The Return of the Blog

For those of you who have missed my blogging, well, I have missed it too. So, let this serve as an intentional return to activity here on the blog. My guess is that there will be an average of 2-3 posts per week from now on, but we'll see how that goes. 

For today's blog entry, I just want to say its nice to be back and I hope you enjoy my thoughts and reflections on a whole host of topics- from theology to leadership, from baseball to choral music, and every thing in between.

For your enjoyment, I am providing a return of a few links with today's initial post of things I have been reading and following.

This Week's Links
Theology, Ministry and the Church
1. Lutheran Women Scholars have come to the defense of their Catholic Sister; including a number of my favorite professors from PLU and Luther Seminary, as well as a host of others who I have met and/or cited in a number of projects including my thesis.
2. Dr. Lose from Luther Seminary offers some reflections on denominationalism.
3. My roommate Tyler from PLU offers a wonderful reflection on the change he sees in what it means to follow the "American dream." With our "generation" its not necessarily about making the most money, but rather about living a fulfilling life and living into one's vocation(s).

Sports
1. The Pac-12 Network continues to take shape.
2. Is it time to bring up the annual question for the Mariners about whether or not to think about trading King Felix?
3. I would be remiss with this return to blog activity to not offer a huge shout-out to the Lutes Softball team! PLU's softball team won the Division III National Championship in May!! Congrats and Attaway Lutes!

Thanks for taking the time to read and follow me, and for welcoming me back to the blogging world. May God's peace and blessings be unto you this day!

Simul justus et peccator- What it means to be a Lutheran in my eyes today (part I)

I woke up this morning inspired to start a new series in this blog.  Over the next week or so, I will offer some different thoughts on what I believe it means to be a Lutheran Christian today.  Each post will try and focus on one theological (or other type of) idea.  I admit that I am not doing this as part of a seminary class, but more so as a way to work through some understandings of my own in the hope that they will help you think about your own understandings of these ideas.  Further, this in the hope that such beliefs will be understood in shaping who I am as a worship coordinator now at a local Lutheran Church.

Today, let us begin with the paradox known in the Latin as "simul justus et peccator."  First of all, as much as Lutherans are comfortable in paradox, I think our comfort here is actually a disadvantage for us in the way we talk with and engage in the rest of the world who wishes things were more clear (ie- politics, Washington D.C., etc.).  But, that said, we are comfortable in our paradoxes as Lutherans, and there is no greater paradox then this one, that we are "simultaneously saint and sinner."

In good Lutheran fashion, I might ask, "what does this mean?"  I am not going to go and quote the catechism here.  Rather, I will offer my own observations.  On the one hand, we believe that we are all children of God and redeemed through Christ in grace and love.  This understanding is that we are saints because we are the people of God.  However, we are sinners because we are "enslaved to sin and cannot free ourselves," as we confess.  This is why having some sort of understanding of the significance of Christ and atonement is important, because without Christ's saving act for us, the "sinner" reality would be the dominant one, and our relationship with God would be much more terrifying and probably negative.

On the other hand, this might be interpreted as we are both "good and bad."  I would not go here for a Lutheran argument, because I don't think I could make a very compelling case.  But, this could be argued that one is good because God works through us, in our callings and vocations, in guiding and sanctifying us, and leading us as we are justified by faith alone to engage in the world around us and love our neighbor.  One is bad because we perpetually come up short, especially when we allow ourselves to focus on our selves and not the needs of our neighbor, and that which God might have us do or call us to do; so when we seem to put ourselves first at the expense or pain of another person, God, a thing, or any part of creation, this would then be bad.

Perhaps this idea of "simultaneously saint and sinner," raises more questions then it answers, but I think it is a good place to start for contemplating what it means to be a Lutheran today.  How does it shape our practice of worship? Our practice of serving our neighbor, of walking with them, and being a part of this world while also of the world to come? (There is another Lutheran paradox for you)... We will keep these questions alive throughout the following posts, in the hope that they spark some ideas, imagination, wondering, and if necessary, some reevaluation and action if my own practices seem inconsistent with my beliefs and understandings.

Drucker as a Writer

Reading through Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker, and I think to myself... what if theologians wrote like this?  I have found Drucker's work to always be accessible, engaging, and well explained. He is not circular, but he is not making stuff up out of thin air, either.  If only all theologians took writing lessons from Drucker, perhaps we would have a better understanding of their theological ideas, and perhaps their ideas would be more accessible.  At the very least, complicated trains of thought might be a bit more clear.  What do you think?

