I can't access my e-mail right now which is really obnoxious.
So, a few things that are going on in my life right now:
1) Yesterday I started what is going to be a multiple month-long bible study (I'm guessing it will take me til January or February) on the spiritual gifts of craftmanship and music. Assuming they are spiritual gifts, which I have not yet conclusively proven. I have a lot of questions about this topic and I feel like the church needs a decent and deeply theological explanation of creative worship, so those are my aims. Maybe when I am done we will teach this at school of theology, but I am skeptical about whether or not school of theology will happen, so I'm not sure about that. Regardless, I am going to study the topic for myself until I feel I have come to a conclusion that is in line with Scripture. And if there's no class I guess maybe I will blog about my findings when I am done, or something.
Anyway, here are some of the questions I'm hoping to answer:
A) What does the Bible say about the spiritual gifts of arts/music?
B) How can artists/musicians use their gifts in the church?
C) History of art and worship in the church
D) Corporate worship vs. Personal worship (which is the gift to be used for and is there a right or wrong way to use it)
E) Self-expression, why is art in the church different from art in the world and how should we view it differently
F) Icons, Idolatry, and Iconoclasm (specifically in the OT and early church)
G) Symbols and their relevance today
H) Explaining the complexity of artistic worship in the OT and how (or whether) that is relevant today... it is clear in the OT that art was highly valued as the way to worship and honor God, and that has been true in the European church throughout history (and is still true in many branches of the modern church) but is NOT true in the Western church. So my question is whether that makes sense because "times have changed" or whether there is still a place for the complexity of worship through artistic means.
So far I keep finding more and more questions. I have a thick stack of reference books piled up on my floor and I'm jsut starting... so I'm really excited about what this will mean for answering my personal questions about how to serve. I'm planning on devoting 1-2 hrs a day to this study, which is a big time commitment, so hopefully it will be a good learning experience.

2) Yesterday my super-cool boyfriend spent his lunch hour buying me the last Harry Potter book (which he knew I really wanted). Then when I got really sick at work last night and had to come home early, he came over and kept me company while I was all gross and sickly. (My coworker lent me Firefly so we've started watching that. It is way cool!)

Well that is all I have to say for now. I still can't get to the yahoo homepage to check my mail and that is annoying.
I'm off to make some soup.