As of a couple of weeks ago, I am an in-covenant member at Liberti Church: South Philly. One of the reasons I am writing this is to inform those at Epiphany that don’t know this yet. I thought a good number of people knew, but I’m getting more and more texts and messages from people that obviously don’t know this. Sorry for not communicating this to more people.

As many people know, ever since I first got to Philadelphia, I was an avid member of Epiphany Fellowship. In fact, it was a message by Eric Mason delivered at the Village Church in Dallas, Texas that sealed my decision to come to Philly in the first place. When every other seminarian was spending their first few months at school in that awkward period of looking for a church home, I already had mine. The apartment-hunting visits I had made prior to moving let me visit Epiphany months before I actually moved here and I was made to feel the warmth and hospitality of a community that lived in line with the amazing teaching they receive in and out of Sunday mornings.

I wasn’t looking for another church. I really wasn’t. I wasn’t unhappy at Epiphany, nor was I eager to leave. Liberti: South Philly is a new church plant that is only about six months old. I started going to it on Sunday afternoons to see a good friend of mine who would drive in for the service. I was determined to not let it sway me or draw me away from my commitments at Epiphany. But, after a couple of months, I realized that I was being transformed and built up by that church, I was living most of my life with its community, and philosophically and theologically my conscience was more at ease there. So, after to talking to Shai, Pastor Mason, and a couple other leaders at Epiph I decided God was drawing me to see this little church plant prosper; to serve it and its leaders in whatever way I could.

For those that don’t know, Liberti is a family of churches throughout Philadelphia with three campuses in different areas of the city. I’m going to the newest church plant located in South Philly/Center City Philadelphia. It is a member of the RCA (Reformed Churches in America), though another one of the Liberti Churches is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

There’s still lots of crossover between the two churches. All Liberti Churches are part of the Acts29 Church Planting network, just like Epiphany. In fact, Pastor Mason gets together on a semi-regular basis with the pastors of the Liberti Churches to pray for the city. Also, Doug Logan, the Connections Pastor at Epiphany was the former pastor of the Liberti church plant at Roxborough until moving over to Epiphany to prepare to plant a church in urban Philadelphia. For these reasons I feel more like I’m changing positions on the same team rather than changing teams all together.

So that’s what’s been going on with me on the church front. I have received several expressions of concern from people at Epiphany that have been worried that I’ve completely fallen out of community. I haven’t, I assure you. I have instead been brought into the service of another great, amazing, deep, and intimate community serving God and accomplishing His work for the good Philadelphia and the Glory of His Name.

I’ve heard a rumor of a possible church service next year with all of the Acts29 churches in Philadelphia. If this is true, I look forward to praising our Lord beside many of you again.

For those that have read this blog for a while, seeing the name “Derek Webb” AGAIN in the title of one of my posts probably caused you to at least roll your eyes, if not actually letting out a heavy sigh accompanied with an “oh Paul…”.  This is because in about a three month span, I wrote 8 posts all having to do with Derek Webb’s newest album Stockholm Syndrome (here they are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).  Admittedly, I kept writing all those mainly because I was boasting record visits to my site because of those articles and I wanted to maintain that.  But eventually it got old, and I went back to my smaller numbers, though those article still rank as my highest visited even still.

but another reason I wrote all those articles is that I genuinely adore Webb’s music.  It’s incredible.  Every album is a completely different experience but it’s still Webb.  In honor of this, for My Fav Monday, I wanted to share with all of you my favorite song of all time.  It is a song by Derek Webb off of his first solo  album She Must and Shall Go Free and it’s called Wedding Dress.  Below, you’ll find a live acoustic recording of the song, the best YouTube video I could find of him performing it (sorry for the sort of cheesy intro/outro), and the lyrics.  This song has so much of my life and relationship to God attached to it.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

“Wedding Dress” by Derek Webb (from the album “The House Show“)

Wedding Dress

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
should that be all I’ll ever need
or is there more I’m looking for?

and should I read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
to make me handsome, rich, and wise
is that really what you want?

(chorus)
I am a whore I do confess
but I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle.
I’m a prodigal with no way home
but I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle to you.

So could you love this bastard child
though I don’t trust you to provide;
with one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side.
I am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers less wild
that I would take a little cash
over your very flesh and blood.

(chorus)

Because money cannot buy
a husband’s jealous eye
when you have knowingly deceived his wife.

