GroshLink

If you haven't come across Ken Myers and the ministry of Mars Hill Audio, now is the time to get your hands on Volume 78. Over the past several days, I've had conversations with faculty spanning several campuses which resonate with a number of the pieces in this volume. I'd especially recommend that you take time to read and consider A Very Long Disengagement written by one of the guests, Mark Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University.

College professors complain about the result, noting the disaffection of students from their course work and the puny reserves of knowledge they bring into the classroom. But they hesitate to take a stand against mass culture and youth culture, fearful of the dinosaur or conservative tag. The disengagement of students from the liberal-arts curriculum is reaching a critical point, however. And the popular strategy of trying to bridge youth culture and serious study -- of, say, using hip-hop to help students understand literary classics, as described in a June 19 article in the Los Angeles Times -- hasn't worked. All too often, the outcome is that important works are dumbed down to trivia, and the leap into serious study never happens. The middle ground between adolescent life and intellectual life is disappearing, leaving professors with ever more stark options.

One can accept the decline, and respond as a distinguished professor of literature did at a regional Modern Language Association panel last year after I presented the findings of Reading at Risk. "Look, I don't care if everybody stops reading literature," she blurted. "Yeah, it's my bread and butter, but cultures change. People do different things."

Or one can accept the political philosopher Leo Strauss's formula that liberal education is the counter-poison to mass culture, and stand forthrightly against the tide. TV shows, blogs, hand-helds, wireless ... they emit a blooming, buzzing confusion of adolescent stimuli. All too eagerly, colleges augment the trend, handing out iPods and dignifying video games like Grand Theft Auto as worthy of study.

That is not a benign appeal for relevance. It is cooperation in the prolonged immaturity of our students, and if it continues, the alienation of student from teacher will only get worse.

Thank-you for supporting us as we seek to bring rich, focused conversation with regard to following Christ in the complex milieu of CMU and Pitt. We are especially appreciative of the resources you've sent our way, most recently connections with the people and resources who can enable our ministry to clearly engage the Muslim community with the love of Christ. Hoping to take time to review Byron's recommendation of No God But God: A Path to Muslim-Christian Dialogue on God’s Nature and Todd's (fellow Grove City College alum and member of World Vision's staff) recommendation of answering-islam.org, in addition to meeting w/a person who has spent a number of years in the Middle East.

Once again thank-you to Miller for passing along a thought-provoking article. I resonate with Eugene Peterson's responses to the questions posed in the interview Spirituality for All the Wrong Reasons. As I've posted before, our daily walk in the Presence of God as the people of God is a gritty/prophetic/poetic endeavor and pragmatic, consumer-driven religion misses our deeper need for connection to the Father through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. At InterVarsity's Mid-Atlantic Regional Staff Conference, Steve Tuttle, the regional director, passed along Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology (Eerdmans, 2005). I have greatly appreciated this gift (although I haven't finished it yet as I've been ploughing through a number of other pieces, including the very helpful Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit by Pittsburgh Theological Seminary's Edith Humphrey).

Here is Peterson's response to the question How do we know when they have moved from merely adapting ministry to the culture to sacrificing the gospel?

One test I think is this: Am I working out of the Jesus story, the Jesus methods, the Jesus way? Am I sacrificing relationship, personal attention, personal relationship for a shortcut, a program so I can get stuff done? You can't do Jesus' work in a non-Jesus way and get by with it -- although you can be very successful.

One thing that I think is characteristic of me is I stay local. I'm rooted in a pastoral life, which is an ordinary life. So while all this glitter and image of spirituality is going around, I feel quite indifferent to it, to tell you the truth. And I'm somewhat suspicious of it because it seems to be uprooted, not grounded in local conditions, which are the only conditions in which you can live a Christian life.

Regarding Peterson's thoughts on being local, he focuses on rural/small town life. Having grown up in Lancaster County, PA, and married another native family, I do not deny the truth of these comments. But I have found intergenerational, multi-ethnic urban life grittier, messier and more complicated, something which everyone should have as part of their growth in wisdom and life skills (even if it is not their life calling). Disengagement whether in an isolated rural setting or a gated community does not surprise me as much as it did as a highschooler, as we long to find peace (if not heaven) on earth. But deeper community, connection, and sense of place only comes from Being in the Presence of God as an individual rooted in the People of God whether rural, small town, suburban, or urban.

