Hanging with Elvis

Had a great time this past Thursday going to see Daniel Cardona perform as Elvis at a local Italian restaurant named Amore's. Daniel packed the place out. He's an excellent singer and worked the crowd very well. It was a lot of fun.

I met Daniel at a young adult barbecue that we hosted a few months ago and we have become good friends. He's a dedicated member at St. Peter's. I am blessed that God brought him to us.

 

Unloading Wood

Good times at camp. Here I am along with my dad and other family members unloading our campfire wood.

The Mayer Family

Here is the most up-to-date picture of my family. Everyone is here except one of my sister's and her husband: parents and six of my siblings and their spouses and children.

Camping with the Family

Here are all of the people who Melissa and I went camping with this past week. Camping for a week with forty-something members of your family is great fun.

Singing at the Ball Game

Check out the St. Peter's choir yesterday, singing for the Frisco Rough Riders, a double-a affiliate of the Texas Rangers. This was a special honor for me--being allowed to jump in at the last minute to lead the tenor part. We had a lot of fun.

The sound quality is not the best--but it will give you an idea of the talent at St. Peter's.

Encourage the Preacher

Melissa and I had ice-cream last night at Cold Stone Creamery with another young adult who recently began attending St. Peter's. She and her husband hadn't been going to any church for quite a while, but through a chance meeting I had with them at a party, God began to draw the two of them back to himself through the body of Christ at St. Peter's. It has been fun having them and getting to know them, as well as seeing them come alive to the faith.

During our conversation over ice-cream, she began to tell Melissa and me how my sermons have been helping to her to understand and dig into the Bible. She said that she is seeing the Scriptures in a new way. This was a nice encouragement.

May God continue to move and work in his Church.

My Experience with Financial Peace University

Alan Ladd led us in beginning the thirteen week Financial Peace University this past Tuesday. There are eighteen of us who are taking the course and Dave Ramsey, who teaches the class, is amazing! I couldn't stop laughing. And not only funny, but extremely helpful—I have discovered this class to be foundational in the way that I use and view money and it will forever impact my life—putting Melissa and me on solid financial footing. I wish that I would have taken this class earlier—as does everyone else who came to the first session. I strongly encourage everyone in our church to look into this opportunity the next time we host this program.

Cursillo – A Spiritual Retreat

Can you imagine it—an entire weekend away, just you and God (and a few other people too—like 35 or so :-)? That’s what I was able to experience—a mountaintop experience: refreshing, exciting and challenging.


Cursillo is a short course in Christianity designed after Jesus’ model of taking his disciples away for a time to teach them about himself. We often get so busy with our lives, that we need this time to get away to be challenged and taught and inspired.

It all began on Thursday. Karl and Laura Hartronft, a couple from our church, drove us to the camp and dropped us off. We were warmly greeted and then we went to the chapel for a somber service of the Stations of the Cross and an evening of silence (to assist us in listening to God). On Friday morning, the silent portion of the retreat ended at breakfast and the rest of the weekend was filled with talks, discussions, and services—ending on Sunday with a great big celebration. It was quite an experience.

I was very impressed by how well they took care of us even to the smallest details such as setting out an array anything you can think of from aspirin to bug spray to super glue—in case you forgot anything. All throughout the weekend they had a table of food out the entire time and they were always looking for ways to serve us at every opportunity. The team worked very hard to see that we had a great experience of the love of Jesus Christ.

The camp where the weekend was held was beautiful with great accommodations—very similar to what a hotel room would have. Melissa and I took one afternoon to walk across the river and go trail walking and say hi to the horses that are scattered throughout the camp. The people were especially fun—constantly making jokes and laughing and having a good time. Everyone was very kind and I made a lot of new friends.

The weekend was full of prayer—soaked in prayer by the team members and people at many difference churches praying for us. Lives were changed over the weekend—it was as though you could see people visibly changing right before your eyes. God was at work. I was challenged to press on and grow further in the faith.

It is my hope and prayer that many people from St. Peter’s will be able to go to Cursillo. If you would like to be refreshed and encouraged in your faith Cursillo is an excellent experience. The next Cursillo weekend is scheduled for September 17-20, 2009. For more info check out
http://www.episcopalcursillo.org/ or for the history of the Cursillo movement en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursillo

Visiting another Church

Today after our service I went and visited another church in The Colony that has easily has five times as many people as we do in attendance on a Sunday, but discovered the service to be quite boring--it dragged on and on. I was somewhat amazed that people were willing to sit through that sort of thing Sunday after Sunday.

