driven experiences, and I'm starting to feel as if I'm becoming more influential within our school. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that it will lead to more work.
I'm done rambling. And if you read all of that, sorry for taking up so much of your time. You probably won't be getting a Christmas letter this year. Maybe next year.
Have a Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Busy weeks
It's been a busy three weeks, and I'm actually taking the time to type this up as a break from taking care of some other work that needs to get done.
The first week back from Thanksgiving was the last week of class before finals. There's usually not a lot of work to do that week, but I spent the time updating my textbook and adding in some more sections (which I think are necessary).
Then the next week was all about finals and grading. This is always a tiring time. The tests went out on Wednesday and Thursday, and then I took almost a full day on Friday and Saturday, and then a couple more hours on Sunday to power through the stack.
This past week was supposed to be one that was a little more relaxed, but things came up and so I haven't really hit the brakes yet. I reworked our placement exam, added a couple more sections to the textbook, worked on some promotion standards, and a few other little things.
But most of my time and energy has been consumed with church stuff. We had a pastor candidate process that imploded. It's impossible for that to happen without there being a mess, but in some sense it's a good mess. Yes, people are hurt, angry (very angry), frustrated, and disappointed, but these are things that can be an instigator of tremendous growth. So we're going to deal with it (what choice do we have?) and see where we end up.
While all this is going on, I've been involved in the elder training process. It's good because I'm starting to get a sense of the different perspectives and personalities of the other elders, and (especially with the current assignment I'm working on) it is forcing me to go back through the scriptures and remind myself of things that I already know but could use some refreshing. It has been a while since I've dug around the Bible like this.
I still haven't gotten out to play poker. I guess I could still go out tonight, but I woke up somewhat early this morning and I'm feeling a little bit too tired to go play. If my brain really isn't with me, I'm not going to play. It's a simple rule that keeps me out of trouble. I probably won't have time to go until I get back after Christmas.
The first week back from Thanksgiving was the last week of class before finals. There's usually not a lot of work to do that week, but I spent the time updating my textbook and adding in some more sections (which I think are necessary).
Then the next week was all about finals and grading. This is always a tiring time. The tests went out on Wednesday and Thursday, and then I took almost a full day on Friday and Saturday, and then a couple more hours on Sunday to power through the stack.
This past week was supposed to be one that was a little more relaxed, but things came up and so I haven't really hit the brakes yet. I reworked our placement exam, added a couple more sections to the textbook, worked on some promotion standards, and a few other little things.
But most of my time and energy has been consumed with church stuff. We had a pastor candidate process that imploded. It's impossible for that to happen without there being a mess, but in some sense it's a good mess. Yes, people are hurt, angry (very angry), frustrated, and disappointed, but these are things that can be an instigator of tremendous growth. So we're going to deal with it (what choice do we have?) and see where we end up.
While all this is going on, I've been involved in the elder training process. It's good because I'm starting to get a sense of the different perspectives and personalities of the other elders, and (especially with the current assignment I'm working on) it is forcing me to go back through the scriptures and remind myself of things that I already know but could use some refreshing. It has been a while since I've dug around the Bible like this.
I still haven't gotten out to play poker. I guess I could still go out tonight, but I woke up somewhat early this morning and I'm feeling a little bit too tired to go play. If my brain really isn't with me, I'm not going to play. It's a simple rule that keeps me out of trouble. I probably won't have time to go until I get back after Christmas.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thanksgiving Trifectas
Last week was a bit of a blur. But I do have the distinct memory of three separate Thanksgivings. The third thanksgiving culminated in the production of a three-bird feast.
On Sunday, we had a Thanksgiving potluck at church. It was good to see that many church people spending time together at a time other than Sunday morning. It was some good old-fashioned church family time, and I think it was a good thing. The food was good for massive church potluck food. It sort of reminded me of the FBCSD Thanksgiving potluck from a while ago. Except in that one, I was a part of the kitchen crew. I want to believe that it was a massive turkey baking festival, but I can actually only remember making gravy and doing organizational tasks.
Thursday was Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. Since I flew home on Thanksgiving day this year, I didn't do anything food-wise for that one (which is the first time in a while that I haven't done any food). I think there were 15 people there.
The third Thanksgiving started at around 10 PM on Thursday night, when my cousin and I got to work on the Thanksgiving turducken (from scratch!). Neither of us had done this before, but we're both pretty competent people in the kitchen, and we decided we were up to the challenge.
We went with the Chef Paul Prudhomme Turducken Recipe. He is viewed by some to be the inventor of this dish, but I don't know whether it's actually true.
