Blog


Jul 2

Interview with Nathan Sherman, Part 3

2012 | by Trent Hunter | Category: Interview

This is the third post in a three-part blog interview with Nathan Sherman, DSC’s new Minister to Youth and Families. Part 1 explored Nathan’s church background and ministry training. Part 2 explored some of the influences in Nathan’s life. Part three is a little less serious. . .but just a little. Read on!

How do you like to spend your down time? Any hobbies? 

I love any good story. Whether it’s a true story—a history book or a documentary film—or a fictional story—a novel, movie, or TV series. We are people who love stories, and God has revealed himself to us primarily through story, so I love reading, watching, or listening to stories as they imperfectly but often very acutely point to that Great Redemptive Story.

We also love going to parks and playing with our boys. I also really love baseball. I whole-heartedly endorse pastor David Prince’s sentiment on baseball, the Church, and the gospel. I’m a huge fan of the Texas Rangers and am excited because their AAA team often comes through Albuquerque.

Okay, now a few left fielders:

What is the dumbest thing you did as a kid?

One time I wanted to make a maze out of cardboard boxes for my cat, Coconut. I asked my mom if I could cut up a bunch of boxes to tape together, so that I could see if Coconut could find her way out in a weird lab rat experiment kind of way. My mom wisely said no, so I waited for her to leave the house. I then tore holes in the boxes, since my mom merely told me that I couldn’t cut the boxes.  I taped the maze together, put cat food at one end and Coconut in the other end. She completely freaked out, went crazy, and broke apart the first two boxes, making my hours worth of work last for about 2 seconds. Then my mom found out, and I had to spend the rest of the night in my room by myself. A really worthwhile and wise use of a day, that was.

Any odd talents that we should know about up front?

I can beatbox mildly well. I’m well above average on a foosball table. I’m an exceptional Tecmo Super Bowl player on the original Nintendo. And you wouldn’t want to challenge me in riding roller coasters—I’m really good at riding roller coasters.

What’s your favorite animal, and why? 

A great past-time of mine is proposing hypothetical Octagon of Death scenarios, in which two beings enter without weapons, and only one can exit the Octagon alive. This can include fictional character (Rocky Balboa vs. Rambo) or historical figures (George Washington vs. Abraham Lincoln), but it most often pits two animals against each other. I’m pretty confident in a Bengal tiger’s ability against most of the rest of the Animal Kingdom, so I’ll go with him. Or a Grizzly bear. No, a Bengal tiger. Final answer.

Without going to the internet, do you know what a Lobo is? An Isotope? Carne Adovada?

I know that the Lobo is the UNM mascot, and the Lobo looks like a really vicious, wolfy-looking guy. So I will guess that a lobo is some kind of a wolf?

I’m pretty sure that once upon a time Mr. Williams taught me what an isotope was in high school chemistry. I can’t tell you exactly what an isotope is, but I do know that without isotopes, the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb wouldn’t be possible. And I do know that without Isotopes, the Dodgers would have very little Minor League talent.

I took five years of German in high school and college, so my Spanish is not very good. I know that carne means beef, and adovada reminds me of avocado—one of the more superior things that God has created—so I’ll go with some kind of beefy-avocado combination. And I’m sure isotopes were somehow used in creating such a delectable treat.

And, for one last question, red or green?

Green means go. You can sleep when you’re dead.

Many thanks to Nathan for giving such care to these questions. And, just to make sure everyone is clear on this – Nathan had to write me back to share that he looked up “red or green” on the internet and realized that he misunderstood the last question. Of course, part of our purpose in asking was to expose a contextualization weakness and I think we’ve found it!

Pray for the Shermans this week as they transition to Albuquerque, and greet them warmly on July 8, their first Sunday with us at DSC.