Hey, at the behest of a good friend (you know who you are), I am putting up the links to the two articles I recently wrote on my magazine site, Reform & Revive.  I am currently reading a book called Perspective on an Evolving Creation, edited by Keith Miller.  It’s pretty phenomenal, and I’ve started blogging through the book.  I’m putting up articles concerning the better essays that could be the most helpful to everyone out there.  So, without further ado, here are those links:

Article #1: I’m Coming Out (Intro to an Evolving Creation)

Article #2: “An Evolving Creation: Oxymoron or Fruitful Insight?” by Keith Miller

Enjoy, and debate away!

I’m doing a lot of moving around the city and country this week, not to mention I have a really good friend from Richmond visiting all this week (and longer perhaps), so I’m not going to be as frequent with the blog this week (if at all). Sorry I’m a little late in getting this out. But, good things are in store in the weeks ahead: I want to get back to my Bible Study blogs, I have an article I’m working on for By Whose Authority?, and I have some posts in the works for this site that are a little more substantive than I’ve been posting recently. Also, I’ll be moving some of the Creation/Evolution discussion from Reform & Revive over to this site.  So, check back next week and I’ll be back in full swing.

Hopefully.  Bur in the meantime . . .

I just wanted to plug a new website that I am now contributing to.  It’s a site from the newest fellow Westminster dropout I’ve met, Allison Quient.  It’s a site called “By Whose Authority?” and it’s an ecumenical blog where people from varying theological perspectives write and discuss their respective views.  From the site:

This blog is devoted to addressing questions of Church authority and other doctrinal issues surrounding the Protestant, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Our hope is to foster a charitable and winsome dialog in the pursuit of God’s truth.

I haven’t written anything yet, but I’ll try to put up a post on the site in the next couple of days.  You can be sure I’ll let it be known here on this blog when that happens.  But in the meantime, please go and read some of the posts that have been put up so far.  They are pretty phenomenal.

Well, it’s Monday, so it’s time for My Fav Monday, my new weekly post where I plug or review one of my favorite things. I’ve been thinking all week what would be the first thing I would talk about to kick this whole thing off. I had some ideas early yesterday: a podcast, TV show, or musician, perhaps?

And then I got some lunch. And I saw it. And it was then I knew what I was going to write about.

Wawa Eggnog.

It only comes out for a few months out of the year, but when it does, I go kind of crazy. Seriously, it’s one of the best drinks I’ve ever had and every year it’s as good as the year before. No joke. It’s so thick and creamy and not too “noggy”. It comes in two varieties: Original and Pumpkin Spice. The latter is good to at least try once in your life, but really, Original is where it’s at.

Every year my brother and I have a bonding moment over our mutual love for this fine delicacy. We almost grow physically ill while we’re home with our parents from ingesting so much dairy. And it’s worth every bit of it. So drop by your Wawa today and pick up some of it to try. Or, if you are in Philadelphia and have never had it before, I’d be glad to buy you your first one.

Future posts in this weekly series will be more substantive, don’t worry. Next week I’ll probably plug a podcast. Which one? We’ll see.  Maybe I’ll hide a hint somewhere in this post.

This was a journal entry of mine from yesterday.  Yes, this is how some of my entries look.  I’m also in the process of writing a new album called Skeptics & Saints and this might end up being one of the songs, so consider this a preview.

______________________

I know we’ve all had the followng experience: you’re in a group of people and someone makes a really good joke or pun.  Someone else in the group builds on that joke and the laughs increase.  Someone else does it.  This repeats itself over and over again as people build on the joke.  Eventually, the topic changes and the conversation moves on, but your mind is still churning, trying to figure out something else you could have said while the joke was going.  Sometimes you think of something that would have been truly brilliant and inspired if you had just thought about it a minute and a half earlier.  You consider saying it anyway.Whether or not you end up saying the joke says a lot about you, but either way you end up feeling pretty stupid.  You either say it and it’s awkward, or you don’t say it and then feel like an idiot for having exerted so much time and thought to a joke you knew you could never tell.  Why did I go through this whole scenario?

Because I had a thought today that I wanted some feedback on. I can’t remember what started it, but this morning I was thinking about some political idea and became more and more impassioned about it. I was angry and zealous, and felt like I had articulated in my mind the perfect flow of thought and nuanced argumentation that would convinced even my most ardent naysayers. I then thought (of course):

I should put this on my blog!

