CoR's Sermon Archives

Spring break often yields interesting discoveries.

This year, I decided to explore the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (better known as CoR, not to be confused with UMCOR, which is different, but probably more worthy of attention -- thus, the link on the side under Charities and Causes. But I digress...) website.

I often describe CoR to friends as the one megachurch I don't dislike. I'm not really sure if I'm joking or not. Maybe there are two. Rob Bell's Mars Hill might make the list as well. Of course, then again, megachurches are pretty popular in other countries -- South Korea has several. And megachurches do some good things; I remember reading about Rick Warren's trip to Africa. And yet more digression...moving on.

Anyway, CoR posts their sermons on their website. Pretty interesting. Right now, I'm working my way through the Lenten series, The Final Week. Check it out.

Adam Hamilton on Worship

For those who are unfamiliar with Rev. Adam Hamilton, he's the head pastor at Church of the Resurrection UMC in Kansas City (technically, it's not quite in Kansas City, but instead, in Leawood, KS, but oh well).

When I attended the Maundy Thursday/Tenebrae service at CoR, I was at a point in my life where I was deciding between contemporary and traditional worship styles and starting to question the idea of mass-market mega-churches, and attending the service had a tremendous impact on me.

So, more than two years later, I was quite happy to find Rev. Hamilton's thoughts on worship bosted on his blog, Seeing Gray. For those interested, here's the link.

Rock on.

I Don't Want To Face the Truth, And You Can't Make Me

Although I probably should.

Following the posting of my grade for RELI2004, I am officially half way through my junior year.

Holy crap.

And what makes it weirder is that I've only been in college for two years.

Gah.

Anyway, at this point, it's time to start looking at what I'm going to do after graduation (my word, I shouldn't be talking like that - I'm too young!). Since ninth grade, I've been saying that I'll go to seminary. But it wasn't until my dad, in his usual fashion, made me face reality a year ago and asked, "Which seminaries are you looking at?"

What do you mean I have to choose? Can't going to seminary be like going to college? Why don't I just apply to the schools that all of my friends are going to and the one that give me free tuition?

Which is about where I am today. I've sent out for some information to a few schools and gotten information back from even fewer. Those schools are: Asbury Theological, Regent College, Fuller Theological, Duke Divinity, and Wesley Theological. I sent out to Candler (Emory), but they haven't sent me anything yet. (Edit: Actually, it just came in the mail today.)

I like Regent - mostly because it's in the Pacific Northwest. I like Asbury because, well, it might mean financial support from the UMC. Fuller has a lot of different campuses - campi? - which is always nice. Duke is...well, it's Duke. It wouldn't be much of a move from Athens.

Which brings me to why I'm posting this on teh Interwebs*. I need help/advice. If you're a pastor or seminary student who just happened to stop by, please, leave a comment. I'm always open to suggestions. Of course, I'm going to talk to my pastor and my campus minister and a few of my professors as well, but every little bit of input helps. And please, direct other people this way - as I said, I'm always open to suggestions. And who better to seek it from than people who've been in this place before?

Rock on.
*Oddly enough, "Asbury" is marked as wrong by the Firefox spell check, but "teh Interwebs" is not. Go figure.

The New Methodist Hymnal Survey - Let's show our age!

I come from the Methodist tradition, despite spending a large amount of time in military chapels. And I've always liked the Methodist hymnal, especially when compared to what's used in military chapels. Well, ok, that's a lie. During most of high school, I preferred contemporary worship. But as I've gotten a little more mature, I've started to have a deeper appreciation for the old hymns and liturgies. Which is why when my pastor sent me a link to participate in the survey concerning the new hymnal, I jumped at the chance.

As I've gotten more mature, I've also heard from both bloggers and professors that the UMC is an aging church. And as I finished the survey, the UMC proved this to be rather true. The age groupings? Over 70, 51-70, 30-50, and Under 30.

I despise statistics, I really do. It was the biggest waste of four hours a week I've seen since enrolling in college. But the little bit I did take away from the class suggests that something is either flawed with the age question or the UMC really needs to reach out to kids my age a lot more.