A Month Away: My Sabbatical Journey

It has been more than a few days since my last post.  To be someone that is supposed to be away I have been very busy. As noted I helped conduct the funeral for Mr. Aaron Peterson.  Being gone does not preclude me from having to do funerals. It was not a somber affair.  As I told his son, Bobby, Mr. Aaron lived his funeral.  All we did on Saturday was to remember him. Charles Johnson, the pastor that preceded me at Temple, spoke.  Also Mr. Aaron's grandson, Brian. My message focused in on a phrase Mr. Aaron used.  No matter who you were, no matter how small a service you rendered to him, he would always say, "I want to thank you for your kindness." That phrase made me think of where that came from in his life.  My conclusion was that Mr. Aaron took seriously what it said in Genesis 1.  There we are told:                       ...

I have not been at Duke in the last few days.  Part of it is that Friday is, as is well known in my household, movie day. Friday I went to see "Parasite" for the second time.  It still stuck with its power.  Power that comes when we humans get in what the father, Kim Ki-taek, called "plans."  He always had a plan and those plans generally did not end up well.  Someone said that plans often go astray. "Parasite" was a fitting winner of the Oscar for Best Picture. Saturday was a bittersweet day.  Our younger son, Weston, and his girl friend, Zoe, left to go back to Washington state.  Melody wept.  I had, but it was Friday when I talked to them both about leaving.  I told them I wanted them to find a place where they could put down roots.  I told them that my desire is for them to find a place to get established and that will make them happy.  And I prayed with them.  I prayed for their safety as they traveled.  My pe...

Today I had a meeting with Scott Hudgins.  Scott is the program director for the "Helping Pastors Thrive" program that I am a part of.  I spent most of the day in the Divinity School library and ended with my conversation with Scott.  We sat down to talk over how the days have progressed and what was my experience so far.  I told him that after the debacle of the Duke ID that things leveled off nicely.  There is still the feeling of not getting my legs under me. A big part of that is I have a routine at church.  There is an established rhythm to my week.  I know from moment to moment how my week is going to be and what is expected of me.  Not being at church is a strange feeling.  I have been at this for over 30 years and never had the experience of "time away" like this.  It does not feel like vacation, but it does not feel like my usual week.  But slowly I am finding my way.  Scott was on the board for the Baptist...

I begin with a story I heard Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes tell before a sermon he delivered one year at the Evangelism Conference of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. There was a preacher that decided he would attend the Westminister Dog Show.   He not only attended, but he brought a dog he found in the streets outside of Madison Square Garden.  This dog was a mutt and he went into the arena and did some things you might expect a mutt to do.  The dog used the arena floor to empty its bowels.  It ran wild and did not show proper respect for the event.  Those running the event pulled the preacher aside and asked him why he brought such an animal into that high event that was the Westminister Dog Show?  The preacher responded, "Well, I thought the exposure would do him good." That is what I see about my time at Duke.  Today, Jim Wallis came to talk about his work and the latest book he published entitled, "Christ in Crisis: ...

I returned to Callie Davis’ office on Tuesday morning.  The task was to get to the much coveted and needed Duke ID. She called the IT office and spoke to someone that attempted to get me to the point of changing my name from my preferred name of Michael to my given name, John. As I noted yesterday, I could not get logged into the Duke Hub portal to do anything.  The log on information I used, that I set up, kept kicking me out of the system. The IT person said that I had to log on to get to the place where I could change my name.  To do that, I had to change my password.  For the record, I changed my password on Monday to no avail. It took a bit of trying, but we got the password changed.  Then I was instructed to go to subpage on my profile.  There I could change my name from the present Michael to the needed John.  This was done and off I went to get my Duke ID. Before I left, Callie said I should take a screen shot of the monitor where it ...

Day one: My sabbatical is with Duke Divinity School through the Baptist House of Studies.  This has been made possible through Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s “Helping Pastor’s Thrive” program.  I will be on study leave for a month. Now that I got the commercial piece over, lets talk about how this day went.  It was not fun. I arrived at Duke Monday morning, not really knowing what this would be like.  It has been kind of nebulous what I am to do.  I am being sponsored as a “scholar in residence.”  That a buck will get you a cup of coffee at McDonald’s. When I got here I had to get a Duke ID in order to do anything.  To help you understand the rest of this, I need to tell you a story. When I was born, my mother named me John Michael Parnell.  My first name is my father’s and my mother wanted to name me Michael.  Michael must have been that time’s Noah or Liam.  But she wanted me to go by my middle name. No ...