Spiritual Incompetence - A new look at missions

I had a very entertaining conversation with my father today - as per usual his wit and dry humor were well received. I mentioned that our philosophy class recently spoke of Pascal's Wager and things of that sort - he was totally enthralled. My father being a mathematician went off onto subjects I could not understand until finally I confessed that I had no idea what he was talking about. I wish a lot of things for my father - most importantly a saving faith - but also, I wish that another women will come along for him so that he can share all these cute bits of information with someone who cares for him as much as I do.... but I digress.
Toward the end of our conversation we began to discuss his upcoming trip out here this summer. I told him that whatever he decided would be fine but, attending church with me (on a sunday) was a necessary thing - a "deal breaker" if you will. To which my father replied, "I don't remember you being in charge, .... unless you deem me a spiritual incompetent" This was of course in jest, but what a notion? To deem a person spiritually incompetent ... we joked a little about bringing them spiritual nourishment like some deliver communion to shut-ins.
Anyway, anyone who knows me would soon realize that my "heart" for missions is rather small - I may need to grow three sizes like Grinch in this area... yet, I don't know - looking at the unsaved as "spiritually incompetent" might just bring about the right mixture of maternal and calvinistic tendencies to cause action within my bones... Wow - did I just put maternal and calvinism in the same thought ... wierd.

Sin and Pastoring

Back in undergrad I took a class in the Theology of Sin and in that class I was assigned the individual project entitled "Sin and Pastoring." Being a relatively new Christian this was quite an eye opening experience and even now I still struggle with how exactly a pastor, or anyone in leadership is to deal with sin. I had the aMAZing opportunity last night to spend some time with my pastor's wife and she confided in me many things that she feels she can't "let a lot of people know about" This grieves me, as I could tell it grieved her. Where is the line of community and fellowship when it comes to leadership? Where do you hold back things? When it will cause a stumbling block? She made a very interesting comment to me while she was sharing her heart - she said, "I just would hate for you to get to know me and then find this out later on..."

Part of the discussion for me about this is glorifying sin. I don't think past sin (either passive or active) should be some sort of badge of honor. I struggle myself with sharing with peers my past because I don't want to glorify any of the things that I did or were done to me. Yet, like in the case of this dear sister in Christ, I don't believe we go through things to keep them secret.

Judas totally bugs me...

Yeah, two things...

1) the amount of soveriegnty involved with the betrayal is a tad hard to swallow
2) the apostasy of an original disciple gets to me

* When I decide to get "back on the ball" I will research this.... cuz, yeah - it bugs me... just not enough to do my own fishin.

Splash boom bahhhh

I have felt very out of place since I got to the asbury campus. Not only am I use to perfect weather, blunt discussion and very liberal ideas (being from southern cali) I am also use to a very academic slant on school. Don't get me wrong, Asbury is not without its great profs and thoughtful classes - but I have had a difficult time finding a circle of friends that want to talk theology the way I am use to. Isn't seminary the place to talk about the atonement till all hours of the night? Seriously, once you get out of academia people are not going to care much about the soteriological significance of one's view of say...oh just about anything.
I'm sure there are lots of people on campus that share my passion for this stuff - but could it be that God brought me to this campus to move away from that? Or atleast, to find the delicate balance of being spirit led as well as intellectually sophisticated?

Who are we kidding?

I have been a believer now for four years... or so... and I still have problems navigating myself around Christians. One thing that still confuses the tar out of me is this picture of practical humility. I constantly joke with my friends about "my humility is amazing!" and the like, making light of the fact that one can't address their own humility without in fact showing their pride.
This has come to a head for me because of some recent blogs that I monitor. My dear friend Simon has traditionally been very patient and humble when it comes to his posts on calvinism and the like. I know him personally to have great character and heart for his brothers (and sisters) in Christ. For the first time however, I have read how people have seen him in a much different light. It all started with him using similar tactics of others to get his point across, namely "proof texting" articles and stuff like that. Anyway, all of that is to say - how are we to navigate this humilty thing?
I personally love Puritan works - whenever I get bummed I pick up the Reformed Pastor by Baxter to pick myself up. In this (awesome) book Richard Baxter addresses , among other things, the importance of a preacher to really know his own salvation and to work to be right with God before he works to make other right. What I love about the puritans is how seriously they take God. Anybody that integrates God into every aspect of their lives as seemlessly as the Puritans has my attention!! The thing I can't put my finger on is how believers can adapt puritan principles without being labeled...."puritanical" :)
How can one live humbly and share that with others without drawing attention to the fact that they are humble? And is it so bad to acknowledge one's own humility? At some point "being right with God" is only good for us. How can we translate that into our community? How can we become effectively humble - bringing other people to that place with God - without coming across as littel pious ninnies?