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I will be teaching two tutorial sections of American Lit 2 this year. My tutorials and office hour are all back-to-back from 10 am to 1 pm Tuesday mornings. In just a few weeks I will be teaching college students American literature, wow! Within the course’s stated authors I get to pick out who I want to teach.

I think I will focus on: Jonathan Edwards, Phillis Wheatley, Charles Brockden Brown (Wieland), landscape and the sublime, Susannah Rowson (Charlotte Temple which I might pair with Shelley’s Frankenstein as they need a few non-US lit options), Hector St John de Crevecoeur (Letters from an American Farmer) Emerson (Essays), Thoreau (Walden) and selections from Margaret Fuller.

Feel free to read along with me this semester!

Oh, the very first class I’ll start off with a bit of Jonathan Edwards, focusing on his ‘Personal Narrative’ as this is what the lecture will have been on. Any ideas about teaching a theological text literarily in a very secular context?

We’re always told not to judge a book by its cover, but the fact is, you can learn a lot about a book before you ever crack the binding. Who is the author, how is the book being marketed, who is recommending it and why? These are all important things to know before diving into a book. My first thought after scanning the cover of The Deliberate Church was, “It will never live up”. It has glowing endorsements from several big name evangelicals, including D.A. Carson, Ligon Duncan, and Philip Ryken. The endorsements are good—too good, I thought. Greg Waybright says, “The is the most biblically directed and practically helpful discussion of ‘applied theology’ that I have ever read.” Quite frankly, I was sceptical. There are tons of books on ministry, each promoting a different 5 or 10 steps to building a healthy church (read: replicate the model employed by the book’s author). How could this book really be that different?

Well, quite simply, it does away with the principles, steps and diagrams, and focuses instead on the biblical data that drives ministry. (more…)

Just wondering if anyone can recommend a stellar vegetarian cookbook to add to my collection?

Surely two of the influences that have generated the evangelical neglect of public works (in society in general and in our cities in particular) are our premillennial fervor and our marriage with other political conservatives. This does not mean that premillennials do not believe in or perform good works or that it is wrong to be politically conservative. But premillennial fervor (particularly in many dispensational circles) has led us to abandon the future and the civic involvement needed to shape that future. This is where the recent resurgence of postmillennial theology (for all its problems, in my view) has helped us to renew our confidence in the ability of Christians to spread light into the darkness of society. As for conservative politics, for all the worthy battles in the culture war that have been thus fought, the fact is that evangelicals have looked upon politically-liberal urban areas as either unworthy of our concern or as adversarial to our interests. Evangelicals must reconsider both our eschatological vision and our political agendas, not only as our duty to the Lord Jesus but for the sake of the gospel in our nation. We can retain our fervor for Christ’s return and also have a positive fervor for the kingdom of God in this world. We can also continue to pursue social reform and repentance while expanding our politicial vision to include matters of social justice and mercy. What this means is that we must abandon false dichotomies that have caused us to neglect our calling truly to be salt in the world.

Posted at Reformation 21

I started my last year of seminary today. I can’t believe I’m already at this stage. It looks like it will be a busy year; I have 5 essays, 1 (Greek) test, and at least 3 preaching dates (I’m sure more will come) in the next 11 weeks. So if you need me, chance are I’m behind a book.

Speaking of books…they’re really expensive, and our finances are pretty tight. Please pray for us.

We’re also beginning to think more seriously about what will happen for us after this coming Spring. The ultimate goal seems to be figuring out some way to get back to SoCal to preach the gospel, but it looks likely that we will be staying in Scotland until Ash finishes her Ph.D. This would also give me the opportunity to pick up an M.Th., which would be excellent. We appreciate your prayers and encouragement as we try to figure out how to make our lives work. I talked last night to a pastor from our presbytery back home about option for ministry in the LA area. There look to be some great possibilities for us, but would most likely involve raising huge sums of money, which is not an easy task when you come from a small church in an area with few churches.

On another note, I’ve been getting TONS of comment $p@m recently so I installed a new plugin to block it, and it has been catching over 50 $p@m comments a day for the past week. So, if your comment gets caught as well (i.e., it never shows up), please use the form at the bottom of this page to let me know.

Ummmmm…I think that’s it for now. Thanks for your attention.

Bare with me as continue to think through these issues …

I am very inspired by so many women who seem to do it all — who labour tirelessly, who plan healthy meals, support their families, save money and some even have a job, creative outlet or area in which to serve as well. The type of women that read The Tightwad Gazette and make up their own cleaning products. The women with their own organic gardens who manage to feed a growing family on next-to-nothing. If I ever become a stay-at-home mom someday this is the type of woman I want to be — for example, one whose daily choices help alleviate global suffering (buying fair trade/organic food for instance) while keeping one’s family healthy.

