A Year With Gathering In Light 2007

Last year I did a year in review of this site, and I remember enjoying the time I took to go through my old posts and think about what happened in 2006, so I’ve decided to do the same thing again. And here’s what I’ve dug up.

2007 has been the best year of my life, plain and simple.  Not only were there some pretty silly experiences on this blog but there were some far more serious and amazing. This was the year that I, along with a few others, was invited to lead workshops on changing trends within the Friends Church.  These experiences were incredible not just because I got to travel and do what I love (talk about theology, Quakers and culture) but I got to meet tons of fantastic people.  Anytime I can make new friends you can rest assured I am having a good time!

Then, two weeks before I traveled to the UK for 3 months of study, we learned that Emily was pregnant with our first child.  This made leaving really hard and my absence from my wife far more difficult than we initially expected. But even still my time at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Center was amazing. Working with Ben Pink Dandelion there really challenged much of how I have understood Quakerism, and the research I did has played a big role in shaping my current doctoral research.  You can read two posts about my travels there:

• Life At Woodbrooke | 5 weeks Deep  Part 1
• LIfe At Woodbrooke Part 2 | Reading and Writing

Then Emily arrived in the UK and we traveled to Scotland, Ireland, Paris and London, an unforgettably incredible trip to say the least (you can see pictures here)

Upon arrival home from the UK we moved back into in Pasadena (we had been living in Los Angeles), and started preparing for the arrival of our new daughter.  I started my second year in doctoral studies at Fuller doing a tutorial on Church and Culture with my advisor professor Ryan Bolger.  But really, in comparison with this past week and a half, the rest is all a blur and seems hardly important.

Below are (what I’ve deemed to be) the standout posts from 2007. I consider them standout because either they have had a lot of visits and comments or I consider them important in the development of my own thinking.

Thank you all for reading, and I look forward to what 2008 holds for all of us. If you are interested in contacting me please do so here, and if you’d like to receive automatic updates every time I post something new signup here.

Tips and Hack Posts:

• Create A Moleskine PDA – The Student GTD Hack
• How To: Make an HTML Email Signature For Apple Mail
• So This Is Your First Year In Seminary? Tips, Tricks and Other Advice
• Resources and Tips for Becoming Green and Protecting OUR Environment
• Thoughts on Pedagogy: Does Technology in The Classroom Help or Hurt?

Theologically Oriented Posts:

• Remember the Dutch! The Magic of Creation
• Church In Mission: The Problem With Being Relevant Pt.1
• Zizek, the Decalogue and The Problem with (too much) Liberation
• Open Anabaptism and a Community of (in)outsiders
• Some Problems with Online Christian Communities | And Why You Should Stay Away
• Transitioning in A Global Information Age: Questions For Church Traditions

Emerging Church Issues:

• Marquee: Emerging Approaches to Church Leadership (And The Fading Ones Too)
• 5 Streams of The Emerging Church and Convergent Friends (?)
• An Emerging Profession: Sharing Power In A Flattened World

Quaker Related Posts:

• Towards a Post-Foundationalist Quaker Theology: Slavoj Zizek, Quietism and Pink Dandelion
• (un)Programmed: Towards the Program of the Spirit | YQ Article
• Orthodoxy As An Event and Questions About a Quaker Orthodoxy
• Tradition, Mission and Innovation (OYM)
• Convergent Friendship and Playing With the ‘Other’ Kids
• Loving Ourselves To Death? A Theological Reflection of Jesus, Self-Love and Modernity

Reviews:

• Relient K’s New Album Five Score and Seven Years Ago
• Review of Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited
• Reading for Revolution – George Barna and the Emerging Church
• Book Review on Brian McLaren’s “The Secret Message of Jesus??? (A guest post by Jarrod McKenna)

And as always, I try and keep up with posts that become popular for one reason or another, which can be found on the Featured Articles page.