via crucis | via salutis

Wild Goose Festival 2012

2012-02-14T09:54:00.002-08:00

If you don't already know about the Wild Goose Festival, go ahead and take the time to get acquainted with this awesome opportunity to fellowship and learn with 3,000 of your closest friends at the intersections of Justice, Spirituality, Music and Art. I was able to attend just one day of the festival last year and I've already got my ticket for this year's festival!

Check out the video below to learn more about the festival. And then, because I know you'll want to, stop by the Wild Goose website and buy your ticket today!

The 2012 Wildgoose Festival from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

Pray for us now and at the hour of our death

2012-02-11T11:51:00.000-08:00

I am thankful to have a number of friends who are involved in some really great things that enrich my own life and the lives of others. One of these friends is Gareth Higgins, co-facilitator of "The Film Talk" and executive director of the Wild Goose Festival.

In fall of 2011 I was privileged receive an invitation from Gareth to be present with a number of other ministry workers and faith leaders to contribute our voices to the planning process for next year's Wild Goose Festival. (Note: when I say I was "privileged" to be there what I mean is that I have no idea how I got invited to hang out with such an awesome group of fellow ministers and faith leaders).

At any rate, at the end of our discussion (which was wonderfully facilitated by Gareth and by Brian Ammons), Gareth shared the following poem and I wanted to share it with you.

(Note: if you're like me (i.e. American) you may not know what "Hurling" is. You'll want to learn about it here before reading this poem.)

The 12 O’Clock Mass, Roundstone, County Galway, 28 July 2002

On Sunday 28th of July 2002 –
The summer it rained almost every day –
In rain we strolled down the road
To the church on the hill overlooking the sea.
I had been told to expect “a fast Mass”.
Twenty minutes. A piece of information
Which disconcerted me.

Out onto the altar hurried
A short, plump priest in late middle age
With a horn of silver hair,
In green chasuble billowing
Like a poncho or a caftan over
White surplice and a pair
Of Reeboks – mammoth trainers.

He whizzed along,
Saying the readings himself as well as the Gospel;
Yet he spoke with conviction and with clarity;
His every action an action
Of what looked like effortless concentration;
Like Tiger Woods on top of his form.
His brief homily concluded with a solemn request.

To the congregation he gravely announced:
“I want each of you to pray for a special intention,
A very special intention.
I want each of you – in the sanctity of your souls –
To pray that, in the All-Ireland
Championship hurling quarter-final this afternoon in Croke Park,
Clare will beat Galway.”

The congregation splashed into laughter
And the church became a place of effortless prayer.
He whizzed through the Consecration
As if the Consecration was something
That occurs at every moment of the day and night;
As if betrayal and the overcoming of betrayal
Were an every-minute occurrence.

As if the Consecration were the “now”
In the “now” of the Hail Mary prayer:
“Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”
At the Sign of the Peace he again went sombre
As he instructed the congregation:
“I want each of you to turn around and say to each other:
‘You are beautiful.’”

The congregation was flabbergasted, but everyone fluttered
And swung around and uttered that extraordinary phrase:
“You are beautiful.”
I shook hands with at least five strangers,
Two men and three women, to each of them saying:
“You are beautiful.” And they to me:
“You are beautiful.”

At the end of Mass, exactly twenty-one minutes,
The priest advised: “Go now and enjoy yourselves
For that is what God made you to do –
To go out there and enjoy yourselves
And to pray that, in the All-Ireland
Championship hurling quarter-final between Clare and Galway
In Croke Park, Clare will win.”

After Mass, the rain had drained away
Into a tide of sunlight on which we sailed out
To St Macdara’s Island and dipped our sails –
Both of us smiling, radiant sinners.
In a game of pure delight, Clare beat Galway by one point:
Clare 1 goal and 17 points, Galway 19 points.
“Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”

by Paul Durcan (from The Art of Life)

In my reading I was struck by the portion of this poem which mentions the "now" in the Hail Mary prayer. Although I have prayed this prayer hundreds of times I have never, until hearing this poem, reflected on the "immediacy" of this prayer - that every hour of life, every moment, can be a consecrated, holy moment.

Though this poem evokes images of joy and laughter, it brought to my mind memories of suffering, turmoil and pain and it especially reminded me that, though often unacknowledged, God really is present in every aspect of life.

In my work with youth and now in my work as a chaplain intern in a hospital, I am always learning to see God in unexpected places. In this work, I have learned that whenever one person is truly "present" with another - vulnerable, listening, loving - God is also present there. It does not matter whether we evoke God's presence or even desire God to be there with us. God truly is "presence." God is "vulnerability." At least this is the God that I find in the Jesus story.

