Meet Bandit! Plus my new Covenant column and an update on Rhythms of Habit
Hello, Friends!
Mostly through my own fault, the Jordans are a bit delayed in filling out our own family Bingo cards for 2024. You can download and print a blank 2024 Bingo Card here if you, too, find yourself a little behind this year.
If you are new to the Bingo Card experience, click here to learn more.
And if you did click to learn more, please ignore the fact that one of my 2019 resolutions was to complete the draft of Rhythms of Habit. Leading a school through a pandemic and adding a human to our family set me back a few five years.
Here's to 2024! Speaking of Rhythms of Habit...
Some Rhythms of Habit Housekeeping
I have moved all of my work related to my forthcoming Rhythms of Habit book away from Substack. This move means that you can read a growing number of previews of where the book is headed for free on the Rhythms of Habit page of my website.
This also means that I have canceled and refunded all subscribers to my previously paid Substack newsletter. While I was honored by the number of friends and strangers who were interested in my work, it was time to switch to a new model: instead of charging some of my friends some of their disposable income to read some of what I am working on, I have opted to post it all on my website for free.
That website is also where I host a micro.blog—which is an excellent model of social media that won't shrink your soul—as well as a soccer diary, links to my most recent sermons, and some of my unimpressive poetry.
Though the delay in wrapping up the book has been long, it has also been fruitful. The book has grown into perhaps what it should have been all along: an introduction to thinking about the virtues as moral muscles, habits as exercises aimed at strengthening specific virtues, and the church calendar as an annual prescription of habits aimed at forming the virtues needed to become a whole human in Christ.
If you miss the days of providing me with accountability to write, and are interested in reviving a version of the medieval patronage system for scholars and artists, you can still buy me a moment to write.
Introducing Bandit Dunny Jordan!
This is the face of a dog who loves his new family, but is still learning that when a member of that family leaves, they will come back eventually.
We have settled on a name for our sweet Blue Heeler mix: Bandit Dunny Jordan: a nod to our family’s elementary sense of humor and our love for Bluey.
Those who have been around the Jordan family for some time will notice that Bandit bears a striking resemblance to Hoosier, of blessed memory. When it comes to dogs, it turns out we have a type.
Bandit is settling in nicely as the whole family's favorite Christmas gift.
A New Column: Paideia for Preachers
Today my new regular column debuts on the Covenant blog from The Living Church.
This column is rooted in a concern I have about the (growing?) number of teachers and preachers who are exploring what it would look like to outsource their preparation to Artificial Intelligence.
Each essay is dedicated to discovering and analyzing nuggets of rhetorical wisdom from the classical, patristic, and medieval world.
Consider these glimpse into rhetorical wisdom throughout the ages as an opportunity for all of us to strengthen a skill needed greatly in our churches and in the world. The column will (hopefully) be interesting for all, but especially helpful for those finding themselves preaching or teaching in any context.
Read a snippet below, or click through to read the whole essay.
My concern is rooted in what using these tools as a crutch does, long term, to our ability to be a church capable of thinking clearly and speaking persuasively. There are important questions that the church of today and tomorrow needs to be able to answer clearly.
We use artificial intelligence in part because we are deficient in the art of rhetoric. And relying on these tools because we are already deficient only makes us increasingly deficient.
A vision of a church that is served by teachers and preachers who are weak, and growing weaker, in the art of rhetoric is not compelling. A generation from now, what does the church look like if her leaders are unable to reason well and speak in a convincing way, simply because they have fallen out of practice? I am afraid we have a real-world icon of this in our modern American political life, and it is not happy.
So what can be done about these things?
Here is my small attempt at helping to prevent this vision from becoming a reality: Paideia for Preachers, to be published on Covenant, is a regular column dedicated to discovering and analyzing nuggets of rhetorical wisdom from the classical, patristic, and medieval world.
Malcolm Guite coming to Coram Deo Academy
I can't close without sharing a personal and professional highlight from the past several months: Malcolm Guite has agreed to fly across the pond to serve as our Inaugural Honored Speaker at the first ever Coram Deo Academy of Dallas graduation ceremony this May!
Upcoming Preaching Schedule
Here are some of my upcoming preaching times if you find yourself in the Dallas area some time throughout Lent and Holy Week. Church of the Incarnation is a wonderful place to worship for all of Holy Week, but especially for the Paschal Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday.
Ash Wednesday (February 14), Traditional Services at 7am, Noon, and 6pm
Second Sunday in Lent (February 25), Traditional Services at 7:30am, 9:00am, and 11:15am
Easter Vigil (March 30), 8pm. This is the most beautiful service of the Christian Year.