Coming Back

After a long summer, both blogging for the Church Basement Roadshow and then taking about a month off, today begins a new season of blogging for me. Soon, my blog will be moving to Beliefnet, but until then I plan to blog (almost) daily here.

Tomorrow really begins a new chapter for me. After two years of writing and about six months of promoting The New Christians, I am beginning to write my dissertation on September 2 (title: “The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement in Practical Theological Perspective”). That will be my main vocational focus in the coming months, and my plan is to complete the first draft by April 1. The truth is, I haven’t spent much time thinking about the dissertation since passing my comprehensive exams and having my dissertation proposal approved in 2006. But I’ve recently received a grant from the Louisville Institute which will allow me time to work steadfastly on the dissertation over the coming months. My plan, God willing, is to work exclusively on the dissertation every weekday until noon. Although it’s going to take an extraordinary amount of self-discipline, I will not check email in the morning (or RSS feeds!).

Of course, I’ve got some other irons in the fire, too. I still work part-time for Emergent Village, and we (the board) is guiding EV into a new chapter in the next few months. Doug and I are JoPa Productions, and after producing the Roadshow this summer, we’ve turned our attention to The Great Emergence National Event in Memphis, December 5-6. (We hope to produce 2-4 events per year that will bring authors and readers closer together.) I’ve got a limited speaking schedule which will only have me on the road 1-2 times per month (and my elite status on Northwest Airlines is falling from Platinum (75K miles/year) to Silver (25K miles/year)).

Plus, there’s the volunteer work: police chaplain, baseball coach, Cub Scout den leader.

Well, now it’s time to go clean the garage so that we can actually park both cars in there. Happy Labor Day.