In my work I find more and more that true vulnerability is often thrust upon us when we experience suffering and death. Such moments remind me that God is not just the God of power and of resurrection. God is also the God of the crucifixion, the God of suffering. When we suffer with another we are saying, implicitly, "Your life - every part of it - is worthwhile." We are saying to that person, "you are beautiful."

This realization has been paradigm shifting for me in my ministry with youth -- I'm beginning to move way beyond creating programs and opportunities meant to "influence" youth toward simply being with youth and their families in the messiness of life. How have you experienced this in your own life and ministry?

Exhortation (Peter Leithart)

2012-02-11T11:45:00.000-08:00

Great stuff from Peter Leithart:

We don’t offer animals on altars, but the Christian life is more sacrificial than the ancient Jews’, not less. For us, the world is a temple, our lives a continuous offering, our actions moments of a daily liturgy. Paul’s rapid-fire series of instructions in today’s New Testament reading (Romans 12) is not a random list of moralisms. It’s a description of the new covenant sacrificial system, Leviticus redux.

We don’t offer whole-burnt ascension offerings. We are whole-burnt offerings as we discover and use the Spirit’s gifts to benefit the body. Can you teach? Teach. Can you serve? Serve. Can you give? Give, and so offer your bodies as living sacrifice.

We don’t perform sin offerings; we abhor evil, and cling to good. We don’t offer incense; we rejoice in hope and pray. No more peace offerings; rather, we give to the saints and practice hospitality. No more blood and slaughter at church; instead, we bless when others curse, rejoice with the joyful, weep with those who mourning, and refrain from vengeance to leave room for the perfect vengeance of God.

These are the steps of our daily liturgical dance, which is the dance of discipleship. Pattern your time so you can perform this liturgy; nurture these habits in the power of the Spirit; and offer all of it as living sacrifice to God.

Bonhoeffer: The meaning of Discipleship

2012-02-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Discipleship means adherence to Christ, and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship.An abstract Christology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge on the subject of grace or on the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact they positively exclude any idea of discipleship whatever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ.With an abstract idea it is possible to enter into a relation of formal knowledge, to become enthusiastic about it, and perhaps even to put it into practice; but it can never be followed in personal obedience.Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 1937, (New York: Touchstone, 1995), 59.

Advent Conspiracy 2011

2011-11-28T09:38:00.001-08:00

[AC] Promo 2011 - International Justice Mission from Advent Conspiracy on Vimeo.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove - Beyond the Faith Franchise

2011-11-28T09:33:00.001-08:00

Check out some good stuff from the Parish Collective.

Faith Beyond Franchise from Parish Collective on Vimeo.

Prayer of the Day: Shine Into Our Hearts

2011-10-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

"God of love, the true sun of the world, eternally risen and never going down; in your mercy shine into our hearts, that the night of sin and the mists of error being banished, we may, this day and all our life, walk without stumbling along the way which you have set before us."

- Erasmus of Rotterdam

Infographic: Is Social Media Ruining Students

2011-09-08T09:18:00.001-07:00

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Nick Clegg: Youth Ministers Aren't Surrogate Parents

2011-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, he didn't exactly say "youth ministers" -- he was talking about teachers in the UK. I don't know UK politics so I don't know much about Mr. Clegg. But I can tell you that the message he sends to parents with respect to teachers and education could just as easily be said with regard to youth ministers and youth ministry. I've altered the original quote which I found here.

“If you don’t take an interest in your child’s faith formation, youth pastors cannot make up the shortfall. We already expect our youth pastors to be social workers; child psychologists; nutritionists; child protection officers. We expect them to police the schools, take care of our children’s health; counsel our sons and daughters; guide them, worry about them, and, on top of that, provide faith formation for them too. When you consider that list, it is phenomenal that so many rise to the challenge. But it is too much to ask. Youth pastors are not surrogate mothers and fathers; they cannot do it all."

This is as much true of youth pastors as it is of pastors. If we Christians expect pastors and youth workers to do all the work of faith formation for us we will be missing the mark in so many ways. Even worse, we will be shirking our duties to nurture the faith of our children by handing them off to "the professionals" to do our jobs for us. Pastors of all sorts have legitimate roles and functions to carry out in most fellowships but far too often we are asking them to do what they have not been called to do and we are all less faithful for it.

Youth ministry will never be truly "Christian..."

