Welcome to 2008!

2007 is behind us, and 2008 is here. I trust it will be wonderful year for all of us, even if we do have to endure the final months of the presidential race…ha ha. At least we have the Summer Olympics to look forward to.

I generally do not make New Year’s Resolutions, but I do make a small list of big things I want to accomplish in the year ahead. Here are a few of them:

• Graduate from Seminary. If all goes well, this shouldn’t be a problem. The biggest hurdle right now is finishing my thesis. I am writing on the concept of honor and shame in the New Testament. It is very fascinating and has incredible ramifications for how we read the New Testament, and how we understand eternal reward. I will post more about this eventually. I have 14 days to write about 20 more pages. The challenge isn’t the 20 pages, but keeping myself to only 20 more pages. In those 20 pages, I have to explain about 14 passages. That’s going to be a trick.
• Adopt Arianna from Guatemala. As I’ve posted previously, we are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Guatemala. We have so many prayer requests and needs for this process that it is hard to get my mind around them all. The US and Guatemalan governments needs to change their adoption laws, paperwork needs to be completed, funds need to be raised, and a million little details all need to come together. It is one of the biggest faith-growing adventures we have ever embarked upon. We are hoping to have Arianna in our home by Christmas of 2008, but this will only happen through much divine intervention.
• Figure out if now is the time to go into church planting. I know that somehow, church planting is in my future. I am not sure yet if I will be planting a church myself, or taking a church that plants churches, or just helping others plant churches. This year, I hope to gain some direction on all of that. If I am going to plant a church or pastor an established church that wants to plant churches, I am not sure this will happen in 2008. But I need to plan and prepare and stay ready for the time when God says “Go.” It may be this year!

2012 Update: The links above were added well after this post was written. I did finish my Thesis, but only because one of my Thesis readers didn’t have time to read it. He told me about six months later that if he had read it before I graduated, he would have failed me. Nice, huh? 

We were not able to finalize our adoption of Arianna. Guatemala closed down adoptions, and so far, has not reopened. In some ways, we still feel like one of our daughters is out there, waiting for parents who never came…. It was heart breaking for us. 

I am kind of planting a church. Or kind of not. You would have to read most of my posts from 2009 to the present to know more about what I am talking about. In these three years, my thinking about church has radically changed…