Thursday, October 9, 2014

Looking Back

So much to say, so little time . . .

Immersed in my (new? temporary? tenuous? unlikely?) teaching role, I find that I have little time to sit and write. Lots of time to think, with nearly 10 hours of week commuting by car. Lots to write about, with my head in music and related subject areas. Lots to write for, with some potential conference/article uses of my thesis. (A hint of that here on an excellent blog.) But not a lot of margin to reflect and write about some things that are important to me.

Happily, thanks to social media, I am able to keep up with others who are writing the good fight. I would particularly draw your attention to my friend Jonathan Aigner, whose work at Ponder Anew is getting noticed, shared, re-blogged, and commented on. Bookmark it, and join the conversation.

I'm also enjoying an ongoing discussion about Millennials and liturgical worship . . . or why run-of-the-mill Evangelicalism is losing young people to churches with historic liturgy. This is just the most recent post I've appreciated. If you're not tracking this conversation, just do a search on those key words. Intriguing. It seems that a couple of generations of pragmatism is coming home to roost. Or rather, driving young people out of the nest.

This past Sunday, October 5, marked a full two years since I left my full-time role as a pastor for music. I miss many aspects of that life, and perhaps I will again serve the church in that way. For two years now, I have been on a path that has kept me open to surprise. I am learning to trust God in ways that I haven't "had to" for a long time. And my Karen and I are being nicely cared for by our faithful, covenant-keeping Lord.

I am working full time again, teaching music subjects, including music & worship, and directing the band at Trinity College, the undergraduate college of Trinity International University. I direct a little church choir at the Evangelical Covenant Church of Hinsdale, Illinois. And this fall I am guest chorus master for the Fox Valley Orchestra. It's thrilling, and tiring, and probably temporary, and I am having a ball.

Some people, two years ago, assumed this was what I was off to. I have to say, they knew better than I did. Is this where I belong? Well, all I know is that it is where I am now, by God's grace, and what is to come we don't really know. But when we need to know, we will.