I took two classes in Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin TX. We discussed of the contents in the text book, "Ministry in the New Testament" written by David L. Bartlett. In the other class, we discussed of the book "Pastor" written by Wiliam H. Willimon.
Prof. Jinkins introduce the book, "Ministry in the New Testament" as the greatest book that he has ever read in the point of view that the role of ministry is very well explained in relation with the New Testament.
Prof. Zbinden in the other class strongly recommended another text book, "Ministry Loves Company" wirtten by John Galloway Jr. He said that this book is the best of the bests regarding ministy he had ever read through his 40 years ministry.
Ministry and pastoral leadership! It's great challenge!
Thank you for your reading this section and God bless you.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Approval to audit 2 classes
I got an approval to audit two classes from Austin Presbyterian Thological Seminary.
Two classes are as follows:
1) Church Management and 2) Pastoral Leadership.
I took the class, "Church Management" on Monday 2:30-5:20 pm. I also took another class on the next day 1:00-2:20 pm.
Lecture were both good. One class (18 students) is processed while the professor asked qustions to students one by one. The other is processed by the professor's lecture. Lots of readings and hand-outs! So I come to be so busy.
Pastors have to try to listen to every person. This is the way they really be with them. And that's the pastor. Some times pastor need to express the anger. However, in this case, he or she has to show anger without being angry.
Balance is so important. In golf, swinging the club and keeping balance are always important. Likewise, in pastoral care, balance is sooooo important.
Do not just read the Bilbe to your people. You, just, image what it means to your people. (Application is important.)
Thisk about this.
Jesus died for us, raised for us. And Jesus condemn us.
Wisdom is the way of experience. Wistom is not just experience. is not systemic
and so on, and so on. . . .
Two classes are as follows:
1) Church Management and 2) Pastoral Leadership.
I took the class, "Church Management" on Monday 2:30-5:20 pm. I also took another class on the next day 1:00-2:20 pm.
Lecture were both good. One class (18 students) is processed while the professor asked qustions to students one by one. The other is processed by the professor's lecture. Lots of readings and hand-outs! So I come to be so busy.
Pastors have to try to listen to every person. This is the way they really be with them. And that's the pastor. Some times pastor need to express the anger. However, in this case, he or she has to show anger without being angry.
Balance is so important. In golf, swinging the club and keeping balance are always important. Likewise, in pastoral care, balance is sooooo important.
Do not just read the Bilbe to your people. You, just, image what it means to your people. (Application is important.)
Thisk about this.
Jesus died for us, raised for us. And Jesus condemn us.
Wisdom is the way of experience. Wistom is not just experience. is not systemic
and so on, and so on. . . .
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Byoungmun-Babettei's Feast
I borrowed a very good movie from Austin Seminary to enjoy again. I saw this movie eleven years ago and made an essay at that time. This time, I really enjoyed this movie once more. I would like to strongly recommend you this movie and to share my essay as well.
In the film, Babette¡¯s Feast, meals have significant meaning as ritual events. I wanted to discuss the nature of meals as human action and experience shown in the fictional meal of Babette¡¯s Feast: food sharing, relationships, roles, and all the dimensions of the event of a meal. I tried to dig out the valuable lessons from of the characteristics, history, memories, and hopes of the people at the meals shown in this film.
The story in this particular film, Babette¡¯s Feast, begins in the remote coast of Jutland where a well-respected priest lived with two daughters named Martina and Philippa. They led their faithful lives and regularly had a holy supper with the disciples of this prophet. This supper could be compared to the Lord¡¯s Supper. A young, ambitious officer, Lorens Lowehielm, visited this pious village and joined in this pious supper. However, Lorens went back to his secular world of prestige. Later, after Lorens became a general, he asked himself whether he had chosen the right way or not. A year later, a famous singer from Paris, Achille Papin, visited this totally unspoiled coastal land to have a rest filled with fresh air, and this gentleman met Philippa, who had the most beautiful soprano voice that Achille had ever heard. Achille tried to take Philippa along with him to Paris as his hope of fame but failed. He alone went back to Paris.
After the minister¡¯s death, the supper was still served among his disciples; however, these once very religious people showed themselves to be somewhat testy and quarrelsome during dinner time, which might have been pious if the priest were there; furthermore, sometimes small schisms would erupt among the congregation.
