Jonathan Page!
Jonathan Page is the winner for his identification of the church (Cullman First United Methodist) via private messenge this afternoon. But, we'll go out to eat with whoever wants to come and visit.
Since he guessed on the first round, I guess we won't have a second round. It was likely going to involve saying which district it will be in (Central) which would have narrowed it down to about 150 churches, of which Cullman and only one or two others have around 1000 members.
Here's the church website in case you're interested. I'll be the associate pastor, likely preaching 3 times a month at the contemporary service and once a month at the two traditional services. From talking with the pastor and meeting a few of the staff people, it seems like a really good church and we're excited to be going up there. Let us know if you've got any info about the area or the church.
Thanks for playing,
Peter
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
Let the games begin
So now we can share where Peter will be appointed in June. As our faithful readers suggested, we thought we'd post some of the first information we found about the church and the community and let you try to guess them.* Those of you who already know, please don't spoil the fun. Those of you who don't know and are the first few to figure it out will be rewarded with fun times at the new von Herrmann household. We will buy lunch at the best restaurant in town for the first one to guess correctly (and bonus dessert if you know/figure out the best restaurant in town). Questions may be asked; questions might be answered.
* These are our previous posts on the subject: we're moving to ... and more internet investigatin'.
Good luck, and let the games begin.
The Church
First church building 1881
More than 10 staff members
Peter will be preaching every week
Three services, two traditional (8:30 and 11 a.m.) and one contemporary (11 a.m.)
About 1,000 church members
Community
Demographics
Population of city (as reported by ePodunk) - between 13,000 and 15,000 people
Ethnicity of city residents - White 96.4% Black or African American 0.4% American Indian and Alaska native 0.2% Asian 0.5% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.0% Some other race 1.1% Two or more races 1.4% Hispanic or Latino 4.9%
Population of county (as reported by ePodunk) – between 77,000 and 80,000 people
History
Founded by a German settler
Originally settlers planned on growing grapes to make wine, but found the area better suited to growing corn, strawberries, and sweet potatoes.
Amanda got her first and so far only speeding ticket in the county in which the church is located
* These are our previous posts on the subject: we're moving to ... and more internet investigatin'.
Good luck, and let the games begin.
The Church
First church building 1881
More than 10 staff members
Peter will be preaching every week
Three services, two traditional (8:30 and 11 a.m.) and one contemporary (11 a.m.)
About 1,000 church members
Community
Demographics
Population of city (as reported by ePodunk) - between 13,000 and 15,000 people
Ethnicity of city residents - White 96.4% Black or African American 0.4% American Indian and Alaska native 0.2% Asian 0.5% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.0% Some other race 1.1% Two or more races 1.4% Hispanic or Latino 4.9%
Population of county (as reported by ePodunk) – between 77,000 and 80,000 people
History
Founded by a German settler
Originally settlers planned on growing grapes to make wine, but found the area better suited to growing corn, strawberries, and sweet potatoes.
Amanda got her first and so far only speeding ticket in the county in which the church is located
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
more on the waiting game
Well, we've now heard that Peter's projected appointment did not change from round one to round two. Someone told us that it is about 97% likely that it will stick through to the end now.
We'll just have to wait until the end of this month to find out, and until June 1 to be really really really sure.
It's hard to get excited about our potential new community, new church, new house, when we aren't sure that is where we'll be going. I think it will get better when we start finding out more and more about each of those aspects and begin meeting more and more people there.
On a side note for our loyal blog readers, Belgian Crockpots (or Crackpots, as the DJ sometimes says mistakenly) are now defending champs for three weeks in a row. We'll see how the streak holds up tonight. I won't be holding my breath.
We'll just have to wait until the end of this month to find out, and until June 1 to be really really really sure.
It's hard to get excited about our potential new community, new church, new house, when we aren't sure that is where we'll be going. I think it will get better when we start finding out more and more about each of those aspects and begin meeting more and more people there.
On a side note for our loyal blog readers, Belgian Crockpots (or Crackpots, as the DJ sometimes says mistakenly) are now defending champs for three weeks in a row. We'll see how the streak holds up tonight. I won't be holding my breath.
