twenty-three

I know my postings on here are less than infrequent (apologies, apologies), but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to write a quick review about a great book I just finished. As someone who works in ministry, it’s often refreshing to get a look at the world I live and work in from the outside, from the fringe, because of the clarity and hope this perspective offers. Nick Fiedler’s “The Hopeful Skeptic” shares some of that freshness and critique, enough to keep me honest and on my toes.

Part of the larger community of skeptical, reluctant and questioning faithful, Nick’s stories share deep conviction. I really appreciate his honesty about not buying all the packaged, “arranged-marriage” Christianity of the culture. Instead, his journey takes him around the world and through a complete (quite literal) yard sale of faith to another side, where he can be honest about doubts and open about what he sees as faithful truth.

I’ve taken a liking in the Nick and Josh Podcast as of late, where I heard about this book and the stories of Nick’s travels. It’s refreshing to find people who are willing to ask honest questions, not simply for the sake of asking them, or because they’re trying to tear down the system, but because of an honest, earnest desire to know truth and to see God more fully. Some might question these stories or call them heretical. I would call them faithful and honoring to a tradition of hopeful skepticism that drives many, myself hopefully/humbly included.

While I know that many people I meet day-to-day don’t share these doubts or this willingness to gain the wider-lens perspective spoken about in this book, I know there are many who feel they have no place to do just this. This book might be a good beginning for someone who’s tired of “business as usual” but who isn’t ready to throw it all away, knowing that the faith they question is the faith they are deeply bound to and hopeful for. I would encourage any one who is willing to take stock of their religion and find Christ at the center, not pushed to the sidelines, to pick up this book and enjoy the humor, stories, and faithfulness that fill the pages.

Thanks to Nick for writing this and sharing it. Keep it up.

technorati: UU7JEESJ6ZS7

Flash Mob. def: a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.

Over the past year, I have been a part of two exciting, repeat Flash Mobs involving Michael Jackson. That’s right. Michael Jackson.

MJ Flash Mob #1: It was about this time last year. Halloween to be specific. We were all enjoying another festive holiday gathering over on Lyle St. with a variety of friends and their kids in cute costumes. As the evening wore on, people slowly trickled out the door, off to bed, back to our adult lives. However, thanks to Twitter and a little bit of word-of-mouth, Stacy, myself and a couple of others caught word that in our very subdued city of Bellingham, a zombie “Thriller” dance was going to be taking place downtown. Being the curious onlookers we are, we immediately piled in to the car, found our way downtown, through the growing mobs of college students and a-little-old-t0-be-trick-or-treaters and joined a huge mob building around the intersection of Railroad Ave. and Holly St.

Here’s what we witnessed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IuEa9xthdM

MJ Flash Mob #2: Fast forward to the tragic day this summer, when we all found out the King of Pop had died. Shorter story here, but just as powerful in illustrating the amazing spread social media has in our lives. I’m on Twitter in the afternoon and start to see local tweeps (people who tweet) mentioning the possibility of a reenactment of the “Thriller” dance that night. Sure enough, the same zombies you saw above, put together a second Flash Mob, complete with a “dead” Jackson being crowd surfed away by the zombies, as a memorial gesture. It was pretty epic.

What does this have to do with students? Well, besides the fact that a good majority of the people I witnessed these dances with were in the good ‘ol 18-23 bracket?

I’ve been trying to think lately about ways to connect with students that are outside of the coffee meetings or our big programmed Tuesday gatherings. I’ve been trying to think of ways that I interacted when I was a student, ways I connected with my peers, places and things I got excited about. Some of the most effective, fun things about forming connections as a student seem to be centered around the spontaneous. People, and specifically, students it seems, love the idea of doing something random and in the moment, where they have the opportunity to share an experience and maybe make connections with each other.

