One Semester Down! Basking in the Glory of Wisconsiny Goodness.

So, to sum up my first semester of seminary thus far...

We begin with a cute picture of Jason because....well...why not?  What better way to begin!  He just gets more adorable as time goes on.  Also, notice that he has some teeth now.  Ashley and I have survived the initial stages of a teething baby.  So far so good.

I came to seminary not being able to read music, sing, or play the piano/keyboard.  Now, I am happy to say that I am under-whelmingly mediocre at all of these things.  Yes, that is my attempt to look as if I am rocking out.  A fellow classmate wanted to make it look like I was jamming with a keytar.  (Ashley says that this picture makes me look like a high school student who is trying way too hard to look cool).  

Instead of rocking out, and somewhat to my chagrin, I got a haircut.  The moment my bodacious locks hit the barber shop floor I was filled with much regret.  Now that the trauma is over, I actually really like having short hair again.  

We've survived several days of sub-zero temperatures.  Check out those icicles hanging from our apartment!

Jason loved Christmas.  He just hates moose ears.  They are the worst Christmas party paraphernalia after all...are they not? 

  

This place is still spectacularly beautiful (even if the melting snow is making everything super mushy right now).

I got to ring this bad boy and I only broke it once.  

&

We also had lots of visitors, like this guy...

And these gals...

Other folks visited as well.  My father-in-law was able to partake of a cheap scotch at the campus pub (before it became the Lounge).  Ashley talked about the time whenever her parents came to visit in a previous post.  Mark Green even came up twice.  Many of you don't know who he is, but trust me whenever I tell you that he is a swell guy.  

We also got to meet the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.  

We discovered this rare and exotic delicacy.  I had only heard rumors of its existence before.  It was like having a species of dinosaur that had long been extinct walk out of the local gas station beer cooler right in front of you.  Then, the excitement immediately dies down once you taste it.  It is not really edible, but that is what makes it so special.  One has to rise to the challenge to partake of it, and who doesn't like a good challenge?

Oh, and I also wrote an article for Conciliar Post this semester.  For those of you who have been reading my articles for a while now, yes, I have slowed down my pace.  I used to write two articles a month.  Now it is about one a semester.  I hope to pick up the pace a bit more this next semester.  If you haven't read the most recent article and would like to, here is the link.  To me, it is not my best writing.  I struggled word-smithing it.  Yet, it was one of my favorite thoughts to chew on so far.  That article helped to trigger a fairly sizable theological shift for me.  Perhaps you will find it beneficial in some way as well.

A few additional thoughts:

Classes:

....were awesome.  Enough said.   Well, perhaps I should say more (just in case someone who has sponsored one of my scholarships [thank you by the way] is curious about my academic performance).  I mean, it would be kind of a bummer to donate money to someone who flunked out of all of their classes.  Rest assured, my grades were good this semester, all A's and B's.  Plus, I am learning stuff, which is way more important than grades.  

Children & the Body of Christ:

So, this is our first time experiencing really old-school church architecture with old cathedral looking buildings that have vaulted ceiling sanctuaries.  Not only have we come to notice the beauty of such spaces, we have also come to notice how much our son's voice carries in these spaces.  Everyone knows whenever Ashley brings Jason to chapel.  They don't have to see him.  His little bubbling voice bounces off of the ceiling and walls.  We have also noticed in visiting all of the different Episcopalian churches in the area that Jason is learning that his voice really carries as well.  He starts off the service whispering and then he gradually gets louder and louder.

The most amazing thing is that nobody seems to mind.  We have never gotten a piercing gaze from an annoyed parishioner or fellow student, nor has anyone attempted to pressure us into putting him in children's church or into taking him to the nursery.  I was thinking the other day about one of my classmates who transferred here from a more Evangelical seminary.  He said that one day in chapel, one of the faculty members or administrators got up in front of the student body and their families and put a guilt trip on the mothers who had noisy children in the service.  The thought was that they should have known better to take these kids out whenever they were disrupting the Body of Christ in worship (even slightly).  That was an asinine thought to me whenever I first heard the story and it is even more asinine to me now because the logic behind this person's rebuke assumes that children don't really have a place in the liturgy, or at the Lord's table, or in the Church.  It is quite curious, actually; these types of people want to boot the kids out whenever they make a peep in church and then are oblivious later on as to why young people are flocking away from their churches.  It is no wonder why; they begin treating children as foreigners from the very get go.

