VISION STATEMENT ON THE CHURCH AND MINISTRY

VISION STATEMENT ON THE CHURCH AND MINISTRY

RAX WEBSITE

I am currently reworking this website from the ground up.

Personal Information.

I was born in Bloomfield, NJ, in 1955. My dad was a minister until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1987. I have lived in New Jersey most of my life.

I have a 13-year-old son named Daniel.

On June 3, 2007, I will be married to Rev. Susan Joseph.

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I love and surround myself with all kinds of music; I also play the guitar, trumpet, and piano (though none of them with any particular skill).

For exercise I ride my bike and take long walks. With my son I also kick a soccer ball around, throw frisbees, swim, bowl, play tennis, and play catch with whatever is available. We enjoy fishing together as well.

I have been an avid Mets fan since I was 10 years old. (Baseball is basically the only sport to which I pay serious attention, except for whatever my son is playing.)

I read constantly. I also write.

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Influences & Favorites

Rev. George L. Rack (father)

Elder Frederick Matthei (grandfather)

Bible passages:

Romans 8
Psalm 103
Matthew 5-7
Psalm 148
Mark 1:15
John 3:11-17
Psalm 104
Isaiah 40
1 John 4
1 Corinthians 13
Leviticus 25
Philippians 2:5-11
Psalm 119
John 1:1-18
Isaiah 25.1-9
Ezekiel 37
Amos 5.21-24

Religious Books:

The Cost of Discipleship
The Way of a Pilgrim
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Philokalia
Church Dogmatics

Theologians:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Karl Barth
Gregory of Nyssa
John Calvin
Francis of Assisi
William Stringfellow

Hans Urs Von Balthasar
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Meister Eckhart
Hildegard of Bingen

Irenaeus of Lyons
John Chrysostom
Maximus the Confessor
Teresa of Avila

John Scottus Eriugena
Mahatma Gandhi
Dogen
Paisius Velichkovsky
Herman of Alaska
Bartolome De Las Casas
Jonathan Edwards
Simone Weil
Bernard of Clairvaux
Uchimura Kanzo

Thomas Merton
Mircea Eliade

Roger Schutz

Stanley Hauerwas
Wendell Berry

John Milbank
Walter Brueggemann

Margaret Barker

George Stroup

Diogenes Allen

Hymns:

Be Thou My Vision
The Church's One Foundation
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Amazing Grace
God of the Sparrow
This Is My Father's World
Take Thou Our Minds
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Spirit

Fiction/Poetry Writers:

Kurt Vonnegut
Thomas Pynchon
Flannery O'Connor
Tony Hillerman
Peter Tremayne
Willa Cather
Anne Tyler
Don DeLillo
Patrick O'Brien
Dostoyevsky
Henry James
Thomas Mann
T. S. Eliot

Marilynne Robinson

Musical Favorites:

Mahler
Kronos Quartet
Beethoven
Arvo Part
John Tavener
J. S. Bach
Miles Davis
Bruce Springsteen

Dawn Upshaw

Talking Heads
Bob Dylan
Radiohead
Toad-the-Wet-Sprocket
Shostakovich

Arcade Fire
Puccini

Television
John Coltrane

U2
Olivier Messiaen
Jimi Hendrix
Bill Frisell

Dire Straits
Wynton Marsalis
R.E.M.
Hildegard of Bingen

Tom Petty
Anonymous 4
Philip Glass

Movies:

Gandhi
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Matrix
Casablanca
The Wizard of Oz
The Man Who Would Be King
Kundun

The Longest Day

Star Wars

Lord of the Rings

Baseball team: N.Y. Mets

Myers-Briggs Type- INFJ

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