End of Thanksgiving Weekend - Wikileaks

Thanksgiving Weekend has come to a close.

I had a great break - and a productive break. Thousands of leaves raked from the yard. Several great National Geographic Documentaries watched (including subjects on Alexander the Great, Lewis & Clark, Auschwitz, and Yellowstone.) A great book read, that I had actually checked out for my daughter - Be The Change - and (!) I made progress through two commentaries on Leviticus and Numbers - and a third one underway as well.

I had an odd, odd, odd dream about a book I read several months ago - Eccentric Existence. I have no idea where the dream even came from as I have had no conscious thought of the book in months! Dreams - so odd. The dream focused on the idea that it should be "ex-centric existence" as we were to move ourselves out of the center - theologically. Where did that come from? So odd, these dreams we have.

But . . . I am prompted to write a few words tonight more about the recent spate of news coming out in the form of the "wikileaks." These leaks are troubling - it seems to me - at so many levels. I think much of what gets "exposed" will not be terribly secret - as much as it will "expose" our own anxieties and fears - at the national level.

I work with a great bunch of colleagues who I love. Recently though, I came walking upon them and heard my name used specifically - and the conversation changed immediately as I came into view. I have no idea what they were discussing. They were smiling - and I trust them - and I know they trust me - so I do not believe it was anything ruinous or malicious. And, perhaps they weren't really talking about me - but I was just a "single member" of some larger issue. The point is this, while I trust my colleagues and have no idea what they were saying, it still bothered me that I came upon them talking about me . . . and I don't know what they were saying. I have told myself that it is not a big issue - because I really do not believe it is - no doubt we all get talked about by numerous persons every-single day. No doubt my students - every single day say things they like, and loathe about me. No doubt parish persons communicate on numerous days in a given week things they think I have done well - or poorly. And, I am sure there is reason to speak poorly of things I do poorly - or say unfairly and so forth. I am far from perfect. (Just ask my wife or kids who endure my everyday failings!) But, knowing that we are being talked about - and that it is not all favorable, shapes how we think about ourselves and how we think about ourselves in relationship to and with others.

And, I fear the wikileaks will only cause many persons - and many national leaders - to be more suspicious and suspect of one another - and more guarded and unkind one with another.

We live in a world that needs to see and discern more peace and harmony and open-ness and love - not less of it.

We live in a world that needs to discern the absence of power struggles and the advent of peacemaking.

May it be the case - as we enter the season of Advent that we wait expectantly - and live faithfully - into the reality of what it means to be humbled one-to-another.

In the spirit of this humility - I wrote a letter to a long-ago-high-school friend earlier tonight. His choices in life have differed from my own. I have been FB friends with him for quite a few years - but believe it might be the case that - many years ago - given choices he made - I may have said something unkind, unfavorable or unfair to or about him. I do not believe I did - but I wanted to be sure. So I sent him a personal message tonight - confessing my failures in communication and owning responsibility for the fact that I need to love better and speak only words of grace and charity in all ways.

To any who might read this - let me encourage you - with me - to let this season of Advent - and the Wikileaks be reason to cause and reflect in your own words - in your writings - in your emails - in your conversation - would you be willing for your private words to be held up to public scrutiny?

God grant us - and our world - Peace.

What we celebrate at Thanksgiving

We should celebrate when we have reason to give thanks.

But, we should also be-wary that what we celebrate as "good" in our life may be the result of something disproportionately bad in the life of another.

A few years ago I visited Plymouth Rock with my wife. I was surprised - at first - to see a statue commemorating the genocide of Native American Indians, as the result of English persons coming to colonize this New England (now America.)



I remembered the stories today and found this link from the news this week - here.

Some of the persons that I work and live with might be troubled by my remembrance of the Wampanoag today. I am not troubled by that. We need to remember them. I think too many persons too quickly pass over and forget stories of violence. To fail to remember the stories is to fail to remember the history of violence that has been part of who "we" are as Americans - and who we are as humans.

When we fail to remember the violence of our past, we are more prone to repeat it.

One of the most compelling issues of the Christian conviction is found in the claim of the Christian Gospel. That God. Being Human. Submitted Godself as Humanself, to death. To become Victor over Violence by becoming Victim to Violence.

There is powerful implications to God's Holiness characterized in these ways in the Hebrew Scripture, most prevalent in the 11th Chapter of the book of Hosea.

My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man-- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.

At Thanksgiving - I celebrate many, many, many reasons to "give thanks" in my personal, family, friendship, professional life!

But, I humbly remember that my life's joy - when it has come at the cost of other persons lives, honor, dignity - is not "fair" - just, equitable or Christian.

So, at this Thanksgiving - I give thanks, but I mourn, too - with others - for the failures of human persons to extend goodness and charity, kindness and benevolence to others.

Lecture on Adult Learners and Use of Technology

I think the link at the bottom of this - which redirects to a lecture (1hour 2 minutes) -  has implications for how we (1) teach adult learners and how we (2) think about the future of education and technology.

