Installations

U2 — Probably my last concert ever:

This was probably the best concert I’ll ever go to.  (And that’s not saying much. The next-best concert was Steven Curtis Chapman performing in Ames, IA my senior year of high school. Then it goes to Daniel Bedingfield performing at TCU my first year. Then it goes to Vanilla Ice performing at TCU my second year.)

Yeah; it doesn’t take much for U2 to be the best!   😀

For the Saturday night at Chicago’s Soldier Field, Heidi and I were lucky enough to have Michael and Becca Swartzentruber join us for the concert.  Talk about fun people to break bread (or tortillas) with; to traverse the traffic of a concert on the south side of Chicago with; or even to listen to U2’s latest melodies with.  Heidi and I are lucky.

The concert was awesome.  The stage electronics were state-of-the-art.  Bono, thankfully, did not take up most of the attention — the band stepped out and took some of the crowd’s attention when their songs highlighted their incredible talent.  It was my first and (probably) last U2 concert.

Heidi and I realized, as we joined with the crowd of 65,000 people that we’re not just introverts — we border on being major (or even extreme) introverts.  That afternoon, leading up to the concert, we were wearing ourselves out as we mentally prepared to join the massive crowds.  That many people are exhausting.  The songs were good; and the experience was good — but we were SO tired half-way through the concert.

Installation:

The column of lights made Soldier Field a City of Blinding Lights.  The disco ball on top — with at least 8 spotlights during Moment of Surrender was some of the coolest installation art I’ve ever seen.  The whole stage was an installation (took 2 days to assemble) — but the way the lights not only shaped the band but also shaped the crowd was incredible!  Well done, U2.

Paul Ford’s Installation at Avalon Park Community Church (U.C.C.)

The next day after the U2 concert, Heidi and I joined our friends, Paul Ford and Kirsten Boswell Ford, for Paul’s installation at Avalon Park Community Church.  Even though the service was long (by all participants’ accounts), it was stiill good.  One thing I’ve noticed about many installation services: they seem  like second ordinations.  Why is that?  Why, as Church, are we not able to have unique rituals for installation that don’t copy-and-paste from ordination services?

Paul’s a jumper – no doubt about it.

Chicago Theological Seminary

For most of this past summer I’ve worked on Chicago Theological Seminary‘s new website.  While the site isn’t live yet, it’s supposed to be soon (hopefully, servers willing, it’ll be live this week).  It’s been a fun process and it was a nice gateway for re-learning some of my skills I haven’t used in the past three years.  I’m now accepting that part of my vocation is to do some of my computer programming and use it for ministry.  I’d written it off after my first year of Divinity School (and the summer exploration sponsored by FTE); but it’s back — and I feel whole again.  As I do computer programing and integrate many of my vocational gifts, it seems like less of a stretch than when I was living a schedule hostile to sitting down and focusing.  Maybe I never learned how to successfully be a Divinity School student; but this summer reassured me that I could still learn and that learning’s source didn’t have to be books.

Maybe Installations aren’t just the cool visual effects, the pastoral offices, or the server configurations — maybe they’re all three combined!    -A