Snow in Cleveland

I have always said it would snow in Cleveland before I died. I just didn't think it would happen before I needed help getting outside.

Benton Falls

We hiked to Benton Falls today. Karisa and Johnmark used my camera, thus, no pictures of Johnmark.

Thanksgiving 09

We are blessed to have Karisa, Johnmark and Zeus down for Thanksgiving. We drove down to Woodstock, Georgia to spend the day with my sister Shirley and her family: Mike, Ryan, and Andrea. Don, a close friend of their's, was also with us for the afternoon. Shirley was overcome with the spirit of Ernestine; in addition to turkey and ham there were 14 side dishes and 9 or more desserts. We traveled down memory lane with two games of Pit, won by Johnmark and Karisa.

Creation: A Call to Care

This weekend Lee University with the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment sponsored a symposium, Creation: A Call to Care [News]. In other words, Cheryl has been doing her thing, networking. She arranged and moderated the event which is quite interesting since we teach at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary and not the university. The symposium is the result of her involvement with a group of Evangelical leaders and scientists working together to promote care for the environment. The event was coordinated by the School of Religion at Lee. The University did a phenominal job hosting and promoting the event. It was great for me to be with friends: Terry Cross (Dean), Jerome Boone, Rickie Moore, Bob O'Bannon, Ollie Lee, etc.

We were privileged to have Dr. Paul Epstein and Meg Thomsen of the Harvard Center stay with us Friday night. Paul was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He and Meg were such pleasant house guests. We were honord to have them.


I must say it was also an honor to have dinner last evening with Dr. Joel Hunter, pastor of the 12,000 member Northland Church in Orlando and author of A New Kind of Conservative. Cheryl keeps introducing me to the most wonderful people.

Another Busy Week

Last week was a little more busy than usual. I taught a Doctor of Ministry course (class from 8 to 5). On Thursday we inducted Dr. James Beaty into the Hall of Prophets at the Seminary. It was my privilege at the request of Brother and Sister Beaty to be one of the speakers. I deeply love and respect this couple. I will always cherish Virginia's comment to me after the service, "Thank you, I knew you were the one to speak." Those words mean more to me than I can express.

Friday evening and Saturday Cheryl and I participated in "Shalom 2009," the annual conference of Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice (PCPJ). The conference ended by joining us at New Covenant for worship on Sunday morning. Cheryl preached a wonderful sermon on "The Knock at Mid-night" inspired by, and a tribute to, a famous sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We hosted a Love Feast for our guests (and to raise funds for a couple of missions projects). Pictured here with Cheryl is Dr. Paul Alexander the executive director of PCPJ, a dear friend of ours.

Josh and Bethany Visit

This weekend was a family reunion for my mother's family (O'Quinn). I really wanted to go but I had to stay in town for a community meeting. I hope somebody posts a lot of pictures.

Our church youth group is having their annual retreat at Cohutta Springs Conference Center in north Georgia this weekend. Cheryl's nephew Joshua Bridges was the guest speaker last evening. He gave a powerful challenge to the youth that "There is More in Christ." Josh and his wife Bethany spent the evening and morning with us. Josh is the Youth Pastor at the Pentecostal Holiness church in Clinton, South Carolina. We are very proud of the two of them. God is using them to touch a community for Christ.

Check out his blog at http://www.sjbridges.blogspot.com/

Flu, guest, travel

I have struggled to get over the flu for the past couple of weeks. It just seems to hold on. Last week Larry McQueen stayed with us for a few days. It's always good to see him. On Thursday I flew to Minneapolis for the Evangelical/Catholic Dialogue. I got home last evening feeling quite poorly. I spent today resting and reading.

The dialogue was interesting and frustrating. The topic was “salvation.” We focused on the central point of division during the reformation, “justification.” The frustrating part is that the evangelical team (there were seven of us) was trying to dialogue out of very diverse traditions while the Catholic team has a well established script of doctrines from which to speak. The 1999 Joint Declaration on Justification issued by Lutherans and the Catholic Church was a starting point but it was the declarations of the Council of Trent that governed the Catholic positions.

