Not really knowing if she would get into it or not, I bought my girlfriend, Maria, the first season if Alias for Christmas.  A few of my friends from back in Ohio have gotten really into the show and every time I have gone home I have watched various episodes with them and got myself hooked.  So, I was hoping I could hook Maria and we could watch them together.  I also sent the first season to Maria’s sister Ingrid and her boyfriend Martin for Christmas hoping to get them hooked as well.  I don’t know about Ingrid and Martin yet, but Maria is way hooked.  We watched a dozed episodes in like a day and a half this weeked.  Told ya! It’s a really great show filled with suspense, surprises, and some great characters.  So, if nothing out there is quite doing it for you lately, do yourself a favor and checkout Alias.

PS – Don’t forget that you might be able to borrow the seasons from your local pubic library or from friends.  It’s not like everyone needs to buy all the seasons, right?  Unless of course you are gonna watch them over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over – Sarah!

I have so much I could be writing right now, but I will try to keep this short.

I am finally beginning to feel settled back here in Pasadena. I have a new roommate named Sam that I love talking to, Maria and I have begin reconnecting with friends that we have missed the past five months, I am looking for a job, and Maria is gonna be up to her eyeballs in school work for the next 9 months as she tries as hard as she can to put in the time she needs to in order to graduate in the summer.

The car situation has been tricky, but my family out here has been a big help in getting through that ordeal. Within a few days Maria and I should have permanent transportation that we can share, though, I have to say, after living in Oslo, Norway for 3 months, I am looking forward to walking more in order to get where I need to go.

Here’s few pictures of my new bedroom in my new apartment (furnishings courtesy of IKEA!) and please check the visuals page for some pictures from the Rose Bowl Parade featuring George Lucas as the Grand Marshall and full platoons of Storm Troopers as an added bonus.

reposted from when I erased my blog 

I was having a discussion with Maria the other day about the differences in our “callings.” She looks forward to a future in which she devotes most of her time and energy to engaging those outside of traditional church structures, commonly understood as non-Christians. I, on the other hand, get the impression that most of my future will be spent working with those who call themselves Christians. At the same time, we both have come to increasingly understand our calling as that of being a missionary.
I don’t want to too quickly discount the important differences there are with regard to these seemingly divergent callings, but I want to comment on why I think both Maria’s calling as well as mine can be understood as that of a missionary.

The short answer is that both Maria and I envision futures of participating in the missio dei, the mission of God in the world. If we take Jesus’ (the divine missionary) life as our example, then participation in this missio dei means exposing darkness by living lives of light, seeking to make the presence of God known and felt, healing, restoring, praying, sacrificing, and above all, loving. Whether in the so-called Christian or non-Christian world, these are missional ways of being and living.

I am truly hoping that the differences in our callings complement rather than conflict with one another, but in the end I am convinced that our task as Christians is to witness to and embody the reign of God in the world and therefore in our lives. No matter the title given to the people we spend our time with (Christians or non), if our aim to participate in the missio dei, then we in effect become missionaries.

Right?

This is the title of my masters thesis.  The subtitle is, “Exploring the Relationship Between Culture, Theology, and the Church.”  It is divided into 3 main sections – the first with regard to the relationship between God’s people and the idea of culture, a second on narrative approaches to theology, and a third on missional understandings of the church.  In the conclusion I suggest how these three sections come to bear on the three church practices of preaching/teaching, baptism, and Holy Communion.

In the paper I didn’t include any acknowledgments, so allow me to do so now.

I have benefited greatly through my family – my parents, grandparents, brothers, and sister, my extended and blended family.  Thank you all for the role you have and continue to play in my life.

Deep thanks and appreciation goes to the teachers, professors, pastors, and mentors who have taken a unique interest in me and shared their lives, experience, and giftedness with me – John Toth, PJ Meduri, Shane Minne, Andy Bennett, John Geib, and Steve Moroney, though not alone, come to mind.  Thanks to Malone College and Fuller Theological Seminary, two of the finest Christian schools I am aware of.

To say that my community of friends has been a blessing in my life would be the largest understatement I have ever made.  I am who I am today because of the love, grace, forgiveness, humility, and commitment of the friends who have shared their lives with me for almost ten years now.  They have seen me at my best, and more importantly at my worst and yet they love me still.  These are the people that give me life.

I must note the profound impact my girlfriend Maria Bjordal has had on me.  Everything I have written in this thesis is colored by the presence of Maria in my life.  Her constant encouragement and the conversations we return to time and time again have been invaluable.

Though it sounds common to place it at the beginning, and perhaps foolish to place it at the end, the fact of the matter is that nothing is more important to me that God’s presence in the world, and consequently, in my life personally.  As one being saved by grace and learning anew each day that the Triune God is the beginning and end of all things, I am both humbled and thrilled.  Humbled by my weakness and inability in comparison – thrilled by the mere though of being included in His plan for the world and even within the very life of the Trinity.  To God be all praise forever and ever, Amen.

To each and all – thank you for your part in the story which has been unveiled as my life.

All that being said…

You can get the entire thesis (375 pages, including appendices) here.

You can get just the thesis (70 pages) here.

Here is a zip file with all the appendices so you can pick which ones to read.

I would love to hear any thoughts or remarks. I do not fear criticism, in fact, I encourage and welcome it. Actually, come to think of it, it is vital to the aim of my project, so let fly!

Ok, I know I promised an apology and explanation. Believe me, it’s coming. In fact, it’s half written – I just had to get this on there first.

