overheard

"compassion is the physical movement into the presence of suffering and the spiritual movement into the void created by the sense of abandonment that suffering brings."

~david hansen in loving the church you lead, pg. 73.

gentry’s book blurbs

Howard Bryant’s Juicing the Game

“Juicing the Game is the quintessential examination of MLB’s steroids (or should we say Selig?) era. Howard’s careful, comprehensive analysis provides us with a comprehensive examination of the pharmacological, sociological, economic and architectural causes of baseball’s “Big Bang” decade. This compelling, Schlosser-esque narrative uncovers Barry Bond’s Game of Shadows and indicts an institution that was on the juice.”

Memorandum from Captain Random

Sorry that I’ve been so distant lately. Kellie and I just returned from a short swing through the upper Midwest, we’ve been spending a fair amount of time supporting one of our sister churches that just got screwed by their denomination and our community is entering into one of our most activity heavy times of the year. I don’t have much time to write now, but would like to offer some ill-considered and free associated thoughts for you.

During our time in the Midwest, we celebrated holy week at St. Paul’s, the Episcopalian parish that our brother-in-law serves, and spent a lovely evening reconnecting with the good folks at Xenos. as always, my time in and around St. Paul’s fed my love for liturgy and the sacraments as well as my bent towards a more inclusivistic theology. In contrast, my time at Xenos fed my passion for seeing: the gospel of Jesus clearly proclaimed, the path of discipleship clearly demarcated and the church community living out the compassion and truth of the gospel. Like I mentioned to my comrade and fellow co-hort leader kid positive last night, sometimes I wish I could cultivate that “one pure and holy passion” we longed for and sang about in years hence. Since I cannot seem to integrate my progressive sensibilities and approach to ministry with my evangelical passion for proclamation, I wish that I could fully embrace and energetically pursue one of these passions with my whole heart. But I fear that elevating one tendency at the expense of the other would lead to a form of spiritual schizophrenia and suspect that I need to continue to hold onto both these passions whether or not integration that I hope for ever comes.

I think the boston co-hort, which had it’s initial meeting last night, is a good place to work through these struggles with others. I like to think of our co-hort as “a good place to discuss dangerous theology.” If you live in the area and are interested in joining us, please visit the site I linked above or contact me directly. Our next meeting will be on May 23 at Bukowski’s pub in downtown Boston.

Shit…now that I’ve made that shameless pitch, I need to get to work. Hopefully I’ll be able to free-associate again later in the day.

The SS may or may not do business with an organization officially known as "Went Fruity Inc."

T-minus 265 minutes until I get to eject from my cube, head down to the big city and catch a Red Sox game with my Dad. Our tickets are about 10 rows behind the Sox dugout.

The customer service department of the SS is currently choosing a departmental mission statement. Our new Fuhrer has asked for submissions and I'm going to suggest the following.

1. SS Customer Service: The buck stops over there!

2. SS Customer Service: German attitude, American efficiency.

3. And the old standby - SS Customer Service: Just because we serve you doesn't mean we like you.

Which mission statement do you prefer? Have any creative ideas that I can claim as my own?