Minister, Photographer, Computer Programmer
Any small business owner will tell you: “people think they know more than they actually do.” This is true of computer programmers; it is true of Christian ministers. The more we stretch ourselves and our limits, the more we realize how much we don’t know.
Heidi and I wish you all a Merry Christmas. We were going to sign it “the Haverbergs” or “the Friekamps.” But with as many people as we have confused on our names, we decided to be literal. 
Merry Christmas from Heidi and Adam
Last week started horribly wrong. What we suspected was a foodborne illness was probably a stomach virus.
Two and a half days later and I was just starting to re-hydrate. Thankfully, Odo, our beagle, kept me company. It made it being “sick as a dog” tolerable.
So it’s Tuesday night and Heidi’s at a church board/finance meeting; it’s a work night for both of us. While she’s crunching numbers with her volunteers, I’m procrastinating on some coding and graphic design. I have two major projects I’m working on for this week — the new UpperMidwestCC website and some hosted sites for PremierCrop.com. And while they’re pretty nice to do, I needed a break.
And how lucky could I be to get an e-mail from Mark Whitley!
Mark Whitley? Who’s he, you ask? Well, I was asking that too … until I read through his e-mail and it all started clicking. Last summer, during the Disciples General Assembly in Indianapolis I met and photographed the artisan who made the communion table for the assembly. He + his work are incredible.
While the picture above is my favorite of that session, there’s another which is better at showing both the table and its context in the Assembly. Check this out:
Check out the use of the negative space with the candles and how they lead the eye up to the next set of candles at the front of the worship space. How cool is that?!? The front candles’ reflection on the concrete exhibit hall floor train the eye.
I’m thankful to Mark for reminding me about these pictures (which will be used in his soon-to-be-released portfolio book!) and also for caring so much about his art and then using it for the Assembly’s worship.
It’s going to be difficult at the next Assembly since I can’t be the DisciplesWorld photographer (for those who don’t know, they recently closed …). But don’t worry — now I’ll make sure to get more candids of attendees rather than mainly those on-stage. It’s fitting for my photography to start coming in focus again …
Last week I was lucky enough to join 40 friends from the Disciples Youth Ministry Network on a retreat at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale, AZ. Our keynote speaker was Mark DeVries, a hilarious presenter hailing from Texas by way of Nashville. He’s also the founder of Youth Ministry Architects and he tailored his normal spiel to an audience just of vocational youth ministers (rather than his normal combined audiences of church boards, volunteer youth sponsors, etc.).
I got some video and audio of the event, but I’m not sure yet how that will take shape. I originally thought of doing a promo video for next year’s retreat, but I’m not sure I shot a broad enough subject for that. More tk, hopefully …
Canon 7D
Another fun experience from last week was getting my new camera – the Canon 7D. I’d been planning it for over a year (after originally planning for the 5D Mark II – until the 7D came out and trumped it with price and EF/EF-S lens mounting capabilities).
“Destination Weddings” are funny phenomena for me as a minister and as a photographer. While this event wasn’t a wedding – it was a “Destination Retreat” — so much so that I had Amazon ship the camera directly to the retreat center rather than sending it to my home and having to carry it through the airport to Phoenix.
The 7D shoots HD video, which I’m eager to comb through and learn more. I got some video and audio of the event, but I’m not sure yet how that will take shape. I originally thought of doing a promo video for next year’s retreat, but I’m not sure I shot a broad enough subject for that.
Two Cathedrals
Heidi and I don’t normally watch TV – but we will go through complete series on DVD. So, while first dating and being engaged we went through all seasons of Northern Exposure. Now we’re on to The West Wing. When I returned home from the retreat, Heidi and I watched the final episode of Season 2: “Two Cathedrals.” It was incredible. So well done! (Especially compared to the cliffhanger ending at the end of season 1).
Here’s the closing scene from the episode, with music “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits:
So life has changed a lot recently. Global warming sets in; Ft. Worth sets a snow record; life on the farm continues. Even though I haven’t lived at my parents’ house for several years, it’s still very fun visiting. Heidi and I went for Christmas and I took this panorama of the farm covered in snow. It was all done with my 50mm fixed lens and merged in Photoshop/Lightroom:
Also new since Christmas is a calling (I’d had a job before, but now this is a calling). I’m now the Regional Minister for Communication for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Upper Midwest. With that and the ongoing computer programming, I’m no longer doing photography for pay — just for fun, for friends, and to augment my ministry. (See the related pages for an update on what I’m doing!)
For the free tech workshop today at: https://webmeeting.dimdim.com/portal/JoinForm.action?confKey=bsdumw
So my last post wasn’t complete. I’d worked for most of this summer on the new site for Chicago Theological Seminary and the servers just weren’t cooperating. I guess that’s what we get for hosting a PHP/MySQL content management system on an IIS/SQL Server configuration. I’m still wrapping up the video tutorials that explain to the CTS staff how to manage the content on the site. (That’s what I was doing in the above picture). But I’m proud to say that … it’s alive!
Other reasons the weekend was busy:
The Episcopal Church of St. Benedict in Bolingbrook, IL held it’s Family Festival this weekend. I’ve never been as happy to get up at 5:15am to go take pictures of meat cooking:
And the night before, I returned to my field ed. parish, the Church of the Holy Nativity, for their U2Charist worship service. It was my first time back at CHN — and it’s been too long. They’re a great group of people:
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