2011-09-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

...until it can help young people and their parents (especially their parents) learn that discipleship must involve earnest daily prayer and daily devoted reading of Scripture. In my experience the very idea of sitting down, saying a prayer and reading the Bible for longer than, say, a minute or two is something that most young people and their parents simply cannot countenance.

"What is there within the Bible? What sort of house is it to which the Bible is the door? What sort of country is spread before our eyes when we throw the Bible open?" (Barth, The Strange New World Within the Bible).

How can we ever hope that the young will discover this new world within the Scriptures? How do we expect their lives to be transformed by the Gospel if they do not read it? We cannot ignore the Bible - no matter what issues we may have with the world presented therein.

**UPDATE**

I suppose what I'm getting at is that many young Christians -- especially those who've grown up in the "fun and games" culture of American youth ministry -- don't believe that the Bible is really all that important to Christian faith formation.

Tragically, many pastors are either unwilling to trust the Scriptures for their own faith formation or they do not know how to communicate the importance - not to mention the content - of Scripture to young people without twisting it to make it more palatable or relevant. I love Bonhoeffer's advice in this regard, "Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic…Do no defend God’s Word but testify to it…Trust to the word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity."

Wendell Berry on Parenthood

2011-09-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

But I have thought, too, that the term of human judgment is longer than parenthood, that the upbringing we give our children is not just for their childhood but for all their lives. And it is sure the duty of the older generation to be embarrassingly old-fashioned, for the claims of the “newness” of any younger generation are mostly frivolous. The young are born to the human condition more than to their time, and they may face mainly the same trails and obligations as their elders have faced.

- Wendell Berry, “Family Work” (1980) in The Gift of Good Land.

H/T David Swanson

Saturday Sundries: remarkably close to my own desk layout

2011-08-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Gaudium et Spes on providing youth with reasons for hope

2011-08-24T06:02:00.000-07:00

Following on the tales of yesterday's post, I found this little gem from Gaudium et Spes (the Catholic "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World"). Written in 1975, it seems the bishops at the 2nd Vatican Council at least had a clue about what the next generation needed:

"We can justly consider that the future of humanity lies in the hands of those who are strong enough to provide coming generations with reasons for living and hoping." - Gaudium et Spes

What are the "reasons for living and hoping" that the church must provide to young people today? How is the church of today failing in this task? In what ways do you see the church succeeding?

Something Worth Dying For: The Adult Abandonment of Adolescents

2011-08-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

I'm still reading and digesting The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry and I hope to engage more deeply in particular essays which pique my interest. In Kenda Dean's essay entitled "Proclaiming Salvation" I've run into something that I am ashamed to say I haven't spent much time thinking about: the adult abandonment of adolescents.

"Although youth pull away from adults at more or less the same rate they have for generations, the adult abandonment of youth in the late twentieth century reached new and unprecedented proportions. Parents, for instance, spend 40 percent less time with their children than a generation ago" (The Theological Turn, 72)

This is one of the issues raised by the makers of Divided and, while I disagree with their ultimate conclusion, I think I might agree that youth ministry - or at least parents' willingness to give their kids faith and identity formation to youth ministry - has certainly made the situation harder for young people today.

As Dean notes, in previous generations even adolescent rebellion facilitated at least some form of connection between adolescents and previous generations:

"The much-maligned adolescent "rebellion" of the 1960's allowed youth to remain connected with significant adults while at the same time distancing themselves from them. Except in its most destructive varieties, rebellion actually serves identity formation by helping one generation establish autonomy from the generation that has gone before -- while at the same time acknowledging the older generation's presence and influence. Thirty years ago, adults controlled access to society's primary decision-making, education and earning power, and they functioned as gatekeepers for information necessary to participate fully in the institutions of the American middle class. In short, they served young people's best interest to eventually identify themselves as grown-ups" (73).

Today, however, the situation is quite different. Adults and children are taught to prolong their adolescence and, when this is not the case, the lines between childhood and adulthood are so blurred that adults and youth are both ill-equipped to face the challenges of contemporary culture as human beings, much less as faithful followers of Jesus.

This whole debacle reminded me of a video clip I watched recently from The Work of the People (a company whose resources I use regularly in my work with both adults and young people) in which Stanley Hauerwas pinpoints the failure of adults to provide young people with a faith worth dying for:

We (meaning adults who currently serve as role models for young people) have thus far been unable to offer a faith to the next generation to which they feel compelled to bear witness. It isn't that Christianity has lost its power or that the cross of Christ was for nothing, it's that we have not fully understood it ourselves and, therefore, we have not given our young people anything meaningful to live for (much less to die for).