Many years later, on a September night in 1871, Martina and Philippa received a letter from Achille Papin, introducing Babette. In this letter, Achille reflected on his whole life in Paris. Having felt himself a lonely, graying old man, forgotten by those who once applauded and adored him, Achille came to put his hope in Paradise rather than in secular fame. Achille¡¯s memory of these elegant ladies brought Madame Babette to the coast of Jutland in Denmark, and Babette worked as a servant for fourteen years. Therefore, in this particular movie, Babette¡¯s Feast, Madame Babette could be Achille¡¯s other self, who was to turn his face to God and away from vainly secular fame and reputation.
When Babette won the lottery, she wanted to prepare the celebration dinner for the minister¡¯s hundredth birthday by herself and got the approval from the two pious ladies. The dinner was reserved for twelve, just like the Lord¡¯s Supper for twelve disciples. All the processes that Babette prepared for the dinner to commemorate the priest¡¯s birthday looked like offerings of herself. She spent all the money she won in the lottery for this dinner. She prepared the best food she could ever have done. She carried the materials for the dinner very carefully; then, she pressed the table cover with an iron. All of these preparations showed how heartily Babette devoted herself to the supper.
Babette¡¯s feast began with the prayer using the minister¡¯s own words, ¡°May the bread nourish my body. May my body do my soul¡¯s bidding. May my soul rise up to serve God eternally. Amen!¡± This evokes Jesus¡¯ words in the Lord¡¯s Supper, ¡°Take, eat; this is My body. Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:26-28).¡±
As Babette¡¯s feast continued, all the participants became gentle and mild. They had once squabbled with each other at the dinner table after the priest¡¯s death and before Babette¡¯s feast, but now they came to enjoy the dinner with good memories of the Priest¡¯s sermon as the general, Lorens, toasted with words. This particular film dramatically shows how Babette¡¯s feast has changed a stubborn atmosphere to a comfortable one. No, rather, I can say this feast has created the utmost lovely relationship among the participators. The author represented this transformation through the general¡¯s speech, saying, ¡°We were served ¡®Calilles en Sarcophage?a dish of the chef¡¯s own creation. The chef, surprisingly enough was a woman who had the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair?a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite.¡± In this particular movie, Babette¡¯s Feast, meals have been provided several times, and as time went by, all the spiritual movement gradually has been restored. The highlight of this lovely, gentle feast was culminated in the general¡¯s sermon, which was similar to and in some part the same as the Priest¡¯s, ¡°Man and his weakness believes he must make choices in his life¡¦ Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when your eyes are opened. Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted¡¦ For mercy and truth are met together. And righteousness and bliss shall kiss each other.¡± In this particular film, the author used the method of ¡°contrast¡± to show the audience that Babette¡¯s Feast really had a certain power and ability to renew everybody. During and after Babette¡¯s dinner, relations among the people have been dramatically restored in the process of the change of a woman¡¯s attitude from quarrelsomeness to maidenliness, chatting about her remembrance of the unforgettable Christmas affairs. There was also the restoration of peace and brotherhood among the seniors. For another example, the general, Lorens, who once told Martina that he had learned life was hard and cruel in this coast of Jutland so that things were impossible, now was saying, ¡°In this beautiful world of ours, all things are possible.¡±
All members came to forgive and bless each other. The meeting dispersed with perfect satisfaction to all present. However, it was not the end. Rather, it was the beginning, and they will be granted everlasting peace in paradise.
In the film, Babette¡¯s Feast, meals have significant meaning as ritual events. I wanted to discuss the nature of meals as human action and experience shown in the fictional meal of Babette¡¯s Feast: food sharing, relationships, roles, and all the dimensions of the event of a meal. I tried to dig out the valuable lessons from of the characteristics, history, memories, and hopes of the people at the meals shown in this film.