A real problem I find is that it’s hard to do program ministry in such a spontaneous way, simply because it’s programmed. To be honest, I want to know how an activity is going to happen, who’s going to be responsible for sound or decorations. We need to talk about how it’s going to be promoted and execute that in a way that reaches students. We need to plan for contingencies, watch out for safety. When you’re in a ministry setting, you have the people who support, care for, and watch over the work you do and I don’t ever want to let them down. And most importantly, we want to be intentional with the ways we connect with students, hoping to provide meaningful opportunities for them to connect with God and with our community and to experience growth in the faith.

Part of me has to wonder, though, with those cautions and very practical necessities, if there isn’t something a bit limiting to the work of the Holy Spirit. Is it maybe part of the beauty of God’s interaction with us that creates moments of flash-bang excitement? Is it maybe the Spirit driving students, people, us all together to form bonds of community simply in the spur of the moment interactions?

I may have wandered a bit from the point, but I think there is something really worth examining here when it comes to program planning vs. spontaneous interacting/connecting. Maybe it is Flash Mob interactions where we offer an opportunity for a fun, spontaneous event or even a moment of worship/spiritual discipline, amidst the ongoing day-to-day, that gives students the chance to glimpse that freshness of the Spirit’s interaction with them.

One of the great things about our office is the “drop-in” atmosphere for students. On any given afternoon, you’ll find students helping make videos, talking with staff people, eating lunch, or just sitting on our couches between classes. Spontaneous, flash interactions happen there every day. I wonder if that’s a good place to start looking at how to best connect with students today.

The best place to begin seems to be with the simplest of statements. They say “write what you know.” This shouldn’t be something forced or contrived. Neither should I begin again with hopes of pushing some sort of agenda or portraying some state of “enlightenment” now that I’ve gotten a bit more time and experience under my belt. Nope.

So, I’ll start here: I’ve still got a lot of questions. Good questions. Questions about why I am working in ministry. Questions about what I am supposed to do to serve students every day. Questions about how I’m supposed to live out my own faith in the midst of leading others. And plenty more.

They’re honest questions that come from honest moments of seeing faith lived out in mine and others’ lives (Honest, being the key word, doesn’t always mind “tastes good” or “feels nice”. Sometimes, it means “uncomfortable”, “hard to swallow”, and maybe even “true”). One of the coolest things about the work I get to participate in at the INN each day is simply being someone who listens and watches people work out what they believe about God. I get to meet with students who are struggling with where they’ll go after school’s over. Or new students, excited and eager to know what the whole college experience will be like and, for some, asking things like “where will God be in all of this?”

I asked that question myself as I began my time at Western Washington University, about 8 years ago. One of the biggest fears and insecurities I faced as I left home for school was wondering whether or not I would be the only person looking for God in Bellingham. Not like I had this unreasonable expectation that no one believed or followed Christ, but rather, a question of whether I would actually find anyone I could share in my own journey with. I wondered if I would have anyone to talk to. Anyone to experience the good and bad of faith with.

I see the same look in many of the faces of people I meet on Tuesday nights or around our offices or at programs throughout the week. I see a desire to know and be known by other people. And I think it’s not simply in the way we all desire to have friends and find connections with other people. I think there’s a real thirst to know and experience life with people who you can ask the tough questions with. To be known on that level with a community of like and unlike minded people. To not be surrounded by peers and classmates and yet be alone in what is the ongoing journey of faith.

And so, as I continue confront questions of faith and direction, I am comforted to know those people who come along in my life to offer dialog and support. And as I look at the questions I’m asking, I’m also comforted to know that I work with others who ask similar questions and who are similarly passionate in providing a space for students, who like me, 8 years ago, needed a place to air them out.

Hello. This is Seth.

It’s time to start again. I’m no longer 23. The years have past. I’ve learned quite a bit through trials, joys, experiences under the belt.