This was actually encouraging to me--I had the realization of how much potential our little church actually has. It seems that the reason why their church is so much larger than ours is because they have an excellent crew of Sunday School teachers that help to hold things together. The challenge for us at St. Peter's is to raise up leaders who will lead our community groups.

Noteless is going well

The noteless preaching has been going excellent. I have received more positive feedback on the last few sermons that I have preached without notes than nearlly all of my sermons combined since arriving in Texas.

I feel as though noteless preaching has truly allowed me to be me with nothing held back.

Noteless Preaching

This Sunday I am planning on preaching without using any notes. I’ve tried preaching without notes before and did so successfully, but discovered that I spent so much time practicing and attempting to memorize my sermon that it was not productive. Since that time I have gone through much learning in sermon development and composition and I think that I am ready to try it again. This past week I read a little book titled Preaching without Notes by Joseph M. Webb, who gave me the confidence to give it a go again and a method that does not take nearly so long to pack the sermon into your head so that it is ready to be released with the full power of Holy Spirit. I am looking forward to the challenge.

Texas: Our Next Adventure Awaits

Earlier this year I remember waking one morning and feeling fear pressing upon me: I would be graduating from seminary soon and had no place to go, a wife to care for and student loans soon coming due. The heaviness upon me seemed to have grown like the giant icicles that hung outside the bedroom window. As Melissa lay sleeping beside me I prayed silently, “Dear Lord Jesus, I cannot bear this on my own. You have to take this from me.” And he did. I fell back asleep.

Graduation came and went and we still didn’t know where we were to go. Within a few days of leaving the school I received an offer to work as an assistant at a parish in Chicago—a nice position that came with a four bedroom house and a talented rector to learn under. But Melissa and I felt that this wasn’t where God was calling us and so I nervously turned it down.

A few days later I was ordained as a deacon in Florida and then flew to Houston to interview for an assistant position with a very likeable man and a great listener. Next I flew to a small town north of Dallas to look into a position as deacon-in-charge of a mission congregation of about sixty people. Although this would be a risk for a young guy like me, my heart leapt when I spoke with them—was God directing me toward Dallas?

Decision time came when the rector from Houston called about flying Melissa and me back for a second interview. Yet, I hadn’t heard from the church near Dallas—did our interview there go as well as I had thought? Were they going to extend a call? Were they hearing the same thing from God that I was hearing? I didn’t know, but I had to be honest with the rector from Houston who was now on the phone. “I’m beginning to lean strongly toward a church near Dallas,” I told him. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll keep looking.”

That same afternoon I received a call from the mission church near Dallas. They wanted me to come and be their pastor. And so we’re off. In less than two weeks time we head to Texas to learn and grow with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Our next adventure awaits.

May Newsletter

There I knelt before the dean of the seminary, the faculty and hundreds of guests including the archbishop of Kenya and the archbishop of the West Indies. The chapel was packed full of people who had come to witness and participate in the 2008 graduation from Nashotah House Theological Seminary. As the faculty stood surrounding me in a half circle, the dean who sat in the center asked, “Sirs, do you approve?” “We approve,” they responded. And then the dean ceremonially tapped me on the head with a Greek New Testament and said, “I admit you to the degree Master of Divinity.” A hood was hung around my neck, I shook the Dean’s hand and then stood. This was the culmination of three years of study and discipline. I had made it through.

Over the next few days Melissa and I packed everything that we owned into a little U-Haul trailer that was hitched to our 1991, Oldsmobile (which by the way has over 260,000 miles on it) with the hope that it would take us back to Florida where I would be ordained as a deacon the following week. We said our goodbyes to the friends we had made--people we're going to dearly miss--and then began the two day drive. Unfortunately the drive was frought with stalls and difficulties including an over-heating car. Somehow or another, with much fear and trembling and prayer, we arrived in Florida.

A week later I found myself again in a great chapel, the Episcopal Cathedral in Orlando—a building of immense grandeur, of stone and gothic architecture. At the beginning of the service I and the others involved walked down the center isle to our seats. I was then presented to the bishop by the people of the Church to be ordained to the sacred order of deacons. Before everyone present I solemnly declared that I believed in the Holy Scriptures to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation, and to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church. The bishop then laid his hands upon my head and prayed, “Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, give your Holy Spirit to Philip; fill him with grace and power, and make him a deacon in your Church.” And then all the people said, “Amen.”