But then I felt a little absurd.  I felt that same absurdity one feels when the joke has already passed.  And this feeling struck me as a bit odd.  Has the national “joke” that is Politics passed (at least for a time)? Are we really in a relative political peace right now, where impassioned zealous political debate seems out of place?

I mean, the health care thing has quieted down, people seem to at least appreciate the time and consideration that’s being put into a decision on Afghanistan before it’s announced, the economy seems to be at least evening out if not moving back up now, and the biggest political frustration right now has to do with the administration’s opinion that Fox News isn’t a legitimate news organization.  Heck even things that you would think would cause uproar hasn’t.  Gay rights marches, talks with Iran, and the occasional “tea party” (I’m shaking my head right now) are reported on with a relative ho-hum sort of attitude.

Maybe I got too used to the absurdities and loss of decorum that have ruled the both sides of the political world since last November (I’m having flashbacks of a particular outburst during a speech by the President).  Maybe I’m just a bit too late to get in on the joke.  Or maybe I’m just a fighter by nature and I feel weird when there’s nothing for me to give my opinion on that seems relevant and timely.  Maybe I should learn to be content writing/thinking about seemingly inconsequential-to-everyday-life things like theistic evolution and the eternality of Hell.  But let me just ask all of you:

What’s the big political story right now?  Am I missing something?  Is the joke still going on, or has the punchline already passed?  Is the world finally settling in and learning what the rhythms of everyday life in an Obama world looks like? What do you think?

First off – yes, I know it’s Tuesday.

With that out of the way: now that the epic Beauty series is done, what on earth am I going to do with my blogging time? Well, I want to bring in some structure. If you look to the sidebar on the right, and scroll down a little bit (not yet!) you will see a section containing my favorite “Reads”, “Listens”, and “Watches”. I really want to start promoting those things. So, I hereby introduce:

My Fav Mondays

Every Monday, I will take another podcast, website, TV Show, Musical artist, or book and write about it. I’ve been wanting to support and plug these things for a while now, and this blog is a perfect platform on which to do that. It’s something that may be actually helpful to you, the reader, and these are topics I am naturally passionate about. It’s a win-win. So, starting next Monday, I will begin what I hope becomes a popular ritual for us all. What will I review first? Who knows? Heck, I don’t even know. Until then . . .

You may now view the sidebar.

[photo by David Schrott]

We’re done.  I promise.  Really.  I just wanted to do two things: First, offer this directory, or “Table of Contents” to the Beauty Series for a clear organization of the parts so people can navigate it more easily.  Secondly, below you’ll find not only the full audio and complete manuscript based off this series, but, for the first time, you’ll see a special appendix I put together.  It’s a complete breakdown of every word in both Greek and Hebrew that the English Standard Version of the Bible translates as either “beauty” or “beautiful”, broken down by frequency.  Along with those words (and all their forms), I’ve offered the most literal definition of each of those words so you can easily see the huge range of meanings that the Biblical words for “beauty” carry.  It took a while to put together so I hope it’s helpful.  You don’t need any knowledge of Greek or Hebrew to understand it or get something from it.  Enjoy.  And this is it for the series now.  I promise.

The Outline for the Entire Series:

• Why do we long for Beauty?
  • Eternity in Our Heart: The God of Beauty, the Beauty of God
  • Why We Long (Setting the Stage) [Eccl.2+3] |Beauty{1}
• What is Beauty?
  • May I Offer a Definition of | Beauty{2}
• What Things are Beautiful, and why are they Beautiful?
  • The Triune God is Beauty{3}
  • Nature, Science, & the Structure of Time | Beauty{4}
  • Human Beauty{5} | (Anthropological Aesthetics)
  • Ah, the Beauty{6} of Art
  • (Review: John Navone’s “Toward a Theology of Beauty”)
• How do we respond to this Beauty?
  • How Do We Respond to Beauty{7}?
  • The Contemplation of Beauty{8}
  • Enjoying Beauty{9}, Part I: Praise it.
  • Baptized in Beauty{10} (Enjoy, Pt. II)
  • Proclaiming & Producing Beauty{11}
• Conclusion
  • The Gospel is Beautiful{12} | it is finished

Language Appendix

Full Manucscript

Full Audio