Often other people say things and I think, I wish I had said that! So, I would like to redirect your attention to some excellent recent posts in the world of blogging:

• Steven Manskar at Accountable Discipleship makes a powerful case for returning to our Wesleyan DNA, which is essentially missional.
• Andrew Thompson at Gen-X Rising discusse the importance of small group accountability, specifically the role that that Covenant Discipleship has played in his own spiritual growth.
• Andrew Conard at Thoughts of Resurrection writes about a strategy for getting 20 somethings to go to church.
• Do you know your Methodist History? Take Michelle’s United Methodist Quiz at 33 Names of Grace.

What are you still doing here? You have a lot of reading to do!

I opened my inbox and to my delight had a message “Yancey: Wesley’s England.” I almost deleted it before it sunk in. The email is the daily CHRISTIANITY TODAY email. Yancey talks about reading Wesley’s journal on a recent trip to England. He compares his relatively comfortable experience traveling though England to Wesley’s much different experience. He also mildly criticizes Wesley, writing in the margins of Wesley’s Journal, “Lighten up, John!” It is an interesting and thought provoking piece, that is worth taking three minutes to read.

For those of you who do read, what is your reaction to Yancey’s take on Wesley?

Fall

Originally uploaded by deeplycommitted

I had the best of intentions to take pictures of the beautiful fall foliage all week last week. I didn’t get to it until this afternoon, which means that many of the leaves had fallen off. However, there were still some pretty spectacular leaves. This picture was my favorite of the group I took the afternoon.

Every year I seem to appreciate the beauty and rhythm of the changing seasons more. I hope it has been a beautiful fall wherever you are too!

This week’s Friday Shout Out goes out to Baby Watson!  In case you missed it, Melissa and I are expecting our first child this coming April.  Today is our first ultrasound and we are supposed to get to find out the big question:  Is it a boy or a girl?  So Baby Watson, are you my son or my daughter?  Stay Tuned…

I just got back from charge conference a few minutes ago.  Everything went smoothly.

We survived!

Praise the Lord!

I have noticed a lot of people posting a badge on their blog that it is an indicator of how readable their blog is. You type the url for your blog and then in about three seconds a badge pops up that tells you what reading level you are.

I think this is bunk.

I entered the url of my blog a few days ago and it said elementary reading level. I was surprised, but I thought, well at least that means people should be able to understand what I am trying to say.

I entered the url of my blog again today, after seeing it again on someone’s blog and I got a different answer:

So, I guess I have gotten smarter in a week, or I write smarter…

So then I decided to try another experiment, I entered the url of my old blog (this blog contains all of those old posts, it just has the new ones as well. So you would think it would be a fairly similar writing style.) And I got this very different result:

So, the trajectory of my writing is that I started out really smart, then I dramatically regressed, and then I made some improvement. I am being overly dramatic. The point is, I think this is fun, but that it really isn’t saying anything.

But yeah, go ahead and click on the link to see what reading level your blog is, you know you want to…

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection’s Wesley Academy with Dr. Doug Strong. I deeply enjoyed the time I spent with the men and women in this class. Their passion for renewal and their commitment was inspirational. I also enjoyed the opportunity to teach part of the class. It is always exciting for me to be able to share with people about the distinct and very important contribution that Wesleyan theology has to make to the church.

I also was able to break bread with Doug and Andrew and Nicole Conard. Andrew and Nicole are fellow Wesley Theological Seminary graduates. It is always a blessing to reconnect with them. I always leave feeling excited and thankful that the United Methodist Church has been gifted with people like Andrew and Nicole.

I noticed Andrew graciously posted about our time together as well at Thoughts of Resurrection. Thanks, Andrew.

I woke up this morning tired from a very full weekend, but also thankful for the ways I was able to sense God’s presence and movement in the United Methodist Church.

I just might be the luckiest man alive. The last Sunday in October my church recognized pastor appreciation month and gave me a generous gift card to a nearby Christian bookstore. This was heart warming because it means that they “get” me, the realize that I can never have too many books! I stopped by last week and ordered a few books they didn’t have in stock, but I had really been wanting to read. And while I was there I noticed a few CDs that I thought I would check out, since I had this gift card burning a hole in my pocked.

Here is what I got:

(You’ve already heard a lot about this one)

(I am really excited about this one)

and:

(this is an Advent/Christmas devotional)

and two great CDs!

Caedmon’s Call’s newest (Derek Webb is back!)

Last but not least, Switchfoot’s Oh! Gravity

And the gift card still has some money left on it! Christmas in October!

In my previous post I mentioned a conversation that was interesting. The conversation is about concealed weapon permits and the need to put up signs in order for people to not be able to bring concealed weapons into church buildings. Andrew Conard at Thoughts of Resurrection began the conversation with this post. I have definitely learned something from the conversation.

I just realized this morning while reading a discussion on someone else’s blog where I previously left a comment that my name did not have a link to my blog. I was reading this very interesting conversation, and then it occurred to me, hey why is everyone else’s name blue, and mine is black. Oh, because my name is not a link to my blog…

I must be in need of some humbling…

Makes me wonder what other basic mistakes I am making.

Feeling like a doofus,

Kevin

Oh, wait, I mean…

Kevin