Three months ago, I embarked on a project to gather together Presbyterians in the virtual reality world of Second Life, and with them form a community of people who pray together, fellowship together, support and encourage one another, and reach out to others in the name of Christ.  What initially drew me into this project was my ongoing commitment to explore the intersection between new technologies and the church, my commitment to exploring what it means to be a Presbyterian in a post-modern culture, and my desire to follow God’s universal call to evangelism in all places.  Honestly, I was also a bit surprised to find that my particular “faith tribe” (the PCUSA) was one of the only major denominations not already organized and taking advantage of the opportunities to do all of the above in a global community with over 1.3 million participants, many or most of whom are what would be considered “unchurched” in either virtual or actual reality.

Despite the somewhat bizzare and otherworldly, high-tech nature of Second Life, as I began to encounter people there (Presbyterian and otherwise), have conversations with them about God, faith, and the church, and as our community began to meet regularly for conversation and prayer, I noticed that the skills I was drawing upon most were not my “high tech” ones, nor even my sense of “cultural relevancy.”  Rather, it was my experiences in a real-world New Church Development for several years, and snippets of advice I had gleaned from various New Church Development and Evangelism conferences (that I had often scorned or considered outmoded at the time) that I now found myself straining to remember, and, when implemented, met with the greatest success.  I am beginning to learn that the shared wisdom and experiences of those who have gone before me and worked hard to plant worshipping communities — however different they may initially appear from my own context — are of great value, and that solid principles of organization and leadership often transcend age, location, and context.

There are two reasons I would like to attend this NCD Discernment event.  The first is short term:  It is the hope that by spending a few days with those who have done what I am attempting to do, I can listen attentively and glean some useful guidance about church planting, about myself, and about following God’s call into difficult places.  In this, I hope that I can bring some benefit to the virtual-reality community where I feel God is currently calling me to lead.  The second reason is a more long-term one:  While I have always felt called to evangelism, mission, and community building, I have generally expected to do this work independently, “outside” of denominational structures.  I have felt that while I may have something to offer my denomination, my denomination would likely not have much to offer me.  My experiences in the past few months have led me to question this position, and to be more open to the idea that I, and any community I might someday lead — no matter how “different” or “outside the box” — would stand to benefit greatly from the collective wisdom and experience of those who have done NCD work in the PCUSA.  Now, with ears that are more “ready to hear,” I hope that this event can help me better discern the nature of my calling in relation to my denomination, and whether NCD work in the PCUSA is where God is leading me upon my graduation from seminary.

Weather:  As I write this, it’s snowing outside, and has been for most of the day.  We were lucky to spend a nice, warm Christmas season in sunny El Paso, Tx and a few days in Phoenix, AZ.  But that’s over now, and it’s back to freezing, freezing, cold.  Grady is having the time of his life, though, and has already built a miniature snowman, and covered the sidewalk with snow angels.  The other day when I was walking to class, bundled in multiple layers, gloves, hat, even thermal underwear — and still feeling like I might die of hypothermia at any minute — a girl jogged casually past me wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Sigh.  Guess I’m just a weather-wimp.  Oh well, three more months to go. Then four more years…

Classes:  I’m about halfway through the January term, which, although occuring in the spring of calendar year 2009 is academically considered part of the fall 2008 semester (hey, I don’t make the rules, thank God).  I’m taking one class, which meets three days a week in the mornings: The Theological Legacy of the Dionysian Forgery, with Professor Paul Rorem (who was also my church history professor last semester).  The reading is pretty dense — the kind where you have to read every sentence three or four times before it begins to make sense, and then when you think you’ve grasped it, you suddenly realize you haven’t.  Still, the subject matter is interesting, and both influences/touches on everything from medieval scholasticism and angelology to neo-platonism,  gothic architecture, intellectual property, and even post-modern deconstructionism.  More on Pseudo-Dionysius later.