Perhaps I'm overstating the problem but it seems to me that the problem with adolescents today is as much a problem with adults and with our own faithfulness (or lack thereof).

Prayer of the Day

2011-08-23T06:25:00.000-07:00

My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night.

Save me, I pray, today as well, from every evil and sin, so that all I do and the way that I live will please you. I put myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy Angels be with me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen

- Martin Luther

The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry Part 1 - The Necessity of Theology

2011-08-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to receive a review copy of The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry by Kenda Dean and Andrew Root from the folks at InterVarsity press. Thanks!

Dean is professor of youth, church and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ and Root is associate professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN.

In the first few pages The Theological turn in Youth Ministry, Dean and Root provide (among other things) an overview of how youth ministry is changing. It's clear that youth ministry is moving away from program-oriented, fun-and-games-centered, youth-aren't-really-part-of-the-church ministry. Certainly youth ministry thus described is still practiced by a large number (maybe even the majority) of congregations but the leading edge of youth workers all sense that something new is coming.

The book is divided into two sections:

Part One: Theological Starting Points briefly surveys the history of youth ministry leading to the present day and then, via a series of previously-published essays, proceeds to situate the contemporary practice of youth ministry squarely within both the practice of the entire church and within the discipline of practical theology. Youth ministry for Dean and Root is not merely a 'program' for teaching Christian doctrine as typically conceived to young people. Rather, it is a practical theological journey that prepares young people to exercise their role as living members of Christ's body in the present.
Part Two: Theology Enacted explores the logical outcome of youth ministry as practical theology. Youth ministry, it turns out, is one of the best places to start if we want church people to "think theologically" about what it means to be a person in today's world.

So far, I like what I'm reading. The authors of course do more than just provide an overview. Indeed, they jump directly into the theological task with gusto. This is no lightweight, fun-and-games youth ministry textbook. The authors take seriously the theological task and the ways in which youth workers can become "local theologians" and equip the young people and adults they work with to do the same.

Moreover, they do not shy away from the use of theological language. This is not something that I expected even though the word "theological" is in the title of the book. Typically, books on youth ministry don't really mean "theology" when they use the word -- what is typically meant (in my experience) is "spirituality" or simply "asking good questions." But Dean and Root are not afraid to drink deeply from the waters of Barth, Bonhoeffer, Tillich, Ray Anderson, Douglas John Hall, Luther and others. Nor are they afraid to insist that, yes, personal spiritual development is important but so is sustained theological reflection if we who "do youth ministry" are to be taken seriously and if we are to be sure that the work we are doing is actually worthwhile. No, not every youth worker needs a theological degree (though that wouldn't hurt) but we do need to develop habits of deep prayer, critical thought and intentional engagement with the Bible, theology and the social sciences if we are to say that we are doing ministry in a way that takes the complexities of postmodern culture seriously.

Both authors are able to skillfully connect the concrete and pastoral realities of working in ministry with young people with research from theology and the social sciences in a way that does not obscure the call of God to proclaim the Gospel of Christ in our ministries and our lives.

As I continue reading, I'll continue writing about my impressions of The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. In the meantime, if this sounds like a book you'd like to buy, you can check it out at Google Books and even pre-order it on Amazon.com (it doesn't come out until October).

You can also see Dean and Root talk a bit about the book itself below:

Prayer of the Day

2011-08-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.

~ St. Francis of Assisi

Prayer of the Day: Help me to feel your presence

2011-08-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

O you
who have given me eyes
to see the light
that fills my room,
give me the inward vision
to behold you in this place.
O you, who has made me feel
the morning wind upon my limbs
help me to feel your presence
as I bow in worship of you.

~ Chandran Devanesen, 20th Century Indian Christian

Prayer of the day: We bring before you, O Lord...

2011-08-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

"We bring before you, O Lord,
the troubles and perils of people and nations,
the sighing of prisoners and captives,
the sorrows of the bereaved,
the necessities of strangers,
the helplessness of the weak,
the despondency of the weary,
the failing powers of the aged.
O Lord, draw near to each,
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen."

~ Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Prayer of the day: "Be with us and hear us."

2011-08-05T05:30:00.000-07:00

Fire of the Spirit,
life of the lives of creatures,
Spiral of sanctity,
Bond of all natures,
glow of charity,
lights of clarity,
taste of sweetness to the fallen,
be with us and hear us.

~ Hildegarde of Bingen

Prayer of the Day, "Teach me how to pray..."

