|
Most of the textual material on this particular page is drawn directly from my published
work The Spiritual Pilgrim © 2021, pages 243-253. However, some of the material
below is a followup of events taking place since 2021.
|
|
|
The decision to "retire"
When the spring of 2019 came around, and a TKA teacher's contract for the 2019-2020 school year sat unsigned on my desk – something most exceptional for me, as I usually signed it as soon as I got it – I sensed that something was up. I had a feeling that God was possibly drawing me in a new direction, though I hardly knew what that could be. But I was used to God having me go at things this way. I just needed to stay alert for some kind of door God might be opening, and approach the matter prayerfully. And pray I did, joined by Kathleen in the process. And bit by bit the message became ever clearer. I was to devote myself fulltime to putting together for publication the considerable research and writing I had built up over the years, most of it online on my Spiritual Pilgrim website. But I was to focus specifically on the American history portion of that mass of information. Thus when TKA commencement came around in early June, I knew I would be saying goodbye to everyone, not just the graduates but the teachers as well. I was "retiring" as a classroom teacher. The three-volume American history
As I looked over all the material, I came to understand that I was to take all this on as an American story or narrative, focusing especially on how the nation had come to develop under the challenge of working closely with God, on some kind of a covenant basis – like Israel of old. And this narrative indicated quite clearly how that American covenant had its ups and downs, also like Israel of old. And America's own ups and downs depended heavily on the status of that covenant. That was also most clear. And being a political scientist rather than an historian, I found myself focusing particularly on the lessons we might therefore learn from that long narrative, lessons needed badly today, as we seem to be off on one of our "wandering" periods again, wandering from this precious covenant with God. Writing a three-volume draft. Anyway, that summer (2019) I began the process of assembling, expanding and editing that huge American narrative, discovering that the depth that I wanted to take the narrative proved to be enormously extensive. Thus I decided to break it up into three volumes. The first volume, Securing America's Covenant with God, went into great detail on the birth and early development of the nation, all the way through the Civil War – which more or less settled the issue of what exactly the American nation was supposed to look like or be. The second volume, America's Rise to Greatness under God's Covenant, focused on how America joined the world of competing nations, from the rising Age of Imperialism in the late 1800s all the way up to America's place of leadership with the development of the Cold War following World War Two. The third volume, The Dismissing of America's Covenant with God, then took up in the 1960s, principally with America's Washington government trying to take command of the nation, pushing God out of the picture, and also instituting something of what I termed "democracy from above" – obviously a contradiction in itself! And with this volume I brought things up to date (at least as far as mid-2020 would take me), and then concluded, with my "lessons learned" laid out more specifically. Publication. Rather than going from publisher to publisher with my proposal, I decided from the very first that I would undertake "self-publishing" in order to get this project up and moving quickly. But of course, there are many ways, many companies, to go with this idea. And after much searching, and with some advice from my daughter Rachel, I decided to go with Westbow Press, actually a subsidiary of the well-known Zondervan Press. Thus as it turned out, I would be working with a publishing company that sort of stood halfway between self-publication and professional publication. That meant also that I would have to follow editorial lines they, as a Christian publishing company, set out. No words such as "bloody" (too British?), "hell" (such as Sherman's comment on the nature of war, or Bryan's closing argument in the 1925 Scopes Monkey trial), and just in general a certain "tone" required of the whole effort – something that I found not too hard to adjust to. But this process took quite a bit of time, especially as I myself did all the editing (a slow and painful process), and then put it all together (including extensive bibliography and index) in both Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign, the latter easily ready-to-print. Well almost. We did go a bit back and forth on this matter of final copy, especially the second volume (which came out about the time that the Coronavirus hit hard) which I had to get the editor-in-chief to intervene in the process to get it finally moving forward. But anyway the volumes finally made their public appearance, the first one in February (2020), the second and third ones in April of that year. |
Now "retired," I can focus entirely on the very demanding work
of having my
writings
published
and put together a website – thecovenantnation.com – devoted to this writing series ...
