Those of you who are still bothering to watch this blog may be wondering where I am! To be sure, I haven't kept up with Placement Reflections as much as I intended to-- or as much as I would like. When time gets crunched, I think blogging takes substantially lower priorities than the other things.Still, I haven't forgotten this blog-- nor has my interest waned in maintaining it. I'll post more about

I've always been fascinated with technology, and over time I've developed a lot of thoughts and ideas about how faith and technology collide. A few of these thoughts made their way into an article that I recently wrote for ByFaith magazine, which ended up being called, "Looking for Love in a Few Wrong Places". That article, which focuses particularly on how technology and the Internet allow communities

For the Mac users among you, you might be interested to know that Accordance is having a Holiday sale on their Accordance Bible software.If you're interested in taking advantage of the sale, you can find details of it here. For my money, Accordance is the best thing out there-- and I've used Bibleworks, Logos, and Quickverse as well, in addition so several of the free ones. I know one guy who switched

Well, I'm back from my extended hiatus from blogging here (as you may have noticed from my old post which just showed up a couple of days ago!). And once again, I'm going to try to maintain a regular posting schedule: once a week on a transition-related post, plus once a week on a "week in the life of a new pastor) post. (I'm still catching up on the latter.)Meanwhile, you might be interested to know

[This post was originally written on Oct. 14, 2007]It's been a crazy week. As I mentioned a few days ago, we got to Tennessee very late. On Wednesday, we met our realtor for the walk-through of our house, then went to set up utilities. After lunch, we met our realtor again and drove to closing. We closed on the house and then went back to the hotel, where I bumped into a member of our new church! (He

I'm going to start a (hopefully) regular series where I give a snapshot of my day as a new pastor in my church. When it goes live, I'll mirror these posts on a blog on the church's website. We're moving in this week, and actually take occupancy of our house on Thursday; thus, I'm counting that as officially day one. Today, therefore, is "Day #-2". Here's today's snapshot:We moved out of our St. Louis

Yesterday, I completed and passed the last oral examination for licensure in the presbytery where my new church will be. Thus, I am cleared to "move onto the field" and begin the work of ministry with this congregation. I will complete my ordination trials at the February meeting of presbytery, but this was a huge milestone in the whole process: if I had not passed yesterday, I would not have been

When it comes to candidacy, the best thing you have going for your is the relationships you have with others. The church is inherently relational-- after all, it really isn't good for man to be alone-- and those relationships form the framework for how God brings many things to pass: friendships for accountability, introductions of future spouses, and career connections.Never is this more present--

If you've read much of what I write here, you know that "networking" is important to the candidacy process. God uses His body, through the relational connections within it, to bring pastors into contact with churches. Including my most recent placement, all five of the ministry positions I have occupied have been the product of direct, relational connections between me and others.If you are in seminary--

For the two of you who still check my blog, I'm still here!Sorry about the shortage of content-- actually, since late spring. I have a lot of blog posts in mind, and I will get them here eventually, I promise. There is a little bit going on right now: packing, studying for licensure, trying to finalize a contract on a house, and seeing everyone we want to see in St. Louis before we move is keeping