2011-08-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

My Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee.
Thou and Thou alone knowest my needs.
Thou lovest me more than I am able to love Thee.
O Father, grant unto me, Thy servant, all which I cannot ask.
For a cross I dare not ask, nor for consolation;
I dare only to stand in Thy presence.
My heart is open to Thee.
Thou seest my needs of which I myself am unaware.
Behold and lift me up!
In Thy presence I stand,
awed and silenced by Thy will and Thy judgments,
into which my mind cannot penetrate.
To Thee I offer myself as a sacrifice.
No other desire is mine but to fulfill Thy will.
Teach me how to pray.
Do Thyself pray within me.
Amen.

~ Prayer of Philaret, Orthodox Metropolitan of Moscow - 1782-1867

Prayer of the day

2011-08-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

I have had many challenges throughout the past five years and this prayer has brought me comfort and renewed my determination to follow the way of Jesus, even when I am unsure of where I am headed:

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
~ Thomas Merton

Does God Really Care About Our Doctrine? Maybe -- but probably not.

2011-04-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

Warning: ranting ahead...

I'm way late to this discussion and I wasn't even going to chime in but I figured I'd let the one or two readers of this blog know what I think about the whole Rob Bell / Love Wins debacle.

So I've been reading / watching all the reaction to Rob Bell's newest book and I must say that I'm more than a a little stunned. Seriously, folks! I know people who've lost their jobs because they agreed with Bell's conclusions in Love Wins.

And I've heard so many people say that we need to be "on our guard" against "false doctrine" and always refer back to the Bible because human beings are flawed (except those human beings who wrote the Bible). Even more, I've heard so many people say absolutely ridiculous things about Rob Bell's ministry -- that the work that God has called him to do has been all for nothing since he's now a full-blown heretic and is, apparently, now unable to serve as an instrument for the work of God because of that.

To all those who are so concerned about what Rob Bell has written and who are so afraid that people are going to be "led astray" by his teachings, the question I have is this: Why do YOU care so much about what other people believe? Do your beliefs about heaven and hell change God's love for you? Does orthodoxy = righteousness? Does God care more about our truth claims or does God care more about how we actively respond to the existential reality of God's love for us as demonstrated in Christ's life, death and resurrection? I'm not sure if God cares about our doctrine or not but I'm pretty sure that the bible and Christian history bear witness to the fact that our doctrines about God can be varied but our response to the Gospel is the same: do justice, love mercy, walk humbly. Care for orphans and widows. Do not judge others. Above all else, follow in the way of Jesus.

Whether or not you agree with what Rob Bell is saying, the bottom line is this: it really doesn't matter, in the long run, whether or not you agree with him. What matters is whether you are actively living the way of Jesus. What really matters is whether you love your neighbors and your enemies. Sure, doctrine is important but in the end we're all just relying on frail, imperfect human interpretation -- even those of us who claim to be "orthodox." So I think it's about time for some humility.

Seth Godin: "Art is what we call...

2011-02-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

the thing an artist does.

It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.

Art is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist.

Lots of folks in the worship / theology / ministry world are using words like "aesthetics" and talking about "curating" worship experiences and the "art" of ministry. I've been thinking about what makes art art since I've begun writing songs (which I'm working on recording and sharing here) and so I'm curious what folks think about this question: What makes somethings art and others just "stuff." Is it just "risk" or "humanity"? Surely we can't say that all things that self-proclaimed artists produce is really "art", can we?

Brennan Manning (again) on Prayer

2011-02-17T11:47:00.001-08:00

"The Word we study has to be the Word we pray. My personal experience of the relentless tenderness of God came not from exegetes, theologians, and spiritual writers, but from sitting still in the presence of the living Word and beseeching Him to help me understand with my head and heart His written Word. Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of *knowing* Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited." ~ Brennan Manning

Brennan Manning: The True Meaning of the Gospel

2011-02-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

"The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian."

~ Brennan Manning

Are You a Trader?

2011-02-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

What the church needs

2011-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren...Pastoral authority can be attained only by the servant of Jesus who seeks no power of his own, who himself is a brother among brothers to the authority of the Word.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

[H/T Bill Kinnon]

A Prayer for the Young

2011-02-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

[H/T Chris Folmsbee]

My reflections on learning to pray have been inconsistent at best -- nevertheless, I have been reflecting on what prayer does to form our identity in a culture filled with conflicting voices constantly vying for our attention and allegiance.