which also provides access to the online bookstores where the books are
located
|
Marketing those three volumes
Westbow made sure that these volumes made their appearance not only on their own booklist, but also on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christian Books, Cokesbury, etc. But of course, bringing these three volumes to public notice would be my responsibility. And this was an area in which I had absolutely no experience. I did create a very nice and quite extensive website, thecovenantnation.com. But even here, I would need to find a way to bring the website itself to public notice. I joined LinkedIn and created a special Facebook page devoted to the series. That helped a little. Sales started to move slowly on Amazon.com. |
Meanwhile ... some honors come our
way in October (2019):
I am recognized at the annual TKA gala event for my years of
service to the school ...
and Kathleen's dad
is honored by having a street in Kendall Park named after him
|
|
Rachel and Rimi move on
But at the same time, I found myself deeply involved in a grand development in the lives of my daughter Rachel, her husband Rimi, and their kids, Anna and Peter. It was becoming increasingly clear with time that Rimi had completed his useful service at the nearby Methodist Church (which Kathleen and I were now also attending). It was time for Rimi to move on to a new calling. It was all a bit awkward, as Rimi was way overqualified in the position he held at the church, which itself was becoming less and less significant, as certain individuals wanted for themselves the position as head of the church's youth program, and Rimi also found himself called on less and less to preach. It probably was Rachel that felt the hurt most deeply. Or maybe it was just that Rimi seemed to handle such political maneuvering amazingly quietly, something like the way John took on adversity. But Rimi had seen much in his life that was cruel, and which he learned to overcome with a spirit that stood way apart from the manner that most people reacted to such things. He wasn't passive. Just not reactive. He just kept going, quietly taking on whatever steps seemed to be required of him next. And, I knew that this had a lot to do with the way he personally had come to take on Jesus Christ in his own life. Rimi's doctoral work
For instance, he and Rachel and the kids were back and forth from Pennsylvania to England, for Rimi to take on doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham. And he carefully researched and wrote (with Rachel doing the extensive editing to make it English-perfect!) on America's Second Great Awakening (early 1800s), describing in detail the many key circuit riders and revivalists who brought Christ to the American frontier, and the many signs and wonders that accompanied their ministries. His doctoral supervisor loved the final product. But under the English system, his supervisor could not be part of the board that finally reviewed and decided Rimi's dissertation as qualifying him for the PhD degree.
And there's where another attack on Rimi came to take place. One of the professors, drawn from another British university, who himself had been a student of Rimi's supervisor, took great exception to the way Rimi combined his study of the frontier preaching with his close attention to the signs and miracles that came with that preaching. This man was actually furious that Rimi would even attempt what he saw as an absurd misrepresentation of the facts of the event (the signs and miracles Rimi described in detail), not that he really knew all that much about America's Second Great Awakening – and what it meant to the American nation. Thus he vetoed Rimi's entrance into the doctoral ranks. That should have killed Rimi's effort to get the doctorate. Actually, not only was Rimi shocked (speechless, actually, for there was nothing he could say to satisfy this professor) but so was also his supervisor. But his supervisor then did something that he said he had never done before, which was to simply take the professor’s criticisms (eventually expressed in six pages of comments), have Rimi go back to his dissertation to do some updating in answer to the man, and then present a rewrite of his dissertation to a new panel that would go over the revised project. And this Rimi did. And with the objecting professor not part of the new panel, Rimi’s doctoral effort went ahead beautifully. But more than that, this adversity actually strengthened his work, by requiring Rimi to answer the questions that skeptics might have had about his findings. And thus revised, a publishing house decided to take on the publication of his work.3 And the book has been endorsed by a large number of highly reputable Christian authors, including Mark Noll, the master of American Christian history. 3The Supernatural and the Circuit Riders: The Rise of Early American Methodism. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021. Looking for another Methodist church
Meanwhile, the Methodist bishop of the region was most anxious not to lose Rimi, once it became known that he was looking to move on. Oddly enough, the Methodist Church higher-ups had told Rimi that they could not ordain him because he did his seminary education at Gordon-Conwell (one of the highest ranked seminaries in the country), because the Methodist denomination no longer accepted Gordon-Conwell certification.4 They thus had told Rimi that he would have to get a degree from a Methodist-approved seminary. Just how many MA and PhD degrees did Rimi need, and how many books on the birth and growth of Methodism did Rimi need to write in order to satisfy the Methodists that he was a competent candidate for ordination in their denomination? But somehow the bishop moved ahead as if this would be no problem and set up interviews in an area ranging from central Pennsylvania south to Delaware. But the pickings were very marginal (churches in deep trouble, sort of like the Garfield church). So nothing really developed. 4Gordon Conwell had not moved to the Left socio-politically the way the Methodist denomination had done so over recent years. The Lighthouse Church
