This Past Weekend and Such

This past Sunday could most accurately be described as my initiation as pastoral intern at PMC. I began teaching my adult Sunday school class and delivered my first sermon. It was taken out of the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians and was entitled "Fulfilling Our Purpose to Achieve Community". It seemed to go well overall, and if you would like to see my notes on it then click here (hopefully this link works).

So I'm very much enjoying my time here in Pittsburgh. This city specifically has an interesting dynamic because it has all the really neat opportunities and venues that a big city has, but there's still the ability to feel at home in a smaller community. Pittsburgh is arranged in neighborhoods; there's roughly 90 of them from what I understand, so it's easy to establish yourself in a neighborhood and really feel at home there. Plus, I just like the city. It's different than what I'm used to. And there's so much potential and opportunity to do good things here in terms of what I would call my life mission: trying to make a difference by doing good to others, letting others make a difference in my life, and living according to my Christian values. It seems kind of early to say right now, but I could honestly see myself being happy here for a while (whatever time frame describes a "while" I'm not sure).

Dining Room Table

Our house, which started out a little rough, is beginning to find its niche as our home. I thought I would share a few pictures. Pictures are good...but I need to develop the habit of taking them more often.

My Room

                                         

                             




Also, Joey and I decided to make use of a stale loaf of bread tonight by making bread pudding. We really didn't know what we were doing, but we found a recipe online and went to town with it - making up measurements and throwing in whatever ingredients we thought would be good. It turned out to be delicious.

Finally, here are my fellow PULSErs on the day we went to see a Pirates game a couple weeks ago. Such a good group of people :)

                                        

Music on the Porch

The church at which I work - Pittsburgh Mennonite Church - has an annual retreat which I attended this weekend. It was a combination of lots of food, music, games, camp fires, workshops, old men snoring obnoxiously, and most importantly meeting lots of new people and building relationships. Oh, and there were handfuls of young children running around which made me seriously question whether I ever want to have youngsters of my own. Engaging in all the activities at the retreat was somewhat exhausting, but I'm pleased to have been able to fellowship with my new church congregation and get to know some of them better.

I arrived home from the retreat this afternoon around 2 pm ready to take a nap (I'm usually pretty religious about Sunday afternoon naps) but quickly became engaged in a number of activities. I folded laundry, put together a compost receptacle, chopped and raked weeds in the backyard, stopped up a pesky groundhog hole, and grocery shopped. Anyone who knows me would understand the deep satisfaction I felt after  accomplishing such a list of tasks (and if you didn't already know that about me, then you do now!).

The culmination of my weekend occurred this evening on our front porch where my housemate, Joey, and I played music for a while. We started out playing alone, but after our second song we heard shouting and applause from our neighbors who had, unbeknownst to us, been listening. It was cool to exchange a few words with some of them. Everyone seems really nice and I hope we can spend some more time with our neighbors in the future. It's an interesting dynamic being four young white kids living in the midst of a black community, but it's good. People are cool. People have lots of stories. People are different than you. People teach one another, challenge one another, help one another, and love one another. I continue to have these neat experiences that make me excited for the next ten months and draw me closer to falling in love with this city, embracing all of its potential and opportunity.

An Ecumenical Weekend

Ecumenism means something along the lines of promoting unity and understanding among churches and denominations; perhaps working towards a worldwide church. I chose this word to describe my weekend because I was able to participate in two different religious experiences. Saturday afternoon I attended St. Lawrence O'Toole, a Catholic parish located a couple blocks from my house, and today I attended the church at which I work, Pittsburgh Mennonite Church.

I've never experienced a Catholic mass before and I was pretty excited to go with my housemate, Sarah. Here are a few observations and reflections:

1. The pianist played her small upright piano like she was playing a concert grand, and mixed with her sister's obnoxiously loud, pitchy singing it was quite entertaining.
2. This really cool Benedictine monk gave the homily, but unfortunately I couldn't understand what he was saying because of his mumbling, the poor acoustics and outdated sound system.
3. I really liked the liturgy that was incorporated throughout the service. Liturgy is good because it accurately, thoughtfully and creatively articulates the theology about which it speaks.

If I had the chance to attend a Catholic mass again I would. I enjoy worshipping with different congregations and seeing how they do things when it comes to church. And Catholicism isn't a bad thing. One of my pet peeves is listening to Christians talk negatively about Catholicism. They're both Christian. They both have their origins in the catholic church that existed prior to the Reformations.

