I received this comment via an e-mail from a workshop participant some time ago:

Toward the end of the day you said something like, “certitude is the greatest obstacle to faith.” Since you saved it for last, I am thinking it is one of our take-home points, but I am having trouble getting my arms around this concept. I looked up certitude (it is not a word I am very familiar with) and Websters defines it as “Freedom from doubt, especially in matters of faith.” syn-certainty.

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A colleague is making a change in his church staff position. He’s struggling with coming up with a new ministry job title. He says, “While I realize the main thing is how one functions, job titles are suggestive and important.”

He’s moving from a generalist position as Minister of Christian Formation, to a more focused ministry with adults. Here are some titles he’s considering.

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A previous blog entry listed several types of thinking, including the common analytical and intuitive. Reflection on ones’ thinking, and learning about learning are important and useful activities. They can lead to a valuable kind of self-understanding with pragmatic applications (like what jobs you should avoid and what hobbies or pastimes may be more gratifying).

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Every once is a while someone asks how I manage to post a blog entry every day. My canned response is, “I try to have a thought every day, then, I write it down.” Blogging is a good exercise for aspiring writers who strive to live into the axioms, “A writer writes,” and, “the only way to learn to write is to write.” For those of us not born with the gift for words, writing is a learned craft, and, like any craft, you just have to observe the discipline of daily practice if you want to get good at it.

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Even though I have become dependent on the personal computer for both work and play I retain a fondness for typewriters (at this point one of my kids would say, “Typewriter? What’s that?”). Much of that has to do with the physicality of them as objects. Typewriters were a part of my growing up. My father was, for a good portion of his life, what was then refered to as an office machine repairman (before the terms “technician” or “engineer” were tagged onto just about any job description). His business spread between shop and home, and at times we had dozens of typewriters and office calculators (the huge metal hand-crank-levered pre-digital kinds) around the house.

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Last week I had two interesting conversations with familiar strangers. These were those people that we have become comfortable around because of propinquity yet don’t really know. You know them, people at work we see every day but only say “Hi” and “See your tomorrow.” Or, those people at church we greet every week because they sit near our pew to whom we’ve passed the peace but could not tell the names of their children or what they do for a living if asked.

As often happens, those familiar strangers can turn out to be very interesting people with life stories that verge on the adventuresome. Such was the case with my two conversations. Both left me saying to myself, “Wow. You never know.”

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We are please to announce that BTSR student Greg Harrell is the recipient of the 2008 G.R.A.CE. award. Congratulations, Greg! The G.R.A.C.E. Award is given to a student enrolled in the M.Div./Christian Education emphasis who shows the most promise of exemplary contribution to the profession of the pastoral educator.

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