Then in the fall of 2019 Rimi got a call from (supposedly retired) pastor Bill to see if he would be interested in pastoring the Lighthouse Church. Well that was a no-brainer. Rachel and Rimi had a long history with the church. Thus the answer was an enthusiastic "yes." Consequently Rimi was interviewed by a committee (the church's newly constituted "bylaws committee") headed up by pastor Bill's brother-in-law, Jim. And so it was that Rimi negotiated salary and job details with the committee, and was thus hired as their new pastor. Of course Rimi would need some time to make the transition from church to church. Finding a new home. Most importantly, they would need to find a new home (they were living in the Methodist church's parsonage and would thus have to move on). But most amazingly (really?) they found a fantastic home not far from the Lighthouse Church, at clearly a bargain price – the very day it came on the market. And it was fully furnished (not that they needed all the furniture) and included an old Buick, with very low mileage, owned by the elderly lady living there (who had just died, thus the house sale). Now they would have two cars, which they would need badly. So the matter of a new life was taken care of most beautifully. Clearly, this was another one of God's "signs and wonders!" Past political problems. But there was a huge problem with the church deal. The opening had suddenly occurred at the Lighthouse Church because the previous pastor, who had been there only two years, suddenly quit, largely due to the maneuvering of Bill's brother-in-law, Jim, a maneuvering designed to put the running of the church more tightly into the hands of this by-laws committee that Jim headed up. Things had finally exploded over this matter of exactly who it was that was supposed to be leading the church. And not only had the new pastor just quit, half of the congregation also left in disgust. Unfortunately, Rimi knew very little of the deeper elements of this dynamic at the time. He did know however that a similar split had happened several years earlier, helping Kathleen and me make the decision to move on to the Methodist church where, anyway, Rimi had begun to serve. This had all come about because pastor Bill announced his "retirement" – but stayed on to "help" the young assistant (who had been with him for nearly 20 years) run the church. As a former interim pastor, I well understood that this in itself was a situation designed for disaster. And indeed, it was not long before the younger pastor and a good portion of the congregation – including most of the members of the very active men's organization – left the church, to start up a new congregation nearby. And it had taken over a year for the Lighthouse Church to pull itself together to make the call to bring on a new pastor (the one who had himself just quit) to take over the church. But again, the question remained unresolved as to who really was in charge – which no longer seemed to be Jesus Christ himself! And now it was Rimi's turn to step into this dynamic. Rimi was no newbie! For a while things seemed to be working fairly well, and Jim and his committee seemed to be supportive of Rimi in making the transition. After all, Rimi was a newbie – or so they chose to believe – and needed their supervisory assistance. Actually, as an experienced associate pastor, Rimi needed no such help. So the horrible political dynamic that seemed to continuously haunt the Lighthouse Church began to make itself felt again. And within the matter of only a half a year, things began to get quite ugly. In fact, it got to the point where Jim and his group were clearly moving to either put Rimi under their total mastery, or force him out. Rimi was simply undertaking too much of the developmental dynamic (the church was actually growing again), and there was no way Jim and his group were going to let Rimi get ahead of them in the running of the church. Sadly, Rimi got no help from pastor Bill, or his wife, Sandy – the latter who at one point even told Rimi that he preached the worst sermons she had ever heard, which not surprisingly was exactly the style that was bringing in new blood to the church. Then there was the problem of the young musical director that was brought in to help Rimi (actually a young man raised in that church). At first he was cooperative with Rimi in working with the music that Rimi wanted presented, in order to lead into the day's message. But it soon appeared that he had ambitions of his own to direct worship, running music and praying at such length that it forced Rimi to shorten up his sermons in order to stay within a certain online limit. But then things turned even worse when the young man also took over the sound and online presentation of Sunday worship. While he was very artistic, he was not technologically very adept, and technical problems began to multiply. By this time, summer (2020) was coming on, and John and Phuong were back living with us, at least for that summer. And Rimi asked John if he would take over the running of the sound booth. The problem child was not happy about that, and fought back, developing a natural alliance with Jim