Convention Season Ramps Up

June 4, 2010 ghp 1 comment

Convention season is definitely ramping up, with only 5 weeks to go until it’s wheels down in Houston for “Humidity Fest 2010″, aka “Let’s Blow this Pop Stand Up!”

  • Herm Otten has the CN war machine in full-on battle mode, spewing venom (along with the odd interesting nugget of info once in a while) in all directions…
  • The JF PAC is up to issue #3 in their series of 10, oh-so-helpful “guides” to delegates, wherein spinning & passive-agressivity are brought to unbelievably high sheen… (I do, however, think I’ll avoid being called a schismatic by their leadership this triennium!)
  • The Floor Committees have committed their usual atrocities against reason & intent, in their grinding up & forming of overtures into resolutions — most particularly FC8, wherein NONE of the overtures against restructuring ended up making it into resolution form, even those put forth by circuits and/or districts; well played, FC8! That’s just the way to show us how important it is that circuit/district overtures are given preferential consideration, as recommended by the BRTFSSG…
  • The Indiana District delegation is once again in the hotel that’s 10 blocks away from the convention hall — BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I had hoped against hope, even as I fatalistically knew that we’d end up there again…
  • I’m feeling equal amounts of anticipation, dread, excitement, annoyance, anger, hope, and fear as I consider what’s coming up…
  • I hope that I get a chance to meet up with some of the many folks that I know are going to be delegates this go-around, and that my anti-social tendencies don’t get the better of me…

In many ways, it’s really quite amazing that it’s almost/finally here. So similar in many ways to 3 years ago, but yet so very, very different in most ways. Familiar, yet not. Feared/Dreaded, yet I wouldn’t want to entrust it to anyone else, even as I’ve got so many other things going on this summer.

I’ll stop with this observation about a line from JF’s Delegate Letter #3. The line?

“As I spoke with a number of veteran LCMS lay leaders, they told me that they sense a new peace in the LCMS.”

Quite frankly, this stuns me. This semi-veteran LCMS lay leader (8 years cong. Bd of Elders) could describe his sense of things (locally, regionally, and/or nationally) in many ways; “a new sense of peace in the LCMS” would not be one of them.

They belong to a different synod, or want to, than I do. They perceive and sense things differently than I do with regard to “peace” and “unity” in the Church.

That is why this upcoming convention is important and significant.

-ghp


Territorial Bloggings Now on WordPress.com

May 17, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

Well, I’ve gone and done it. Territorial Bloggings has been moved over to WordPress.com, after 5.5 years of running my own instance of WordPress on a general web hosting service.

Why the change?

Well, three main reasons: 1) WP.com’s feature set is now close enough to on-par with the self-hosted/”full”/.org version that it’s not a sacrifice to make the change (the last time I checked, a year or so ago, that wasn’t the case…), as a result, 2) It’s simpler & easier to keep things running when I don’t have to worry about security, patches, upgrades, etc… I’ve gotten to a point where I just don’t have the time or the inclination to do the “sysadmin” hobby at that level anymore, and 3) It’s cheaper, as I won’t have to worry about re-upping with the hosting provider.

I’m still working out some of the kinks, which is taking a bit longer than in the past, mainly because of a lack of time to dedicate to things like squaring away RSS feeds and the like; but, at least I have the DNS all switched over, along with having successfully migrated all of the content. Now I just need to write new content…

I’ll get right on that.

-ghp

Categories: blogging Tags: , ,

That 70's Funny…

April 28, 2010 ghp Leave a comment



Gotta love Red!

-ghp


Categories: popmedia Tags: ,

It's Good To Win One…

April 27, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

Once in a while, amongst all the frustrations of congregational life, you get a win. This past Sunday, I got one when the Voters Assembly approved spending $1000 to become a member of the Issues, Etc. 300!

It wasn’t unanimous, and it took our pastor giving a strong endorsement to help overcome some sentiment that “not everyone has access to computers and/or iPods…”, but a year+ of talking the show up & including weekly blurbs in the bulletin paid off.

Now that it has official buy-in the fun starts, because we can start to more openly use IE material (e.g., Dcs. Nielson’s series w/our SS staff, or some of the Confessions Roundtables when I lead a class on the Confessions starting this Fall…). It’ll also be good reason for us to get to work on refreshing & updating our web site so that any traffic we get isn’t lost/wasted.

I’m just thankful that it finally came to pass. I know Todd & Jeff will make good and proper use of the money. Now we just need to hold up our end of the bargain (’cause I want to make sure this happens again next year!).

-ghp

Categories: featured, theology Tags: ,

This Isn't New, But It's Good…

April 26, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

I’m slowly catching up on stuff over at BJS, and Pr. Rossow wrote a gem of post about a week-and-a-half ago – Which do you Elevate Higher, the Offering Plates or the Body of Christ?

