T Minus 20 Hours

In less than 20 hours I'll touch down in St. Paul for the second intensive session of the year. The January Term was filled with lectures, papers, memories, and I seem to remember there being massive amounts of coffee. They are called "intense" because they/we mean it. Over the past few days I've been preparing to leave my community of faith - The Netzer Co-Op. As a Curator (lay minister) there I leave the primary place where mission meets my education to pursue a different space for learning. The two learning spaces - Online and Residential - each offer their advantages and disadvantages. After a particularly packed semester online ( Creation and the Triune God & Pentateuch) we head into another deeply packed semester (Mission I & Early Church History). This is all part of Luther's goal to have us "learn the story" during these first two years as DL students.

It is never easy to leave the community behind. I will miss out on the Jesus @ A Pub conversations, the creative worship of Liturgy | ATX and the humbling experiences of our Likewise Experiments. I love the authenticity of my community and our commitment to one another to be the change we wish to see.

The readings for Mission I have particularly gone well this week as beautiful parallels for our simple community of faith. The readings have challenged the clericalism of the ELCA, set forth robust theological frameworks for thinking about mission, and cast both broadly and particularly the work of the mission of the church. I'll unpack more of this as we get going next week in a series of posts dedicated to Emergent vs. Mission: The Case Study of The Co-Op in Austin, Texas. I'll also post as much "Lifecast" type posts as I can - videos, pictures, mesh-up, etc. as I capture the experiences of our DL cohort over the next weeks.

I know its been silent on my end, but is about to get INTENSE....

In the next 20 hours:

Store
Read*
Laundry
Read
Pack
Read
Sleep
Fly
Read
Land
Read
Sleep again
Read.

*(when reading....drink coffee).