On Friday Eden visited the opthamologist again. He didn't check her vision like I thought he was going to do today, but he's really pleased with her lid closure. It's the most improvement he's seen in her yet and it indicates that the 7th nerve function is returning. We only have to patch 30 min. a day, a difference he said between treatment and maintenance (we're in vision maintenance phase right now). And her cornea remains very healthy. He differs in opinion with the plastic surgeon concerning the gold weight. He doesn't think it's the best treatment in a child, even for aesthetics. He believes its function is for protection of the eye if the eye needs further protection and in Eden's case whatever we've been doing is working well. He wants to see her again after the next MRI and get her squared away with glasses if necessary before we move. He can help us with opthamologists at Children's in Philadelphia.

The Developmentalist came for the first time on Thursday. I wanted her opinion regarding Eden's speech and I feel encouraged after talking with her. She's really pleased with the things Eden IS doing and gave me a few simple communication exercises to try with her. She also said that speech development often mirrors fine motor development, so if there's a delay in one there's often a delay in the other. Interesting. She'll come once a month.

Participation in Pittsburgh Urban Christian School's Spring Production prompted Ellen to declare last Friday, The best day of my life! Ellen then pointed out how she enjoyed her preschool production and looks forward to future opportunities. I wish all of you could have been there for the music, concept, and performances. What a blessing the PUCS community, particularly their Kindergarten instructer Mrs. Merryman, has been for Hayley and Ellen as they have grown much in knowledge, confidence and maturity over the past several months.

Yesterday, I participated in a seminar on the deeper journey led by a vetran IVCF staff. She defined spiritual formation as the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others to the glory of God. With regard to encouraging growth in the lives of those we work, with she suggested the metaphor of a 3-legged stool comprised of the habits of faithfulness (i.e., spiritual disciplines), intentional relationships (i.e., several mentors with encourage and direct personal and professional growth), life events responsibly chosen as formative. So how do we discern what God is saying to us individually and collectively about our own deeper journey?

We took some time to pray through and reflect upon the last 24 hours of our life. Through this time various threads of God's work and counter influences to His work emerged. For me, this year's graduate and faculty ministry staff team meetings have been a great blessing and affirmation. As I reflected upon the privilege of living one more day in the Presence of God to glory of God, I rejoiced in the opportunity

Please pray for Theresa as she and Eden were sick yesterday. Thankfully Ellen rose to the Mommy role and my sister Amanda will be taking the time to cross the state to help out for a day -- thank-you! Gotta go to breakfast as there is much conversation today as we wrap up our national conference and transition into a more specific consideration of work in the Mid-Atlantic.

This morning I'm heading out to a Graduate and Faculty Ministry Staff Conference at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. Over the years, many refreshing conversations have occurred during this gathering at this restful place. Pray for me to receive greater clarity on my work among graduate students and faculty, particularly the development of workshops which shape vocational understading from the framework of being in Christ, a member of the Body of Christ on campus living here and now on our particular campuses (as some of my graduate students recently asked to explore as they prepare their CV).

FYI: International Graduate & Faculty Scholars on the Rise . . . for the first time in U.S. higher education, there are more international graduate and faculty scholars than international undergraduates. For the first time in U.S. higher education, there are now more international graduate and faculty scholars than international undergraduates on American campuses. According to Open Doors, the publication of the Institute for International Education:

A total of 89,634 international scholars are teaching or conducting research on U.S. campuses -- an 8.1% increase from the previous year. The leading countries of origin are China (17,035), Republic of Korea (8,301), India (7,755), Japan (5,623), and Germany (4,846). Of these, 75.8 % are in research, 13.4% are in teaching, and 5.9% are in combined research and teaching. The major fields of specialization are health sciences, life and biological sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social sciences, and history.

Note: Taken from a piece written by Priscilla Kelso, who works with internationals in the Boston area. Pray for how we might engage with this trend at CMU, in particular as members of our fellowship participate in a learning about Muhammed seminar on Monday sponsored by the MSA (Muslim Student Association).

I (Tom) just had to share this beautiful, developmental moment . . . tonight, I ran back-and-forth from the twins taking a bath and keeping an eye on Eden. I couldn't believe Eden's ability to sit-up and take a drink herself. This is something that has only recently emerged. Praise be to God!

I find this move even more spectacular (and replicable) than the fade-away 3-pointer that enabled Northwestern State to surpass Iowa in the closing second of the game. That's not to say that the tourney has not inspired me, as my game was really on this morning, until the last match-up. But I'm finding a lot more joy in being with Eden as she, by the grace of God, makes her moves than all the ball on T.V. (and I've shared a lot of time w/Hayley and Ellen in front of the tube trying to explain the nuances of the action on court . . . they were disappointed to have Pittsburgh associated with loosing).