And now, Melissa and I are off to follow God’s leading—the prayerful and humbling process of seeking a parish in which to serve. Melissa has also received her degree, Master of Arts in Religion, so we’re a dynamic, well trained team, sure to have an energetic impact where God calls us to be. We appreciate your prayers as we move through the interview process.

March Newsletter

Alleluia! He is Risen!

Melissa and I hope that you are having a blessed Easter season. This semester has been a challenge between school demands and time spent seeking a position so that I will have a place to go when I graduate next month (May 22). My bishop has released me and his other seminarians to look outside of the diocese for positions. I've spent hours on the phone talking to people around the Church about possible leads and openings, networking and gathering contacts of those who would be willing to bring on a young, go-getter deacon, soon to be priest who is fired up about preaching the gospel. This whole process is pushing me to trust fully in God, as graduation creeps ever closer.

This week at the seminary I’m in charge of leading our chapel services—which includes singing some of the prayers—solo, an activity that brings on a feeling somewhere between thrill, terror and great humility as I lead God’s people in worship. I could feel myself shaking up there, but I made it through without the becoming the target of rotten fruit. I have a few more days yet to go, but so far everyone has said “You’re doing an excellent job.” I also preached my senior sermon in chapel a few weeks ago and received strong feedback, even from people who weren't there: “Hey Phil, I wasn't in chapel on that day but someone told me that your sermon was really good.”

Melissa has been working hard, but feeling somewhat down. Her time is spent at home sitting on the couch (or at Starbucks) reading theology and drafting the chapters of her master's thesis. As you know, Melissa is energized by being out and about with other people and so this introverted solo pattern of studying and writing is demanding on her extroverted personality. The professor who is overseeing her writing is pleased with her accomplishments on the thesis. Once that is finished she will be granted her master's degree in religion. The work, though draining will soon be done.

Please keep us in your prayers as our time at seminary draws to a close. After graduation we will be returning to Florida for my ordination to the transitional diaconate (May 31). If you are in the area, the service is at three o’clock at the Cathedral in Orlando and we would love to see you. We know that God already knows where we will best serve Him, he just hasn't revealed it to us yet. Please pray for us as we discern God's leading for our ministry in the Episcopal Church.

Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Its Sources

Here's an interesting book that I read yesterday about the influences upon some of the greatest sermons and speeches given during this century by one of Americas best orators, Martin Luther King Jr.

A Trip to New Orleans

Last week, I and a few other seminarians went down to New Orleans to help out with the some of the relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. We left Wisconsin at four in the morning and arrived at our destination, the basement/bunkhouse of a rectory at about ten o’clock that night.

The following morning we awoke for a breakfast of Beignets and coffee. During the drive to a local breakfast diner, I was awestruck by the array of mansions that lined picturesque St. Charles Avenue with its oak trees, joggers and the romantic rumble of streetcars as they passed. These Romanesque, French-chateau, and Greek revival style houses struck me as tremendously large with dozens of rooms in each, incredibly landscaped.

Behind this portrait of wealth and Southern charm, hidden away in the backstreets, were blighted ghettos, houses with caving roofs and broken windows—two different worlds separated by a walk of but a couple of minutes! Here there were no iPod attired joggers, but rather a black man who politely said hello and then went on carefully picking through a trash can, collecting cans and other bits of metal that he could sell by the pound to the local scrap metal dealer. These much smaller houses, had in the past housed the slaves that built and cared for the mansions on St. Charles Avenue, tending the lawns, cleaning the houses and cooking the meals.

A man by the name of Charles Jenkins, the bishop of Louisiana wants to change all of that and so he started an organization called the Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative. This program was named after a speech made by Martin Luther King in which he said:

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies...we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more that flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation. [1]

During the first day we worked on renovating a house which belonged to Mrs. Wilson. Her insurance company had given her but $2,000 for the damage, and so the church had stepped in to help. We and the other volunteers busily caulked cracks, framed windows and painted. Mrs. Wilson had been out of her house for over two years now, living along with her children at her sister’s two bedroom home, a place much too small for so many people. It is our hope that her house will be fully renovated and ready for her to move back in within about four months. The next day we helped to finish the landscaping around multiple houses that had been built in some of these bereft neighborhoods and then offered for sale at the lowest possible costs in hopes of revitalizing the community through increased home ownership.

