Grading papers

OK my first papers (AKA "books") are turned in and I'm in grading mode now.

This is one of the most happy times of a professor's career. I hate grading yet at the same time I love seeing the work students do. I have the "Church Leadership" books now and am grading them. It was a course that I was not satisfied with this semester. It never seemed to take off. Last semester it was my best course. This semester it just didn't seem to get traction. BUT now that I am looking at "papers" I'm feeling much better. It is something like preaching--you leave the pulpit whipped thinking you blew it, then somebody tells you God really spoke through the sermon you thought you flubbed. That's how these books are--when I see them (well, most of them) I feel like I did in fact earn my keep this semester. Even when I know that some (many?) think it was "just an assignment" I know that they have gathered stuff that is vital to their future ministry and I'm delighted. The remainder of the semester in CLPL we're doing "the personal life of the minister" and that comes in a separate paper--a smaller one: finances, taxes, advice from grads about the first year in the church, and ethics and morals for ministers. It is an easy section for me and provides a "soft landing" in the course. Today I taught 5 students--all the rest were Wesleyen students off touring the Headquarters today. They missed the "Minister's taxes" lecture... poor students--I always put some tough questions on that on the final exam ;-)

The rest of my courses... maybe I will say asomething about them later. My fav this semester is LCE--it is an incredible collection of 38 people! Whew! Tell you later more.

Summer's Here!

All this week it has been near 80 degrees here in Marion and that triggered something inside my students--"SNAP" they now believe Summer's here. They are all over campus sprawled out on blankets "studying" and the art students are painting and drawing this and that. Students (when the professor is talking) have this vacant gaze on their faces and professors tell each other, "Man I'm getting nowhere."

It isn't just students. I've been riding my bike to classes, and I take detours on the way home. I've been cutting flowers and bringing them in to my wife, and I've started my "To the Finish Line" countdown sheets in every course... It isn't long now.
1. The rest of this week.
2. Partial week next week (no Friday classes)
3. Partial week the following week (no Monday classes)
4. Then the final full week of classes.

Whew--summer IS almost here. My first set of "Books" comes in Tuesday in CLPL. So I'm in final grading mode already. Which is right timing... by now most faculty are tired and crabby. We're tired of school, tired of students, tired of being tired. So it comes none too soon.

As for my life. I am heading out for Michigan Thursday for a multi-district "Leadership day." I'm starting off with "Strategetics" (The last time I did this live was 19 years agi--so no minister under 30 has ever heard it direct) Then I'm doing an address on "Membership Matters" and after lunch finishing up with "Changes in the church and the ministry over the last 50 years which ends with 25 characteristics I see in my students which could indicate future changes coming (or not).

As for the Creed book, it is on hold in March--the yellow flag came out in march and I will re-start my engines in April.

As for Sharon she begins teaching full time in the doctoral program (he dream job) April 2.

As for summer plans... so far I'm going to Turkey with my two sons in June and to the Colorado Trail with faculty (including Sharon) in August... I'm meditating on taking a nibble at the CDT a bit again in July...but not sure yet.

As for the Potawatomi Trail of Death book...it should come off the presses in a week or so--I'll update you and post the picture on by ww.tuesdaycolumn.com site.

As for right now...I think I'll go get a blanket and sprawl on the grass....

I'm hiding in the grass

Sorry if some of you have written me and not gotten a response...or perhaps got a two word response to a long email. I'm buried right now... this semester is catching up to me... 18 hour teach load. trying to write this creed book, 10-15 hours of committees last week...and now advising arrives. A few days ago I was busy for a few days and got 300 emails behind... Ugh!

What I've learned to do in those situations is to take a few hours early in the morning to catch up what I can...then I drag all the rest into a folder titled "See me someday" and start fresh. So if you asked me something really important and I missed it doing my morning cruise before dragging... send another... after having done the drag-out I now feel I am "up to date" again. ;-)

coach d

Spring Break Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

I'm on spring break. Well, actually it doesn't start for another day--but I've been mentally on break for about two days--no, make that all week. Spring break is one of those wonderful gifts of being a college professor. Right when things start getting really wild BOOM you get a week off. According to a recent survey of IWU faculty the average work week is 60-70 hours per week during the school year. Spring break helps balance that out.

