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Some promised pictures October 22, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Photography , 6 comments

I uploaded some of my recent photos to picasa. Two sets were added. My trip to Minneapolis for the Desiring God conference has been posted. Also, I took a tour through my new place yesterday. There’s more work to do than I first thought. Plus, it’s a bit smaller than I remembered. But, I think everything should work out. The location will definitely be sweet. Trader Joe’s opens within a week and Borders should move in by Christmas. Not to mention that Pittsburgh’s greatest beer selection will be three doors down from me. That might be dangerous.

Lancaster bound October 13, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Travel, Pittsburgh , add a comment

A good friend from sophomore year of college is getting married this Saturday around Lancaster. So, I’m headed there this weekend. I’m looking forward to staying at my friends’ Tim & Brianne, and seeing some other people that I haven’t seen in a while.

In other news, the house that I purchased is still moving along. I settled on a mortgage yesterday. If I had any advice on the matter: go with a local bank. They seemed to have the best rates available. A mortgage broker tried to help me out, but his rate was considerably higher than all the other ones that I found. I’m still expected to close the first week of November. My realtor and I will go through the house again next week, so I hope to take some photos.

Should I not love that great city? October 10, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Reading , 3 comments

Preparing for tomorrow night’s Bible study, I perused Rodney Stark’s book The Rise Of Christianity again for some information on the city of Antioch. Tomorrow, we study Acts 11:19-12:24, with a focus on the first half of the passage which is the gospel being preached to both the Jews and the Greeks. It’s the first account of preaching the good news to two different ethnic groups who live in the same city.

The text states that “the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Stark’s book paints Antioch as a city with eighteen ethnic groups who didn’t necessarily intermingle. He challenges one historian’s view of the city being a “proper melting pot”:

But it is not clear how much melting actually went on. What does seem clear is that the social integration of Greco-Roman cities was severely disrupted by the durability of internal ethinic divisions, which typically took the form of distinct ethnic precints.

Did the gospel’s inherent ability to break down racial pride cause the city to name the Christ followers Christians? It’s interesting to think about.

As a sidenote, if you’re interested in a frank sociological survey of the early church and the rise of Christianity, check out this book. I read it about a year ago and it cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had with the early church. For one, he argues (as do most scholars I found out) that the early church was primarily a movement of middle-class urbanites and not a movement of the poor as people once thought.

The author has good trend data on Christianity’s expansion up to Constantine. The rate of growth is actually on par with Mormonism. He researches the causes of conversion of the Empire. The reasons include heightened women’s roles, the high value of human life, its continuity with Judaism, and the “new culture capable of making life in Greco-Roman cities more tolerable (his emphasis).”

He’s coming out with a book in the next couple of months called Cities of God, which continues his research that Christianity was first and foremost an urban movement.

New books & albums October 9, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Reading, Music , 4 comments

Visiting a book & album store, I kind of splurged and picked up some stuff:

Desiring God conference recap October 6, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Christianity, Travel , add a comment

The Desiring God conference was more than I could have bargained for. First, my plane ticket was free because of a volunteered seat a couple months back. Next, a fourth degree of a friend let me stay at his place. And he lived about a mile from the convention center. So basically, I just had to pay for the conference and food while I was out there.

I’ll list some highlights, but the icing on the cake was that I got to hang out at John Piper’s house on Sunday afternoon, right after the conference. I got there by spotting a friend of mine from college in the choir. After the last plenary session of the night, I looked for her in the flood of people outside the auditorium. Within ten minutes, we spotted each other and caught up.

Now, I ran into her a few years ago and she was engaged to one of John Piper’s sons at the time. So I kind of guessed that she would be at the conference. But as we caught up, she invited me out to her husband’s parents house for lunch on Sunday. Giddy up!

So I went and had a blast. At one point it was just John Piper, another pastor from North Carolina, and me. We mainly talked about the conference, Emergent, and C.S. Lewis. Definitely the highlight of the trip.

Here are some others:

I’m still processing everything from the weekend. They already have the audio up on their website. Go here to download everything.

IveGotNothing.com October 4, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Friends , 4 comments

A small band of friends from college and I had this running joke about a website named IveGotNothing.com, and it comprised of us bachelors who weren’t dating anyone at the time. Most of us are still not in any serious relationships, but one fell by the wayside recently and the following is an email that I sent him today. I thought you might enjoy it. You’ll probably notice some serious influence from The Screwtape Letters.

Dear Former Associate,

Our database shows that your account has recently become deactivated. This has become a surprise to us. There must certaintly be some error on our part. For our record reports that you have an impressive tenure with our association. Serving as webmaster and chairman during these past several years, you have encouraged the small collection of those who got absolutely nothing onto a greater sense of self-worth and contentment. And were you not one of our founding members?

But now, there is rumor that you got in fact, something. Our group can include those who got nothing, and only nothing. If you have forgotten some of the cardinal rules of our committee - which is doubtful since they’re vigorously rehearsed at our quarterly meetings - let me remind you.

Planning a phone conversation or date - the wretched word! - with a member of the female contingent certainly does not classify as “got nothing”. Even just talking to a mild interest at the workplace, or at church, constitues as something. To have nothing, you must have absolutely no blips on the radar. No roses among the thorns. No cheddar among the limburger.

The last time I perused the rule book - which I, of course, do every night before I go to bed - emailing a lady on a frequent basis constitutes as something. Don’t you agree? And I wish it were just this. In some cases, we see our half-hearted associates recover from this period. After a moratorium of sorts, when the communication has ended, our committee can reinstate them to a part-time membership (candidates with exceptional behavior can receive full membership). But alas, as rumors have it, our associates report that you shared an affection for the said lady over the phone. I’m afraid that we have lost almost all hope. Many of our former associates have lost any chance of reinstatement when they have travelled down this path. Do I have to remind you of Timothy Gates?

Now you must realize that since my associates and I got nothing, we cannot sympathize with this so-called “affection”. It’s completely foreign to us, and we don’t understand it. We have some men at off-site training trying to understand this phenomenon. But we have been chasing rainbows. We cannot help you transition back from something to nothing. From the moment you crossed into having something, you are in another world.

This means the onus is on you. Your membership of ivegotnothing.com is completely in your hands. I understand that our association and you will be out of touch during this period of pursuit. Business will go on as usual for us. We will still have those quarterly meetings about our nothingness that everybody seems to cherish so much. It will be sad that we now have one less member, but we are strong and confident. As our motto goes, “We got nothing, but at least we got more time”.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if your status changes.

Your affectionate former associate,

Patrick

Bid accepted! October 2, 2006

Posted by Patrick in : Pittsburgh , 3 comments

Well, you know of that house that I wanted but someone already beat me to it? It went back on the market a couple of weeks ago because the bidder could not have his bid financed. When it went back on, someone bid the next day. Another two days later, a second person bid on it. I followed the next day with a third bid. And he picked mine last Friday!

It’s not the prettiest Pittsburgh house by any means. The location drove the decision. It’s a three-unit house located in East Liberty, close to Friendship. It’s literally three doors down from the Sharp Edge. Two tenants already live there, and both hope to remain. I’d live in the second story unit, which is the vacant and coincidentally, most spacious one.

I wanted to live in a part of East Liberty that was close to the Highland and Centre business district. Church and friends will be close by. Being within walking distance to a grocer, a few restaurants, and coffee shops was important. And the three-unit place will give me the flexibility to move if I need to.

With all that said, it’s still a bit scary. Being a landlord will present its own challenges. Hopefully it will be a good experience.  Photos will be posted soon.