I ask for your prayers, encouragement, and questions. My goal is to begin writing again, specifically about my experiences and thoughts on working in college ministry. Thoughts roll around in my mind all the time about what ministry with college students looks like, ideas about worship, thoughts about God’s interaction in our day to day. I want to start sharing them.

I’ll give it a shot. What do you want to hear about? What do you want to know?

Things have been pretty quiet around here lately, but this week, I’m expecting a bit more traffic. I’d like to welcome new visitors to my blog from pomomusings.com. This week, I’m one of the featured bloggers in a series called “Plurality 2.0″, which has been going on for the last couple of months over at pomomusings.com, a blog run by friend and fellow Presbymergent, Adam Walker Cleaveland.

If you’re visiting for the first time, welcome. I’m Seth. You can find out more about what I do by visiting the INN University Ministries and Seth James Thomas Web Design. I also Tweet (more often than I probably should), via Twitter at @sethjames.

If you’re a loyal follower (I know who you are), thanks for staying tuned. You really should check out Twitter yourself, because that’s where it’s at these days. I’m hoping to follow up this brief post with a more extended bit of writing about “Why I Tweet and why I don’t blog these days.”

To all visitors, thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned these next couple of months, as we wrap up another year at the INN and I get back full swing into summer with web design work and a bit of travel. Hope you are all well.

**UPDATE**
Here’s the link to the post: http://pomomusings.com/2009/05/18/seth-thomas-on-plurality/

Last week, during a slighty spontaneous moment, I made a quick run to Best Buy and picked out a new iPod. I’d been eyeing the Touch a bit over the past couple months and seized the oportunity of this week’s travel to Louisville as a good excuse to make the investment. I don’t like lugging around my work laptop when I don’t have to, even around town, and I’ve been looking for a calendar device to replace my defunct Palm.

So, here I am typing away at a blog post using a miniature keyboard on board my return flight from Kentucky. And as I thumb-tap along to Death Cab for Cutie in my headphones, I remain impressed with this little device’s versatility and usability.

First, I was able to spend most of my time at the conference this week connected and in touch with emails and work from home. The Wi-fi capabilities of the iPod are excellent. Anywhere I went where I could get wireless, I was quickly able to sync up with email and calendars, along with Twitter and to-do lists. The only issue I’ve had in that department was trying to access “pay-to-use” networks at the airport, which was frustrating, blamed more on their inability to handle diverse mobile users rather than the device having issues itself.

I’ve also been impressed with how much use this thing has been able to handle with ‘ner a hiccup. I’ve been going strong for days now, simply charging up for a few minutes here and there. No overheating. No funky locking up. (I’m clearly a Windows user, as I’ve come to expect such things).

The applications included and available for free download are all pretty slick and really expand upon the versatility for me. Like I mentioned, Twitter got a lot of use this week. I’ve tested two apps, the free Twitteric and the $2.99 Tweetie. I’m going with Tweetie because of the better searching and no adds. I have my finances syncing through Mint.com, music tracking with last.fm, and much more.

Along with all the standard iPod music features, I’m also very impressed with the new Genuis features incorporated into the Touch. I’ve been really into this custom recommendation feature in iTunes and now it comes on the iPod. If you haven’t tried this yet at home, you really should. iTunes will build recommendation playlists from your music library and listening trends. I’ve found it great fir rediscovering music from my collection that hasn’t gotten much attention lately. A good reminder that I have too much music.

My iLife is now more completely integrated. I’m not sure if this is good or not, but at least my email response time has decreased significantly and I’m more organized. I’m still going to give the students who sit at the back of the INN with their iPhones going strong a hard time. But I think I get it a bit more now.

Today I wrap up my 3 day trip to Louisville, KY for the Presbymergent coordination conference. I’m sitting in the airport, waiting way too long for my short flight to Atlanta, followed by another layover and finally a flight home to Seattle.

This is my first time traveling solo and I’ve really been enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong. I love to go away with Stacy or family or travel with a big group of college students to a mission destination. But there is also something great about being alone.

