Shuck and Jive


Wednesday, August 15, 2007

A Path Less Trodden, Then Back to the Main Road


Welcome to Conversations with Bob!

John and I have known each other since the early 1990’s when he became pastor at Lowville, NY, wayyyy up in the snow and cold belt of Northern NY. I think John was ordained to that position. I was the pastor at 1st Presbyterian, Oneida, NY, in the slightly warmer and a little less snow bound area near Syracuse. (I don’t remember it ever getting below 20 degrees below 0 in Oneida and we never got more than 4 feet of snow overnight)

We have both moved on since then, John to Montana and then Tennessee and I to New Jersey and then to the Philadelphia area, Philadelphia, PA, that is. Being the older and wiser men that we now are we have both moved to balmier climes and don’t shovel snow (much) anymore. We just have to put up with these people who don’t know how to drive in snow and ice!

While we had presbytery youth programs at Oneida 1st and John was one of the leaders and we always liked each other, it’s a long way from Lowville to Oneida, so John and I never learned each other’s back stories. I think I knew he went to Princeton but never held it against him and I’m pretty sure he knew I had gone to Fuller and he still didn’t consider me to be a complete wacko.

So now that we have entertained ya’ll with some theological talk we are now going to tell our stories, partly to say how we see, with human eyes, we ended up where we are today, theologically, ecclesiastically and ethically speaking.

So beginning with the day of my birth, December 24, 1952, (I was the best Christmas present my mother ever had!) I will give you a brief story about me, including where I saw God at work in my life. Seriously, I don’t remember much before age 5.

But John gets to go first. After all, this is his blog.

Grace and Peace

Bob

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