Checking in

I'm entering that really busy time of the year over the next few weeks. We have our annual garage sale tomorrow, our first year of preschool is over this week at church, ending with a graduation ceremony and picnic (I am so proud of all that my wife has done to make this incredible year pass with few hiccups and a great program for our church), Work Camp starts two weeks from Sunday and there is still tons to do for that, I'm working on my paper for the Christian Scholar's Conference that I need to have into the moderator by two weeks from today, the conference is the last week of June, the week which I have a wedding ceremony to perform . . . so, yeah, lots coming up. Oh, and I turn 30 next Sunday . . I keep forgetting about that.

With the busy season, my reading slows as well, though I will be doing as much research as I can fit in for my paper on pacifism and children. Here's the abstract from the conference website:


Adam Metz, Alum Creek Church, Lewis Center, OH: “G. I. Joe and ‘Bearded-Lady Jesus’: The Challenge of the Empire’s Symbols and Rituals to Christian Young People”

Presupposing a position of pacifism, this paper examines the inherent tension existing between the symbols created by the state and conveyed through culture over against the antithetical parallels portrayed in Scripture and lived out through the church. Utilizing examples from popular culture, public school policies, and personal experience this paper extrapolates an inherent tension between Christian faith and patriotic loyalty. This tension has implications for Christian parents raising their children and ministers working with young people in a post-9/11 American empire that seeks to baptize them into an empire narrative at odds with the community of peace.

Before you go and think this is a big deal . . . it's such a big deal that I still have to pay to go to the conference :-) I am excited about the opportunity and will attempt to blog some reflections from my research. I would imagine it will evoke some discussion because it comes from the fringes of Christendom theology.

So . . . anyway, had a second at my lunch . . . looking ahead, I am very interested and working towards beginning my Doctorate of Ministry next fall ('10) and I keep coming back to Fuller's program on Missional Leadership. It'll take me three years, an incredibly loving and patient wife, and lovingly patient children. We'll see! Hopefully it will work out and God will continue to open doors to us. He's been better to us than we could have ever deserved.