As a youth worker, I found the following prayer by Frederick Beuchner particularly encouraging in the work I do with adolescents in the church as well as for my own spiritual journey.

…Be present especially with the young who must choose between many voices. Help them to know how much an old world needs their youth and gladness. Help them to know that there are words of truth and healing that will never be spoken unless they speak them, and deeds of compassion and courage that will never be done unless they do them. Help them never to mistake success for victory or failure for defeat. Grant that they may never be entirely content with whatever bounty the world may bestow upon them, but that they may know at last that they were created not for happiness but for joy, and that joy is to him alone who, sometimes with tears in his eyes, commits himself in love to thee and his brothers. Lead them and all thy world ever deeper into the knowledge that finally all men are one and that there can never really be joy for any until there is joy for all. In Christ’s name we ask it and for his sake. Amen.

- Frederick Beuchner, The Hungering Dark, page 33

All My Best Teachers Are Alcoholics

2011-01-31T09:23:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Andrew and I am not an alcoholic. I'm not an alcoholic but I do have a heartbeat and I am breathing and that means that throughout my life I will be in the process of healing and recovery.

I am not an alcoholic but I am lucky enough to have spent lots of time recently with friends who are alcoholics and lately I've been reflecting on the ways that the recovery process followed by everyone in Alcoholics Anonymous can teach Christian people - and everyone else - some things about what it means to be human. What follows may not make much sense to everyone because so much of it comes out of my personal spiritual and emotional journey but I submit it for your edification.

THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

I think the church often does a pretty crappy job of taking care of people when they're hurting, when they're angry, when they have doubts and - most especially - when they manage to really screw up their lives and need real, substantive help. If you're even a mite self-aware you know that being a human being means being messed up at some point. Far too often, I think the church concerns itself with helping people make a "decision" to "become a Christian" and then we leave them there at the altar without much (or any) help in learning to deal with the very hard realities of being a human being. We focus so much on eternity that we forget that life lasts far beyond the event of realizing that we need Jesus.

Everyone struggles with anger, depression, anxiety, self-loathing, hatred of others, and many other destructive attitudes and behaviors and far too often, the church leaves people who struggle with these things with nowhere to turn but inward - away from community, away from friends and away from the true meaning of salvation: deliverance and healing. And that's what the church does at its best. At its worst, people who struggle with these things openly are ostracised and made to feel like there's something profoundly wrong with them. It's quite cowardly the way people want to back away slowly from others who are publicly falling apart as if we've never been in their shoes.

The process goes like this: we evangelize, we convince people that they need Jesus, we help them decide to give their lives to Him and then we abandon them to figure out this whole human condition thing on their own. We expect our problems and the problems of others to simply be erased and made perfect instantaneously and we don't understand why we fall back into destructive patterns of sin and self-destruction.

It's like we believe that the act of believing in Jesus somehow unlocks some magical path of transformation that makes people holy and happy and good simply by acknowledging that they've taken their first step on the path. Then - way too often - we leave them sitting by the side of the road to freeze to death, or starve, or get beaten and robbed of their humanity without so much as a roadmap to normalcy - much less holiness and redemption.

The fact is that simply telling people that Jesus loves them and that there is a way to pursue righteousness isn't enough. We have got to walk with them and we have got to walk the path ourselves. Something that AA and other recovery communities offer people are steps toward recovery - not just recovery from addiction but recovery of their full potential to flourish as human beings in a world and in a culture that is so often hostile to people who are open and honest about failure. It's like we've got a brokenness sensor that helps us steer clear of people who are falling apart lest we get nicked by the flying shrapnel of life.

Here's the point: the twelve steps of AA actually work for millions of people. They are practical, they're spiritual, tand hey help recovering alcoholics to develop a realistic way of walking through the world while dealing with a crippling disease. Christianity at its best ought to do the same things that AA does. Here's what I mean:

You don't need to be an alcoholic to realize that you're powerless and that, at times, your life becomes unmanageable.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to realize that a God exists that is greater and more powerful than you are and that this God can help you make it through this thing called life.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to decide to surrender your whole life to God.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to fearlessly examine your life and your soul to find hidden faults and holes that are filled with all the wrong stuff.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to admit to God, to yourself and to others that you are screwed up and have wronged others and yourself.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to admit that you need God's help in removing sin from your life.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to cooperate with God in the recovery process by giving your failings away to Him.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to make a list of people you've done wrong and to become willing to do your best to make amends.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to actually follow through in making amends with others.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to continue to examine your life and readily admit when you've failed and done others wrong.
You don't need to be an alcoholic to continue to seek God - whatever God looks like for you - and maintain constant contact with Him.
And you don't need to be an alcoholic to wake up to your own brokenness and begin to extend grace, peace, forgiveness, love, acceptance, complete openness and acceptance to others.