As for us, we are going to a sweet Amish-built log cabin off in the woods in Northern Indiana for a quiet week. When we tell people that they often ask, "What is there to "do" around there?" I just laugh. I already have enough to "do" around here. That's the idea--go somewhere where there ISN'T anything to "do!"

So don't come and visit me--I'll be busy doing nothing.

Back in a week or so.... not until after I'm done doing nothing ;-)

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Ahhhhhh just returned home ... I did pretty good doing nothing... only failed to do it some of the time when I slipped and did some grading and wrote a column.. but I did achieve these "goals:"

-Slept about 10 hours every night

-Watched the today show every day on a little TV with rabbit ears.

-Baked bread twice a day and ate it all (Sharon helped)

-Went to a video store that was selling out their old Video Cassettes and bought 20 at 80 cents each and watched half of them.

-Played video games until I got stuck at the second level (or fourth).

-Read a few books that were not serious.

-Took a few walks in the snow.

-Sat in the sunshine in the afternoons on the cabin's porch.

-Thought up wonderful ideas and never wrote any of them down.

-Took several naps in the afternoons

-Had a dozen or so of those "chats" women like their husbands to have with them.

-Drove to the nearby Mennonite-Amish town's library and browsed unseriously.

-Cooked every meal alongside Sharon then ate it all, leaving no leftovers.

-Came home wound down almost as much as I come home from backpacking.

-Got a serious case of "Spring Fever" that I plan to retain until summer.

ahhhhhhh... the joy of accomplishing one's goals!

Snow day #2

OK, now we have about 14" of snow, which essentially shuts Marion Indiana down... though it is a normal day in Minneapolis or the UP of Michigan. School is called off again today. I kinda feel bad for Steve Moore, speaker at the "Missions week" all week--he came and did his get-ready-get-set talk Monday and now we all just stay in the starting block for two days. Sorta like getting dressed up for a date then staying home and watching the news.

We do have snow drifting though. The picture is of my street this morning... the footprints are Dave Ward's (who came down to help me shovel out my driveway).

I'll be headed over to the prisoners-in-Baldwin at noon to eat lunch with Steve Moore, then I'm coming home to start entering my taxes into the computer--these two days are like a free gift of grace--now I don't have to use Saturdays to do taxes... I can spend them on finishing up my "Walking the Trail of Death" book--which is 95% done now (the final 5% is half the work though).

Tomorrow we return to school (unless the Indiana snowwimps prevail again).

Snow Day today

IWU called off all classes today. That is news... I think the last time all classes were cancelled was in the late 1970's. We have even less "commuters" now... most of our students must only walk a hundred yards to classes..and they already have to walk that far today anyway to eat. But classes are cancelled today anyway. Why? What has changed?Here are my guesses.

First, more faculty are long commuters. Our faculty used to live in Marion--they were almost 'required" to do so. Now many live in Indianapolis--more than 100 yards from classrooms. You can have class without a few students, but not as easily without a faculty member.

Second, the workaholic ethos is changing. IWU has always been famous for producing graduates who "just do it." they don't make excuses: "I was sick," "I slept in," or "it snowed." IWU does not even have such a thing as a "nurse's office excuse" any more for missing classes (except for dangerous communicable diseases). The school expected faculty and students to simply "show up and do their job" ignoring everything but the job. This has made graduates very popular with employers, but it might be also establish workaholic habits that are not mentally healthy--so there is an attempt to soften this now--and a snow day is an example of how to soften this hard-work-cafe ethos.

Finally, the rest of Indiana are ALL snow-wimps. We have not had a big (big=10" ;-) snow storm in years--so this was news before it happened. Some faculty members cancelled classes personally yesterday--before a single flake of snow! It is as if we need an emergency and dog-gone it we will have one even if it is only for a foot of snow. Of course people in Minneapolis and Buffalo laugh at us--but Indiana is something like north Carolina when it comes to snow. They freak out. In fact, in Indiana the snowplows go home at ten o'clock at night and go to bed like everybody else--really!!!!

OK, I think I'll do my taxes today...

I'm on my spring writing schedule

I’ve started my spring writing schedule for the Apostle’s Creed book.. it goes like this:

WEDNESDAY –I research all morning reading the chapter in other books related to the phrase in the creed I’m studying. Here are the writers I find the most helpful:

• Alister McGrath (I believe)
• Luke Timothy Johnson (the Creed)
• Wolfhart Pannenberg (The Apostle’s Creed)
• Hans Urs von Balthasar (Credo)
• William Barclay (Aposle’s Creed)
• Martin Luther (Large Catechism)
• Emil Brunner (Sermons on the creed)
• Karl Barth (Dogmatics in outline—Creed)
• Thomas Aquinas (last sermons-on the creed)
• Augustine (Enchiridion)
  Plus several other littler dogs (Roger Van Harn, Pritchard etc)

By noon I have taken all my notes on 3X5 cards. I have read all these books already—last year I read them all, this time I am extracting ideas to ponder before writing myself.

THURSDAY-SUNDAY –I carry my 3X5 cards with me everywhere and let my mind “write in background” for these four days, often flipping though the notes to refresh the ideas and adding new ones as they develop ex nihilo, or at least it seems that way. As the weekend approaches the dots start to connect and an “outline” of sorts begins to emerge in my head. During this time I also pray for inspiration…seeking the Lord’s guidance on what should come to the front for my readers and what needs to be left on the cutting room floor.

MONDAY –Is my writing day.
Before going to sleep I refresh my mind once again with the cards so as to program my overnight thinking with the ideas.
-I get up at the normal time and have coffee.
-I get a bath, put on my “writing coat” (a magical corduroy coat that helps ;-) and polish my shoes.
-I spread the cards out all across the floor beside my computer and organize them into a passable outline
-I type the outline into my chapter document.
-I launch into writing and don’t back up even to correct errors.
-After writing 2000 words I eat potatoes & eggs for breakfast as a reward
-I return and finish by noon
-Then I go to lunch where I meet with fellow profs in a Barth reading group.

AFTER MONDAY
I let the manuscript marinate and move on to other chapters. After a couple weeks of the above I start rewrite on old drafts “in the cracks” of my week’s schedule

IN MAY I will start rewrite of the whole manuscript—editing the “book” as one whole—this is a totally separate process of 15 separate drafts and will take a couple months of daily work after school is out.

If everything goes right the manuscript will be ready to turn in “for editing” in mid July.

Thanks for any prayers you can send up for me this spring.

--coach d

Christmas Tumbleweeding in Florida

Wandered on down to Nashville in the rain and put ourselves to bed in the Holiday Inn Express eating grocery store food while watching TV. We "stayed up late" (10 PM!)

Headed south the next morning -- a decision comes soon---Westerly to New Orleans or Easterly to Florida...
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After a passable night near the Florida border (By passable I mean everything except the hour-long debate between two guys outside at 2AM and the baby next door whining itself awake at 5:30 AM) [Bless all those moms with babies]...
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We had some sun and book-reading knowing that rain was coming.... we headed into Florida and the rain returned... "but it's a dry rain" ;-) Well, at least a warm rain.
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We're having fun wandering about.... pretending that the journey is the destination..... stopping now to get a 1 lb "WhatABurger" for our lunch and then we're thinking of wandering through Ocala National "forest" then down the East coast... or not, or maybe...whatever....

Merry Christmas Eve!
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We drove on Daytona Beach, something I did at age 12 the last time…. it is still drivable... we did some bird watching then kept driving south on A1A down the tiny slit of land out in the ocean until we ran out of hotels. Finally found a Dirty-Day's-Inn where other homeless people were staying... up that is.. the big evening Christmas party lasted until 2AM but with earplugs we outslept them and awoke late ... walked on the beach again, saw more birds...
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Now south some more and toured Hobe Sound Bible College which was more than we expected... even saw a guy wearing SHORTS on the campus—whew! Otherwise a time tunnel--circa 1955.
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Then westerly to Lake Okeechobee remembering a campsite there in 60 MPH winds in the 70's... now North to Lakeland where we plan to spend the night.
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Sharon's sprint access allows the shotgun rider to dial up the Internet to monitor the roads, look up questions, resole arguments. or send emails -- while the other person is driving... not many emails for me—I’m on vacation.
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Big rains this afternoon amidst tornado like clouds--no problem, we're from Indiana they looked normal to us. (though we found out later they blew away many roofs)
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Next day, dodging Tornados we headed north again. Wound up near Winterhaven and took in a spy movie in the evening....
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Next morning by 10 am we're off tumbleweeding again, the first shower-per-diem passing a while ago... today we're going to look at an historic Holiness site I visited as a child-- Lakeland Holiness camp meeting--if we can find it, then maybe let the wind blow us past another major holiness tourist site--Brooksville (AKA Headquarters.alt)
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Floating with the current we found Lakeland Holiness Camp Meeting grounds, a place I last visited at age 12. Sure enough, while everything else changes, an independent camp meeting is predictably the same. It is sort of a "poor man's Brooksville" or I should say a "Brooksville for the separatist holiness movement folk"... that would be those who still don't cut their hair(women) but they allow themselves expensive cars--Caddies, Lincolns, and super-Buicks...interesting where one denies or allows excesses --all of us do I suppose. The "cultural Holiness movement" is holed up in places like this awaiting.... awaiting something.
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After this we drove through WesleyenBrooksville and "did every street." We were delighted to see how that place has developed. They have another bunch of acres with $150,000-$200,000 homes springing up like weeds.... "Wesleyan Village" is for the NextGen of retirees.... impressive....

It is a symbol of one of the things I LIKE about the old-folk-Wesleyans.. across the board when the chips were down that generation voted with the next generation rather than protecting its own preferences and possessions... these are the folk who permitted youth conventions to look like rock concerts and hired the teens to rake their leaves to get money to go to them, these are the adults who swallowed their own music and let "praise choruses" dominate worship...they paid for buildings they didn;t need for themselves... and so much more....this is just one more example here in Brooksville-they risked having a bunch of their own camp-meeting-type cottages on the market unsold so that they could expand for the next generation... they knew the next generation would not retire in camp meeting cottages or rusty trailers ….so now the boomers will have a tidy place to retire to.... that match the laymen's houses and parsonages they had in life....the boomers get everything.
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Then we hastened to Gainesville and fell asleep in our hundred dollar beds....we like Country Inn & suites best... then drove the next day to Knoxville where we had a delightful breakfast with Jim & Tommie Barnes, former Pres at IWU cum educational consultants afterwich we drove all the way home to our beloved Marion and returned to our own beds at the end of a week of wandering pronouncing it a good 2700 mile ramble.
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Now we are catching up at home and are headed to Houghton where Sharon is the feature speaker at some sort of adult education conference this coming week --so hi to all my friends who are getting to Florida a week after I left.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee! Grades are in!

Christmas break is here! WHEEEEEEE!

1. I turned in my grades yesterday (we now do that on the Internet instead of with the "blue envelopes" so I can do it from home.

2. Today we faculty hung around and chatted sans students--it is like youth camp the day after the campers leave.

3. Tonight the President has a reception for all IWU employees (850+ people) and their families. We eat little deserts and goodies and visit and just generally have an "office party" with 1500 people attending. Best of all the President gives everybody a Christmas check. It can be a really NICE check some years (last year it was 750 bucks!) but even nicer than that--every single person gets the same check--from a janitor or secretary to a Vice president. Everybody thinks that's cool--especially people or earn ten bucks an hour! but we all like it.

4. Students are hearing from seminary. I'll let them share it first but for now the numbers:
1 - Princeton Theo. Seminary
4 - Duke Divinity school

5. Tomorrow is Commencement. So actually I'm not done yet--I have to put on my fancy dress and walk the aisle tomorrow and bid farewell to some of our seniors.

--gotta go get my check now... ;-)

Old people in chapel

Today in chapel a funny thing happened. We had African-American choral music leading the first part of worship. They led with a classic hard-driving AA style that made normal chapel music look like old fashioned hymns.

Guess what happened. The audience stiffed them. Really! The students at IWU simply stood (or sat down, like nine students near me did) and watched the leaders try to get them involved. At one point the AA leader with one of the microphones called, "Hello--are you out there" but to no avail. 90% of these broad-minded students who criticize old people for being narrow-minded about worship just wouldn't play along when it was't their worship music--they acted exactly like old people do when urged to "get into it" and sing the newer songs. I counted a whole section--not more then one out of ten students "got into it." that's it.

Then everything changed. After 25 minutes of AA music the group sang one of the songs on the "student approved list" --you know tone of the 25 songs we do over and over in chapel. --It is almost like the students have a list of approved songs like the school has a (short) list of approved "R" movies students can watch. If the song is not on the list they all somehow know they should stiff the leaders.

Are these are the same students who complain when THEY lead worship that the old people "don't get into it." Are they any different than a bunch of old people in the first service who stand non-committal when the young worship leader is urging them to join him in his favorite worship songs???

How can this be?