announcements

Hypothetical Fatherhood has migrated to The Life Mosaic.

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I’ve migrated my blog posts and twitter feed for my 2011 side project, Hypothetical Fatherhood, to here at The Life Mosaic.
In the months leading up to becoming a father in 2011, I created Hypothetical Fatherhood to explore and share some of the creative-yet-inappropriate ideas running through my head as I prepared for this new role in my life. Eventually, I lost steam for posting on the blog, which required quite a bit of time commitment, and shifted to a Twitter-only feed. However, I found keeping up the character of a “meta” version of myself wasn’t authentic enough for me to feel invested, especially on Twitter where it seems like a majority of my friends are themselves there and I was just in it for the jokes. It was fun and I’m glad for the experiment, and in the end it was yet one more thing on my plate and I let it go.
That’s one of the best things about creativity: sometimes, you get to let something go.
So I let it go. And now I bring it here. So it lives on, archived for (at the very least) my own amusement and to confuse people who happen into

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I am now a tweet twit.

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I’ve been live-tweeting this week at an event called the Festival of Homiletics, a week-long gathering of clergy and church leaders on the craft of preaching. The week has been wonderful and an excellent way to cap off Sunday’s graduation from Luther Seminary. I couldn’t be here without FoH’s generous offer of 50% off for … Read more

Pastor Nate's First Appointment.

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Here’s a follow-up post to the one I made two weeks ago about my current place in my ordination process. Since then, my bishop has intended me to be appointed at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church and I have affirmed this decision. I’ll start on June 29. The official wording goes like this: Bishop Bruce … Read more

Pastor Nate

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I’ve gone one gigantic step closer to being called “Pastor Nate.” On Wednesday I received a phone call letting me know that the Board of Ordained Ministry (BoOM) for the Minnesota Annual Conference (MAC) of the United Methodist Church (UMC) has voted to approve my request to become a Provisional Elder. It is an exhaustive … Read more

UPDATE: Simpson Shelter Has Taken the Lead; Help Them Keep It.

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2013.02.20 Please Help Simpson Shelter With Your Vote
Update: Simpson Shelter moved into first place in the voting last week. Help them stay in the lead and win a $25,000 kitchen makeover. Will you please help?
What’s the contest?

The Family Handyman magazine and IKEA are co-sponsoring a contest called “Rescue Remodel” running through March 30 to award one community organization an IKEA kitchen makeover worth up to $25,000. Here’s what the contest at RescueRemodel.com says:

Deserving community organizations from across the country were nominated by their communities to win an IKEA® dream kitchen through our Rescue Remodel Contest. The organization with the most votes will receive a dream kitchen renovation valued at $25,000. And since it’s all from IKEA®, it will be full of smart and innovative ideas to make their lives a little bit easier so they can better serve our communities.
When I first posted about this contest, Simpson Shelter was behind by 2000 votes. Now it’s taken the lead by

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Please Help Simpson Shelter With Your Vote.

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2013.02.20 Please Help Simpson Shelter With Your Vote
You can help a homeless shelter win a $25,000 kitchen makeover with a few clicks. Simpson Shelter’s work is important to so many men and women. Will you please help?
The Family Handyman magazine and IKEA are co-sponsoring a contest called “Rescue Remodel” running through March 30 to award one community organization an IKEA kitchen makeover worth up to $25,000. Here’s what the contest says:

Deserving community organizations from across the country were nominated by their communities to win an IKEA® dream kitchen through our Rescue Remodel Contest. The organization with the most votes will receive a dream kitchen renovation valued at $25,000. And since it’s all from IKEA®, it will be full of smart and innovative ideas to make their lives a little bit easier so they can better serve our communities.

I make no comment on whether the other four organizations up for the prize are worthy. Obviously, they are. They’re all very worthy and deserving of such generosity. What I can tell you, however, is that I’ve witnessed first-hand what Simpson Shelter does for homeless men and women. Volunteers from across the twin cities metro come in to cook and serve meals which they, the volunteers, also bring. They do this in the kitchen in the basement of Simpson United Methodist Church – a basement which is now fully dedicated to providing services for homeless men and women who need help.  Volunteers from the church and other organizations join in with a small staff to offer services for homeless persons in crisis, in need, and in hope of transitioning to being a person with a home.
And at this shelter, it’s not just beds and it’s not just meals. It’s savings accounts. Volunteer social workers. Volunteer lawyers. Volunteer health care professionals. Showers. Donations of hygiene products, socks, underpants. A comfortably couch and a big screen TV. Dignity. It’s a monumental undertaking and while I would prefer there would be no need for homeless shelters, there is need. And Simpson Shelter does amazing work to fill that need in their own little way.
Here’s a brief video from Simpson Housing Services and I have a little to add below:

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"Caught My Eye" Begins Tomorrow.

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Caught My Eye
Tomorrow sees the start of “Caught My Eye.” Right now, the intention is for the feature to be three things:

  • A weekly feature at The Life Mosaic.
  • Five items I experienced over the week and want to share.
  • A space to offer your thoughts and share your own items.

This may fluctuate in the future but for now, anticipate the above recipe.
Social media has been an excellent way to share new ideas, innovative designs, moving art and writing, and fun stuff that’s just plain awesome. Friends are great about posting links to interesting articles and blog posts or the latest funny video of the week and these can become a nice addition to one’s facebook | twitter | rss feed. For me, I often find myself bookmarking the things passed along to me which catch my attention the most, make me think or feel the most. I’ve decided to make The Life Mosaic a new way to bookmark these items as well as pass them along to readers who might be interested, too.
Each week, likely on Thursdays, I’ll put up a post with (at least) five items which caught my eye. They may be

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A Closer Look #4 Looking Back on the First Month of The Life Mosaic.

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A Closer Look
My first month writing for this new blog has been wonderful. You’ve got to love it when you learn something from what works, what doesn’t, and can still walk away feeling good about it. Here are some of my observations as I take a closer look at the first month of creating The Life Mosaic. Consider this a “journal” entry (or as Lisa Simpson would write, “Dear Log…”).
1. I’ve loved dusting off my writing chops.
Really, I don’t do all that much writing these days that isn’t for work or academic purposes. To write with passion on a project that’s all my own, something I want to share with other people without expectations on them or me, that’s been something absent for too long. Now that I gave it space for a month, it’s a lovely feeling having it back. It’s an old friend who’s familiar and fresh at the same time. I’m trying not to be too hard on myself or cringe about what I put out there. When I succeed, the writing goes better. The writing is fun.
2. Embracing the mosaic means openness and boundaries.
Many blogs are laser-focused and really, that’s the way to go. For my purposes, though, I’ve simply got too many ideas in too many areas of life buzzing around my head. I’d have to set up nearly a dozen blogs if I wanted to

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