Abby:  She’s not only walking, but almost running everywhere now, and has developed quite a vocabulary over the Christmas holidays.  She yells “Da-Da!” when I walk through the door at the end of the day, and then raises her arms in the air, saying “Wee-wee!” which means she wants me to pick her up and fly her through the air like an airplane (her favorite).  She also *finally* has been letting me read to her, and will even bring me a book to read, her favorites being Go Dogs, Go!; Goodnight Gorilla; and Sandra Boynton’s Moo, Baa, La, La, La.  She dances when you play music, and loves to play peekaboo (which she says “pickabee”). In case there was ever any doubt, she’s definitlely aspiring to be a girly-girl, and will walk around the house with a purse on her arm, trying to steal her mom’s makeup.  She has a particular fondness for jewelery, watches, and cell-phones.  She also says hello, bye-bye, baby, mamma,  bubba, book, no, hat, nose, clock, tick-tock, Grandad, and meow (which she pronounces miamee).

Facebook:  A few weeks ago, I found one of my old friends from elementary school in Belgium on facebook — that led to another and another, until we’ve almost got enough for a 5th grade class reunion.  I’ve reconnected with some great childhood friends, and had to brush up on my long dormant French in the process.  Thank God for Google translator and Babel Fish to pick up the slack.

Brewing:  While my brothers were in town last week, we brewed our first batch of “Locke Bros Beer” all together — they’ve been brewing for almost a year, and  started earlier this fall.  This was my fourth batch total, and it looks to be a Strong Belgian-style Golden Ale.  We haven’t named it yet, though.   I’m almost out of the Christmas Beer I brewed in December, called IncarnationAle.  It got plenty of good reviews, though, except for a few people who were surprised when the cranberry came out of the bottle along with the beer!  Thanks to Philip Lotspeich, Drew Ludwig, and Loren Crow, who each (independently) suggested the same name.

Search for a Church:  As an inquirer on the “ordination track” I’m under care of my home church and presbytery, which means that we’ll remain members of Faithbridge Presbyterian Church in Frisco, Tx during my entire time at seminary.  Still, we’ve been looking for a place to worship on Sunday mornings, and it hasn’t been easy.  Most of the Presbyterian churches we’ve visited in this part of the country are very “high church” traditional, and almost identical in architecture, aesthetics, liturgy and demographics.  Plus, they all seemed to have everything all worked out.  Coming from a new church development, we weren’t used to that.  Some didn’t seem too welcoming, and some didn’t have much in the way of nursery/Sunday school for Abby and Grady.  But I think we finally found a place we really like:  Middlesex Presbyterian Church, in Middlesex, NJ.  It’s about a 45 minute drive north of us, and the one service starts at 9:30am, but the church is very warm, friendly, multicultural, and there are a LOT of four year-old boys for Grady to play with.  The pastor’s name also happens to be Neal — Neal Presa, and I’ve had a chance to get to know him a little via facebook, lunch, and a few other conversations — that’s important to me.  More importantly, we felt like MPC is a place we can help and contribute, and a place that isn’t afraid to be creative and even a little “wheels off” as my pastor/mentor/friend, Philip Lotspeich, likes to say.

New Year’s Resolution:  In short, I don’t have one yet.  Last year’s was the first I ever kept throughout the whole year, and it was an enjoyable experience I think I’ll keep observing last year’s resolution (to only buy clothes at second-hand stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army), just not as dogmatically.  But still, I was hoping to come up with something new.  Something that, while making a difference in my life, also helps to make a small difference in the larger world.  I’m giving myself until the end of January to come up with something, so any realistic (taking me into account) suggestions are welcome.

Blog Posts Coming Up Next: (I have to say this publically to hold myself accountable):

• Twittering and mobile-internet:  Disruptive or Enhancing?
• Princeton Theological Seminary:  A School for Wizards
• Mission Trail:  A New (and old) Kind of Border Fence

I have an old cassette tape recording of myself in the 3rd grade, talking to the tape recorder. It was a pretty one-sided conversation, but apparently that didn’t bother me too much, as I talked non-stop for 60 minutes on one side, paused to flip the tape, and carried on for another 60 minutes.

Sometimes when my wife asks me about something for which I have a strong opinion (which could be anything from theology to parenting to what color the frying pan *really* is) I get on a soapbox and notice about half an hour later that her eyes have glazed over and her responses have degenerated into “uh huh…yeah…uh huh.”