Friday, April 07, 2006
the waiting game
Well, once again I'm sitting by the phone, waiting on my DS or future senior minister or Jesus Christ to call and let me know where we'll be moving in June. I realize I'm toward the bottom of the line as far as importance within the system, so I'm not expecting a call from the Bishop on the way out of the cabinet meeting or anything. But it's still kind of nervewracking, just sitting around and waiting for something to happen. As Amanda just said, "now you know what a teenage girl feels like."
So now that we've developed that I feel like a teenage girl, today's news was that I had a presentation on Gary Gunderson's Deeply Woven Roots in Mission and Western Culture. It was pretty entertaining, since the entire course talks about intersections between modern culture and the church, so we're allowed to make some bizarre connections. For instance, my presentation was done jointly with Lonnie Pittman, a Florida fan from Pensacola. So, naturally, I began the presentation with a discussion of the role of Alabama football as religious community. My discussion was based on an article written by David Chidester about "the church of baseball," but basically it took the four major functions of religious community (timelessness, continuity, community, sacred space) and applied each of these to Alabama football (the rituals of holding up four fingers and our crimson jerseys, our tradition of winning, the connection between likeminded fans, and bryant-denny stadium). Lonnie retorted with a slide about Florida winning the basketball championship, so I fought back with a picture of the scoreboard from the 2005 UA-UF game. After that, we talked about the news about the American Bible Society refusing to print bibles with the phrase "Jesus loves Porn Stars" on the cover. Pretty interesting stuff.
So now that we've developed that I feel like a teenage girl, today's news was that I had a presentation on Gary Gunderson's Deeply Woven Roots in Mission and Western Culture. It was pretty entertaining, since the entire course talks about intersections between modern culture and the church, so we're allowed to make some bizarre connections. For instance, my presentation was done jointly with Lonnie Pittman, a Florida fan from Pensacola. So, naturally, I began the presentation with a discussion of the role of Alabama football as religious community. My discussion was based on an article written by David Chidester about "the church of baseball," but basically it took the four major functions of religious community (timelessness, continuity, community, sacred space) and applied each of these to Alabama football (the rituals of holding up four fingers and our crimson jerseys, our tradition of winning, the connection between likeminded fans, and bryant-denny stadium). Lonnie retorted with a slide about Florida winning the basketball championship, so I fought back with a picture of the scoreboard from the 2005 UA-UF game. After that, we talked about the news about the American Bible Society refusing to print bibles with the phrase "Jesus loves Porn Stars" on the cover. Pretty interesting stuff.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
top 10 reasons to move back to Alabama
We have succumbed to the writer's standby, the top 10 list. We came up with these on our way to Tuscaloosa the other day, and we thought we'd share this with our faithful reader(s). Starting with #10 ...
10. Less traffic
9. No Georgia fans, big G's on cars, or ugly bulldog symbols that make me want to puke.
8. In the time that it currently takes us to get out of Atlanta, we can be halfway to one of our parent's houses.
7. Not being called a radical conservative because neither of us think that eliminating the military or making them hold bake sales would be a good idea.
6. Fewer yankees telling us our accents are "cute"
5. Wal-mart
4. Not having to explain what "Crimson Tide" means, or why "Big Al" is an elephant.
3. Week long Iron Bowl coverage
2. Milo's sweet tea and good southern cooking
1. Central time, the way God meant it to be
10. Less traffic
9. No Georgia fans, big G's on cars, or ugly bulldog symbols that make me want to puke.
8. In the time that it currently takes us to get out of Atlanta, we can be halfway to one of our parent's houses.
7. Not being called a radical conservative because neither of us think that eliminating the military or making them hold bake sales would be a good idea.
6. Fewer yankees telling us our accents are "cute"
5. Wal-mart
4. Not having to explain what "Crimson Tide" means, or why "Big Al" is an elephant.
3. Week long Iron Bowl coverage
2. Milo's sweet tea and good southern cooking
1. Central time, the way God meant it to be
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)