It’s a great little post on the importance of & symbolism of proper orthodox practice, as well as a reminder of why we must also pay attention to what we do & why — i.e., be ever vigilant, lest we fall into poor practice that allows doubt to seep in around the edges.

Even better than the post, though, was the first comment, left by Pr. Charlie Henrickson, wherein he wryly observed,

“How many churches would consider having the offering only on the first and third Sundays of the month, so it won’t become “too common”?”

Love. It.

As one who has been trying (working with a sympathetic Pastor…) to get every Sunday Communion introduced for years now into my old-school “Missourian” congregation, this quip skewers one of the more prevalent arguments against the introduction of Confessional Lutheran Communion practice on its very own petard.

Well played.

-ghp


What If…

April 19, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

A thought occurred to me as I was listening to the podcast of Todd Wilken’s address to the recent BJS annual gathering (he was speaking on the topic of the Myth of LCMS Exceptionalism in general, and on church fellowship in particular). The thought was this:

What if our congregations didn’t have the crutch of denominational affiliation to fall back on any more?

What if – in order to get a realistic handle on fellowship & what we believe, teach, confess, and practice – congregations took measures to ensure that all new members (heck, all *current* members!) actually believed what Lutherans believe, and want to practice as Lutherans practice?

I posit that we’d see a radical reshaping of our congregations — along with an unbelievable hue and cry as to how unloving and/or unfair the whole practice is. Even in my own congregation, I can only imagine the fallout if we began hewing to a Confessions-based standard of Lutheranism, over against synodical or culturally based understandings.

After what I’ve been living through lately, though, I’d really like to give it try…

-ghp

An Easter Haiku Triplet

April 3, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

Bleak thoughts fill my head
Unrelenting dark attacks
Yet this I deserve

Sin permeates me
Despair at what I have done
I alone must pay

Then, I remember
Look to the Cross, and rest
Easter morn has come!

-ghp


Categories: featured, theology Tags: , , ,

Nothing Worthwhile = Worthless?

March 1, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

Questions in my head…

Is feeling like one has nothing worthwhile to say the same as feeling like one’s thoughts/contemplations are worthless or unworthy of passing along?

That is, I think, quite at the heart of blogging, is it not? Sometimes, something more than mere blogging ennui hits & causes a lack of posting. Real life? Sure, that’s part of it, as things out in non-virtual space can intrude on the happenings (and desire to participate in) the regular online neighborhoods. Fear can also be a part of it, as there are myriad examples these days of folks getting bitten in the ass by stuff that they’ve written and/or put online in some form. Innocent commenting, not to mention pointed venting, about work/home/church/etc. can come back and get you — and that’s frightening in a great many ways (economically/relationship-wise/etc…).

No, what can happen, regarding the question of blogging/tweeting/facebooking or not, is almost existential in nature: Is what I have to say worth saying? Does it matter? Do I matter?

So much of being online is finding a voice – a point of view – that can be held to consistently, such that one can, and indeed want to, write regularly & compellingly. One needs to be able to do so with confidence — the confidence that: 1) one’s point-of-view is solid and compelling enough to interest the writer to write without fear of ridicule, reprisal, or repercussion (or even – especially! – lack of outside interest), and 2) one’s subject area(s) and writing style are compelling and interesting enough to engage the readers, should one be so lucky as to garner attention.

This confidence is often tenuous and all too easily undermined, not only by the factors listed above (e.g., life, fear, etc…) that result from too little time and/or thought, but also by too much thought. IOW, “paralysis through analysis”, wherein one gets so hung up on analyzing all the whys & wherefores of online writing, one ends up in a vapor lock of non-writing.

It just becomes easier to withdraw and focus ever more inward, rather than taking any steps to regain any focus and get back in the habit of writing, so as to develop the “muscles” that enable compelling participation and, thus, the resulting confidence that helps perpetuate the whole enterprise.

It’s a morbidly fascinating conundrum that I’ve found, and continue to find, myself in. Don’t quite know how I’m going to get out of it (esp. the fear part), but at least I’ve got this first post going for me…

-ghp


Inky Thoughts

January 30, 2010 ghp Leave a comment

It’s been way too long since I had anything to say about pens, ink, & paper. Pity, that…

Fortunately, I’ve recently been able to lay my hands on a couple of new pens, some new ink, and a few new notebooks. Few things are as viscerally enjoyable as using a fountain pen to lay some good ink down on a nice, high-quality piece of paper!

The Pens: While I like fountain pens, and certainly appreciate what makes good ones “good”, I’ve never been that enamored of the mid-to-high-end of the market. I much prefer finding values in the lower end of the pen market. Fortunately, there’s always lots to look at & work with in the sub $30 range, particularly if you like to bargain hunt.

