A South Georgia Methodist in the Monastery Court

Here is an article I have pre-written for my church’s newsletter next week concerning my trip to Taize:

A South Georgia Methodist in the Monastery Court

“How would your wife feel if you went out of town for 12 days in August?” Thus I was invited to spend a portion of the summer with members of the South Georgia Conference in the small village of Taize (pronounced te-zaye) with the brothers of the Taize monastic community (read: monks). The purpose of this trip is to encourage young adults throughout the conference to attend this tour in the future and to share our experiences with local churches. It is an honor to be entrusted with this responsibility and an honor to have the South Georgia Conference fund my way on this “pilgrimage.”

We began our trip on July 31^st with a flight from Jacksonville to JFK in New York City. We flew from there to London, England. We not only saw some of the great London sites, such as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, but we also found ourselves steeped in Wesleyan tradition. We visited City Road Chapel, the site of John Wesley’s home and grave, the burial site of Susanna Wesley, and Aldersgate Street where Wesley found his “heart strangely warmed.”

Since Sunday, we have been in the Burgundy region of France (towards the south-east) at the Taize Community. Some of us are staying in rustic dorms and others of us are staying in tents outside. We begin our morning at 8:15am with morning prayer and breakfast followed by reflection or small group discussion. We have midday prayer at 12:20 followed by lunch, small group discussions, workshops, chores and dinner. We have evening prayer and vigil followed by night silence until we fall asleep. Believe it or not, this is an amazing experience!

One of the hallmarks of the Taize community is its worship. Many people who have heard of Taize have been introduced by its worship music. The music is built around short, repetitive phrases that are sung in Latin. Why Latin? During a typical summer week, there may be 6,000 people from all over the world. The brothers decided that Latin held no allegiance to a particular culture and would be a way to stress our unity as Christian believers. There is no sermon at a Taize worship service; these services are characterized by the reading of scripture, silence, and prayer. Through this experience we commune with God and we listen to God. The music, prayers, introspection, and environments are influencing worship all over the world, especially in young adult circles. I should return to the United States on August 11^th (probably not in time to attend church council—sorry Robert!).

I hope to share about this life-changing experience sometime soon with a special presentation. Until then, thank you so much for your continued prayers for my family and my safety.

A bientôt,

Jim

I see London, I see France, well…you know:)

I leave for London and France tomorrow to see the Wesley sites and spend time with the Taize community.  TTYL!

Where’ve you been, dude?!?

Well, I’ve missed everyone these last few months (though I sure have trolled around).  Spring semester at ATS thouroughly kicked my butt and I have had a short but packed summer with the youth group (as all youth pastors can probably understand).  I’d like to give you some updates, though:

• Our baby, Jackson, was baptized last week.  I had no idea how much of a grace-filled, emotional experience that would be for my family and me.
• I am leaving in 2 days to spend time with the Taize community in France.  This opportunity practically fell in my lap.  I was invited by folks from the South Georgia Conference, who kindly paid my way to take part.  I will spend seven days with the brothers and a few in London visiting some Wesleyan sites.  (Dave Hallum, if you want to meet up, I’d love too!)  When I return, I will repay the conference (I think) by sharing my experiences with churches and young adult groups throughout the conference in the hopes that we might get some conference young adults to go on this trip in upcoming years.  I also have a secret hope that this will be a time of MUCH needed spiritual renewal for me.  I’m viewing this as more of a spiritual pilgrimage than anything else.
• I start my middler year at ATS in September.  I’m excited that I’m classified middler–it took long enough.  Now I am thinking about when a young seminary student begins thinking about appointments and such.  I love my church and want to give them my all while I am with them, but I can’t help but wonder.
• When I return, I have a full plate as I will immediately teach a laity workshop at Pathways to a Healthy Church and kick off our UMYF program for the school year.
• I have developed a  Youth Ministries Taskforce at our church in order to build up adult leadership and involvement.  I could have done this myself, but I don’t think it would have been long-lasting.  Similarly, as I am also the director of programs, I have set up an Education ad-hoc committee to to the same thing on that end.  Call me naive, but I have a very strong belief that one the best things I can do for the church in my capacity is build up laity for ministry.  There are some storms to weather as we make these transitions, but I am confident in the Lord’s leading here.
• I haven’t had the blogging passion of late.  My major readers are Methobloggers who say what I want better than I can and random search engine readers who read my joke/superfluous posts and I wish they would read the ones I’m proud of.  I found that I blog the most during mid-term and finals so maybe you’ll all see more of me then.

Tata for now.

Holy Spirit Intercession

When I can’t say it, maybe some one else can.  Does the Holy Spirit intercede for us like this, too?  I don’t know:

We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are

Rich Mullins

Well, it took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

And they say that one day Joshua
Made the sun stand still in the sky
But I can’t even keep these thoughts of you from passing by
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And the Master said their faith was
Gonna make them mountains move
But me, I tremble like a hill on a fault line
Just at the thought of how I lost you
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

We are frail, we are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

And if you make me laugh
I know I could make you like me
‘Cause when I laugh I can be a lot of fun
But we can’t do that I know that it is frightening
What I don’t know is why we can’t hold on
We can’t hold on.

It took the hand of God Almighty
To part the waters of the sea
But it only took one little lie
To separate you and me
Oh, we are not as strong as we think we are

When you love you walk on the water
Just don’t stumble on the waves
We all want to go there somethin’ awful
But to stand there it takes some grace
‘Cause oh, we are not as strong
As we think we are

No, we are not as strong
As we think we are

Walk on the water
Walk on the water
If we could just hold on
Just hold on

Postponed: Waves and Worship

Due to the weather here and in Fernandina Beach, Waves and Worship will be postponed until next Friday, July 25 from 5:00pm – 10:00pm (tentatively).  This will also give those in band camp a better opportunity to join us.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.