We talked a lot about “the other” over the last couple days, as we engaged in conversations about those who leave the church or are missed by the church. Simply, “the other” is who I am not, the person who is beyond my understanding, outside of my knowledge, the one I may know and yet never really know. Ryan Kemp Pappan led a short devotion this morning that inspired me to think about how I reach out to “the other” as well as reflect upon who in my life is “other”. Like Jesus asks us to take care of the least of these, we are called to see Christ in those we are not like and to engage in loving them as we love Him. And by identifying and loving with I am naturally estranged from, do I not also draw nearer to Christ?

As I travel alone I feel a sense of becoming the outsider. People pass me by as I sit here and type. I am “other”, alone. I wonder if my enjoyment of this experience of transience is not in some way disorienting me, making me the outsider, and in some way, by separating me from these people I share space with, helping me draw closer to God by my estrangement.

I look forward to returning to my community. But maybe sometimes we need to be the outsider to remember what Christ looks like, felt like, and what we treat him as.

A video from speaking at the INN this past Tuesday night. Seems fitting, in the world of “iLife” to post this to the blog. The camera’s a bit shaky for a few minutes, sorry. And, I hope the sound comes through alright. Anyways, enjoy!

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say a quick word of thanks for your prayers and support as I spoke at the INN last night. It went well (at least, I felt ok). I have quite a bit to learn at this art of speaking, but I enjoyed the process and hopefully, above all else, students were challenged to consider Christ’s centrality in their internet-saturated, connected lives.

It was recorded, so I hope to have something to put up on the blog in the near future, for the viewing pleasure of those interested. That’s pretty fitting for a talk focusing on our iLife, right?

I thought “What better way to start a talk about how Christ is Lord of our iLives than to write my very own 25 list of things that define my iLife.”*

Here’s a picture of me, written by me, filtered by me, edited by me, about me.

1.    I’ve been blogging since just after I got married. I was 22 then. My blog was called Twenty-Two. Then I turned 23. I renamed it to Twenty-Three. Then I got lazy and never renamed it again. I’m now 26. It’s still called Twenty-Three.

2.    I was a part of the first Facebook generation, connected only to students at WWU.

3.    I’ve been happily IM’ing since the days of AOL dial-up. 24.4 baby.

4.    The first song I downloaded on iTunes was a Dashboard Confessional track.

5.    Twitter is my favorite way to blog these days.

6.    I can easily count at least 16 different email addresses I’ve had.

7.    While I was a late adopter, getting a cell phone in college, I quickly became a proficient texter. I do not have a land line.

8.    I cruised the original Napster back in the earliest days. My parents’ internet bills went through the roof.

9.    I own my own web design business during the summers and in my free time.

10. My parents do not have Facebook. I bet yours do.

11. Every job I’ve had since college has involved at least some sitting at a computer.

12. I’m an accomplished transcriptionist.

13. The first computer I ever had was a Macintosh SE.

14. I’m greatly impressed at the fact that we can email, chat, and even video chat with people around the world.

15. I had a PDA for about a year. It was too slow and boring.

16. I’ve been described as “gadgety”.

17. I’ve been connected to many of my ministry peers, locally and around the country, solely through email, Twitter, and blogs. I’ve never met most of them face to face.

18. I graduated Western with a certificate in Internet Studies.

19. I’ve said things to people over email or IM that I’ve regretted.

20. I’ve been broken up with over email.

21. I constantly battle pride with regards to my iLife.

22. I very often feel overwhelmed with the amount of time I waste on the computer.

23. I wish I had a Mac.

24. I believe that God can use me, even in the world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Google, to do good, loving work in humanity.

25. I believe that Christ would not have us shut off our computers all together, but does ask us to make him much more central in our iLives.

*Note: This style of post is very prevalent among current and former students these days. I’m doing a bit of creative imitating. Not mockery. Thought it would fit well with the talk.