Chef Prudhomme is a Cajun chef, which is why there are so many green peppers in this tray. There were three different stuffings, so this is one tray out of three of diced vegetation. We also had a tray of ground andouille, chopped shrimp, and crumbled cornbread. Good prep work is key to pulling off any large cooking task.
The most daunting part of the whole task is the deboning of the birds. Since it was the first bird (and the largest bird), the turkey took the most time. I think it ended up taking about 25 minutes to debone the turkey. The important thing with this is that you must debone the bird in such a way that you can fold it back up again into a turkey shape. This means that the skin must be left completely intact (except for a single cut down the back). The basic idea is that you start from the spine and "unroll" the meat off the carcass.
It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. Having a sharp knife helped, but really, it was a game of patience. After getting through the turkey, I watched my cousin do the same to the duck, and then she finished the chicken as I finished the vegetable prep. I think it was about 1:30 AM by the time we completed all of the deboning and prep work.
From here, we went to the stove work. Actually, my cousin did most of that. I think she's better at that part, anyway. I cleaned up the pans and brought her the trays as she worked her way through. The cooking of the stuffings is pretty uninteresting. After all of that was completed (at around 3:30 AM), it came time to stuff the birds with stuffing, then stuff the birds into the other birds.
You can see the stove clock on the last picture, which says that this part was finished at about 4 AM.
At this point, almost everything was prepared. The turducken requires 8 hours to cook plus an hour of resting, so we were aiming to put it in the oven at 9 AM. We put the turducken outside to keep cool (it was in the high 30s outside). At this point, my cousin and I went to sleep, but my dad (who was staying up with us) decided to stay up to clean up a bit, plus keep watch over the turducken so that the raccoon that had been spotted in the area wouldn't take it. (It was also about this time that my aunt and uncle were getting up for their black Friday shopping.)
I woke up at about 8:30, and we got the turducken in the oven at a little after 9. Very little work needed to be done from that point forward, and I found another couple hours of sleep on the couch before the afternoon rolled around and family started showing up.
The turducken was good, but it could have been better. The stuffings all tasted too similar for my liking, and the turkey could have stood a bit of brining, but it was all surprisingly moist for something that sat in an oven for 8 hours. I think it might be good to skin the duck, as well. The duck skin came out very floppy, which is not the best way to enjoy duck skin (crispy is the way to go).
I would definitely do it again sometime. I just need an excuse.
On Sunday, we had a Thanksgiving potluck at church. It was good to see that many church people spending time together at a time other than Sunday morning. It was some good old-fashioned church family time, and I think it was a good thing. The food was good for massive church potluck food. It sort of reminded me of the FBCSD Thanksgiving potluck from a while ago. Except in that one, I was a part of the kitchen crew. I want to believe that it was a massive turkey baking festival, but I can actually only remember making gravy and doing organizational tasks.
Thursday was Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. Since I flew home on Thanksgiving day this year, I didn't do anything food-wise for that one (which is the first time in a while that I haven't done any food). I think there were 15 people there.
The third Thanksgiving started at around 10 PM on Thursday night, when my cousin and I got to work on the Thanksgiving turducken (from scratch!). Neither of us had done this before, but we're both pretty competent people in the kitchen, and we decided we were up to the challenge.
We went with the Chef Paul Prudhomme Turducken Recipe. He is viewed by some to be the inventor of this dish, but I don't know whether it's actually true.
Chef Prudhomme is a Cajun chef, which is why there are so many green peppers in this tray. There were three different stuffings, so this is one tray out of three of diced vegetation. We also had a tray of ground andouille, chopped shrimp, and crumbled cornbread. Good prep work is key to pulling off any large cooking task.
The most daunting part of the whole task is the deboning of the birds. Since it was the first bird (and the largest bird), the turkey took the most time. I think it ended up taking about 25 minutes to debone the turkey. The important thing with this is that you must debone the bird in such a way that you can fold it back up again into a turkey shape. This means that the skin must be left completely intact (except for a single cut down the back). The basic idea is that you start from the spine and "unroll" the meat off the carcass.
It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. Having a sharp knife helped, but really, it was a game of patience. After getting through the turkey, I watched my cousin do the same to the duck, and then she finished the chicken as I finished the vegetable prep. I think it was about 1:30 AM by the time we completed all of the deboning and prep work.
From here, we went to the stove work. Actually, my cousin did most of that. I think she's better at that part, anyway. I cleaned up the pans and brought her the trays as she worked her way through. The cooking of the stuffings is pretty uninteresting. After all of that was completed (at around 3:30 AM), it came time to stuff the birds with stuffing, then stuff the birds into the other birds.