The story in this particular film, Babette¡¯s Feast, begins in the remote coast of Jutland where a well-respected priest lived with two daughters named Martina and Philippa. They led their faithful lives and regularly had a holy supper with the disciples of this prophet. This supper could be compared to the Lord¡¯s Supper. A young, ambitious officer, Lorens Lowehielm, visited this pious village and joined in this pious supper. However, Lorens went back to his secular world of prestige. Later, after Lorens became a general, he asked himself whether he had chosen the right way or not. A year later, a famous singer from Paris, Achille Papin, visited this totally unspoiled coastal land to have a rest filled with fresh air, and this gentleman met Philippa, who had the most beautiful soprano voice that Achille had ever heard. Achille tried to take Philippa along with him to Paris as his hope of fame but failed. He alone went back to Paris.
After the minister¡¯s death, the supper was still served among his disciples; however, these once very religious people showed themselves to be somewhat testy and quarrelsome during dinner time, which might have been pious if the priest were there; furthermore, sometimes small schisms would erupt among the congregation.
Many years later, on a September night in 1871, Martina and Philippa received a letter from Achille Papin, introducing Babette. In this letter, Achille reflected on his whole life in Paris. Having felt himself a lonely, graying old man, forgotten by those who once applauded and adored him, Achille came to put his hope in Paradise rather than in secular fame. Achille¡¯s memory of these elegant ladies brought Madame Babette to the coast of Jutland in Denmark, and Babette worked as a servant for fourteen years. Therefore, in this particular movie, Babette¡¯s Feast, Madame Babette could be Achille¡¯s other self, who was to turn his face to God and away from vainly secular fame and reputation.
When Babette won the lottery, she wanted to prepare the celebration dinner for the minister¡¯s hundredth birthday by herself and got the approval from the two pious ladies. The dinner was reserved for twelve, just like the Lord¡¯s Supper for twelve disciples. All the processes that Babette prepared for the dinner to commemorate the priest¡¯s birthday looked like offerings of herself. She spent all the money she won in the lottery for this dinner. She prepared the best food she could ever have done. She carried the materials for the dinner very carefully; then, she pressed the table cover with an iron. All of these preparations showed how heartily Babette devoted herself to the supper.
Babette¡¯s feast began with the prayer using the minister¡¯s own words, ¡°May the bread nourish my body. May my body do my soul¡¯s bidding. May my soul rise up to serve God eternally. Amen!¡± This evokes Jesus¡¯ words in the Lord¡¯s Supper, ¡°Take, eat; this is My body. Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:26-28).¡±
As Babette¡¯s feast continued, all the participants became gentle and mild. They had once squabbled with each other at the dinner table after the priest¡¯s death and before Babette¡¯s feast, but now they came to enjoy the dinner with good memories of the Priest¡¯s sermon as the general, Lorens, toasted with words. This particular film dramatically shows how Babette¡¯s feast has changed a stubborn atmosphere to a comfortable one. No, rather, I can say this feast has created the utmost lovely relationship among the participators. The author represented this transformation through the general¡¯s speech, saying, ¡°We were served ¡®Calilles en Sarcophage?a dish of the chef¡¯s own creation. The chef, surprisingly enough was a woman who had the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair?a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite.¡± In this particular movie, Babette¡¯s Feast, meals have been provided several times, and as time went by, all the spiritual movement gradually has been restored. The highlight of this lovely, gentle feast was culminated in the general¡¯s sermon, which was similar to and in some part the same as the Priest¡¯s, ¡°Man and his weakness believes he must make choices in his life¡¦ Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when your eyes are opened. Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted¡¦ For mercy and truth are met together. And righteousness and bliss shall kiss each other.¡± In this particular film, the author used the method of ¡°contrast¡± to show the audience that Babette¡¯s Feast really had a certain power and ability to renew everybody. During and after Babette¡¯s dinner, relations among the people have been dramatically restored in the process of the change of a woman¡¯s attitude from quarrelsomeness to maidenliness, chatting about her remembrance of the unforgettable Christmas affairs. There was also the restoration of peace and brotherhood among the seniors. For another example, the general, Lorens, who once told Martina that he had learned life was hard and cruel in this coast of Jutland so that things were impossible, now was saying, ¡°In this beautiful world of ours, all things are possible.¡±
All members came to forgive and bless each other. The meeting dispersed with perfect satisfaction to all present. However, it was not the end. Rather, it was the beginning, and they will be granted everlasting peace in paradise.
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