No. To do all of this, you just need to be human. And that's what the church has failed at doing. We have failed to help people move beyond the realization of their sinfulness toward a pursuit - not of feigned righteousness or niceness or some do-good false piety - but of true humanity.

The Church and Christians have become good at helping people to hide their sins or try to forget them but we really suck at making space for people to examine themselves deeply and seek an authentic spiritual path to healing and deliverance. We are really bad at admitting when we are wrong. We are terrible at taking inventory of our own lives and we have been blinded to the fact that being human is really hard sometimes - and it's hard for some people most of the time.

Being around friends who have been immersed in the process of recovery from alcoholism has been a healing process for me. It has been freeing to fall in love with authentic people who know what it's like to fail, to hang on for dear life to a process, a path, and a way of deliverance, and who - because of the support of their family, friends and other screwed up people - are able to get clean and stay clean.

If you have been beat up by life. If you have been rejected by others. If you've really messed your life up and harmed others in the process, then I hope you'll find a place to struggle through all that junk toward healing and wholeness. And, as a Christian and a minister, if the church has made this process more treacherous for you then I am deeply sorry. Here and now, I repent from ever making any person feel that their problems weren't important, that being depressed or angry or afraid is wrong and for in any way diminishing the struggles of others.

May all of you who walk the path of life be blessed enough to have friends who will speak truthfully to them with love and then refuse to leave them alone.

"Pray as you can, not as you can't"

2011-01-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

When I began chronicling my prayer experiment, the best advice I found was from Braybrook when he wrote, "pray as you can, not as you can't."

The greates struggle I have faced in my prauer life has been attempting to pray the was I thought I was supposed to pray. Although I've spent some years teaching young people to pray in whatever ways felt most natural to them - whether with a rosary, prayer postures, journaling or any one of the plethora of options available - I have never heeded my own advice.

The first step on this journey toward a more consistent and intentional life of prayer has been the acceptance that not everyone prays the same.

For many of you this might be common-sense but for me it has been revolutionary. Although I know some things about learning styles and personality types, I have never really considered that the ways that we are able to pray might have something to do with these aspects of our lives.

Brabrooke writes,

"there are hundreds of definitions of prayer, and there is no right way to pray. An old adage puts it, "Pray as you can, not as you can't." The first step in learning to pray is to free ourselves from pre-conceptions of what prayer is...The second step on the road to prayer is to forget any fixed ideas we may have about how to pray. We do not need to worry whether we use words or keep quiet, whether we kneel down or sit or stand, whether place our hands together or hold prayer beads. We can pray at any time, anywhere, in any way. The only prerequisite for prayer is that we be ourselves. (Learn to Pray, 14).

I've always been inclined toward "fixed hour prayer" and I've always been a bit of a stickler about what texts and methods I felt comfortable using. In all honesty, I've never thought of prayer as something to be done in public or just at any old time of day. For some, prayer must seem the most natural act in the world to undertake. For me, insecurity and worry has been an almost insurmountable barrier.

What barriers do you face in your prayer life? Are there ways to pray that "work" particularly well for you?

This weekend, I'll be on a ski retreat and - in what little spare time I have - I'll write about my first experiences with a couple of different ways to pray.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

On trying too hard

2011-01-19T05:20:00.000-08:00

Perhaps you shouldn't call this a "last resort" - what if it doesn't "work"?

Lydia asked me this question this morning after reading my blog post (my WIFE reads my blog -- how cool!?) and her question made me wonder what, precisely, I'm expecting will "happen" on my prayer journey?

Do I expect that whenever I pray I'll feel God's presence immediately and the angels and saints in heaven will cry out in praise to God that I, Andrew Tatum, finally learned to pray perfectly?

Not hardly.

I know - like I'm sure most of you know - that prayer is not always or solely about an ecstatic experience with God. It's not about making me feel good. It's not about helping me to validate that I'm good, or holy, or anything else.

Okay but what, precisely, is prayer all about? Well, that - in part - is why I'm going on this "journey" to rediscover why we Christians do this thing called prayer. What is it all about? What are we doing, exactly, when we sit, stand, kneel, lie down to pray?

What do you think? What's the point of prayer? Is there a point at which one can try too hard? Am I setting myself up for disappointment?

