Man, late Tuesday afternoon, and I still haven't caught up from the weekend. This does not bode well. Need . . . help . . . must . . . blog . . . must release . . . pressure in brain.

O.k., the weekend: Saturday was a real marathon, but a fun one. Most of it was spent at a collegiate summit in San Diego - it was a first-time effort of some local Southern Baptist churches. I led out in a workshop for non-freshman collegiates. The title I was given was "Being God's servant on campus; seeing the campus as your mission field." It was a fun trial effort at a different approach to "teaching" for me. Instead of relying on the detailed outline I had created for the talk, I pulled out my brainstorming sheet with lots of colors and scribbles and lines and thought bubbles, and I just talked - and as various ideas applied to what I was discussing, I mentioned them. It was non-linear, but I felt very Spirit-driven in the process. I used the Old Testament narrative of Joseph in Egypt as a backdrop to discuss how a fully integrated, maturing lifestyle of faith was very applicable to life on the college campus. I tried to get the students to think outside of the conventional mindset - service on campus as something other than outright evangelism - join the Sierra Club or something, and be a missionary there! See yourself in roles of social justice. Deconstruct your cultural assumptions as you talk to people about life - what do you mean by church, faith, salvation, hope, God, truth, etc.? What do non-believers think these words mean? What do they think you think they mean?
I also had the honor of being asked by the good man, Jason Evans, to join in a couple of discussions about the college campus, and the challenges related to living in a different paradigm than our parents did. We mentioned the term postmodernism once or twice, but mostly just talked about relating to people and living out real lives in ways that are relevant and responsible. I believe these students were representative of the emerging generation - genuine and open to creating their own experiences of faith and life as a seamless flow.
Speaking of experiences - the workshops Jason and I did were dwarfed in size by the workshops at the summit on the subject of worship. While the glut of slickly packaged and marketed worship music is a concern to me, I am actually pretty pleased by the fact that the emerging generation has a heart for worship.
Saturday night I held a Student Ministry Summit for the youth, parents, and volunteers at my church. Open dialogue, a little bit o' laughter, and lots of pizza - couldn't have been all bad!
Sunday - oi. Led worship for the second week in a row. It was fun, but for someone with next to no musical talent, it's so stressful. Hung out with my two young nephews in the afternoon - also fun, but tiring. Business meeting at church that night. Loooooooooong business meeting at church that night. Let me just say it straight - I ABSOLUTELY HATE THOSE THINGS!! Actually, some good things came out of the meeting - like a distinct move toward an effort to become more elder-driven in our polity (gasp! - a traditional SBC church with biblical elders!). We were also able to make some pretty clear statements about the danger of gossip and slander in the church.
I have no idea why I felt the need to journal about my life here, except that I needed to clarify it all in my confused little brain.

An unrelated, random thought . . .

I'm finding myself increasingly drawn toward the mystical life - one that I couldn't possibly manufacture, and certainly not contain, control, or predict.