Six Months

I received a package from back home in Cali reminding me that I have been here in the blessed bluegrass for six months. I can barely believe it. Last night at prayer meeting I gave a mushy testimony about how much I appreciate my church family and how I am never shy to invite people to visit - and that was followed up by a wonderfully southern baptist sermon on what happens on the day of judgment to nonbelievers - yikes... Anyway, I am overall enjoying my time here. I chatted up an old prof last monday, rambled on about all sorts of things. I miss my old faculty dearly, those guys were so cool. This year I will make an effort to get to know more ATS people. Wow - this is turning into a random post...

Okay, something worth blogging - one thing I am throwing around in my head is what an "ecumenical" spirit means. I was talking to somebody in the dorm about it last night. We brought up the hurt and pain of people who tend to pursue non denominational churches. We also mentioned the difference between things that are salvific or not. Yet, when the dust settles it still comes down to how important your "nitpicking" is. Let me put it this way - of course we all want as many people as possible to have a saving relationship with Christ, but if we feel that our particular tradition is right about certain things why is it then "wrong" to convince someone of all that our tradition entails. I mean, I am not a _____ because the sign is cool - I am a _____ because I believe in the tradition, right?

And in other news, this is more than slightly random. I was reading old blogs of Ben Witherington's off of asburyblog.net and there was this comment: "Are baptist even evangelicals?" Thankfully Dr. Witherington replied with something that calmed me enough not to throw my computer through a window. Anyway, I then thought about this awesome chapel-isk meeting my Christian Studies Dept had with Timothy George where he talked about the 7 points of Evangelicalism or something like that. It was really good - and I couldn't find my notes. So - for any of you CBUers out there... did you have your notes? Did you take notes? I think I can find the same sermon -isk on oneplace.com if I search for it.