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Well, I have officially moved to Texas.

My calling has led my family to trek all the way from Washington DC and setup home in the heart of Dallas, Texas. I ended up accepting the position of Minister of Church Life at East Dallas Christian Church. It was a difficult decision to make through all of the waiting and struggle to be in the right opportunity. But Dallas is good so far - it’s a big city, so it does have a lot to offer. The church is terrific, though there is a lot of good work ahead.

East Dallas Christian Church is like a lot of churches - a strong, interesting history but a future that can at times seem a little uncertain. It’s got growing to do - it needs some younger leadership woven into the life of the church. There is a tremendous core of older leadership that did cutting edge ministry in their day, but as the years go on, they get older. The good news is that the church still has a lot of resources to undertake its mission.

I will be doing some evangelism, some new young adult ministry, and worship development. I’m also excited to have an opportunity to learn some pastoral care in the process. It’s been an exciting past couple of weeks, but the next few months will be even more exciting as I do some visioning for how East Dallas can reach out to its neighbors in new ways.

My blog is undergoing some reconstruction, so be patient as I clear the cobwebs and get some new content up.

The big news is that Yunkyong and I have graduated. We walked across the stage of the National Cathedral here in Washington, DC on Monday. It felt good to complete that part of the journey. It’s been an interesting one, that’s for sure. I will be working on the rest of my ordination requirements over the summer and plan on being ordained in DC at National City Christian Church.

I am also looking toward my first full-time call as a minister. I don’t know where we will be heading yet, but I am excited about the possibilities. I want to do ministry in a place that is going to be challenging and intriguing. Yunkyong and I are both sort of staring at the void right now, waiting for our first child, Emily, and the next move with some anticipation.

I’ve got mp3s, some video files, new links, and new articles coming up soon - check back this weekend for that stuff.

Just a reminder for those folks out there who believe being a Christian means walking with and supporting efforts to bring justice, equality, and compassion into our society, Ecumenical Advocacy Days is this weekend. I’ve gone two years in a row, and I will miss it if Eunice and I move away from DC. It’s just a great opportunity to be a part of the emerging conversations about advocacy and what churches, organizations, and Christians are lifting up.

You can find out about the event here: http://www.advocacydays.org/

In addition, the Disciples and UCC are having a combined event:

On Saturday, March 8th, at 7.45 pm, at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, VA (in the Arbors Room), there will be a special event for Disciples and UCC from across the nation. The main speaker will be Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches. Other speakers include: Rev. Michael Paige from Michigan Park and Rev. Noemi Mena from National City. All local Disciples and UCC are invited to this free event. Light food and drink will be provided. An offering will be taken. Please RSVP to DAWN at dawnccca@comcast.net.

This special event is part of the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Peace with Justice (March 7 - 10, 2008). To register for this conference and/or to get directions to the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, please visit www.advocacydays.org. Help spread the word!

I’d love to see you out, but if you can’t or if you are on the other side of the continent, I’ll probably do another podcast of the event, maybe even some video.

Using the internet to guide and support spiritual practice is something that is being explored by a lot of folks. I read a lot of ideas in the Emerging Church book by Eddie Gibbs. Many young congregations who are trying to straddle our cultural shifts are finding that cellphones can be as good as church bells for calling people to pause in their day and remember the source of all life.

I decided to jump into the fray with the Lenten Prayer Project, a 40 day or so experiment with automated prayers. It begins today with a morning and evening psalm and prayer. The only instructions are to stop what you are doing when you receive the email and pray. I figure some folks with have more time to build around it - maybe additional petitions, maybe a moment of quiet, maybe a lit candle, maybe even a favorite song. It doesn’t really matter, as long as you take the time to acknowledge God where you are. The prayers are on a weekly cycle too (minus Sundays), so you’ll get the same prayer each Monday morning. There should be a rhythm that develops out of that. The prayers are from some Celtic resources I’ve collected, and they are beautiful and challenging.

That’s the general idea anyway, but I figure I could expand it in the future. I could see emails sent out each day, calling participants to pray the hours (the ol’ medieval or monastic way). I also imagine that it could be a very simple service that churches could offer to their communities, especially to those folks on the edge who want a taste of spirituality but aren’t ready to trust the church again.

The “how-to” is pretty simple. I used a free email service called LetterMeLater.com to setup each email and schedule it to be sent. I then setup a simple form at nathanjhill.com to receive possible subscribers. Right now, I enter them in manually to a group on the LetterMeLater site and update the scheduled emails. It’s not an automated process - in fact, if I do it again, I will probably look at setting up a mailing list of some kind. Still, it’s a first step to see how this goes.

In fact, I want to hear people’s responses, so as we get past the first week or two, I may add additional spiritual insights that folks have received as they have prayed these prayers. Collectively, we can see what God is doing among us as we try out this spiritual practice together.

If you want to join the experiment, sign up here: http://www.nathanjhill.com/lentenprayers/index.php

It’s Thanksgiving week. We don’t have class here at Wesley Theological Seminary. Grad school can be a bit generous about giving break time.

One of the things I am supposed to be working on is a 15 page credo paper. A credo paper is all about putting down your beliefs on paper, as you know them right now. Ideally, I take an old creed from the church - like the Apostles Creed - and piece by piece, reveal how I stand with or against the beliefs contained within.

As a Disciple, this is the most awkward task I’ve ever undertaken.

When I look back at old church heresies, my Disciple sense says - hey, why couldn’t they just get along with these differences? I prefer faith communities where multiple viewpoints can be expressed. However, I had a campus minister once tell me that allowing people to print the bible was probably a costly blow (in the long term) for Christians. Uneducated people could read the Bible… and read into it what they wanted. Clergy had no authority any more because of it - sure, they’ve gone to seminary, but my KJV Bible says…

This reminds me of another story. We had a guest preacher/lecturer for an adult class during VBS. The focus was on the Old Testament, and the preacher, a self-professing Jew for Jesus, did have an interesting grasp on the culture of the Old Testament. He explained many references that we often gloss over, but then, as the week drew to a close, he came out with his grand lecture — how he and his buddy figured out when the world was going to end. As soon as those words left his mouth, his credibility shrank to nothing. He joins the long list of other faithful Christians who thought they had this whole bible thing figured out.

Ultimately, that is what I like about faith - at the core of it all, there is always a sense of mystery. There is always more to learn. We believe in a God who, though being beyond comprehension, took initiative to reveal him/herself to the world.

Now, I just have to figure out how to keep that sense of mystery at work throughout my own credo paper.