We came across iheartpgh.com in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette this morning. Wish this would have been around a decade ago :-) How about the piece on Pittsburghese? As time allows, we hope to add a category regarding local congregations and the people of God in 'da Burgh. Anyone interested in helping out? Which reminds me, would you join our family in prayer for the work of Kingdom of God in 'da Burgh, prayer requsts hosted at Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation.

FYI: Sites which we've found helpful at times include

http://www.pittsburgh.net/

http://www.pgharts.org/

http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/

And I nearly forgot to mention, nothing can surpass Rick Sebak and WQED's History Series, with What Makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh premiering tomorrow at 8pm on WQED/Channel 13. We've found Carnegie Library our source for those we didn't see on 13.

I'm sure others will come to mind. Do you have any suggestions (maybe even your own blog/site) to add?

Separation Anxiety: Twins are caught in tug of war as schools, parents debate keeping them together in the classroom caught our eye and that of Hayley & Ellen's kindergarten instructor. We've found it helpful to have them together in preschool and kindergarten. As fraternal twins that get along well but don't need one-another.

Theresa's thoughts:

The article does a fine job of presenting the dilemma, especially for people who may not have thought about it before, but it doesn't offer much in the way of solutions. In fact, it confirms my somewhat relativistic opinion that whether or not you should separate twins in school depends on the individual kids. In our case, I prefer that Hayley and Ellen not be separated, at least not yet. And we've had no indication from either their preschool or kindergarten teachers that it is a problem to have them together. Both teachers have told us that Hayley and Ellen play independently of each other and are not competitive. They also seem to have some friends in common, and some more exclusive friends. At recess they sometimes play together and sometimes play independently. Which all goes to confirm to me that they are growing and developing confidently and securely. And since they've been able to accomplish this while being in the same school class for 2 years, I don't intend to change it.

It surprised me that Minnesota was the only state to allow parents to choose whether or not to separate their twins. I naively assumed that most schools would give the decision making power to the parents, who know their kids the best. And I think the argument that if you allow twins to choose to stay together in class, then other parents are going to want the freedom to choose a buddy for their child is weak. Even having a very close friend is not the same situation as having a twin. And, if two unrelated children are so co-dependent that they can't function in separate classes, there are other issues there that need to be addressed.

I prefer that schools look at the individual twin families and base the decision to separate or keep together on the dynamics between the twins. A blanket policy either to always separate or always keep together does a disservice to the children.

Jim Sire's new piece Why Good Arguments Often Fail came in the mailbox over the weekend. I took a look at the Preface and am ready to go, follow the link for a PDF version of the Preface . . . but I'll have to wait a few hours as I'm taking part in a conversation regarding the first chapter of Sears and Osten's The Homosexual Agenda and leading one on the various women of Proverbs 1-9.

Add on a few conversations afterward, dinner, watching the kids while Theresa's at Pilates, then it looks like an after eight. Please take a moment to pray for healthy conversation and insight into the topics under consideration. I'll keep you to up-to-date on these readings. If you're reading along and have comments to share, let me know.

A friend in ministry passed along to us Behind the baby gap lies a culture of contempt for parenthood. He and his wife were grieved that many see children/child-bearing as a burden and sometimes even curse. As his child turned 1, he and wife could not help but rejoice in the gift of children.

Theresa and I find day-by-day responsible living only by the grace of God provided through His Presence, People, and World. We acknowledge our dependence and that it is tough to live in a fallen world both in individual and larger societial frameworks. Join the countercultural community of God as we seek to live another way that described below:

The point is that parenthood is against the grain of all the aspirations of our culture. Go back to the point where I started - the pregnancy anxiety around care. That anxiety is provoked by more than just the logistics of childcare availability, despite what the nursery campaigners argue. It's there because pregnancy sabotages three characteristics highly valued by our culture.

First, independence: pregnancy heralds at least one relationship of dependence, and there is often greater dependence on partners, mothers and, eventually, childminders and the like. But you've spent much of the previous 10 years attempting to eradicate any hint of dependence, either of your own or of others on you. Secondly, pregnancy is about a long-term commitment, and having avoided all such (including probably to your partner), you are, at the very least, uneasy about it. Finally, the big bump in your stomach spells out one thing for sure - a huge constraint on many choices, and choice has been integral to your sense of a life worth living.