So, here's the deal. The Potter's House posts are about 90% done but will still require some heavy editing. Between Erin's arrival on Monday and the upcoming ordination service next Sunday (wow! next Sunday!), I need to focus on cleaning the house and other preparations; these are just more pressing --and, frankly, more exciting-- events coming up over the next two weeks. I'm not setting a deadline for the Potter's House posts, but I've already done enough work that this section of the trip will not be falling through the cracks. It's just going to be a little late, and many of the issues that arose at Potter's House will require extra contemplation on my part anyway since I was experiencing worship very much outside of my cultural element (i.e. middle class white boy from a pretty nice neighborhood). There were emotions being displayed at Potter's House that I'm simply not used to, and as a result, my perspectives are skewed and require extra analysis and contemplation (and maybe even the input of a few editors) before I publish anything on the interwebs. I've put in a lot of time writing this summer, and I don't want to do a sloppy job on the last church. It was a powerful service, and I want to make sure I'm giving my analysis the proper effort and not dividing my attention.
Of course, speaking of dividing my attention, I'm planning to attend Bellevue Baptist Church this Sunday evening, but since it's a church I have a history with (i.e. a little resentment toward the bigger kid up the street with all the nicer toys), I don't feel like it's appropriate for me to take notes on this one. Any attempt at taking notes would probably devolve into a stream of counterproductive emotional drivel about my past and my personal stake in things, and that's not really how I want to wrap up this project. Besides, I'll be doing enough of the reflective stuff with Potter's House since it was just that resonating a sermon, and Potter's House actually seems like a really logical place to wrap up my summer journey anyway given all the points that Bishop Jakes hit. My visit to Bellevue will probably be more of a personal epilogue, and I think that's okay. After all, I'm being ordained the following Sunday-- not really a time when I want to be blogging (particularly about a church that I grew up disliking). Bellevue is the root of most of the megachurch prejudices that I hold, so visiting there is an important step of personal reconciliation, and it's not something I want to cheapen by keeping my head in a notebook the whole time.
I've still got a slew of half-finished blog posts littering my desktop right now, and I'll have a lot of editing to do on Potter's House, so I'll probably continue to post sporadically over the next month or so. For now though, I'm excited about the next two weeks:
Erin arrives on Monday.
I have my ordination council on Tuesday.
Harryson and Madison get here on Thursday.
My brother and sister-in-law get here on Friday.
I'll have plenty of other friends and family (including my aunt and uncle) arriving too.
I'm being ordained on Sunday, August 14th.
Erin and I are leaving for Durham the following morning.
It's all a little surreal.
I've driven over 10,000 miles over three months all to get to this point.
Hard to believe it's almost here.
Actually, now that I think of it, maybe the better way to put it is that I've
been driven over 10,000 miles, but there are still many, many more to go.
Peace and Blessings,
Tom
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