Today I attended a Mennonite service (which I'm admittedly more familiar with), and it was interesting because today is 9/11. The service was dedicated to the remembrance of and lamenting for those who lost their lives ten years ago and their families. Again, a decent amount of litany was used and we sang a number of good songs (which is always good because Mennonites sing together very well). The service was definitely presented from a non-violent, anti-war position that advocated peace making through non-violent means. And the focus of one of the reflections on 9/11 given was, "[As a county] We turned to the flag instead of the cross." I understand the thought behind this quote, but I can easily see how it could be disagreeable with someone not familiar with the Mennonite peace tradition and strong belief in separation of church and state.

Both services had interesting qualities and elements of worship. I enjoyed my experience at both, and I strongly advocate the practice of worshipping with different congregations. It's always an enlightening experience, and, I would say, a good practice.

Hello Pittsburgh!

A week and three days ago I initiated the next step in my life's journey. With our vehicles packed mom, Mike and I tiresomely made our way across the state of Ohio towards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I say tiresomely because a surprise basement flood the previous night had demanded our attention until 2 am. Despite this inconvenience we safely made it to my new home in the Garfield neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

As we approached the house, the looks on my parents' faces could best be described as leery, slightly worried, and "son, are you sure you want us to leave you here?" The house had been renovated over the previous few weeks to move in and was barely finished in time for its new tenants. The inside of the house proved to be more promising than the somewhat dilapidated external appearance though, and for this I was thankful...for the sakes of my parents. We moved my possessions into my upstairs bedroom, went to grab an overdue lunch, and said our goodbyes.

I guess I could continue with a really long narrative, but I should probably just cut to the chase for brevity's sake. What am I doing in Pittsburgh? I'm doing non-profit work through an organization called PULSE which stands for Pittsburgh Urban Leadership and Service Experience. There are two components to this program. One in living in intentional community with other participants in the program and the other is doing work at a non-profit organization. Both of these components seek to cultivate a community of young servant leaders to transform Pittsburgh. Instead of seeing the city in a way that focuses on its flaws and what it is not, PULSE encourages its participants to see the city in a way that emphasizes its potential and what it can be when people work together to bring peace and hope to their surrounding communities. I'm drawn to this mission because it closely relates to my own outlook on life which is to learn to see the good in the places and people around me. I'm sure this theme will appear again in later posts.

There are twelve PULSErs in the program this year - eight living together in one house and four in the other. I live in the four person house and I love my three housemates, Sara, Joey, and Jenny. All twelve participants are really cool people, but I'll be getting to know those three individuals particularly well since I'll be living with them. The four of us come from diverse religious backgrounds: Sara was raised Catholic, Joey is Jewish, Jenny is Mennonite, and I was raised in the Church of God (though people say I should be Mennonite since I studied Mennonite history and theology). But this diversity makes for really interesting and enlightening religious conversations. We also all enjoy playing music. Particularly Joey and me. So far the four of us have worked really well together and I'm looking forward to getting to know them through our experiences this coming year.

The non-profit job that I have is at Pittsburgh Mennonite Church where I am the pastoral intern. My first day was yesterday and it went very well. I'll be working with them in the areas of worship leading, music, preaching, teaching and community outreach. I'm very excited to see what things I learn through working with this congregation over the next year.

When I came to Pittsburgh I was slightly nervous about what I was getting into. Would I like the city? Would I get along with my housemates? What would my internship be like? Would I be happy? After being here a week and learning about the city and meeting my housemates that nervousness was alleviated. I really like Pittsburgh. There are so many opportunities to do good things within the city; so many good people to meet; and so much potential. I know this is going to be a great learning and life building experience for me. I also have this philosophy that no matter what you're doing or where you are, you are the deciding factor in how much you learn from and enjoy that particular experience. In other words, your attitude and outlook make the experience; not vice versa. So I'm positive about my upcoming year in Pittsburgh! It's going to be great and I'm going to make the most of whatever comes my way. Practicing love, sowing peace, showing compassion and spreading hope will be key to this. To steal a line from the one of the songs of my favorite band, "In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."

Here are some websites I encourage you to check out:
http://www.pulsepittsburgh.org/
http://pittsburghmennonite.org/