back to fuller

after spending four year on this campus, it feels a little strange to be just visiting after being away for a year. granted, i have many warm memories, and it is good to be back.

#10 - fuller seminary

august will be the last month of the sky is big in pasadena.  

i have accepted a position at salford mennonite church in harleysville, pennsylvania.  we will be moving in september, so august will be my farewell month to the city of pasadena.  when we moved here from virginia i posted a list of the ten things i would miss most about harrisonburg.  i figured that would be a good way to end our time here, so each day i will be doing one final rundown of life in this great city.  i have prepared two lists - ten things i won't be sad to leave behind (which thankfully, are already posted), and twenty of my absolute favorite things about pasadena.  we have arrived at my top ten things about life in pasadena.

#10 - fuller seminary

let's face it.  this is the reason we arrived in pasadena four years ago.  without fuller, we probably would never have considered pasadena in the first place.  in many ways it has been more than i ever imagined.  not everything has been what i expected it to be, and sometimes i wondered what life would have been like at another seminary, but all in all i am glad i made the choice to come here.

fuller has challenged me, stretched me, and made me into a better thinker.  it has given me the foundation for a huge number of relationships - both at the mentor and peer level.  i am constantly amazed at the reach of this school in the global community, and i am proud to be one of its many alumni.

today's photo was taken recently.  compare it with this photo of me shortly after we arrived.  have i changed at all in four years??

fuller's new green space

 

 

this area was designated for a new worship center at fuller seminary.  the collapse of the financial market means there isn't money right now for that project, thus the space needed to be filled with something.

i'm glad fuller went "green" and put in all of these plants.  brigham yen has a great write up on his website.

commencement!

my good friend joyce snapped off this photo during fuller's commencement ceremony yesterday.

thanks joyce!

by the way, you can all call me "master" now.

nearing the end

when i began this blog almost four years ago, i was hoping that it would be an artistic outlet while i worked on my masters degree from fuller seminary.  i told myself then that i would try and post a photo every day that i was enrolled.

today is my commencement ceremony celebrating the end of my degree, and frankly, i am ready for a break from daily photoblogging.  fortunately for fans of "the sky is big", i still have two summer classes left to complete my degree, so my break from school (and blogging) will have to wait.

better late...

than never?

sorry about the late nature of this post of a corner of fuller's campus.

numbers

the fuller seminary post office has these classy old mailboxes.  this photo was taken a few years ago, and i recently found it while browsing my old photos.

going to seminary in california

on of the first things that appealed to me about attending fuller theological seminary was the beautiful tree-lined walkway through the middle of campus.  palm trees, green grass, strolling faculty and students...  it seemed almost perfect.

and although i don't often pause to think about it, fuller has been a pretty amazing place to be.  the end is now appearing on the horizon - who knows where life will take us next?

fuller seminary library at sunset

i've featured the fuller seminary library before, but while walking through campus the other day the light hit it just right.  i like the way it turned out.

prayer garden

tucked into a quiet corner of fuller theological seminary's campus is this stained glass cross.  for some reason this photo seems like an optical illusion.

Fuller Theological Seminary from Above

sorry again for the delay in today's posting. 
still no internet at home... 

winter is moving in?

this year has been up and down with all kinds of random weather patterns.  some days have been blistering hot, others rainy and cool.  this week has brought some cooler weather to pasadena once again, with several days of grey overcast looming clouds (and even a dusting of snow on our mountains which i unfortunately did not capture).

more skywatch friday photos can be found right here.

any guesses as to where this photo was taken from?

going pro

at first glance this may not look like a photo i took - but - long time followers of this blog may recognize this photo from way back in february of last year.

that's right folks, i've been published (and this time it is legit).  okay, fuller seminary's website is far from the top of the art world, but still, it felt pretty cool to see my work in "print" of some kind.  you can see the photo on the live web page by clicking on the image above.

thanks to the dmin program for being interested in my work!

class is now in session

i took two short two-week classes this summer, and had the rest free to get to know my daughter.  sadly, this week marks the first classes of the fall quarter at fuller seminary, which means it is time to get back to work - academically speaking.

the library (pictured above) is slowly filling up with students working on papers and projects.  i guess we should all be grateful - many schools have been back for a few weeks now.

a tasty skywatch friday

the other day while sitting in class, i got a text message from a friend that said simply...

"dumpling truck on oakland"

i was thrilled. you see, oakland cuts down through fuller's campus, and it was getting close to dinner time. while pasadena boasts a growing number of food trucks, for some reason, few venture to fuller seminary (maybe seminary students are too poor for the gourmet food truck revolution?).

so after class, i headed over to check out the dumpling station food truck. dumplings come with a variety of fillings and can be ordered steamed, pan fried, or deep fried. in addition to dumplings, the truck offers a variety of other side dishes including garlic wasabi fries (i'm still mad i didn't try those). i ordered the beef kimchi dumplings and the pork sage dumplings - both pan fried. they were excellent! the food was ready quickly, and the service was very friendly.


it seemed like they were getting a decent amount of business from the fuller crowd. i hope this is a sign of things to come!

more skywatch friday can be found right here.

tony hale at fuller seminary

i'm a big fan of the short lived tv show, arrested development. so i was quite pleased to hear that tony hale who played buster bluth from the show would be on fuller seminary's campus to talk about the intersection between his faith and working in hollywood as an actor. the event was organized by the brehm center, hence nate risdon is in the above photo, orchestrating the q&a time.


another great example of the interesting programming that happens at fuller - not just a place to learn theology, but a place to interact with the world.

my school

i'm sure most fuller students have a photo like this buried in their collection. everyone who has family visit them in southern california, want to take your picture next to the fuller sign. my sister took this picture way back in 2007, shortly after i arrived in pasadena.

this setting might look familiar to those of you who are regular readers of the fantastic post secret website. the idea is simple - mail in a postcard of your deepest secret to be posted anonymously on their site. it has become so popular that the creators have published several books.

this week they posted this photo. interesting, right? i wonder who that is and what made fuller seminary so difficult...

fuller seminary throwback aerial photo

borrowing a theme from our ann erdman, our public information officer's fantastic mystery history series, i'd like to show you a photograph i have very information on, nor did i take this photo myself.

this image was found on fuller's campus by one of my coworkers. he snagged it when someone in our building was cleaning out their office. i'm not sure of the year, or who took this photo, or even how it survived. But those who are familiar with the area will notice several very interesting things. orient yourself with city hall in the upper left corner, with los robles and oakland as the two visible horizontally moving roads, and walnut and union as the visible verticly aligned streets.

a few things i noticed...

- the massive parking lot behind all saints church where plaza los fuentes now stands
- oakland avenue goes right through fuller's campus where a tree-lined walkway now appears
- there is no trace of our, ahem... beautiful courthouse
- obviously fuller's new library is not in the picture
- likewise, the pasadena museum of california art and the pacific asia museum are missing

so can someone give me an estimation of when this photo was taken? can you spot other differences between now and then?

brian mclaren at fuller seminary

i had a full weekend. after the wedding which i posted about yesterday, i dropped in on the last few minutes of a conversation on the future of the church in the united states between mclaren and fuller professors, barry taylor and ryan bolger. a really provocative event

congrats to adrianne and nathan!

i had the privilege of attending the wedding of some friends who i've known from both church and fuller seminary. i think those who attended will agree that it was one of the most beautiful and sacred weddings of all time.

blessings to both of you. congrats on this next stage of your life.