i saw this written on a foot bridge along the green circle trail while i was running. it made me smile and obviously stop running to take a few photos.
brave
pam, noah, and i watched pixar’s brave this afternoon and as usual with pixar movies it was really good. if i had a daughter it would be a must watch. really pixar consistently does a great job.
i would write more about the movie but i have taken a benadryl to counteract what i think might be poison ivy. i say think because i have never had a reaction to poison ivy or poisn oak before. i know that i have had contact with it before. in fact, they are several times that i have volunteered to clear the stuff from an area because i had never had any reaction to it. i’m not sure that i am having a reaction to it but i have developed a rash all over my shins and calves in the past two days. it itches a fare amount and i am now drowsy from the benadryl.
so good
there is very little in the world that compares with the fun of catching smallmouth bass on a fly rod. i didn’t catch any monsters this evening but it was still a blast catching 12-16” smallies on a 4 weight fly rod.
the very last
the southern baptist convention is meeting this week. this means the largest protestant denomination in the u.s., which i am a part, is coming together to make decisions about how it does things. invariably there will be a great deal of news concerning the election of the first african-american SBC president. as well there should be since the SBC’s start was racially based. i personally am very glad we have come full circle.
yet, this is not what i want to post about.
nope, i want to post about mark 9:33-37 where JESUS talks about whoever wants to be the greatest. HE says whoever wants to be first must be the very last, the servant of all. such servanthood is the defining characteristic of the leadership JESUS wants in those who follow HIM. there are a lot of important people in the spotlight of the southern baptist convention’s annual meeting. i wonder how many of the people on the stage this week are usually putting themselves “very last.”
i have been around some pastors who were (and still are) amazing servants. bill pruitt, one of the pastors i worked with in baton rouge at parkview, is one such servant. i went with him to a louisiana baptist convention executive board meeting once and discovered that he had developed the habit of clearing all the lunch trays for everyone. frank morrow, the pastor i worked with in covington, texas, was the same way. they are many others i could mention who live a life of leadership by being the servant of everyone else. i hope i lead from being the last rather than always trying to be first.
think about it
as usual, i really like what coffee with JESUS has to say today.
whoa
sunday night i used a photo of some backpacking i did in 2001 and for all the threads whose last name isn’t terrell it was the first time they had seen me before i started running. i start running in 2005 because i had gained some weight and i wanted to loose it. actually i started playing a lot of racquetball in 2003 to loose this weight but then my racquetball partner went and started another church. this led to him being too busy to play in our bi-weekly challenges and i was left needing to participate in some form of solitary form of exercise or find another partner. all the racquetball partners i tried playing against were better than me so i opted for running instead. 🙂
anyhow, i used the photo below as part of an illustration for my message on sunday night and the response was not what i expected. there were several snickers, which i did expect, but one person said “whoa” loud enough for everyone in the washington elementary school gym to hear. i guess i look a little different, which is really a good thing.
here’s the photo. i am the one on the left. enjoy.
she’s impressive
i posted this link on my facebook profile the other day but i thought i would add it to the blog because i kind of like bragging on my amazing wife. pamela is presently on the tail end stretch of the biennial study abroad course she leads to brazil. she started the course and the university tends to brag on it every now and then because (to my knowledge) it is the only communicative disorders study aboard course in the entire UW system. like i said pam is pretty impressive.
anyhow you read all the posts she has made concerning the course for the uwsp college of professional studies blog here and here are the specific posts she has made thus far:
the annotated bibliography
establishing the foundation for my d.min project/dissertation (which is a study concerning the effectiveness of collaborative sermon preparation) is done through by establishing an annotated bibliography that is evaluated by a recognized expert in the field to make sure that it represents the general thought and discussion of the field. it is similar to the literature reviews that other fields do as an initial part of their studies.
i have been corresponding with dr. wesley allen of lexington seminary and author of “the homiletic of all believers” to develop the annotated bib for my project. yesterday morning dr. allen said it looked good. i was so thrilled that i shouted loud enough to wake noah up. thus my tweet yesterday.
THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY HAS BEEN APPROVED! BOOM SHACKALAKA. Now all that is necessary is to get the proposal to Dr. Lemke's standards.
— Robert Terrell (@ratterrell) June 13, 2012
i felt pretty good about the books i was using for the foundation of the project before i corresponded with dr. allen but I AM THRILLED with the books that talking with him led me to consider. thanks to the used books on amazon i was able to get them for next to nothing. i think the most i spent on any of the books is $6. most of them i was able to buy for $3-$4.
here is the annotated bibliography for anyone who is interested.
the remaining steps for finishing my project proposal are:
- receive edits from dr. lemke (my faculty mentor) and update paper.
- have paper reviewed by d.min reader to make sure it is ready to be submitted.
- have paper read by dr. ogea associate dean of the professional doctorate program to make sure it is ready to be submitted.
- submit the proposal to the professional doctorate committee for approval.
once it is approved i can begin to work on the actual study. yeah.
garden of your mind
he is right, it is good to be curious about many things. now i am going to go grow something in the garden of my mind. thanks mr. rogers.
jambalaya for the washington teachers
there are a great number of things that i have done wrong when i was planting tapestry or now do wrong as the pastor. for example:
- i tend not to be the best “salesperson” for the church. instead of giving people a simple answer concerning what tapestry is like i end up getting involved in a long discussion concerning their experiences with spiritual maters.
- because tapestry is so relational at its nature i tend to never do just general invites to the community (what everyone else would call marketing). this is great for the people who know someone but i probably need to do more to extend the invite to people who don’t know a thread.
- i tend to say stupid things. this happens a good bit.
- i don’t do a good job of following rules.
- there are many other ways that i mess up that i am sure pam, my boys, the leadership team of tapestry, or any random number of threads could tell you about.
BUT …
one thing i know that i have done right as pastor of tapestry is leading the church to provide an end of the year jambalaya lunch for the teachers and staff of washington elementary school. this meal is a blast and pays off great dividends with the church’s relationship with the school every year. today various threads provided salad and desserts to go with the jambalaya and it was all enjoyed greatly. i cannot count how many teachers told me “i look forward to this lunch all year.” there are great teachers and staff at washington and i am very thankful for the relationship that we as a church have with them.