and his committee. Worse, he decided abruptly to take a "vacation," and did everything he knew to do to shut down the sound and lighting system, as well as block access to the internet, before he left. But John figured out rather quickly how to get around these blockages. And by that Sunday John had things back in working order. When the young man returned, full war was on, conducted not only by him but also by Jim and his committee. Another split. A new church board was put in place (largely designed by Jim's committee) that July, and moved immediately to put Rimi in his "proper" place." Rimi was repeatedly brought before the new board to give account for his ways. Actually Rimi was working very hard at the church, counselling and visiting extensively, and the efforts of the new board (of some of the board anyway, because not all of them were part of Jim's anti-Rimi group) to find fault with Rimi's ministry reached the point of being totally ludicrous in character. Rimi found it hard to offer this group any answers that would satisfy them. But did they really want such satisfaction in the first place? Things finally reached such a state that the new board decided (with some very strong opposition on the part of a couple of the members) that Rimi was not to preach the coming Sunday. In fact, church service would not be held at all. That was ironic because Rimi had an excellent candidate to head up their new music ministry coming that Sunday to lead musical worship (the problem child had recently walked off the job, hoping to make worship seem pathetic without him leading it). Rimi is fired. But there was no way that Rimi was simply going to call off worship. And thus he held worship. The next day he was told he was fired. Actually, he found out that the ruling majority on the board had actually made the decision to fire him a few days earlier, even before he went ahead and held worship. The New Awakening Church
Rimi's support group. But immediately a number of people from the church pleaded with Rimi not to give up his ministry, but to find a place elsewhere to preach, because they loved his preaching and did not want to lose him. The decision thus was made to hold a small service the following Sunday at their new home, outside on their large lawn (almost 2 acres in size). And to Rimi and Rachel's shock, about 25 people had somehow got the word and showed up to support him. Rimi's preaching thus would go on! Starting up a new congregation. Rimi would never have started up a church on his own. Simply trying to find a handful of people to get a new church started was itself a very difficult matter. And how would Rachel and Rimi have supported themselves in such slender startup days, for they were deeply invested in their new home? Where would they have found the people, and the funds needed to keep going? But as things worked out, he didn't have to do any of that. He was able to start up his own ministry with a couple of dozen people in person (and soon more) – and numerous people online – excited to get that ministry up and running. And they were most generous in their financial support. Thus once again, what was meant to destroy Rimi (basic evil), God turned into a miraculous good. It's as if everything had been set up to go that way. And all Rimi and Rachel needed to do was simply go through the doors as God himself opened them. From August into September Rimi held worship outside on the lawn. But cooler weather was coming on, and Rachel and Rimi made the decision to bring worship inside. They had a point in their house where Rimi could preach and be seen and heard in the large family room, the huge kitchen and breakfast area, and the glassed-in back porch, all at the same time. More than 30 people could be accommodated this way. The New Awakening Church. Also, as things quickly settled into something of a routine, Rimi and Rachel knew that it was time to give their ministry a name. It was going to need one anyway in order to secure its place not only online but also to find itself in accordance with state law. And being as Rimi was very interested in the realm of America's great awakenings, the decision to name this ministry The New Awakening Church (and Ministry) came easily. Moving to a recreation center. But it soon became clear that the house was not going to be able to accommodate the growth that was happening with the ministry. So Rachel and Rimi began to make calls to various local organizations and civic institutions concerning the availability of a place for them to meet with their growing congregation. And somehow a huge racquetball and recreation center nearby came to their notice. And in contacting the director, René, their request was met with enthusiasm, because she herself had just come to the thought that one of the huge rooms at the center (with padded and carpeted flooring) would be a perfect place for a Christian congregation to meet on a Sunday morning.5 What a coincidence (really?)! And so it was that in early November, the New Awakening Church found itself gathering in its new home at the racquetball and recreation center. It was a perfect place. People came early to visit and stayed late for the same purpose. And the kids (soon to number 15 to 20 in number) could run around wildly before and after service and not get hurt when they tumbled (although they held Sunday School in another room at the center during worship time), loving every minute of it! And the growth continued ... and shows no signs of slowing up any, as of this writing! 5Most interesting, the raquetball and recreation center was struggling to meet its costs at the time. But with the opening of Rimi's worship there, the whole raquetball and recreaction center program - which ultimately had nothing to do with the worship program - itself took off. And René has herself understood that there had to have been more that just some odd coincidence behind these parallel developments! Rachel moves ahead: Oxford
