Facet 22- Ordination

On July 22, 2007 one of my lifelong dreams came true. I became an ordained minister. I was called to Trinity Lutheran Church, in Silver creek, NY.

I was ordained at my home church, Ascension Lutheran Church in St. Louis. The goegeous lady in the one pic is the GF. That's actually my favorite picture of us together. She's the absolute best!

In the other pic, you can see the participating fellow pastors. All of them are labeled below.

The whole service was very beautiful. I just thank God that he has called me into this career. To me, there's no better job in the world.

The participants
(top row)
Rev. Doug Hoag, reader
Rev. Dr. Richard LaBore, preacher
Rev. Ron Rall, assisting minister
Rev. Bill Wilson, assisting minister

(bottom row)
Rev. Dr. Otto Hintze, assisting minister
Rev. Lee "The Boss" Jany, reader
Rev. Chris Agne, me
Rev. Gary Lampe, reader
Rev. Charles Spomer, liturgist and ordinator

Facet 21- The Twilight Zone

Rod Serling, to me, is a genius. Sure some of the episodes are predictable, and perhaps even trite at times, but I don't think that makes them any less enjoyable. Besides, some of them make good sermon illustrations.

A precursor to the X-Files and similar shows, Serling tapped into an integral and interesting part of the human psyche. It really was a "dimension, not just of sight and sound, but of mind." Part of what made the show successful, in my opinion, is that it allowed people to be scared and weirded-out, but in a good way. After all, at the time in US history, look at what was going on: WWII was over, the crash of something at Roswell, Communism (both as a real and perceived threat), the beginning of the escalation of the Vietnam conflict, the advent of Rock 'n' Roll, the rise of the military-industrial complex, the beginnings of the Civil Rights, and the early Beat poetry and movement. All important incidents in American society. With all that going on, Americans needed a diversion. Lucille Ball and other talented folks provided this necessary diversion through comedy. Rod Serling did it by being a bit more cerebral.

It's fun to be scared sometimes. That's one reason that our celebrations of Halloween are as fun, enjoyable, and profitable as they are. But there's enough to be scared of in our daily existences, that we sometimes need people like Rod Serling to remind us of appropriate expressions of fear, and to be scared of the right things.
That's reality. Not the Twilight Zone.

OK, I'm back!

Sorry about the excessively long absence. Much has happened in the months since my last post on here. If you were a regular loyal reader, I sincerely apologize for my lack of posting. Hopefully, you didn't take it personally. Also, I hope you've been creating your own list of Facets of Affirmation for your life.

Anyway, I will be posting on here much more regularly.

If you want to see how a blog like this is supposed to be run, and what that really should look like, check out the GF's blog. It's the link at the bottom of the page labled "My Sweetheart's Blog." If you like this one, give that a spin. It's waaaayyy better. Mostly because she updates it much more regularly, and because she is such a wonderful person with a fantastic variety of her own facets.