 
Today was a monumental day in the life of JR Rozko. With the push of a (send) button, a project, quarter, school year, degree, and season of life was brought to a close. Told you it was big!

I finished my masters thesis this morning and sent it off to the professor who mentored me through the process, Dr. Ryan Bolger. The writing process was a good one for me. As I read and researched, my topic seemed to get bigger and bigger – making it harder and harder to narrow it down, but also more and more interesting.

It was only today that I finally decided on a title, “Restoring Hope to the Church in Western Culture: Exploring the Relationship Between Culture, Theology, and the Church.” The paper ended up being divided into three main sections – one on the Church and culture, one on narrative theology, and one on missional ecclesiology. The main authors I interacted with in the thesis were Nancey Murphy, Lesslie Newbigin, James McClendon, and Darrell Guder as the editor of Missional Church. As I was writing I realized that the direction I had decided to go intersected at many major points with the rest of the work I have done throughout seminary. So, I decided to choreograph the thesis in such a way that I could reference all my other major writings as appendices.

All said and done I have a 374 page project (including 17 appendices) which represents a compendium of my integrated thought on a missiology of Western culture. I’ll try to get it uploaded soon and provide links for anyone who wants to give it a glance. The actual thesis (minus appendices) is only 70 double-spaced pages.

What now? I get to relax and enjoy the next 10 days with family and friends while I am in Ohio. On Dec. 18th I’ll be heading back to California to celebrate Christmas with family out there. Maria returns from Norway just before New Year’s and we’re excited to be reunited and celebrate the new year together (guess this paid off!).  In January she will be continuing her MDiv program at Fuller and I will have the opportunity to partner with my good buddy Wess as TA’s for Ryan’s class, Church in Mission.
I’ll be looking for work on top of that, so if anybody who reads this knows of anything interesting in the Pasadena, please let me know.

I missed it the last two years, but refused to let it turn into three.

Starting our freshman year of college, my friend Heather began inviting some friends back to her parents home for an early Thanksgiving Feast.  It has grown to include more and more people each year through marriages, babies, and extended networks of friends.  It is one of the most meaningful events of the year for me.  The day includes everybody bringing something to contribute to the meal, everyone cooking together, playing football in the back yard, sharing what we are thankful for, and watching the OSU vs. Michigan game.

Last year I was stuck in California watching the game in a bar by myself and then went to write a paper after.  I tried every cell phone I knew, but no one answered.  All of a sudden, my friend Josh called me and had me on speaker phone.  He asked me to pray for the meal before everyone ate.  As I hung up the phone, I wiped a tear from my eye – it was just so incredibly meaningful to me.

So, in just 2 short days I will have the chance to enjoy an entire day with some of my most favorite people in the world (minus one exceptionally important lady who is stuck in Norway) and watch OSU kick the crap out of Michigan.  It should be an incredible game between 2 unbeaten teams whose rivalry in unsurpassed in college football.

This is my girlfriend Maria. She just got a new haircut and if she wasn’t already the most beautiful woman in the world, she certainly is now.

I finally got around to uploading the pictures from my time in Oslo. You can check them out here. Some are courtest of Maria’s and my friend, Julianne. There are also some new pictures in the Molde set if you wanna check those out.

I haven’t posted much here about my girlfriend Maria, but I intend to begin remedying that unfortunate situation right now.

There is so much about Maria that I respect and admire – such as her sense of calling to “at risk” teenagers. Maria has primarily grown up in the city of Oslo in Norway, a city not so unlike major cities in the states in many ways (though quite different in others). So, when she thinks of “at risk” teenagers, she is thinking of kids who have been neglected at home, have experienced abuse or violence, have been victims or users of drugs and alcohol, or are tied up with gang culture. These kids are quite certainly “at risk” in so may ways. Her compassion for teenagers in these situations is both amazing and inspiring. She has been a pioneer in the field of youth ministry in Norway and has had numerous opportunities to speak and write on the subject.

Our relationship has given me occasion to broaden my perspectives and horizons in countless ways. One of these ways is in terms of rethinking my past experience in youth ministry any my lingering burden for the sorts of people that I have worked with previously. After talking about Maria’s sense of calling with her and getting to see her in action, I have come to realize that my sense of calling is also to people who are “at risk,” but in a much different way.

Whereas Maria’s draw is to an urban context, mine is more to a suburban one. Teenagers, and people in general, are also “at risk,” but not usually from the sorts of things I mentioned above. Rather, in the suburbs, teenagers are “at risk” from much more subtle and appealing forms of oppression, persecution, and pain. The teens I am used to working with are “at risk” from their parents demands of success and achievement. They are at risk from pressure from peers to fit in, to look a certain way, and act a certain way. They run the risk of being completely overrun by the overwhelming and oh-so-pervasive powers of consumerism, individualism, and materialism. Different than in cities where there is often little church presence or witness, suburbs tend to offer a plethora of church communities in all imaginable varieties. Consequently, suburban teenagers (and everyone else in the suburbs for that matter) are at risk from getting just enough of a dose of church and Christianity so as to inoculate them from the real power of the gospel.

I suppose when you get right down to it, everyone is “at risk” from something to some extent, but I was just struck by the realistic way in which suburban teenagers may be counted among those who are poor and oppressed on account of the subtle, but evil powers which are mightily and pervasively at work within suburban contexts.

Back to Maria – I love that we have in common this desire to help people experience the freedom and liberation found in Christ regardless of what they are at risk from or oppressed by.