Vicarage Assignment

I have been assigned to Shepherd of the Coast Lutheran Church in Palm Coast, Florida. We're really excited about sharing our vicarage year with this congregation and can't wait to get there. We will begin August 1st. We thank God for the commitment of all those involved in the placement process (it was a lot of vicars for them to juggle) and we thank Him for this wonderful opportunity. We'll post more information about the congregation and move as we learn more.

Call Day 2006

Here is the page where you can get audio or video of the call day services. I will recieve my vicarage assignment at the first service which is at 3:00 p.m. (Central Time). All the information you need should be at this page. There is an audio test link and the video test link should be added soon. Jen and I are really looking forward to finding out where we'll be moving.

HAPPY EASTER FROM BENJAMIN

"CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA!"

"He has risen; He is not here!" Mark 16:6

This day we remember how Jesus defeated sin, death and the devil by rising from the grave. May our hearts and minds continue to be renewed in this blessed gift each and every day. We pray that our risen Lord and Savior may strengthen and keep all of you in true faith in Him. "He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"

A Response to the Gospel of Judas and Gnosticism

If anyone is interested in hearing discussion about the Gospel of Judas two of our exegetical professors, James Voelz and Jeffery Kloha, presented on the topic on Monday. I had Dr. Voelz for Lectionary Readings last quarter and am taking Synoptic Gospels with him this quarter. Professor Kloha was my instructor for Hermeneutics and the Pauline Epistles. Both are excellent teachers and I think it would benefit anyone to listen to this lecture. Dr. Voelz addressed many of these topics in our last lecture and I really enjoyed it. Here is a link to the page where you can download the mp3 files.

The following issues are addressed: 1) How the manuscript is portrayed in the media; 2) Basic features of the manuscript; 3) Gnosticism as a point of reference for the manuscript; and, 4) The manuscript and canonicity.

Worship Service & Vicarage Assignments

News Details Call day is on April 25th and we will find out where my vicarage assignment is. There will be a worship service at 3:00 pm where all the seminarians will receive their assignments. It will be webcast, so if you are interested I will post the link to where you will be able to stream it as soon as it comes available (it should be at least a week in advance). From there you will be able to find out what software you need for the webcast. I think they will be using Realplayer, but I'm not sure. Click the link above if you want to read further details. Jen and I are getting really excited anticipating this day. We hope everyone is doing well. God bless.

A Birthday Surprise

So my seminary friend and co-worker in I.S. Joel Brandt decided he needed to find a way to bring his brother's birthday to the attention of the entire seminary. His brother Chris is a full-time employee and also a seminarian. So what better way to grab Chris' attention then to fill his office with 500 balloons. The before and after pictures are below. Joel emailed them to all faculty and staff of the seminary. Since then Chris' email and voicemail has been filled with well over 50 happy birthday messages. Look how proud Joel is of his work!

A Little Smile

[I suggest viewing any videos I post within my Blog rather than going to the video site. Some of these sites can contain objectionable material. If you do go to the site it's simple, don't click on anything that looks objectionable ;).]

Test Video

I'm testing out streaming videos to the blog. I had planned to send each set of grandparents a personalized video, but the file size was too large for email. (So don't worry G-ma and G-pa Estes you'll get a personalized message on the blog sometime also.) Just click the play button on the center of the picture to watch the video. Ben was about 4 weeks old in this video. I hope to get some of him smiling this week. [I suggest viewing any videos I post within my Blog rather than going to the video site. Some of these sites can contain objectionable material. If you do go to the site it's simple, don't click on anything that looks objectionable ;).]

Six Weeks

Ben is six weeks old now. He was really smiley this morning, but once I got the camera he would only give me little grins.