One loss I have felt acutely since “the Conflict” at the old church has been teaching Sunday School. From September 2007 until March 2009 I taught the church's senior high class, then from April 2009 until the July 2009 I was tasked with trying to launch a college and young adult Sunday School class. I loved interacting with the class and trying to find unique ways to present topics that are often viewed as dry. For most of that time I also was able to create my own curriculum, a task I enjoyed greatly. Whether I made it interesting is a question I would have to defer to others, but with my odd mind I am pretty certain the classes were at least different.

I loved learning with and from the class as we explored the goodness of God's covenantal story. I enjoyed getting to know those in the classes and they taught me a lot about teaching and about the subjects we were discussing. They also often reminded me how much more I have to learn. For a portion of that time I was able to ask a dear friend (and partner in crime on various projects over the years) to be a co-teacher and our collaborative process added greatly to the memorable elements of the “project.”

A few months ago, I was talking to one of my professors from college who has encouraged me in my pursuit of a teaching post. “It's a charmed life,” he said, as he went on to reiterate how it never grows old to spend time sharing the wonderful subjects he teaches with new students each semester and to, in essence, get to spend life learning along with them. The taste I have had in a less formal setting really helps me to appreciate his point.

Teaching taught me how much my calling is tied to teaching. I already believed that I was headed for a teaching form of ministry, but the time spent doing the deed was far more rewarding than I ever expected. The cancelation of the class — support had slowly been taken away as the conflict intensified — and the subsequent yearning I felt to teach again has confirmed this all the more for me.

Today, I was blessed with the opportunity to sub for one of my fellow seminarians at my new church in his adult Sunday School class. I felt rusty and I was more than a little nervous at my first attempt at teaching at the new church, but all the same it was delightful to be able to dig into a subject (the Sermon on the Mount), prepare a lesson and get to discuss it with folks.

Thinking about how thankful I was for the class, I also reflected more generally. I looked around the church as it filled and thought about all of the people I have had the chance to get to know in the past six months here. I could not help but think how gracious God is in his providence.

Tonight I had the delight of attending the first class for “Shakespeare: A Christian View of the World.” It was a positive thrill. It has been five years since I last took a Shakespeare class and that is about five years too long. When I saw that this class was coming up as an elective at Covenant, I could not resist adding it to my schedule.

A semester with the Bard? At seminary?

I am really excited about the selection of plays we will be looking at. While not all of my favorites are amongst the eight we will study, Hamlet makes a showing, along with other old friends such as Twelfth Night and Measure for Measure.

We are going to be looking at how Shakespeare's Christian beliefs influenced his works and also (so it appears) simply soaking up the greatness of the world's greatest poet. It certainly must be said that Shakespeare's work is a testimony to the gifts God bestows.

As T.S. Eliot said, “Shakespeare and Dante divide the modern world between them. There is no third.” (Of course, Eliot was too humble…)

I'm delighted I am in one half of the world this semester.

In my encounter with those using Peacemaker materials at my old church (part 1 and part 2) , a large part of the church abuse that came forth arose through the misapplication and misinterpretation of Scripture. That the misapplication of the Bible intermingled with Peacemaker teachings was key to my experience is part of what makes Peacemaker Ministries' own use of Scripture all the more troubling.

Consider when Peacemaker asks , “Why a Peacemaking Team?” Here is part of their answer:

Because God calls his children to serve their leaders and to advance their vision to build his church. (Emphasis is Peacemaker's.)

Really? The article goes on to explain how pastors should teach this emphasis to their leadership, and particularly their peacemaking team, which can then “remind” the congregation of “core values.” Leaders being served by those they lead fits our normal worldly logic, but does it fit the Bible's view of leadership? Is that how Christ taught by example?

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“We can't wage a perpetual campaign…”

—President Barack Obama

I never would have guessed the president felt that way.

OK, everyone has their predictions filed for the Apple Tablet, iPad or whatever. Oh, and the Verizon iPhone, too, which I am increasingly convinced will be announced, if not actually launched, tomorrow. Let's say that all happens at high noon tomorrow. Then what? I'm glad you asked.