The main sticking point is that out of the reformed traditions Evangelicals understand justification as a forensic (legal) act of grace whereby God declares the sinner righteous, i.e., imputes righteousness to the unrighteous. It is a gift from God (grace) and is received by faith alone. Justification is the bases for regeneration and sanctification. For the Catholics justification embraces all of life in Christ and focuses on the transformation of the believer rather than the declaration by God. There is also a sticky point on the concept of “merit,” i.e., in what sense are the saved made worthy of life in the presence of God.

We came up with a brief and I think insightful statement of points of divergence and convergence. I will post it when I get the final copy. However, as a Pentecostal I find the Reformed forensic position somewhat stilted.

Momma Loved Fishing

[I wrote this some years ago and recently unearthed it in a sorting exercise. I'm trying to stay ahead of Cheryl who has all the signs of entering a hard core cleaning frenzy. Once it hits in full force, her tools of choice are a bull dozer and dump truck.]

“I’ve got one! I’ve got one! I’ve got one!” Momma blurted out in a hushed squeal that was half giggle. Her cork was bobbing up and down in the water. She was bobbing up and down on the shore. You would think she had won a lottery. It was instead her first fish. Every catch was her first fish all over again. It was the same joy as the little girl who once stood on the bank next to her father and pulled a small perch out of the black, south Georgia waters.

More often than not she would scare the little critter away before she set the hook. Having lost a great prize, her whole being drooped in disappointment. Disappointment merged with disgust as she held the pole higher and saw she had lost her bait. If Dad was nearby, “Ellis, would you bait this for me?” When I got older I might get the privilege, sort of payback time for all the pickles she had given me off her hamburgers. Otherwise, she approached the messy task like she was changing a diaper, tense, neat, careful. Threading a worm on a hook was serious and dirty business that just had to be done if you were going to catch a fish. And catching fish was serious business. Mom was always serious about having fun.

Virginia Visit

We just got home from a visit to see Alethea, Justin, Camdyn, and Charlie.

Late Summer

The late summer has been quite busy. We went to our annual faculty retreat at Fall Creek Falls in the first week of August. During the second week we participated in the new student orientation retreat. Classes started two weeks ago. Cheryl and I did have a nice outing to the Olympic Whitewater Center on the Ocoee one evening.




Justin brought Camdyn and Charlie down for a visit on Sunday evening. They left this morning. They love riding on the tractor, especially "pushing down trees." Charlie and I had an early breakfast outside this morning.







We had a Covenant Life Group from the church over for a cookout this evening.

Chickens

Camdyn and Charlie, here is a movie of our chickens.

Silence

Yesterday we took Camdyn and Charlie to meet their father and Pa (Justin's father) in Virginia. We miss them greatly. The silence is deafening.

Ryan & Andrea's wedding

On Thursday we drove to Atlanta with Camdyn and Charlie for my nephew Ryan's wedding rehearsal and dinner. I officiated the ceremony on Friday. Alethea drove over from Memphis on Thursday evening and Karisa flew down on Friday morning. It was a wonderful time.
Charlie kept saying he wanted to dance with the "Princes." We might rename Andrea.



My brother Jimmy and his wife, Iris.

My sister Shirley and her husband, Mike, parents of the groom.

My sister Darlene (sitting) is holding her grand-daughter, Kathryn. Her husband, Thurman (standing next to her), is holding Natalia. Their son, Jonathan, is standing next to his wife, Jennifer. Darlene and Thurman were just wrapping-up four weeks with their two grand-daughters. Christina and her husband, Ronnie, live in Texas and were unable to make it to the wedding.

Kathryn (seen here) and Natalia are adorable.

Confession: we did participate in one non-liturgical, motion-to-music event.

Cheryl, Kathryn, Karisa, Camdyn, and Mike "cut a rug." Actually, we all got to see another side of Mike. Line dancing, disco, hip-hop; he can do it all.

Both of my daughters are quite photogenic (down rite pretty) but Karisa (here) is hard to get to cooperate; she often makes faces at the camera. Alethea is hard to catch; she's often looking downward, talking to Charlie or Camdyn or trying to catch them.

Karisa is great with children (so is Johnmark, but he was unable to come to the wedding). However, Charlie struggles to connect with her. She looks and sounds too much like his mother and he doesn't like the confusion.

Cousins

My brother danced with my sister Shirley at the reception.

The pride and joy (with Christina) of James and Ernestine Johns who I suspect were looking down with great joy from on high.