Good Bye Summer!

The rain has come.  The temperature has dropped.  The leaves are falling.  I guess summer was not going to be able to hold on forever.  Oh well.  It had a great run!

Now that Fall is here, perhaps its time to really start blogging again.  

Starting tomorrow, I intend to provide a new post daily.  They may not be that most insightful, but perhaps they will make for a fun read. 

Peace and Blessings

Welcome Back!

This will be a short post, but an important one.  The blog ended up taking an unintentional vacation over the summer.  For those of you regular readers who were disappointed, I greatly apologize.  I am happy to announce its return today though with the beginning of a new semester.  The blog will be covering a number of topics throughout this year, so I hope you enjoy.

For those of you who are a part of the seminary community, the Luther Seminary Student Council is accepting nominations for those interested in serving on the council this week.  So, nominate or be nominated!

Also, at some point this week, I will offer a detailed and "off-the-cuff" analysis and prediction of college conference Armageddon for those of you who are college sports fans.

Thanks for being loyal readers of the blog!

Letter of Thanks to First Lutheran

It has come to my attention that First Lutheran Church did not include the majority of my letter in its June "Visitor" and rather only took a couple sentences.  If you would like to see the letter in its entirety, please read below: 

Dear First Lutheran Family,

It is with a heart full of joy and appreciation that I write you!  I am so grateful for your continued love and support- in thoughts, prayer, encouragement, and of course by monetary means as well.  Allison is grateful as well, of course.  Together we thank you for the offering you raised to help support our studies, ministry training and discernment back in March.  You can trust that your gracious gifts will be well used in supporting two married seminarians.  Your support and continued support helps make our studies possible.  It also gives us hope that we will be able to follow and live out our vocational callings in the world while not being burdened with insurmountable debt. 

It is probably about time for an update on how we are doing.  Our first year here at Luther Seminary in the Twin Cities is coming to a fast close.  As we are entering our ninth month of married life, this past year of crazy changes and transition is thankfully starting to slowly settle down.  Allison continues to be a Master of Divinity Student, discerning a call towards the parish, an undergraduate professorship, or some other ministry working with young women.  My degree has changed slightly here, as some of you may know.  I am now officially a Master of Arts student here, working towards a degree in Congregational, Mission, and Leadership.  This degree will couple well with the degree I earned from Claremont (MA in Management in 2010), in following my vocational and ministerial call towards work in Lutheran (or generally faith-based) social organizations such as Lutheran World Relief or Lutheran Social Services, etc.

Allison and I have found a nice congregational family to be a part of.  It is located on the border of the northern suburbs and rural Anoka County (north-northwest of Minneapolis) at Cross of Hope Lutheran Church in Ramsey.  We are doing our contextual education components of seminary there.  This means that Allison is able to work with women and youth ministries, and I am doing work designing and redesigning their leadership structures and models, as well as their congregational communication.  In addition to these contextual education components, I am on-staff there, serving as the church’s Music Ministry Coordinator (to be renamed Worship Coordinator this summer).  As part of this job, I coordinate the church’s musical ensembles, as well as direct its adult choir, and occasionally play piano.  Allison currently works at Dining Services at Luther Seminary (in its cafeteria), and also will be working at the church beginning this summer to help with leadership in Cross of Hope’s summer youth program. 

We are looking forward to being home for a brief time in mid-May through early June.  This will be a bit longer of a trip then we were able to make over Christmas, and we look forward to more time to spend with family and friends while also celebrating Thomas’ graduation from PLU.  We will be at First Lutheran on Sunday June 5^th, and hope to see you then.   If you end up passing through or visiting the Twin Cities, please let us know.  We always love to see and spend time with familiar faces.

Thank you for your continued support, prayers, and love!

In Christ’s Service,

Allison and Timothy Siburg

Big News of Change for PLU

The Press Release from PLU:  http://www.plu.edu/ucom/email/andersons/leaving-plu/home.php

I will be offering a tribute of appreciation from my own experiences with the Andersons in an upcoming blog post.  But for those of you who have not heard, President Dr. Loren Anderson and MaryAnn will be leaving PLU at the end of the 2011-2012 Academic Year.  This means that after next spring's commencement, they will be ending their 20 year term together as the leadership couple at PLU.  Much great things have been done while during their time, and they will be greatly missed.  However, their legacy of helping create the Wild Hope Project and so many other things will certainly live on, as it has become a part of the DNA of what it means to be a Lute.  Thank you to the Anderson family for your hardwork, dedication, passion, and service.  And also for your friendship and support.