You can see the stove clock on the last picture, which says that this part was finished at about 4 AM.
At this point, almost everything was prepared. The turducken requires 8 hours to cook plus an hour of resting, so we were aiming to put it in the oven at 9 AM. We put the turducken outside to keep cool (it was in the high 30s outside). At this point, my cousin and I went to sleep, but my dad (who was staying up with us) decided to stay up to clean up a bit, plus keep watch over the turducken so that the raccoon that had been spotted in the area wouldn't take it. (It was also about this time that my aunt and uncle were getting up for their black Friday shopping.)
I woke up at about 8:30, and we got the turducken in the oven at a little after 9. Very little work needed to be done from that point forward, and I found another couple hours of sleep on the couch before the afternoon rolled around and family started showing up.
The turducken was good, but it could have been better. The stuffings all tasted too similar for my liking, and the turkey could have stood a bit of brining, but it was all surprisingly moist for something that sat in an oven for 8 hours. I think it might be good to skin the duck, as well. The duck skin came out very floppy, which is not the best way to enjoy duck skin (crispy is the way to go).
I would definitely do it again sometime. I just need an excuse.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Almost there...
The semester is almost over. And by almost over, I mean there are three full weeks left. My internal clock is still set to quarters, which means I still think things should be over before they are.
I've got all of my traveling lined up for the break. I'll be taking three trips back home in the next couple months: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a math conference in SF. Unfortunately, the conference is set too far back from Christmas, so staying at home the whole time just isn't really an option. I've got stuff to take care of out here (like starting into the third pre-publication version of the textbook).
The sermon went well on Sunday. I think it went a little bit better than I thought it would. It's available online through the church website, if anyone is brave enough (or bored enough) to listen. Just google "Warm Springs Baptist Church Las Vegas" and it should be the first hit. There were some topics that were a little delicate, in that I was basically asking the church to stop being stupid about some things. A lot of people thanked me for saying what they have been thinking (including some people who have been around the church for many years). I was sort of in a position where since I'm not a pastor, I can say things that the pastors can't say as effectively, like Hebrews 13:17 - "Obey your leaders..."
Other church things continue onward. There's a potluck on Sunday. I'm supposed to bring a dessert. I think I'll just make a batch of cookies because I don't know what I want to make (and cookies are both easy and tasty). There's also the Elder training that's supposed to start in a few weeks as well (which reminds me that I need to take an hour somewhere and fill out the paperwork).
I put out an order for a couple new board games. I don't know when they'll arrive, but I'm looking forward to getting something new. One is Ricochet Robots (which is a very nerdy game, but still fun), and the other is Alhambra (which I've played once, but I'll have to re-learn it because it has been too long). These should come in probably in the next couple weeks, which means they might come home with me for Christmas.
Tomorrow is the last day of basketball for the year. I cut up my left ring finger while smashing something in the garbage can, but it's mostly healed and I don't think it will be too much of an issue.
And I look forward to playing some poker when the semester is over. That is all.
I've got all of my traveling lined up for the break. I'll be taking three trips back home in the next couple months: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a math conference in SF. Unfortunately, the conference is set too far back from Christmas, so staying at home the whole time just isn't really an option. I've got stuff to take care of out here (like starting into the third pre-publication version of the textbook).
The sermon went well on Sunday. I think it went a little bit better than I thought it would. It's available online through the church website, if anyone is brave enough (or bored enough) to listen. Just google "Warm Springs Baptist Church Las Vegas" and it should be the first hit. There were some topics that were a little delicate, in that I was basically asking the church to stop being stupid about some things. A lot of people thanked me for saying what they have been thinking (including some people who have been around the church for many years). I was sort of in a position where since I'm not a pastor, I can say things that the pastors can't say as effectively, like Hebrews 13:17 - "Obey your leaders..."
Other church things continue onward. There's a potluck on Sunday. I'm supposed to bring a dessert. I think I'll just make a batch of cookies because I don't know what I want to make (and cookies are both easy and tasty). There's also the Elder training that's supposed to start in a few weeks as well (which reminds me that I need to take an hour somewhere and fill out the paperwork).
I put out an order for a couple new board games. I don't know when they'll arrive, but I'm looking forward to getting something new. One is Ricochet Robots (which is a very nerdy game, but still fun), and the other is Alhambra (which I've played once, but I'll have to re-learn it because it has been too long). These should come in probably in the next couple weeks, which means they might come home with me for Christmas.
Tomorrow is the last day of basketball for the year. I cut up my left ring finger while smashing something in the garbage can, but it's mostly healed and I don't think it will be too much of an issue.
And I look forward to playing some poker when the semester is over. That is all.
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