One might say that I’m prone to diarrhea of the mouth.

Lately, as I’ve been meeting new people here at seminary, and finding plenty of things to opine about, I think it may have gotten worse. Worst of all, I notice sometimes that I’m more interested in what I want to tell people about myself than what I might learn about them. Like, by being quiet and listening? I suspect that if I continue this pattern unchecked, it might make for a lonely four years. Then again, it might also make for some intense competition between me and my son, “getting a word in edgewise,” as he seems poised to follow in my footsteps (which is also a scary thing).

Another thing that’s thrown this habit of mine into the light is some reading I’ve been doing lately on Cistercian Trappist monasticism. While it is certainly a misconception that trappist monks take a “vow of silence” along with their vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, they do place a high value on limiting one’s speech to bare essentials in certain situations, and at certain times of the day. As best as I can understand it, this is an attempt to both cultivate an atmosphere of contemplation, and to practice self-discipline in communication. I imagine it also forces them to be better listeners and reflective thinkers.

It’s a practice I’d like to emulate, at least try to for the next month. Those of you who know me well can stop laughing now… Perhaps if I’m successful it could even turn into a new habit (monastic pun partially intended). However, since I can’t (in the interest of being a good parent, spouse, and student) completely abstain from speech, I’m thinking I’ll mainly stick to limiting or eliminating the following things from my speech:

1. Unsolicited opinions
2. Unsolicited information about myself
3. Unsolicited knowledge (or comments, or questions) for the sole purpose of showing off how smart I am
4. Idle conversation for the sole purpose of filling awkward silences
5. Soliloquies (i.e. any uninterrupted speeches over one minute long)
6. Any words (solicited or not) that might be construed as arrogant, mean-spirited, or critical for the sake of being critical. (I’m not sure how or if this applies to Bill Gates, 1980′s Praise Music, Starbucks, and ASCAP, but they’re probably already safe in light of numbers 1 & 5 above).

I realize I’m setting my sights pretty high here, especially in light of that last one. I will probably fail at some point, most likely tomorrow (or tonight). But it still seems like something worth attempting, and if I’m able to become a more thoughtful person, a better listener, or even just slightly less annoying — then I’ll consider it worthwhile, and worth continuing even when I fail.

And for any smart-ass friends of mine who are about to comment that I’ve already broken all six of my rules in this blog post alone, I’m claiming a general exemption for blog posts. This blog is my sanctuary for long introspective reflection, my outlet for off-the-reservation exploration, and occasional venting. As it is, I only have time to blog once a week on average in the midst of Greekyness. On the other hand, I probably *will* try to apply my rules to comments I make on my own blog and those of others, and to emails and facebook/social network/online conversations.

Of course, that brings me to Twitter (and identi.ca, and ping.fm, and…). Number 4 isn’t a problem, obviously, but I’m kind of wondering if the whole philosophy of twitter goes against numbers 1, 2, 3, and often 5. But then again (let’s try this new listening thing out), what do *you* think?

Princeton is one of the oldest and most prestigious seminaries in the nation, has a great academic reputation, and (we were surprised at this one) a very family-friendly environment. It’s also the only one of the three I’m applying to that offers a dual degree (M.Div + M.A. in education). So even though I’m still going to apply to Columbia Seminary (in Decatur, GA) and Austin Seminary, I’m very happy that my first choice (so far) is now officially an option.

Of course, even though I applied for admission to the fall 2007 semester, I’ll be requesting a deferred admission for one year so Amy and I can tie up loose ends here in Frisco, and prepare for the big transition back to full-time school.

Although I have come to appreciate much about my undergraduate school, and the school where I did graduate work towards my teacher certification, this is the first program I’ve applied to that I was not sure I’d even be accepted–but really, really, wanted to. Opening the letter was definitely one of those butterfly moments.

• Discover & Decide things you REALLY want to do in this life
• Find other people who want to do similar things
• Share your goals with the world (how’s that for accountability?
• Keep track of your progress, in a supportive community
• Encourage others to do things that you’ve already done
• Warn people about things you did that didn’t work for you

Here are my seven things (and counting)…