Apple is announcing something Wednesday. That much is official. So, the question is, what will they announce? I'm going to follow David Weiss's score card items just for fun. Feel free to play along.

Basic Features

An Apple tablet computer will be the centerpiece of the event and I'm going to put myself in the camp thinking it will be called Canvas (runner up: iSlate, honorable mention: iPad). I'm going to peg the price at or below $800 for release in March of this year. I think the rumored $1,000 price point will only work if it can replace a full fledged secondary computer (e.g. notebook or small laptop). I think it will have a 10” screen, which will position it nicely against the Kindle DX (assuming it does aim at the e-Reader market — I think it will). If they opted for the previously rumored 7” screen, closer to the normal Kindle size, I can't imagine it being close enough to a laptop replacement to justify the surely steep price.

I think it will have WWAN (cellular) connectivity, but it will be optional, unless they offer some kind of way to bundle it with existing iPhone services to keep costs realistic. My wager would be that it will support both AT&T and Verizon, either as different options at purchase, or through inclusion of both CDMA/GSM in some sort of dual-mode chipset. The latter is reasonable enough since I think Apple is anxious to distance itself from AT&T. But, if it throws its fortunes in with Verizon alone for the tablet while leaving the iPhone at AT&T, that doesn't seem like it will work out very well for getting people to buy both devices. A dual-mode arrangement could allow Apple to deemphasize carriers, perhaps to an even greater extent than Google is trying to do with the Nexus One.

If Apple is going to put the tablet on Verizon, I'm going to guess that AT&T exclusivity on the iPhone will also be announced as being over. Probably, it will become clear, the AT&T exclusivity term began counting down in January 2007 when the iPhone was unveiled, and not when it was launched as was previously believed. This only makes sense: Apple won't want to launch a new wireless device that isn't a cell phone on a carrier that cannot (yet) offer an iPhone. If they did, people might go to Verizon for the tablet but — still wanting a smartphone — become part of the Android ecosystem. That'd be bad (in Apple's book, at least).

Apple will likely announce, but not have ready, a native SDK. Whether it will only use apps from the app store is anyone's guess, but I'll say no. Apple has used the justification that people need cell phones just to work as a rationale for tight control on the iPhone. While the App Store has worked well enough to likely justify pushing out the App Store for the tablet computer, I'm thinking the tablet is going to come closer to being a full fledged computer and looser controls go hand in hand with that. Nevertheless, I will be unsurprised if Apple thinks otherwise.

I'm going to say no to the “existing iPhone apps run on the tablet” rumor. I think there may be a way in the future for developers to support both platforms with one codebase, but running apps meant for a tiny screen on a much larger one seems uncharacteristically messy for Apple. The one code base, two platforms strategy though will be available for new or updated apps, however, because the tablet will use Cocoa Touch as its framework.

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This somehow seems fitting.

It has gotten to my head,
Permeates the path I tread,
But I tread, I'm moving on,
In a new happy song,
I can sing about the night
How my tunnel without light
Led me to the other side
Where the sky is blue

-M. Slocum

And speaking of moving on, I hope you enjoy the new, improved look of asisaid. Not everything is finished, but I am making progress.

Perhaps one of the hardest parts of moving on post-church abuse (see my first part of this story) is the matter of regaining trust in people. How could something like this happen? How can it not only happen, but — generally speaking — how can it happen and so few were willing to stand up against it? How can more abuse be going on at the very same church right now and the leadership does not care enough to stop it?

The last question is the hardest to swallow. Just weeks ago another person started being harassed at the old church in ways not very unlike what I faced. The leaders of the church know the person has been hurt, yet they do not act. They know other people have also faced situations like what I faced and yet they do not act. Only a handful of people are willing to rock the boat, others either do not want to see or are fearful of the guns turning on them should they admit that they see.

This is not the way things are suppose to be.

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The band formed last year by most of members of Evanescence circa Fallen has its first single going out officially on February 2. Not surprisingly, it is “Bury Me Alive,” which was played at the band's media premier last June. You can hear it over on their site.

This is a rather ingenious comparison of major methods of outputting text: pen-and-paper, normal QWERTY keyboard, and several different mobile input methods.

HT: John Gruber.