A few weeks ago, our family attended St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Waukesha.  Jason was exceptionally loud that day.  They combination of being sick, teething, and waking up at the wrong time of the morning made him more vocal and antsy than usual.  He never screamed or cried, but he progressively got more and more vocal throughout the service, as did our shushing.  We were so embarrassed.  Then, an elderly lady in the pew in front of us turned around and quietly said, "I hope you can see that he isn't bothering anybody, not a soul.  Don't worry about it in the slightest."  What an amazing church.  That lady truly blessed us that day.     

Sometimes nursery or children's church can be a good thing, I think.  The parish we are attending takes the children out for "Godly play" for a small portion of the service and I think what they are doing with the children there is really amazing.  I do think for many churches today, however, children's church or a nursery exists because of shoddy ecclesiology, whereby children are not seen as truly a part of the covenant community but are merely members in waiting.  Thus, they are treated like lepers, relocated a good distance away from the rest of the community so that the community can pursue their own holiness and grow in their own piety in an undistracted way.  Heaven forbid my kid's giggles throw you off whenever you are trying to sing Revelation Song for the billionth time, or that his murmuring adulterates your worshippy expressiveness.  Pardon me for questioning your theology which makes you feel as though you have more of a right to corporate worship than my son does (or any child for that matter).  Given their shabby notions of what it means to be the Church, perhaps such people are the ones who need to be in children's church in order to relearn the basics...like sharing space, what the sacrament of baptism means on the most elementary level possible, and that father Abraham did, indeed, have many sons and, yes, that person is one of them, but so are the children they have quarantined to the "outer courts."

Sorry, this is a bit ranty.  I wrote it and thought about editing it after I reread it.  I think I am ok with letting my words stand, though, because it is something I am passionate about (as all Christians should be).  

This rant may seem like a digression, and you may be wondering, "what does this have to do with anything pertaining to the rest of this blog?"  The Anglican/Episcopal attitude towards my son and just towards my family in general here has been a huge confirmation for us.  Ashley and I felt a very distinct call to Anglicanism (and away from the CRC) and to Nashotah House back in April.  We knew we needed to uproot and make the move, but the whole thing sounded really crazy.  Leave our house?  Leave our family and friends?  Leave a comfortable paycheck?  Yet, the one thing that did make abundant sense was raising Jason in a tradition that is Biblically and Patristically rooted, courageously compassionate, spiritually healthy, missionally vibrant, and holistically formative (I can provide more combo words if you wish).  This place, this tradition, embodies all of those things.  In the compassion of the people and in the acceptance of our son in the liturgy, I see the Lord's affirming hand.  Perhaps this is because, for Anglicans, worship is not about individualistic pietistic self-expression.  It is about coming together with others and lifting up one voice together in adoration to God.  It is about truly being the Body of Christ, the one and the many, in worship.  It is truly good to be a part of it.  It is a tradition that I am happy to pass on to my son and let my family flourish in.       

House Stuff:

Lastly, our house FINALLY SOLD!  The closing date was Jan. 4th.  I cannot even begin to articulate what an answer to prayer this was for us.  God taught us a tremendous amount during this process, especially in terms of trusting in Him whenever He places a calling upon your life.  As soon as we sensed a call to Nashotah House and a call to Anglicanism, everything (and I mean everything) lined up so perfectly for us.  It seemed so clear that this was the hand of the Lord at work.  Yet, that dang house nagged at us and continually begged the question, because if we wouldn't have been able to sell it, I would have had to drop out of school and we most likely would've had to move back to St. Louis.  As the semester progressed, this whole looming weight just became more and more challenging for us to bear.  But, God is faithful, and once the offer was made everything went very smoothly.  Thank you all for the prayers!  And for helping to share our house's page on Facebook!

A final nifty inspirational thought: not following your dream or your calling in life because you have a steady source of income from a job that is lucrative but unfulfilling is utter foolishness.  Sure, there is a season for everything, and sometimes you just have to buckle down and take a job that you would rather not have just to provide.  There truly is a season for this.

Remember, though, that there is a season for everything, and sometimes you just have to muster up the courage to not bow to Mammon any longer and chase the dream that God places in your heart.  If you are in a family, realize that there is more than one way to support and provide for your family, and money is not the summation of it all, or even the most important aspect.  You being happy, you actualizing your spiritual giftedness, you seeking to serve the Lord with all that you have, these are the best ways in which you can provide for your family.  If you are just living for the paycheck, most likely these important things are missing.  However,

"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
     

Thanks for reading!  And, follow your dreams.  Hopefully they align with the calling that God has placed upon your life.  In all likelihood they do.

God bless!