I’m also astounded by the many women who seem to be the intellectual equals of men in whatever field they are in. Take my supervisor for instance: she’s a full professor and the director of a research institute, on numerous boards, publishes extensively, is a fabulous teacher and quite a caring individual. Did I mention she also has a family? Amazing.

I think both the thrifty SAHM and the career woman (with or without children) can have the tendency towards pride. It seems — please note, probably with reason — that the church will confirm the SAHM while denoucing the career woman for “going beyond her place” (especially if she has a family). Granted, however, the SAHM is probably more apt to be less prideful; something about cleaning up after a messy baby in the middle of the night does wonders for one’s pride, I imagine. All that to say, I have been reminded after a conversation with my sister-in-law that women — in whatever situation they find themselves — must have their identity in Christ, must live out their calling to the glory of God, must live out the gospel in their particular corner. I think the temptation for all of us is to become enmeshed with something other than Christ — which is rather obvious considering we are innately sinful — whether that be one’s role as wife/mother or a career or other pursuit. So I would encourage those of you who read this blog to hide yourself in Christ alone and keep that as your focus; seek Him first, not advancement of any sort. I know you Christians know this, but I hope to encourage you still to remember and believe the gospel as we all find out where God plans for us to be.

Here is a link about the status of Desire Street Ministries who minister to the poorest of America’s poor. Please consider helping as they suggest in contributing a donation or gift certificates for those who’ve lost everything. Also keep them in prayer in the areas they elucidate on this link.

Please pray for Bryce’s mom as she travels this week to deliver goods to Lafayette, LA for those in desperate need of assistance. Pray that she may be encouraged to be the hands and feet of Jesus as she helps after the devestation.

Here is a fabulous article about God’s sovereignty and natural disasters from Rick Phillips on the Reformation 21 blog. Here’s a bit:

A week ago I was interviewed by a local reporter, and he asked me if I would like to ask God why tragedies happen. I responded that I did not need to ask God, because the Bible tells me already. He was surprised, and followed up by saying I surely believed that God was not involved in such things. I responded that, no, I believe God is sovereign over all things and his providence is governed by holiness, wisdom, goodness, and love.

It cuts through those who would use Katrina as a way to say it is God’s judgement on America or New Orleans in particular.

For those of you anxious to understand how your life of work or study fares in relation to worldwide disaster — a question that’s been very relevant since 9/11/2001 and then with regard to the Boxing Day Tsunami — I urge you to read C S Lewis’ “Learning in War-time”. (I can’t find an online version but it is in his The Weight of Glory if you can get your hands on that).

I’ll leave the “why disasters happen and God’s providence” post to my husband, but for now here are some practical ways you can help those who have been hit hardest by Katrina.

First off, there are a number of pastors and theologians who blog on Reformation21 who do not have email access and so are communicating via their blog; please check it out as I’m sure there will be many updates within the next few days about ways to help. Connected with that is a man, Guy Richard, who has just accepted a call to 1st Pres at Gulport, Mississippi (he’s currently writing up his PhD for Edinburgh) and now there is no church and I imagine his future congregation is homeless. Please pray for God’s guidance and financial support.

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity is collecting excess contact lenses and glasses. More information can be found here.

MercyCorps is affiliated with the Hunger Site where 92% of donated monies go directly to disaster relief; they say “Every dollar you give helps us secure $20.89 in donated food and other critical supplies.” Please consider giving. The PCA’s Mission to North America also has information about donation and prayer requests here.

Desire Street Ministries has a hurricane update and ways to help out this “incarnational” ministry, who live among and minister to the poor in New Orleans.

Obviously pray for these people, the economy to recover so that they might find work, for the church to minister to those in need and to share the good news in such dire circumstances. Here’s just one blog from a survivor.

I would also encourage you more generally to begin thinking preventatively about such things. In an age dominated less by strict nation-state borders and more by global capitalism, where your money goes matters more than ever. Consider ways in which your every day choices — where you buy your food, what kind of food you buy, where you shop for clothes and other goods, what cleaning products you use, what legislation you support, if you recycle, where you go out to eat, how your gas/petrol consumption affects the environment and how it may continue to drive up gas prices in areas where others can’t afford the price hike (remember learning about supply and demand?) — speak what you believe. If you say you care about God’s creation then think about what you are doing today enforces that view. There is a new organisation called the Care of Creation that looks very promising in its focus on environmental stewardship; this is one starting place. I’ll step off my soapbox now.