ACU Summit

Published
by
Mike
on July 5, 2008
in General
. 7 Comments

Come join us in Abilene September 21-24 for ACU’s Summit (The Event Formerly known As Lectureship). You can find a full schedule here.

Among the many new features, there will be three main theme classes at 1:30 — taught by Rubel Shelly, Rick Atchley, and Jeff Walling. I love this description of Jeff’s class: “Come discover the amazing power in the ancient wisdom of the world’s greatest lover as he gives us a pattern for living in dynamic community.”

On the plus side for Jeff, he’s been named “the world’s greatest lover.” On the down side, his words are now being called “ancient wisdom.”

(Ok, I consider it possible that this description is referring to someone else . . . I’m guessing Jesus.)

Great Blessings, Great Responsibility

Published
by
Mike
on July 4, 2008
in General
. 14 Comments

There are so many things I am thankful for today on the Fourth of July. So many things to be thankful for in our nation’s history.

But with great blessings comes great responsibility. I’m thankful for every person in government who is working for peace, working for justice, working to speak for those with no voice.

May God’s guidance and blessings fall on this nation — along with every other nation of the world.

(taken from my 05 blog)

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Last night we went to see “As You Like it” at the Summer Shakespeare Festival at ACU. I was reminded again of how fortunate we are to have an Adam Hester-led theater department. And Bill R., you rock in Shakespeare, my friend.

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I was invited to join a group of ministry leaders in Chicago for a meeting with Barack Obama, but couldn’t go because we were in Turkey. But here’s Terry Mattingly’s report of that gathering.

A Boy and His Truck

Published
by
Mike
on July 3, 2008
in General
. 24 Comments

Yesterday our youngest turned sixteen. He got a truck.

When he was five years old, his brother got his first vehicle: a used, black, standard Ford Ranger. Both of them loved that truck.

So when it came time to select a vehicle, he was pretty decisive about his preference.

He wanted a Ranger. Not a Frontier. Not a Tacoma. Not even an F-150 (the State Truck of Texas, apparently).

And he wanted black. Not silver, green, white, red, or yellow. Dark gray would do in a pinch. But preferably, black.

And he wanted a manual transmission. Just like his brother had; and just like his father told him he needed to know how to drive.

So Tuesday, I caught a ride down to Austin to get a used, black, standard Ford Ranger that I’d found on autotrader.com. Fortunately the deal worked out, because I had no real plan for getting back to Abilene otherwise.

Yesterday morning, I took son two to the parking lot of Shotwell Stadium and taught him how to drive a standard. Around noon, I told him he was on his own and to stay away from as much traffic as possible for a while.

Today he’ll be back on the roads. Most of the day, I’d guess. You’ve been warned.

Rubel and Rochester

Published
by
Mike
on July 2, 2008
in General
. 6 Comments

I’ve written a few times before about the wonderful things happening at Rochester College in Michigan. We’ve followed it closely since our good friends John and Sara Barton moved there, after returning from Uganda. (I had spoken there several times before they arrived and was already impressed with the vision.)

Then Rubel and Myra Shelly moved there. So many of us on this blog have been guided and blessed by Rubel for a long time. And now he’s the interim president of the school.

I wrote and asked if he’d write a few things for this blog about his opportunity and challenges. Here’s his response:

If any of your readers are shocked or surprised to learn I am the president of a small (950 students) Christian college in Michigan, they aren’t nearly as shocked and surprised as I am! This has never, never been on the radar for my life. (Man plans. God laughs.)

Myra and I moved here two years ago so we could have a bit less stress in our lives, contribute something to a school whose mission we believed in, and mind our own business. The thing Myra loved most was that nobody knew who we were. We went to campus, shopped at Kroger, and had friends over. We had a normal life — for a change. I left for work on a predictable schedule and got home for dinner. We had most evenings together. Those days are over! And I feel more stress than perhaps ever in my life.

The former president and his wife (Mike and Sharon Westerfield) are friends of ours. They had been talking about divesting administration and choosing for Mike to go back to the classroom as an English prof. We even encouraged it! Now the Board has convinced me to take this role for a time. It was a reluctant decision. But I’ll try to be sure nobody senses my reluctance as I perform my duties.

Michigan’s economy is in the tank. This has caused enrollment at the school to dip a bit, though not dramatically. The real issue is the ability of locals to provide the additional funds necessary to keep this place going. So I have had to put out a major appeal through a much larger network than the school has ever tried to reach. (That is one reason I appreciate some of your blog space.)

We simply have to raise $2.5 million this summer to catch up, do campus prep, and be ready for students who are coming here this fall. As of today, we are at $1.5 million! That is incredible to most of our people — since we only raised $600,000 in unrestricted funds all of last year.

But people need to see this as “investment” — not as a desperate attempt to keep the doors open for another year. If we can get through the next year or two, things can turn around dramatically. We have a hospital partner with whom to begin a School of Nursing. We have approval for ramping up from the state’s Higher Learning Commission and the state Nursing Board. We are moving rapidly and will be admitting the first pre-nursing students this fall. Lipscomb has guaranteed us five slots for RC graduates in their new School of Pharmacy. So we are making a huge push for “partnership in health care” among locals and alumni. Health care is the ONE growth industry in the State of Michigan! So the timing is right. But we have to get through these couple of years to get there.

Is Hussein Your Middle Name?