During the evenings, Edward who lead the trip and is a native of New Orleans, had established invitations for us to the homes of his rector and his parents—an opportunity for us to experience true Southern culture which consisted of fine wine, fish tacos and boiled crawfish. Delicious.

The day before we left, we had the opportunity to meet Shakoor Aljuwani, a recent convert to Christianity from the Nation of Islam, and an amazing community leader who is functioning as a voice for the poor and oppressed people of New Orleans. As we bumped along in the back of his fifteen passenger van, he pointed out houses that had been wiped away by the waters of mighty Katrina. Other nearly deserted neighborhoods stretched for miles with but a worker here and there throwing rotten building material out of the house and onto the front lawn—growing piles of rubbish that had been blackened with mold.

We drove slowly through a neighborhood of brick buildings that had not been damaged by flooding, but had been secured by the government with great steal casings over the windows at the price of $110 each so that the owners could not return for their belongings. The government had been eager to demolish these functioning buildings and to replace them with more attractive houses. The evacuation of the city via Katrina functioned as a means to quickly remove people from these homes—though it pains me to know that for the past two years many have been without housing and their belongings, because of this decision. They are not allowed back into the buildings. A growing tent city of homeless folks sat as evidence of the treatment of people who did not have the ability to fight—people pushed under this overpass by government officials in an attempt to conceal the hideous sore of a people shorn of their homes and their dignity, dejected by the prosperous city owners. It was a bleak inconsolable passage through the hidden corners of the city. I felt myself becoming angry as I listened to stories of city counsel meetings and pleas for the poor of the city that were heard with disdain and then disregarded.

The church in New Orleans has regularly been sending their deacons to these tent villages with food, much to the disappointment of city officials who feel that this action simply encourages these folks to stay, yet I don’t know how it is humanly possible to ignore such destitution and impoverishment and still be able to live in good conscience

After the tour we had lunch with the bishop. He asked us what we had seen and what we would say to the people back home. It was clear to us that the racism and greed that was molesting the poor mostly black people of New Orleans was breaking his heart and had convinced him to take action in any way that he could. “When you go back home, tell my story,” he said to us, “Tell my story.”

The trip was an eye opening experience for me.

---

[1] Rev. Martin Luther King, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” 4 April 1967 (Hartford Web Publishing, 1999), http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html (accessed on January 12, 2008).

Here is the Christmas Newsletter We Sent Out this Year

We hope this letter finds you and your entire family joyful with the spirit of anticipation this Advent season as we await the coming of our Lord! Life at Nashotah House has been keeping both Philip and I busy with a conglomeration of holiday festivities, chapel services and community events—not to mention all the school work Philip has to complete before the end of the semester. Yet, through it all we have found it beneficial to fully participate in this season of Advent as we develop our own traditions as a family and celebrate and reflect with amazement on Christ’s incarnation as a tiny little baby.

We can’t believe that it was just this past summer when we shoved all of our belongings into our small hatchback and drove across the country to Nashotah, Wisconsin where Philip is finishing his last year of seminary. It seems like such a short time ago when we first pulled into our parking space at Sheridan 4C on the Nashotah campus. Our car was so full that it looked like a water balloon ready to burst! In no time we were unpacked, Philip began classes, and I started working as a teller at a local bank. Since then our weeks have been so full of activities that it is no wonder the time has passed quickly. Before we knew it, snowflakes began to flood the yard with piles of fluff while icicles started forming sculptures on our window panes. This winter sure has been a chilly one!

Philip’s school schedule keeps him moving from morning prayer at 8am until evening prayer at 4:30pm with classes and study in between, after which he is able to come home and relax just long enough to eat dinner and return to the library or his study in our frigid basement for an evening of reading Church History or writing papers for Liturgy I and II. Praise God his days of Greek and Hebrew are over!

