Writing a New Psalm

Have you ever noticed the vast difference from one psalm to the next? The writers go from up to down, and everywhere in between. From shouts of praise to cries of abandonment. I always accepted the order without further thought. However, there is a great truth in this seemingly unstructured group.

Recently, Melanie and I have grown increasingly frustrated with situations in life. We felt a call to locate to Orlando from Wilmore, KY sometime around the new year of 2008. We prayed, consulted with friends and family, and finally made the move last summer. We understood certain elements of the move. We would live and work at the RM House, I would attend classes at the Orlando campus of Asbury, and Melanie could pursue a career in a more fertile job market. We never expected God to make everything work out perfect, but we did expect Him to continue to work in our lives. Fast forward a year later, summer 09. We are extremely frustrated with a range of circumstance in our lives which are just not right. I would rather not go into all the details, except to say we felt let down by God and alone in our struggles. Specially, we felt trapped spiritually and unable to connect with other Christians through church or small groups. Believe me, we tried! Sunday, a few weeks ago, after another in a series of letdowns, I was finally done. I was done trying to pretend by putting on a happy face when inside I was hurting. What followed was a 20-minute rant about everything that was going wrong. I really felt God had opened doors for us to come to Orlando, and when we got here, things just started falling apart. We were acting as faithfully as we knew how. Was He just not living up to his end of the deal? I felt relieved after I vented all my frustration with God. I guess I expected God might be offended, hurt, or just be done with me too. Most people would be done with me after my little “expression of emotion.”

The successive days unfolded a little different that I anticipated. For some reason I actually felt closer to God. I shared this confusing experience with my small group. They pointed out God was not upset with me at all. In fact, He liked that I finally stopped pretending everything in life was fine, when it really was not. My venting was an honest expression of how I was really feeling. God saw our hurt I was trying to cover over. One of the guys said my story sounded a lot like the psalms. The interesting thing about the collection is how a psalm of praise can exist next to a psalm that says, “God where are you when I need you?” The beauty of the psalms is they express raw human emotion. Emotion, which at times, is upset with God. But, God is not offended or pushed off by our frustration. The book would be quite different if all we ever heard was moaning and complaining. But, for every psalm of frustration, there is a psalm of response. As the writers pour out their hearts to God, He turns around and writes a psalm back to his people. An example:

Honest Prayer: Psalm 13:1-2
Long enough, God— you've ignored me long enough.
I've looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough
I've carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.

In Light of God’s Response: Psalm 30:1-3
I give you all the credit, GOD—
you got me out of that mess, you didn't let my foes gloat.
GOD, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together.
GOD, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life when I was down-and-out.

Psalm 30 pictures God as one acting on the behalf of those who cry out to Him. I am not implying God always makes things perfect in this life. But we look to Him to redeem, bring something good out of, the worst of situations. Situations, which may not seem bad to outsiders, but are quite overwhelming to us. It seems God is fine with our deepest emotions. He already knows we how we feel, why not be honest with ourselves?

Pour our your heart to the Lord, honest and raw.
Listen for His psalm of response.



*All scriptures are from The Message Bible

One Seminary in Multiple Locations

I was asked to write a few paragraphs around the topic of Asbury as one seminary in multiple locations. These are my thoughts and observations on the subject and not necessarily an official statement. Enjoy:

One Seminary in Multiple Locations:
A Trinitarian View

As a recruiter for Asbury, I am often asked to speak about the differences and similarities of Asbury’s three campuses. In wrestling with this question I found the concept of God as Trinity to be an effective analogy. Three unique and distinct persons represent our God. Yet, with great mystery, we affirm the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be one, God Almighty. Though each person has and does express themselves differently, they are not divided. Dr. Steve Seamands authored a very helpful book, “Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service” which I find indispensable. He explains the Trinity is in a constant relationship of mutual submission to each other. No one member is greater than the others. The Father, Son, and Spirit each defer to the other as an expression of their equally extravagant love and fellowship.

Asbury Theological Seminary is one entity. Yet we have three expressions; Kentucky, Virtual, and Florida. Each campus holds certain truths, beliefs, and practices which define Asbury overall. We are a seminary in the Wesleyan-Armenian tradition with a shared statement of faith and education mission. However, that commonality is expressed in three unique and distinct ways. Each campus has a personality. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and yet they are all God. Kentucky is not Virtual, and Virtual is not Florida, and yet they are each Asbury.