I don't know how to "scale" this to you as a ten out of ten on lecture - as I find that different persons learn different things - but I found the information credible, amazing, interesting, and "futuristic."  

Presented by:  Dr. Mark David Milliron serves as the Deputy Director for Postsecondary Improvement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, leading efforts to increase student success in the US postsecondary education sector. He is an award-winning leader, author, speaker, and consultant well known for exploring leadership development, future trends, learning strategies, and the human side of technology change. Mark works with universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, corporations, associations, and government agencies across the country and around the world. In addition, he serves on numerous other corporate, nonprofit, and education boards and advisory groups.

It's from the most recent WCET Connect Conference - http://conference.wcet.info/

HERE's the LINK:

http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=9d49869e1664445fa967342d3c4aba6d1d

If the link doesn't work go to: http://conference.wcet.info.

About half way down, under View the General Session Presentations, click on the WCET Media Site webpage.   Listen to the Keynote Presentation by Mark Millron.  I think you will enjoy it.

I get to study and "sabbath" with former students, now dear friends!

Oklahoma clergy group awarded grant from Columbia Theological Seminary

Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010


BETHANY, Okla. (November 16, 2010) - Southern Nazarene University faculty member Marty Alan Michelson, Ph.D. was selected by the Center for Lifelong Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary (CTS) as part of a six-member clergy group from Oklahoma to receive the Lilly Endowment, Inc. funded S3 (Sabbath, Study, Service) Project grant. Along with Michelson, the other Oklahoma group members include Eli Pagel, Jeremy Graham and Wendell Sutton of Mid-America Christian University, Rev. Levi Jones of Piedmont Church of the Nazarene, and Rev. Stephen Vandervort of Wenatchee Church of the Nazarene. Each participant in the group is a graduate of SNU, invited into the cohort application process by Michelson.


The purpose of the S3 Project is to provide funding that offers peer groups of clergy and other church professionals an opportunity to collaborate and construct ministry-strengthening learning experiences related to Sabbath, study and service. The CTS selection committee chose the group from Oklahoma based on the age and Christian denominational diversity of the group's members as well as the strength of the group's proposal. The Oklahoma clergy group will join five other groups of colleagues from around the U.S. 0n the campus of CTS in February 2011 to form the 2011 cohort group of the S3 Project. Collaboration will continue through 2012.

When asked about expectations for participation in the S3 Project, Pagel responded, "The S3 Project offers a remarkable blend of opportunity and challenge. It offers the opportunity to have a funded study project that many dream about, but few have the opportunity to pursue. It offers the challenge of collaborating with peers over an extended period of time on a project."

The Oklahoma group plans to use the S3 Project as an opportunity to nurture conversation based on reading and study to cultivate new concepts for practical church ministry in each of the member's separate parish locations. The group members have already begun written collaboration, and at the completion of their study, they will seek publication of their collective ideas and ministry focus through appropriate publishers.

Chicago - Catholic Theological Union, Christian Scholars Group and the International Council of Christians and Jews

Too many things going on in the past few days to capture complete reflections - so consider these thoughts as brief notes along the way.

• I'm impressed with the work the Catholic church is doing to effect change and shape peaceable conversation with and among Jews.
• I've never before realized how "small" the church of the Nazarene is as I've not only had to introduce myself personally, but denominationally to several persons in the past few days!  I realize I am not a minority, but I have felt something like it here.  Delighted to be here as one who adds a distinct perspective to conversations that are primarily among the largest groups - Catholics, Jews, and Lutherans.
• Had a delightful meal with an Conservative Jew who insured where we ate (a non-kosher restaurant), no one would notice (though she maintained a kosher meal herself!!) that someone at the table had bacon.  Thankful for her willingness to sit among "goyim" (gentiles) - and yet, found it curious and funny that in my own tradition I might have to feel the same way about sitting at a table where someone at the table might be consuming liquor.  Not sure what to say about it - just the curiosity that in our unique faith traditions we have different things that make us "unclean" or are perceived as "wrong/bad/sin" - and they are so very different.  Bacon or Liquor.  For different communities of faith, reading the same Scripture (!), these different things really do matter!
• Catholics "get" Christian art.
• Worshiped at a gorgeous, wonderful "cathedral" - the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.  But, it "felt" hollow as a mere 40 people were there at the start of the service with perhaps another 20 arriving late.  The space - physically and with "choir" singing - literally felt empty.  What does it mean that some places of "aesthetic" beauty for worship lack vibrant communities to "fill them"?  I know I have experienced a greater "feeling" of "intimacy" and "spirit" among the equal number of persons I normally worship with - in a setting at my home congregation where most are poor, former addicts, and have been homeless. 
• Sitting earlier today (and will be again for next two days) among a room full of key, significant leaders of significant organizations in and around the U.S., Europe and Israel.  Not sure how I deserve the invitation - or if the invitation will come again - but feel humbled and honored to do my part to attempt to find my way to best advocate for others in advancing a peaceable future.

See and download the full gallery on posterous