Octane, Mission, and Ordination

I so look forward to tonight’s gathering of the Atlanta Cohort. Two excerpts are offered to "prime the pump" of consideration and discussion:

Making doxology to God, Paul asks that we present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God by not being conformed to this world but by being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). All of this is resurrection talk, the sort of tensive [sic] situation of those who find their lives still in an old, dying world, yet who are also conscious of a new world being born. Our lives are eschatologically stretched between the sneak preview of the new world being born among us in the church and the old world where the principalities and powers are reluctant to give way. In the meantime, which is the only time the church has ever known, we live as those who know something about the fate of the world that the world does not yet know. Calling and Character, 128. -William Willimon

If pastors become accomplices in treating every child as a problem to be figured out, every spouse as a problem to be dealt with, every clash of wills in choir or committee as a problem to be adjudicated, we abdicate our most important work, which is directing worship in the traffic, discovering the presence of the cross in the paradoxes and chaos between Sundays, calling attention to the splendor in the ordinary, and most of all, teaching a life of prayer to our friends and companions in the pilgrimage. -Eugene Peterson The Contemplative Pastor, 65

Yes- I look forward to the dialogue; however, the chance to connect across difference traditions and local communities – all under the reign of Christ in the context of mission- is what I look forward to the most.

It’s been a tough few weeks pastorally. The chance to pause – even for a couple of hours- over coffee and conversation seems like a real prize in the midst of the sometime tough process of spiritual formation.If you’re in the Atlanta area- joins us at Octane from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM