I'm Alive - An Update from the Monastary

So, its been a real long time since I posted. We just got internet in our house on Friday, so as I promised my two readers, I would post an update. I actually have quite a few things to blog about, so will try to do that in the coming days.

As many of you know, I have begun living in an intentional Christian community here in Atlanta - we're about a mile from Turner Field in a community littered with crime, joblessness, drugs and despair. But it also has its fill of love, hope and faith. I live with three wonderful roommates who are doing their best to be faithful and make a difference in our community. I serve as the community chaplain - my role is to help my roommates connect what they are doing in our neighborhood to our faith and discipleship.

Mike, the youngest of our group, is trying to start a coffee shop in our neighborhood. Community Grounds will open at the end of August. Andra works twenty hours a week at Barnes and Noble and twenty as a youth director for Community Fellowships, a church just up the street from our house. Katie has been taking a well-earned summer off but will begin working as a teacher in a startup middle school. We'll add another member, named Zack, to our community in about a month.

While I have been living in community, I have been doing CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education), which will come to a close in two weeks. Many students have to do CPE for ordination in their respective denominations, and most choose to do them in a hospital setting. My program is a little different in that my ministry settings are in the urban context.

I have spent my mornings at two mission parishes of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. The Church of the Holy Comforter is not a synonym for Bedside Baptist, but a congregation whose congregants are mostly mentally ill. The Emmaus House is a community center located in Peoplestown, right next to Turner Field, that serves the residents of a community that was devastated by Atlanta's concept of urban renewal. CPE has been incredibly exhausting (I usually go to bed at 9:30 during the week), but has been a wonderful way to learn how to be a more faithful pastor. The lessons I have learned this summer will go with me wherever I do my pastoral work.

I will finish CPE on August 8 and then take a week off before I begin my job as the program administrator for Mission Year. My summer has been filled with a lot of work, but I have been doing plenty of reading (one of my friends commented that fiction is, "like crack for you.) I've enjoyed life without cable, although I have to frequently check the internet for Cubs scores, and read about a book a week.

My CPE supervisor said this next year will probably change my life, with the urban living and Christian community that I have placed myself into. No TV. Sharing resources. Yes, even sleeping in a bunk bed. Living with neighbors not like me. Lots of reading. Yes, it's only been a couple months, but so far, I agree with Sheryl Crow that, a change will do you good.