Category Archives: Personal Note

Seminary Graduation

Posted on May 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yesterday I became an alumnus from Asbury Theological Seminary!

I began my Master of Divinity degree from a trauma hospital in Afghanistan while I was in the Air Force. After those early online classes  a little over three years ago, I transitioned from active duty life and moved to rural Wilmore, Kentucky to finish my degree in residence.  Since moving to Wilmore I have had so many life-changing experiences that I will have to write multiple blog posts to tell you about them all. The most important experiences were meeting and marrying my wife, Bridgette and the birth of my daughter, Anna Rose.

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Posted in Anna Rose Kocak, Asbury Theological Seminary, Personal Note

February 2011 – In – Review

Posted on March 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Mission Front:

Anna turned five months old this month! It seems just like yesterday she was born … and yet, I cannot imagine emotionally a time that she has not existed. She has been such a blessing from the Lord and I am so proud to be her father! During this month Anna has learned to roll-over, sing songs in baby language, do the ground-pound (a way she slams her heels simultaneously on the floor). She has also learned to sit up in her high chair, eat rice cereal (and her foot), and most recently she has begun the teething process! Bridgette started nannying a 2-year-old, Caleah! It amazes me how wise and gracious Bridgette is as a mother. She is so steady, loving, and filled with grace towards Anna and daddy (me). She has taught me a LOT about parenting.

On the job front, we are getting more and more discernment from the Lord where we will end up. I feel an assurance that it will be in the Lord’s service – most likely, within the Anglican Mission or Anglican Church of North America. Bridgette and I are really finding our hearts turned back to a zip code somewhere in North Eastern Ohio and are hoping to one day plant a church there. So would you join us in prayer about this transition? Hopefully in the “March 2011 – In – Review” I will have more for you on this front.

February marks a new monthly post called, “In – Review.” At the end of each month I will write-up highlights from the month around two themes: 1- what’s going on in my family, ministry, and life. 2- What was posted last month. It is a way for me to reflect back on the past month in my life and action.

February also marked the beginning of the end for my tour of duty at Asbury Theological Seminary (well at least as an M.Div. Student). Ironically, this semester I do not any classes during the week and am in Exegesis of Exodus and two 1-hr Christian Discipleship classes at various weekends throughout the semester. I am also taking two Philosophy classes online (Apologetics and Suffering, Tragedy and the Christian Faith). I am active in Theta Phi (a theological honor society)  as Treasurer|Secretary and am planning for Marva Dawn to come and speak at Asbury in March. I am also very  thankful to be working with JD Walt and the rest of the Worship Design Team this semester at the chapel office. My season at Asbury has been one marked by deep inner-healing, spiritual formation, and theological education – I am more whole for ministry in Christ as a result of my tenure here in Wilmore.

The Blog Front:

February was my most productive month of Blog writing to date! Posting 22 different times in 28 days is remarkable and I hope to continue writing in this 20-25 posts a month range in the future. Part of the writing discipline I am trying to abide by going forward is keeping my posts 333 words or less. Something that you could read on the toilet, or in a taxi, or in less than 3 minutes. With some posts, I will inevitably break this rule  (most likely with Philosophy/Theology/Technical posts – but hardly anyone reads those anyways). So the following is a sampling from last month:

  • Journey through Epiphany - I have been taking the Lord’s Day, Sunday as a time to reflect on the Church Season and abide in a different time-line.
  • Bob Dylan and Exodus - Folks seemed to really like this post (and it was one of my favorites as well). The Book of Exodus put to the tune of Bob Dylan. Look for more  posts from Exodus in March.
  • Eating Words - Another popular post, in “Eating Words” I discussed my practice of reading the Bible devotionally throughout the year.
  • Poetry Fun – I only posted one poem in February, it was goofy, ironic, and just fun ( I cam up with it during a meeting).
  • The V-Day Tax Money Bet – So read this post if you want to hear about a bet my wife and I made concerning a portion of our tax return … Update: I barely made it a week and Bridgette is still holding strong.
  • Revolution, Revival and the Book of Joel – Some “thought strings” that I attempt to connect together concerning the ME revolutions/demonstration/whatever, Revivalism, and the Book of Joel.
  • The Adjustment Bureau - Last week I got to see an early showing of the upcoming movie, The Adjustment Bureau. People were really interested in these posts for some reason. I also attempt a post on the MANY symbols/images/types/motifs used in the movie (the over-saturation of images/types can make the movie a bit unruly.

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Posted in Anna Rose Kocak, Month-In-Review, Personal Note

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Hospitality, Old Friends, and Remembering

Posted on February 24, 2011 | 1 Comment

Monday I received a text message from an old friend, Larry, who is a Navigator at Wright Patterson Air Force base near Dayton, OH (He’s the one on the far left in the photo). He said he was going to stop by and see my young daughter Anna and maybe grab dinner on his way back from Atlanta. Well… what would have taken him  45 minutes, turned into 2.5 hours Odyssey throughout the backwoods of Kentucky in a thunderstorm. Larry survived and ended up spending the night.

There is something about returning to old friendships that awakes the sleeping parts of souls to the our present memories. Hospitality allows us to invite old friends not only into our houses, but into our lives again . Like the Old Testament Prophets calling ancient Israel to remember the Exodus, old friends have a way of prophetically calling us back to remember our past accomplishments, desires, spiritual growth and gifts, and zeal to serve the Lord.

