Category Archives: Personal

If you can’t read your address on your house or your mailbox when driving close to the posted speed, please fix that. Consider it a Christmas present to your friendly FedEx or UPS guy.

:)

I have recently started my new job cleaning the auditorium (and several other rooms) for Inter-City Baptist Church. This experience has lead me to a specific conclusion, which I’d like to make a point of doctrine (and also a sermon), but I need a reference from which to launch my sermon. Here’s my premise: bringing glitter into the church auditorium is grounds for excommunication.

Do we all agree that this is good theology? And can someone find me a text to support this point?

For nearly two years now, I have subscribed to the music download service eMusic.com. I was introduced to this service by my friend Ryan Martin, a fellow music lover and Zune aficionado.

A quick digression: eMusic is still a good place to download music, although they’ve recently just changed their pricing structure. As things stand right now, a CD on eMusic probably averages $6.00 or so; not bad, and a bit cheaper than iTunes, but not as great as it was before they added Sony/RCA/etc. If anyone is reading this and thinks, “I’d love to have a good place to download classical CDs,” let me know; I’ll send you an invitation to join, and if you do, you get bonus downloads, and so do I.

Anyway, my new subscription plan allows me to pick new downloads every three months; I thought I’d list here the CDs I just acquired. I haven’t listened through them all yet; I may do a follow up post with some very amateur evaluations. (One item on my long list of “things I plan to do when my dissertation is done”: study music theory.)

So here’s the list:

Psalms for the Soul
Choir of St. John’s, Elora, Noel Edison

Music of the Reformation
Himlische Cantorey

Brahms: The Complete Works for Violin and Piano
Nikolaj Znaider, Yefim Bronfman

Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, The Prague Philharmonia, Jiří Bělohlávek

C. P. E. Bach: Cello Concertos
Hidemi Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Birgit Remmert, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Ensemble Musique Oblique, Philippe Herreweghe

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
Robert Tear, Alfreda Hodgson, Benjamin Luxon, The Scottish National Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Alexander Gibson

The American Cello
Paul Tobias, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Joann Falletta

Respighi: Il Tramonto
Brodsky Quartet

I just received a Google Voice invite. For those in Arizona who like Arizona phone numbers, the cell number that you have for me will still work. For those who wish to have a Michigan number for me, that number is (313) 718-1155.

I’m married, and my wife and I are living in Allen Park, Michigan.

Those two items are, of course, significant changes in the last two months of my life; I’ll give a brief update for friends who aren’t current on my story.

The moving story can be told quickly, so I’ll write that one now.

I’ve spent the last four years teaching at International Baptist College of Tempe, AZ. I loved my time at IBC. I love teaching; my theology courses were are joy, and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching freshman English this past year.

I was also the Dean of Men and a dorm supervisor; the latter position allowed me the unique privilege of hosting devotions in my room for the dorm guys most nights of the week. In particular, the Saturday evening devotions, when I’d host all the guys and we’d learn hymns, were truly highlights of my four years.

I was also the Acting Academic Dean of the school, which allowed me tremendous input into the academic program of IBC; for one so young to have such a position is rare; I certainly hope that I did not waste the trust given me.

Attentive readers might note, at this point, that I had a number of jobs at IBC, and the cumulative effect was that I have not been able to dedicate a great deal of time to finishing my doctorate. As things stand now, I have two papers to write (about 45 total pages) to complete my comprehensive exams, and then I will be submitting my dissertation proposal.

I need to finish my degree. (As my dad reads this, he is saying, “Yes, Son, you need to finish your degree.”)

And so, for this reason (among others), I decided to take a couple of years to dedicate myself to finishing my dissertation. My wife and I chose to move back to Michigan for several reasons. Two are prominent: we are able to attend Huron Baptist Church, pastored by Steve Thomas; and we are located close to Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, which gives me access to a top notch theological research library.