Last year, at this point in the summer, I was in western Nebraska deep into chapter 2 of my doctoral thesis. One year later, the degree is complete and I’m back in western Nebraska for a little rest and a family visit.
It’s left me a little time to to think about the question everyone keeps asking right after they’re finished congratulating me on my degree: “So, what are you going to do now?”

Well, here’s what’s happening (in no particular order of importance):

• Finish up our westward trek with a weekend in Colorado sans kids and then spend time at Krista’s family reunion in Oshkosh, NE
• The long awaited reunion tour (one show) of the band formaly known as “Pauline.” My submission for our new name is “Napkin Metanarrative.”
• Resurrect the Worship Conversations podcast, the Critical Mass Podcast, the Worship Studies Site, and this blog.
• Begin to develop resources for celebrating the Lord’s Supper at Food for the Journey
• Enjoy a generous graduation gift from my wife: a Line 6 Variax 600 and a Pod X3 Live
• See Hannah off to preschool in the fall
• Write an extended research paper to finish my MA in Contempoaray Theology from Lincoln Christian Seminary
• Take a look at all the courses I teach and decide what needs to be tweaked and revamped
• Map out a few projects on worship for Lux Venit Media

Quotes from: 

Webber, Robert. The Divine Embrace : Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2006.

You can find Brian McLaren’s sermon notes I quoted here:

All pictures are either used under the Creative Commons license or under fair use.  For those used under the Creative Commons Attribution License, you can find attributions here:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/linhtinh/2308229371/
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/DorseyPensive.jpg
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/eggybird/50064060/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/umjanedoan/497411169/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/lancesh/190382917/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/notjake13/2393304429/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobjagendorf/2232633085/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjb2332/455537453/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/coljay72/2399545998/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwthompson2/133922175/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurek_durczak/323862646/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/iansoper/144895606/

Ira Glass (one of my favorite modern media storytellers) has a few short snippets up about creating good stories.  Good stuff.

Krista and hannah arrived last night, so now it’s on to vacation!  4th of July parade and fireworks today in the big city of Oshkosh, NE; then on to Denver and Scottsbluff for a while.

People are descending on the ranch for the next few days, so I’ve moved out to “the motorhome.” That’s right Clark, that there’s an RV.  Only this one is much nicer.

I’m quite impressed by the mac app I’m using to write this thesis.  It’s call Scrivener and it was designed from the ground up for long-form writing projects.  The right tool for the job helps a lot – I’ve always felt like using traditional word processors for long-form projects is like using adjustable pliers to assemble that Christmas Eve toy – sure, it works, but stuff gets mangled on the way and frustrations tend to run a bit high.  Scrivener’s multi-paned layout, built-in outliner, and reference stack alone are a leap forward, but it also packs a lot more features (like notecards, synopses, and a great full-screen mode)  that make writing a long form project (like a thesis, book, or screenplay) seem not so “scroll-y” and frustrating (a la Microsoft Word).

Not much to report today.  Lots of reading, not much writing.  But, that’s all part of the process.

Looking forward to Krista and Hannah’s arrival on Friday!

Back at it after a Sunday break (for the most part…I did do some grading for a summer school class).  Heading into the medieval period today, should be lots of fun – if that’s what you’re into.

Yesterday I went to the “Little Church Combined” after an unsuccessful hunt for a church that actually celebrates the Lord’s Supper on a Sunday that’s not the first of the month and doesn’t have “Roman” in the title.  Even though the search was unsuccessful, I did get to bum around Lake McConaughy and drive around in the monster truck pictured at the top of this post.

Not too much to update today – still slogging through the first 600 years of Church history.  Lots of Justin and Irenaeus today.

Jan and Andy (Krista’s grandparents) just got back from a trip and are off on another tomorrow morning, so I’ll have the place to myself again for a few days.  Not too much to keep afloat here – just some wild cats and a thirsty garden.

Yesterday was a pretty unproductive day.  I chased a few to many rabbit trails and didn’t get some copies I was waiting for and it was just plain hard to read and write.  But, today was much better!  I looked at the various early church celebrations of the Lord’s Supper…quite a bit of geographical variety in the first few centuries.

The pic above is a yuca (sp?) plant.  Every time Krista sees one in Nebraska, she tells me about how the pioneers used to sew buttons back on with material from the plant.  The story never gets old  I wonder what they used the pods for?

Hope to finish up (what I can with the resources I have) the Biblical material today and move to the historical (which should go a bit quicker, I have more material with me).  The front porch is a great place to research and write, so hopefully today will be as productive as past days.

The pic above is from Jan’s garden – a garden which is incredibly well maintained!

Hard run this morning.  Here’s my run and cool-down playlist, which I’ve come to enjoy even when the runs are hard.

(click for readable version)