Scattergun Blogging
When I began this weblog a few months ago, I had no idea where I'd go with it...In fact, since follow-through is often not one of my strong points, I didn't know if I'd even get started!
What I've been attempting to do with these random entries is to share a few of the thoughts that trundle through my head during the course of a week as I encounter the "stuff of life" within the vocation of parish priest. Sometimes these entries have been an attempt to write something mildly provocative. At other times, I've shared from my reading and the effect that reading is having upon me. These entries have been "occasional" in that there has been no attempt on my part to carry some sort of theme forward from one entry to the next. For better or worse, an entry represents what I'm thinking about at the particular moment I sit down to write something.
I'm getting clearer that part of my purpose in this project is to broaden the conversation concerning all things "church". I'm not really interested in joining all of the blog-chair quarterbacks who are so quick to offer solutions to what they perceive is "wrong with the Episcopal Church" (regardless of their particular viewpoint). We certainly have things in the Episcopal Church to be concerned about...but in the middle of all of our difficulties, I still hear about people finding community, being fed with the Word and Sacraments, engaging in outreach and caring for each other in a way that is truly heartwarming.
While I certainly have political opinions, I've felt that my best contribution to the political conversations that need to happen in our world is to wrestle with how a Christian may frame some of those issues within a Gospel context. Lately, I've been contending with how Christians of different political persuasions could engage in significant conversations about things like -- the war in Iraq, the "war on terrorism", economic disparity and distributive ethics, racism and poverty...to name just a few. I continue to be astounded that we have so little to say about these things in church. Sometimes I wonder if we come to worship so that we can escape the world in which we live rather than to be equipped to more effectively engage it. I'm not sure "isolationist" and "Christian" are compatible terms.
If we can't talk to each other, how can we possibly model honest converation to others? I'm amazed that people who serve such a talkative God can be so timid in speaking directly to one another about matters that are of far greater consequence than the date of the next potluck dinner.
Trinity Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin is the congregational setting in which I exercise the priesthood conveyed upon me by the church's ordination, but this blog isn't for the purpose of positing any sort of agenda for this particular parish. Discerning this parish's mission is a work for the whole people of God...not just for the person who happens to wear an eight dollar piece of plastic as a collar.
The only goals I've had for this exercise have been to:
1. keep my mind as sharp as possible, and
2. to increase my proficiency at writing a decent paragraph.
Only time will tell if I will accomplish either of them.
When I began this weblog a few months ago, I had no idea where I'd go with it...In fact, since follow-through is often not one of my strong points, I didn't know if I'd even get started!
What I've been attempting to do with these random entries is to share a few of the thoughts that trundle through my head during the course of a week as I encounter the "stuff of life" within the vocation of parish priest. Sometimes these entries have been an attempt to write something mildly provocative. At other times, I've shared from my reading and the effect that reading is having upon me. These entries have been "occasional" in that there has been no attempt on my part to carry some sort of theme forward from one entry to the next. For better or worse, an entry represents what I'm thinking about at the particular moment I sit down to write something.
I'm getting clearer that part of my purpose in this project is to broaden the conversation concerning all things "church". I'm not really interested in joining all of the blog-chair quarterbacks who are so quick to offer solutions to what they perceive is "wrong with the Episcopal Church" (regardless of their particular viewpoint). We certainly have things in the Episcopal Church to be concerned about...but in the middle of all of our difficulties, I still hear about people finding community, being fed with the Word and Sacraments, engaging in outreach and caring for each other in a way that is truly heartwarming.
While I certainly have political opinions, I've felt that my best contribution to the political conversations that need to happen in our world is to wrestle with how a Christian may frame some of those issues within a Gospel context. Lately, I've been contending with how Christians of different political persuasions could engage in significant conversations about things like -- the war in Iraq, the "war on terrorism", economic disparity and distributive ethics, racism and poverty...to name just a few. I continue to be astounded that we have so little to say about these things in church. Sometimes I wonder if we come to worship so that we can escape the world in which we live rather than to be equipped to more effectively engage it. I'm not sure "isolationist" and "Christian" are compatible terms.
If we can't talk to each other, how can we possibly model honest converation to others? I'm amazed that people who serve such a talkative God can be so timid in speaking directly to one another about matters that are of far greater consequence than the date of the next potluck dinner.
Trinity Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin is the congregational setting in which I exercise the priesthood conveyed upon me by the church's ordination, but this blog isn't for the purpose of positing any sort of agenda for this particular parish. Discerning this parish's mission is a work for the whole people of God...not just for the person who happens to wear an eight dollar piece of plastic as a collar.
The only goals I've had for this exercise have been to:
1. keep my mind as sharp as possible, and
2. to increase my proficiency at writing a decent paragraph.
Only time will tell if I will accomplish either of them.
posted by FrGaryB | 4:33 PM
2 Comments:
I do not attend Trinity but in my looking at your web page and listening to a sermon or two, I found your blog page. I have found your blogs thought provoking. Thanks for your time and thoughts in this effort you are putting forth.
Peace,
Brad
Hey Brad...
Thanks for the encouragement...and feel free to leave comments or engage a discussion. Sometimes a new perspective really helps me clarify my thinking...(see the "Public Ministry" thread).
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