I know I am a bit late for 2007 year in review reflections. However, I need to do something to get my mind of the embarrassment that OU suffered in its blowout loss to West Virginia last night. (Seriously, what was that onside kick in the 3rd quarter about?) So, I am focusing on something pleasant this morning, the five best books I read in 2007. Here they are:

1. The Religion of the Heart – Ted A. Campbell
2. Restoring Methodism: 10 Decisions for United Methodist Churches in America – Jim and Molly Scott
3. The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace – Kenneth J. Collins
4. Irresistible Revolution – Shaine Claiborne
5. Simple Church – Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger

What were the 5 best books you read in 2007?

I had a great Christmas and was blessed to get to spend time with both sides of my family. It was also a bit tiring as we were on the go quite a bit. I started to post some of my thoughts about 2008, but for some reason my editor keeps removing all of the indents and line spaces that are normally automatic. I was starting to get very frustrated. So, I am changing pace and will just say that I am looking forward – after a nice break – to getting back into the swing of things.

I will try again tomorrow, and hope that the blogging gremlins have gone away. Hope your 2008 is off to a great start!

Saint Paul School of Theology has recently announced a D.Min. track that will start in January of 2009 in Wesleyan Spirituality, Leadership, and Church Renewal. I was excited to see that Dr. Henry H. Knight III will be one of the lead faculty for the track. Knight has authored two excellent books that are directly related to this track: Eight Life-Enriching Practices of United Methodists and Transforming Evangelism: The Wesleyan Way of Sharing Faith (with F. Douglas Powe, Jr.).

The description of the program looks very good. You can check out the full program flyer here.

I am excited to see Saint Paul doing something like this.

Have any of you heard any more about this program?

I am in over my head. I try not to focus on stats and traffic too much or for the wrong reasons. But, it bothers me when it seems like something could be wrong that is affecting my blog’s ability to communicate effectively. I have wondered for more than a month if something is not right. My subscription rate on feedburner is very low, and when it goes up it usually drops back down again quickly within 24 hours. My info on technorati is often messed up too. I just checked my blog on technorati and my authority had gone down, the latest posts category was not in chronological order, and often the most recent incoming links come and go (i.e. sometimes they are there, sometimes they are not). I have a feeling something is not right with my feed, but I have no idea what it would be or how I would fix it if it were…

Please help! For those of you who are much more tech-savvy than I am, if you have any advice, suggestions, anything… I would appreciate it. Or, if in looking at my blog, you determine that everything is working exactly as it should and I am just not getting very much traffic, at least then I can shake this feeling that something is wrong.

Thanks for your help.

We have been very blessed here in Lamont. Depending on which news reports you listen to, between 500,000 and 250,000 people were without power this morning in Oklahoma. We had a substantial amount of rain last night, and the wonderful thing was the temperature actually rose slightly last night. So, it really was just rain, and not freezing rain.

We still don’t have heat in the parsonage, but with four space heaters throughout the house, we are staying pretty warm. I am thankful this morning for electricity!

In my post yesterday, my original intent was to reflect a bit on leading worship on a day where winter weather kept many people from attending worship. (I was distracted by the picture of McFarlin I stumbled across on MSNBC…) Our attendance on Sunday was somewhere around 45, which was actually better than I was anticipating. That is about half of our average attendance. Our organist lives in a town to our west and our pianist is not comfortable getting out in icy conditions. (I think they both made the right decisions for their safety.) The interesting thing is this meant that we had no accompaniment. This made me realize how blessed we are to have such gifted folks leading us in our musical worship. But I also found that singing without accompaniment helped me to hear the words in a different way.

Finally, as we were singing our final hymn, I looked out at the congregation and I thought about the many people who wanted to be in worship, but just didn’t feel like they could get there safely. (Of course there were probably some who could have easily made it, but the weather provided a good excuse to sleep in.) But many of our older members just don’t feel sure-footed enough to get out when there is so much ice. I couldn’t help but think that we were worshiping God, not just on our own, but on their behalf as well. We were carrying on the church’s witness to God in the absence of those who could not be there. In reality, we do this every week, but it was particularly evident this Sunday when the weather kept so many folks away. It made me realize that when there is inclement weather, for those who are able to make it to worship, it is their privilege to carry on the whole church’s task of worshiping God.

I thank God for showing me blessings in the midst of difficult situations!

The weather here in Oklahoma has been crazy. I woke up Sunday morning to a phone call from our church’s organist saying that she would not be able to make the drive in to church. I looked outside, and immediately understood why she would not be able to make the 12 mile drive, everything was covered in a thick layer of ice.

During the day, we didn’t get too much more ice, but south of here in both Tulsa where my parents are and in Norman where my wife’s parents are, they got much more. The picture I have included is from an MSNBC news story posted this morning about the storm. The structure in the picture is of McFarlin UMC, the church that I received my calling to ordained ministry in. So, if there is a plus side in all of this, McFarlin is famous!

Meanwhile, Oklahoma City has received a half inch of ice so far and forecasters are predicting another half inch. Our heater quit working yesterday afternoon, so we are pretty cold, but I can’t imagine how much worse it would be without the electricity that powers the space heaters we have running.

Please pray with me for all the people without power in this very cold weather.