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Posted in Exodus, Hospitality, Personal Note, The Navigators

Are You a F.A.T. Disciple?

Posted on February 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

I was a year into living the Christian witness when I transferred to Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. After 10 months of intense mentoring and training by a Navigator in Florida, I was now faced with a base that at the time did not have a Navigator missionary on staff. It was during this time I was sharing a meal with a new friend who was discipled by my former mentor in Florida.

In one of our first meetings he called me a FAT disciple… I never heard that before. When I heard it I thought, “Phat”? What’s this guy playing at? Is he trying to spit slang ?” He obviously noticed my glazed over eyes at his comment, and with a smile said, “You know… F-A-T. – Faithful. Available. Teachable. The qualities in a disciple of Christ.”

Looking back at this story now, I can honestly tell you  that at the end of a tour as an M.Div. student at Asbury Theological Seminary, I am still very F.A.T.! I am called to be faithful both the “head and heart” knowledge and experiences that I have been PRIVILEGED to learn. I am still very much available to be mentored and to mentor. Finally, I humbly report that I have failed to live up to the standards of the name of my degree, Master of Divinity. I have not mastered the divine and am still very teachable by God’s Spirit, Word, and Church.

So… Ph.D.s, senior Pastors, priests, missionaries, Seminarians, social activists and writers .. have you managed to keep your weight on? Have you remained F.A.T.?

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Posted in Christianity, Discipleship, Personal Note, The Navigators

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The V-Day Tax Money Bet

Posted on February 14, 2011 | 1 Comment

Bridgette and I came up with a little bet to keep us motivated to work out and eat healthy. Currently the way we divided up our tax return, we each get $75 for “fun money.”

The bet is that we have to work out at least 4 times a week and eat healthy every day (except at our weekly church plant meetings). Failure to keep the work out and diet aspects will result in the other person receiving the $75. If we both fail then $150 gets put into savings. So if you see Bridgette or I eating any sugar, fast food, or drinking pop make sure to report us to the local authorities : )

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Posted in Personal Note

My Birthday And Epiphany – Part I

Posted on February 13, 2011 | 2 Comments

Today is the Lord’s Day. Today is Epiphany. Today is also … my 28th birthday!

Whether we know our exact date of birth or not, all people have a day in which they were revealed to the world through their birth. My day came 28 years ago on a cold morning in northern Ohio. During the season of Epiphany we reflect on how Jesus Christ is revealed in the Gospels as LORD. What do the Gospels have to tell us about the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth as his revelation to the world? What does Jesus’ birth narrative(s) tell us about our own birth?

The Gospels of Luke and Matthew tell us about the revelation of Jesus the Messiah from the onset of their narratives. After a genealogy of Jesus’ ancestry, Matthew 1:18 explicitly states, , “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” In Matthew chapter 1 we are told how the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth and in Matthew chapter 2 of the wise men traveling from the east as a result of a rising star of the newly born King of the Jews. Their response to King Herod for their coming, that “they may worship him.”

In the Gospel of Luke we have a more detailed account of Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, and the accounts of the angels with the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna the prophet. These two Gospel accounts testify that the birth of Jesus was somehow different than my birth 28 years ago. And still, the birth is scandalously common: Jesus was born as an infant, from a woman, in a zip code, to parents. Unlike my birthday visitors of grandparents, relatives, and family friends, Jesus had angels, shepherds, wise men (kings?), and prophets testifying that the Messiah,called Emmanuel, “God With US” has been born. They testified with Simeon in Luke 2 that they, ”Have seen [God's] salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people,  a light for revelation to the Gentiles   and for glory to your people Israel.”

But there is another birth that the Gospels attest to and which I am born (along with the great cloud of  witnesses). This birth is revealed to the world through the sacrament of baptism which Christ initiated. In tomorrow’s post I will look at this birth from the Gospels of John and Mark.

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Posted in Church Calendar, Epiphany, Incarnation, Luke, Matthew, Personal Note, Worship

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Ten Days in Ten Sentences

Posted on June 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

As I sit here in my new office/guest room, sipping on some green tea that I brewed in my new teapot (see photo), I consider the whirlwind that the past ten days have been.

I thought that with the end of the Spring semester, I would be able to relax, slow down, and live a laissez-faire, contemplative lifestyle; however, this has been far from the reality of the past ten days. During last semester, Bridgette and I postponed a lot of errands, chores, and to-do-lists until we were afforded more time. But before the semester ended we had to make an emergency trip home to Ohio to be with my father who was ‘let go’ after 29 years of faithful service to a gas company, then we went  to the funeral of Bridgette’s grandmother, and finally that trip ended with celebration as Bridgette’s high school friends got married. The two weekends after that trip home, were filled with other weddings and although we were accomplishing a large number of the ‘to-dos,’ we were still found wanton before our latest trip home for father’s day ten days ago.

Our time with our families were the normal mixture of angst, joy, difficulty, celebration, and a subversive optimism. Whenever we are at home visiting, my ability to find ‘free’ or ‘alone’ time to write, read, create is compromised, but its worth the extra quality time with family members. We arrived back in Wilmore Monday evening  and have been decorating, organizing, moving, and preparing for baby Anna Rose to come ever since.  I feel as though my creativity has been constipated the past ten days, hence the lack of posts. Today is the first day where I was able to sit down and just read and write … just in time because I’m leaving next week for a 36 day tour of duty as a chaplain candidate at Scott AFB outside of St. Louis.

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Posted in Personal Note