Her master's studies. Meanwhile, Rachel decided to resume her educational journey, not only in helping Rimi's research by bringing her own editorial skills to excellent use in the process, but deciding at the same time to apply for a master's program at Oxford University. Are you kidding? She was already homeschooling Anna and Peter, serving as something of a business manager at their new church, and head of the church’s Sunday School program, as well as editing Rimi's work. But she was accepted, and started classes there, solely online (thanks to the Coronavirus). And she came to love every minute of it, and doing so well in her master's work that the department director asked her if she would be interested in taking up PhD studies at Oxford. They would love to have her. Now the doctorate. So, having finished her master's work at Oxford in early 2022, she then submitted a research proposal (about deeply Christian women at the time of the English "Enlightenment" in the late 1700s and early 1800s) for doctoral studies at Oxford. And in January of 2023 she was informed that, indeed, she had been accepted into Oxford's doctoral program ... and began her doctoral work that fall semester! Adjunct professors at Alvernia University
At the same time, first Rimi then Rachel were brought onto the faculty at Alvernia University (Pottsville campus) as adjunct professors, Rimi teaching two courses each semester (philosophy and theogy) and now Rachel teaching a single literature course. Sadly they are paid only the equivalent of the tuition paid by a single student for each course, the tuition paid by the other students going to the coffers of the university ... adjunct professors (which the universities love so much) receiving neither medical nor pension payments. It's sad to see American higher education join the world of incredible greed that seems to now drive the American industrial/financial world. But Rimi and Rachel both love teaching itself so much that they are willing to accept these shameful monetary terms of employment. |
     Eventually, as the fall weather turned less predictable, they moved indoors ... but found their numbers growing ... so finally they would move the Sunday worship to the nearby Schuylkill Racquet Club and Fitness Center ... a wonderfully huge space for a large group to gather for worship and fellowship afterwards ... and the kids to run around! worship ... March 14, 2021
 You can visit the church's website: newawakeningchurch.com
... also find Rimi's sermons posted on Youtube |
|
| Not
a whole lot has been said about Kathleen in these pages. That is
because Kathleen is not the grand adventurer like the rest of the
Hodges family. Where Kathleen plays so importantly in the whole picture
is the way she has loved to serve as an enabler to the rest of the
adventurers in the Hodges family. Kathleen has been the supermom and superwife who has made sure that the family remains well-grounded and strong in its larger pursuits. The home front is a place of incredible peace and easy joy, because of all the work she puts into making it the home we have all learned to know as the most awesome of base camps for all our doings. She delights in setting up the table with the most exquisite dishes and beautifully prepared table settings. She loves to find small gifts to delight us, especially the grandchildren, who love her dearly. And she keeps the home and gardens beautiful with all the flowers, ferns and bushes she carefully nourishes. Thus the home is not only a beautiful place spiritually, it is a beautiful place physically, thanks to her close attention to that very beauty. And she is quiet and wise counsel, especially when one or another of the Hodges activities seems to be headed down the road of confusion. The kids check in with her constantly on this matter and that. And she loves to message them with daily devotionals that she sends to them regularly. And she prays for them constantly. Indeed, they know who to come to when they feel they need special prayers. And she is still gorgeous! I don't understand how the process of aging has not diminished her beauty one bit! God is so good in the way he has put this wonderful family together! |
|
|
Presenting the American history in different formats
Soon after the appearance of the three-volume American history series, I decided to self-publish the series in a two-volume form (in audio form as well), making the project less expensive overall ... and better suited for a two-semester course. I was also told that reducing the amount of material I want to bring to that world would make it less forbidding to those who would have a more casual, less scholarly, interest in the American story. Thus I put together a single-volume presentation of the American narrative, entitled America's Story – a Spiritual Journey. The message is the same as the multi-volume series. It's just that there's less historical detail, yet the same amount of spiritual analysis. My autobiography: The Spiritual Pilgrim
At about the same time (also 2021) I decided to put the material you have here before you on this web page in printed (and audio) form: The Spritual Pilgrim – A Journey from Cynical Realism to "Born Again" Christian Faith. |
America's Story is an abridged and updated version of the three-volume American history
The Spiritual Pilgrim is actually an autobiography ...