My evenings are quite full as well. After returning home from work, usually around 6pm, I seem to have some sort of activity to fill my evenings every night of the week! Mondays I lead a women’s prayer group in our home, Tuesdays I have begun attending training classes for the Order of St. Luke, which is a healing prayer ministry. On Wednesday nights we have about eight vibrant and talkative teenagers pile on our couch, eat snacks and interrupt one another as they tell us all about their weeks for close to an hour, leaving about thirty minutes for us to teach them about coming Sunday’s gospel lesson. Thursday evenings there is a family Eucharist in St. Mary’s Chapel on campus which is usually followed by some other social event, and Friday evenings we have been hosting bon-fires outside our home to build community with our neighbors. And believe it or not, our weekends are just as crazy! Philip is filling in as pastor every other Sunday at a small parish of elderly folks and we are also participating in the Sunday evening contemporary service on campus. As you can see, life in Wisconsin has left us little time for relaxation, but God has been sustaining us and we are blessed to be a part of such a spiritually enriching community!

Next semester has a lot in store for us as well. Right after Christmas Philip will be taking the General Ordination Exam which is a four day process that will test him on what he has learned over the past two and a half years in seminary. The exam covers topics such as theology, church history, spiritual formation, liturgy and pastoral care. He is busy preparing for that on top of all his studies. After the exam is complete, Philip will load into a minivan with half a dozen other volunteers and travel down to New Orleans to assist the area still suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Sadly I will not be able to join him.

When he returns, he will begin his final semester of seminary! However, once again his school responsibilities will be joined by a variety of other tasks like meeting with the Standing Committee, starting the deployment process with the Diocese of Central Florida and, assuming everything falls into place, preparing for ordination to the deaconate! We are really excited and overwhelmed, hardly believing that our three years of seminary are coming to a close!

As for myself, after a lot of prayer and discernment, we have decided that I will leave my job at the bank a little earlier than planned in order to give myself ample time to complete my Master’s thesis project. So next semester I will be spending a majority of my time in the library and interviewing as many people as I can to develop curriculum for a women’s bible study based on a theology and spirituality of the human body. This is a topic that God has placed on my heart and I am eager to develop it into both a spiritual discipline and a tool to help others integrate their bodies into their spiritual lives.

Well, that’s all for now! We hope that your lives are being filled to the measure with the complete love of Christ as we rejoice in his coming! If you are already receiving Philip’s email newsletter updates, “A Month in the Life of a Seminarian”
and would like to be put on that mailing list, send him an email.

Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. We are blessed to have you as a part of our lives and we could not have gotten to where we are today without your encouragement and prayers.

The Lord be With You,
Philip and Melissa

A Church Visit

Today I visited Mamre Moravian Church, a denomination with a rich history within the pre-reformational pietistic movement. As I stepped out of the vehicle the first thing that I noticed about the church was that the entire building focused the viewers eyes upward until the view culminated at the steeple. I walked in and noticed the old wooden pews in a simple square shaped room surrounded by simple picture windows. Next my eyes noticed a very large box shaped pipe organ which took up the entire front right hand corner of the front of the church. Apparently the church had not been designed with an organ in mind. In the center was a pulpit flanked by two picture windows, one of of the Scriptures and another of two stone tablets. Above the pulpit hung a multi-pointed white star (which I later learned is supposed to communicate a symbol of diversity).

The service was led by a young lay member in his fifties and assisted by an organist. Attendance on that Sunday was twenty-one, however from what I understand there are normally less than twelve, the youngest of which is in his seventies.

The sermon went well. The guest preacher confidently began with a funny story about himself and continued in an organized and interesting fashion. The only part of the sermon that I thought was a might bit disconcerting was that each time he finished a main point of the homily, his voice tone and length of pause was such that I thought it was the end of his sermon, and then he would continue.

After the service was complete everyone went into a side room, and sat down around a couple of tables for coffee, brownies, cookies and conversation. There was lots of reminiscing amidst the dialogue, as well as friendly chatter and questions as to where I was from and the like. Everyone was very welcoming.

After the service I walked around through the grass around behind the church to use the outhouse. The church has no indoor plumbing of which I am aware. It was a two-seater, which I thought interesting. Curious how our culture has changed over the years since this outhouse was first built.

My visit left me wondering, what is it that keeps these rich and heartwarming folks returning to this pretty, but dwindling church, week after week with such dedication?

Mom's Suprise Birthday

We had a great time at Melissa's Mom's suprise birthday party down in Florida this past summer.

Visiting with Dad in Florida

We had a fun time visiting Melissa's dad and family while we were down in Florida a few weeks ago.

Biking with the Family

Out deep woods biking with the family back in Michigan about a month ago (late August).