The necessity of a Trinitarian model means one needs to elaborate on each person to accurately reflect the whole. What I share of each campus will come from personal experience as a student and staff member. I began my Master of Divinity on the Wilmore campus in Feb 2007. After 6 full-time, residential, semesters in Wilmore, my wife and I felt a growing call to Orlando. I transferred to the Orlando campus in the Summer of 2008. I am currently taking classes primarily on the Orlando campus with one to two classes per semester on the Virtual Campus. I truly have an “Asbury Experience” which has been influenced in wonderful ways on each Asbury campus.

The “Kentucky Expression” of Asbury boasts a wealth of resources, tradition, and opportunity for students. My “Asbury Experience” in Wilmore was shaped by professors, chapel, fellow students, and the city itself. My wife and I enjoyed the retreat type setting and the small-town feel. My time in Wilmore allowed me to be shaped by God in all areas of life.

The “Virtual Expression” of Asbury is quite an experience. One serendipity of the campus is the ability to have longer, more in-depth conversations with fellow students. This semester I am taking “John Wesley’s Theology for Today,” and the extensive and informed conversations around the course lecture and readings are simply not possible in the limited class time on campus.

The “Florida Expression” of Asbury allows for classical theological education in a global city. Asbury in Orlando allows students from a wide variety of backgrounds to pursue theological training. I am constantly amazed at the rich diversity of gender, ethnicity, age, and experience present on campus and in the classroom. The campus is truly coming to reflect the world as our parish. There is no doubt that my experience as a student in Orlando is different than my time in Wilmore and the Virtual campus. There is a different feel due to the spectrum of students. It is hard to believe, but I have found close-knit, authentic, community can exist on a commuter campus. Students bond during class, break times, and chapel. The unique aspect of Orlando is at the end of the day, we each return to our life and ministry ready to practice what we have studied. Though my “Asbury Experience” in Orlando is different than Wilmore, I feel Orlando and Virtual to be valid expressions of Asbury Seminary. In no way is the educational component less than what I experienced in Wilmore or Online. My hope as both a student and staff member is for Florida to reach its full potential locally and globally. Asbury’s location in a major metropolitan city presents the opportunity to serve our 2+ million neighbors and an estimated 52 million annual tourists through leadership initiatives, lay-education, social-justice, and conferences. I envision a campus which not only allows the traditional residential/local student to attend seminary, but establishes a hub for people from all over to receive theological education while maintaining their work and ministry in distant locations.

Peter experienced the person of Jesus, Moses the person of the Father, and Phillip, the person of the Spirit in Acts 8:39. And yet we rightly say they each “Experienced God!” The well-known “Asbury Experience” is not a thing located in one expression of Asbury. Instead, students experience Asbury in similar, and different, ways depending on their campus. The experience a student has will vary based on their campus of choice. Studying on all three campuses has only reinforced my belief that there are certain core elements of Asbury Seminary that can and are shared no matter my geophysical location.

A Sadness Descends

I am quite sure you, our faithful blog readers, have really come to enjoy the copious amounts of Disney photos Melanie and I have posted over the past year. No doubt you all swooned with excitement each time you saw Melanie and I with some character in some park. We enjoyed making everyone jealous. The truth is Disney World will always hold a special place for us. Not only was it one of the most exciting jobs we have held, (sorry Asbury). But, Disney is where our friendship and relationship began about 8 years ago. We were able to trade in some 7-day park hopper tickets my parents bought for us when we moved to Orlando for Annual Passes. Disney even had to give us some money back (When was the last time they did that??)! But all good things must come to an end. This past weekend out annual passes finally expired. Unfortunately, we could not renew due to the outrageous costs which amounts to rent for a month. We made the most of it and hit all four parks one more time over a two weekend period. It was a little sad to as we clicked through the exit turnstiles at EPCOT last Saturday, unsure of when we might enter again. sigh....

So, for all those who enjoyed our never ending blog of Micky Mouse photos (pun intended), here is one more for the road. This is us in our first trip last year (around April) and our last visit last weekend.

-Looking for new things to do in Orlando,
Brian and Melanie