as you well know ... because you have been reading it right here on these pages!
|
A two-volume Western civilization history
I then took the next step in putting more of my earlier work to print ... in having a two-volume history, A Moral History of Western Society, published in early 2024. |
|
Undertaking some marketing
I have absolutely no experience in marketing anything, especially in the realm of ideas. Reaching beyond the world immediately in front of me (a classroom or church sanctuary) is very new to me. But as my children point out to me, in today's world of the internet, on your computer screen the world is also immediately in front of you. You just have to look at that world a bit differently now. Thus it was that I signed up for a book show in June of 2024 – attended by homeschool parents. There I presented both a booth displaying my books ... and put on a 45-minute workshop – which was very well attended (standing room only)! |
The point of all this:
social truth discovered through historical narrative My concern for our rising generations. All of this arises simply from my deep concern that I am seeing that what awaits my children in their adult years is a very messy American nation to have to deal with, a nation trying to move forward without the slightest idea of what actually works, and what likewise is always destined to fail in the world of social-political choices. I am deeply aware that the truly wise ones that have graced human life – from those ancient souls who assembled the Jewish Testament (Christianity's Old Testament) and the many philosophers of the Greco-Roman world (especially Aristotle, Cicero and Marcus Aurelius) down to modern times (Winthrop, Franklin, Lincoln, Truman, Eisenhower, and others) – have always understood the importance of living boldly, but at the same time always according to social rules built into nature – especially human nature itself. And there is no way of living successfully apart from those social rules, for they were set by the God who created the same rules that modern science has come to know to be unshakeable in the working of the material-physical world around us. And there is no excuse in not knowing what those social rules are, as they were explained carefully and exemplified personally by Jesus Christ, sent to us to by our heavenly Father to make very clear what exactly these social, moral and spiritual rules or laws happen to be. And it is exactly those same rules – which are as "spiritual" as they are "material" – that I have been trying to put forward in my writings, through the process of story-telling – the most ancient and most reliable form of presenting the Great Truths – or rules of life. They know that reason can be very inventive. It usually is. In any case, it is always clever. But they have come to understand (sometimes the hard way) that such social-reasoning is seldom anything more than crude self-promotion, self-interest, driven by personal motivation willing to use the world of "others" to get what it wants. No, they are deeply understanding of the truths that make for real social success – that is, success not only for themselves but also for those around them – the kind of success that endures not only over the years but also over the generations. They know that real success in life will never be found outside of the social truths that have led their people over many generations, rules and social patterns that have proven themselves in the tough laboratory of time and circumstance. My challenge to America
So, please, America. Look upward. Look beyond the immediate. Learn as much as possible from the great social legacy put in place by those that have gone before us. Learn as much as possible from our own American (and Western) Christian social-spiritual narrative ... and the way those before us had to deal with life's actual challenges. Let that be the Truth – not the highly Idealistic ideology that Secular "progressives" claim that supposedly guides them ... and want you to follow – that leads you into your future. The Hodges family wants you – and the larger world in general – to succeed. |
Miles
H. Hodges
