First Blog

As I'm sure is the case with almost everyone when the start blogging, I begin by saying, "This whole blogging thing is pretty new to me, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it." I did some blog posts about a year and half ago for a class of mine, but did not really keep it up after the class was over. I've posted one or two things on myspace back a few years ago, but I stopped using myspace some time since then. I now use facebook quite regularly, but have not made any endeavors to post any notes or topics or particular things other than really basic information about myself.

So why start now? There's a number of reasons why I feel like now would be a good time to begin blogging regularly.

1) For probably the first time in my life, I feel like I have lots of time on my hands. I have always been busy with school and ministry stuff. I finished my master's of divinity degree at Fuller Seminary this last summer, and have since been looking for work as a youth pastor. My life is very much in transition, relying and waiting on God to open things up in my life for me to move forward. I don't know what's next, and I haven't known for some time. In the meantime, I am doing what I can in terms of searching for work responsibly, maintaining a level of involvment at my church, and trying to keep some kind of regular pace to my life.

2) I like to write. While the rigors of writing numerous papers in college and in seminary were often intense, I found that I actually enjoyed the writing process. I found that so long as I paced myself well, was confident in my research and ideas, and could organize everything before I started writing, I would enjoy the work. Obviously I did this with mixed success, some assignments better than others. Yet I knew that with each paper I was reliant upon God's power and influence to write something that would glorify him and accomplish the task for the given class. Having finished my seminary degree, I've needed to find other creative outlets. I have made attempts at writing out ideas and screenplays for movies that I would love to see, but will probably never be made (I have never aspired to be a screenplay writer, and still don't feel like I have a lot of ideas, so this still isn't really a goal of mine). Writing story and screenplay ideas is more of a creative outlet for me rather than for lots of people to see. That being said, blogging would be a similar outlet. Heck, maybe I'll even post excerpts of things I've written on here. We'll see if I am so moved.

3) Reading other people's blog posts have made me want to share my own thoughts and ideas. Everyone has a different take on things in life, so if a number of people I know are doing so, there's no reason why I can't take a crack at it.

So, what can you and I expect to see on this blog thing? Here are some of the ideas I've been thinking about writing on.
1) A series of reflections on music. I'm a musician, so naturally I love to listen to music, play it, watch it, read about it, etc. I often think about music and faith, the idea of being inspired by music, what I value and love about music, where meaning in music is found, and anything related to any of this. I'm thinking of a series of postings, so we'll see how it all comes together.

2) Thoughts on church and culture, living out a Christian life, what God is showing me when I'm reading scripture, so on.

3) My own "apologetic." In other words, why I'm a Christian. Not so much my testimony per se (although that will surely be part of the explanation), but more of a reason why I believe in Jesus and have tried to be faithful over the course of my life. In the sermons the pastor at my church gives he frequently utilizes a lot of apologetics and logical reasoning, giving "proofs" and validity to believing in the Christian faith (i.e. stuff from Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, scientific evidence that points to a creator, etc). I like that stuff, and I find it encouraging and useful, but for me it's not really getting to the core of why I follow Jesus.

4) Maybe some of my book reviews or papers from seminary. At this point, anything else that strikes my fancy to write about will get up on here. I recently heard bishop N.T. Wright speak at Lake Avenue Church a couple of weeks ago, so I might write something about that. Also probably some reflections from my time at Azusa Pacific University and Fuller Seminary. I'm also reading Francis Chan's book Crazy Love so maybe I'll post a few ideas from that.

If you're still reading after all this time, good for you! Hopefully you're interested in what I'm thinking of putting on here. I'm a very detail-oriented person, so I tend to write more extensively than shorter. I guess we'll see how this turns out!