Quick Note: for those who might even blanche at the cost of that range, taking into account the total cost of ownership, a sturdy fountain pen, refilled with a good ink, is cheaper than disposable rollerball/gel pens, and, if you use Noodler’s Ink (like I do) a heck of a lot safer against fraud, too!


I’ve just found Pelikan’s latest iteration of the venerable Pelikano school pen, and it’s proven to be outstanding. I had an earlier version of the Pelikano, and it was a little smaller, lighter, and not as rounded as this new design. Personally, I like the new design a lot. I got the “A” nib, which is the “Beginner’s” nib sized in between Pelikan’s Fine & Medium nibs. I thought it would be an interesting change of pace, and it’s turned out to be quite nice. It lays down a wonderfully smooth, wet, and nicely sized line of ink on the page. I got it from JetPens.com – recommended!

The Inks: I’ve long been a fan of Noodler’s Ink, and nothing has happened to change that. Great inks, great colors, and great features — Durable Inks that are: Bulletproof, Eternal, Water Resistant.

Bad Blue Heron and Borealis Black are two recent-to-new offerings from Noodler’s that just jumped out at me. Bad Blue Heron, in particular, just grabbed me. Getting the right blue ink has always been a bit of a quest, as I’ve never been a fan of the classic Waterman’s Florida Blue (it’s always been a bit too bright and/or purple for my taste…). Thus, I’ve always tended to the blue-black end of the spectrum. Problem is, it can be hard to differentiate that from black. Recently, then, I’ve wanted to get a little brighter blue into the mix, and Bad Blue Heron looked like it might do the trick. Well, it does! And it brings a whole lot of other good stuff to the table as well (just check out it’s web page). The important thing, though, is that it writes like a dream, is gorgeously saturated, dries quickly, and doesn’t feather at all, even on the copy paper that I use in the laser printer!

Borealis Black is another entry in my seemingly never ending quest to find a deep, dark, saturated, truly BLACK black ink. The good news is that it looks to have met my criteria thus far. It. Is. BLACK! It is also very easy to write with, it flows wonderfully from the nib, it dries nicely, but it does feather a tiny bit on the copy paper from the laser printer. Per the Noodler’s web page, though, it is not meant to be Bulletproof or Eternal by current standards, but it is pretty tough nonetheless. I think it’s going to fit the bill nicely.

The Notebook/Paper: Paper is always a tough thing to find. In some ways, it’s the most important part of the equation. You can have a great pen with the best ink, but if your paper sucks, then you are S.O.L. I’ve tried Moleskine journals. Frankly, the paper is not that good. Rhodia makes some good paper, although it takes a bit too long for ink to dry on it, and they don’t make the format of notebook/journals that I like. Clairfontaine makes great paper, but they only seem to put out spiral bound notebooks that don’t have enough pages (i.e., not a good value…). What to do, what to do…

After much searching to find an alternative (and, trust me, when it comes to journals/notebook/paper, there are lots of opinions out there!) I was able to finally come across mention of the Piccadilly Notebooks. These notebooks were highly spoken of as alternatives to Moleskines, that were not only cheaper, but were also just plain better values because they have more pages, better quality paper, better binding, and (depending on one’s preferences) better/more versatile covers (e.g., hardcovers). This sounded really good to me. So, after checking out the Piccadilly website and seeing that they were sold at Borders, I drove out to get a couple. I’m pleased to report that, on pretty much every point, the Piccadilly notebooks are better than the Moleskines that I’ve used, most especially that which I consider to be paramount — paper quality!

So, after not all that much sturm und drang (considering how I can get when I start obsessing over things like pens, ink, and paper), I think that I’ve got myself nicely squared away for the time being. The Pelikanos are staunch workaday pens, Bad Blue Heron & Borealis Black are quite possibly the best, and most aesthetically pleasing, inks I’ve come across to date, and the Piccadilly notebooks are stellar values & a pleasure in which to record my thoughts.

-ghp


Categories: featured, general Tags: , ,

SP & SVP Nominations

January 24, 2010 ghp 1 comment

I’m pleased to report that, at this morning’s regular Voters Meeting, the Voters of Heritage Lutheran Church (Valparaiso, IN) approved the following slate of candidates for Synodical President & Vice Presidents…

President: Rev. Matt Harrison & Rev. Herb Mueller
1st VP: Rev. Herb Mueller & Rev. Matt Harrison
2nd VP: Rev. John Wohlrabe
3rd VP: Rev. Daniel Preus
4th VP: Rev. David Adams
5th VP: Rev. Scott Murray

May it come to pass that God blesses us this July, and this slate is elected and installed!

-ghp