Published
by
Mike
on June 28, 2008
in General
. 73 Comments

Mark Elrod, a political science professor at Harding, is featured in a New York Times article with the headline “Obama Supporters Take His Middle Name As Their Own.” Would that be Mark Hussein Elrod?

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Here is a shot of the Library of Celsus in Ephesus:

Time to Meet New Dogs in Durham

Published
by
Mike
on June 27, 2008
in General
. 5 Comments

For a couple months, this beautiful little girl lived here with us. She spent about half the time in this house and half the time with her other grandparents. Her parents were suspended between medical school and residency.

For a couple months, she ran around the house, patted our dogs, acquainted herself with other dogs in the neighborhood, sang, danced, laughed, and brought great joy.

She now lives in Durham, NC. Her dad is doing his internal medicine residency at Duke. For some reason, her mommy and daddy felt like she needed to make the move with them.

I miss her.

A lot.

Thanks to all you wonderful people at the Southwest Central Church of Christ in Houston who loved her for the first year of her life — and for pouring your love on her parents for four years. They’ll never forget it. Nor will I.

The Presidential Election

Published
by
Mike
on June 26, 2008
in General
. 12 Comments

I just read that both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain can count on about 190 electoral votes going into the election. The outcome will turn, so this source said, on twelve states.

We’ll miss Tim Russert. As devotees of “The Today Show” and NBC News (along with CNN), we followed his predictions of “Florida, Florida, Florida” (2000) and “Ohio, Ohio, Ohio” (2004).

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For the next seven weeks we’re going to be celebrating “The Church At Play.” We’ll meet at 6:00 to eat together (with everyone bringing their own dinner — even if just a quick run through Subway), followed by a brief intergenerational devotional time. Then, around 7:00 there will be two fun activities for people to choose from. Next Wednesday those activities will be watermelon on the parking lot or watching “Cars” in the auditorium. We’re hoping that our members who have antique cars will bring them that night.

It’s always difficult to know what to do during Wednesdays in the summer. We’re recognizing that there is a time to work . . . and a time to PLAY. I’ll let you know how it goes.

All Work and No Play (Not a Chance!)

Published
by
Mike
on June 24, 2008
in General
. 4 Comments

OK, so it wasn’t ALL hot and dusty tours of ancient sites . . . .

And from the heated springs of Hierapolis (famous in ancient times):

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The NY Times reporting on The Shack

Theaters and Stadiums

Published
by
Mike
on June 23, 2008
in General
. 9 Comments

As we traveled through the southwestern part of Turkey to sites at Pergamum, Sardis, Hierapolis, Laodicea, Colossae, Aphrodisias, Didyma, and Ephesus, we were overwhelmed by the size of the theaters and stadiums that remain from Roman (and pre-Roman) times.

The well-preserved theater in Ephesus (the one mentioned in Acts 19) seated 24,000. Reminder: no sound system. They must have had amazing acoustical engineering and vocal training. Plus, I guess, no cell phones were going off to compete with the actors.

Here are some of the sites.

The theater on the hill of Pergamum (above modern Bergama):

The theater at Hierapolis:

The theater and stadium at Aphrodisias:

And the most impressive theater of Ephesus. (”The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and rushed as one man into the theater.” Acts 19:29)

Here’s our “team.” We’re just six people who’ve been friends for almost a quarter of a century. It was a serendipity that one of the six is something of an expert on Ephesus, ancient Greco-Roman religions, and Roman civic religion.

The Weekly Rhythm . . . Tiger . . . “Football”

Published
by
Mike
on June 20, 2008
in General
. 16 Comments

From William Willimon’s comments on Acts 20:

This is one of the New Testament’s earliest definite references to weekly Sunday worship. The Christians have continued to gather in the synagogue — unless they have been expelled. But they also apparently gather on Sunday, the first day of the Jewish work week, the day which is for Christians a day of resurrection. The church Luke describes is thus moving toward a distinct day of worship of its own, a day symbolizing clearly that while there is much uniting the church with Judaism there is also much dividing it from Judaism. The day of worship, as well as the stories and actions which occur around the table, constitutes the church as a distinct entity, gives it an identity, keeps reminding the church of who it is. Sunday is the Lord’s Day when Christians gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Around the table in the gathering for worship, in the breaking of bread, Christians sustain one another through the presence of God as experienced at the table. As the Reformers agreed, word and sacrament belong together. Here is where the Body of Christ is made visible (1 Cor. 11:17-32). Here is where the Body re-forms, receives nourishment and encouragement in this weekly rhythm of renewal and reiteration of our identity as God’s family.

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How would you like to be in charge of advertising revenues for the network carrying the British Open or the PGA, only to open up your morning paper and find out that Tiger is missing the rest of the year to have knee surgery? Golf right now is feast or famine, depending on whether he is in the tournament. There are lots of good players — but they’re miles from the best player.

Having said that, my prediction from three years ago that he won’t break Nicklaus’s major’s record (18) is safe for now. I made that prediction based on the factors of health, a constant flow of new players, and the sheer difficulty of it. So, what year do you predict that this prediction will be proven wrong?

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We were sound asleep in the little village of Sirince when a blast of noise came up the hillside from the village center. It seems that everyone was gathered around some televisions to watch Turkey’s dramatic comeback victory over Czechoslovakia in the World Cup. I’m not sure we (in the States) have anything to compare to most of the world’s soccer obsession.