On Learning to Pray

2011-01-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

As a youth minister who loves helping others - especially youth - learn new ways to pray, it must seem strange for me to admit that I'm really not very good at "private" prayer.

As a kid, I was diagnosed with ADD and, for better or worse, I haven't been under any serious treatment for ADD since my sophomore year in high school. For some reason, I've always had an averse reaction to the idea of being "medicated" in order to function properly.

These days, however, I'm wondering if the doctors weren't right. Perhaps I wasn't misdiagnosed and, perhaps, this is coming back to haunt my spiritual life with a vengeance.

Indeed, over the past few years I've had great difficulty praying privately - or really undertaking any form of consistent, personal devotion. When praying in groups, or leading groups in prayer, it's easier for me to focus -- to be "engaged" in the practice of calling on god to be present, to fill our hearts, to enlighten the hidden places of our souls and fill us with light, love, grace and peace.

But many times when I've tried to pray privately my mind has wandered. The flood of daily tasks, anxieties, fears, and insecurities is like static - filling my mind and, apparently, blocking out the divine presence in my life.

It's not an easy thing to admit that I have trouble being fully present to God in prayer. I'm a pastor, for crying out loud! I'm a person whom others (correctly or not) see as being somehow "more spiritual" and less susceptible to the challenges of being fully mentally and spiritual "available" to the presence of God. Nevertheless, here I am admitting that private prayer and devotion have never been easy for me.

This reality has caused me significant guilt and anxiety over the years - What's wrong with me?! Why do I have so much trouble connecting with God when others seem to find it so easy?

Then it struck me -- perhaps prayer isn't easy for others? Perhaps we all struggle with the tug of oppressive anxiety, fear of failure, and the constant need to be doing something - anything - to stay more productive, or at least busy.

Whether others feel this way regularly or not, it's easy to feel isolated during times of "spiritual dryness" (or whatever you call it).

Into this frustration and loneliness stepped a short book simply titled, Learn to Pray by Marcus Braybrooke.

Braybrooke is a retired Anglican priest, "patron" of the International Interfaith Centre at Oxford University, a fellow at the Council for a Parliament of the World's religions and president of World Congress of Faiths.

In this little book, Brabrooke writes refreshingly about ways that people of all faiths - or no faith at all - might begin to learn (or re-learn) how to pray. And I'm so glad to have found this wonderful resource.

Each chapter focuses on a theme related to the practice of prayer in many faiths and provides practical prayer practices to help both beginners and seasoned pray-ers discover new ways to connect with God and with others in prayer.

Over the next few weeks, I'll reading through Learn to Pray and posting my experiences with each of these practices -- whether I found them "effective" or distracting, what sorts of feelings and thoughts they produced in me, and - most importantly - whether I felt that they helped me connect with God and find some form of peace or contentment.

I can already anticipate some folks' responses to this:

You're approaching prayer like a consumer!
You can't approach prayer the way you approach an all-you-can-eat buffet!

I agree with these potential criticisms - to a point. It seems to me that, given that prayer has been such a struggle in the past, this is a last resort. A journey toward a more authentic and intentional life of prayer and devotion. If I have to sample a few new ways of prayer to find one or two that "do it" for me, then so be it.

I covet your encouragement and your suggestions on this journey -- remember, even though I've been praying and practicing my faith for many years, I'm still a newbie at this whole prayer thing! If you've found practices that help you to focus, to be still, to listen to God's voice and to receive the grace of God, please share them here!

Thanks for sharing in the journey!

Lord, I believe! But help my unbelief! -- Making Room Faith, Doubt and Cynicism in Youth Ministry

2010-11-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

Often I think ministers, and ministers who work with young people, are pressured to be dispellers of doubt in the people with whom they minister. In both our cognitive work (i.e. doctrinal instruction) and our relational / spiritual work, it is thought that orthodoxy in belief and practice should be the primary goal for the people of our communities. In other words, we assume that in order for faith to be strong, genuine and generative there can be little room for doubt and no room at all for cynicism.

I cannot account for the experiences of others in this regard but I can share my own and recently, I have had many experiences that left me scratching my head and wondering where I went wrong.

The first of these came during a recent youth Bible study in which we were studying the "basics" of the Gospel message - i.e. sin & salvation through Christ. I found that the young people with whom I work genuinely believe the "facts" about the Gospel: that human beings are sinful and that Christ lived, died and was resurrected to bring a new kind of life that seeks God and serves others through the power of the Spirit. What is troubling, however, is that often it seems that this good news is received with glazed over looks and shrugged shoulders. In other words, many of the youth with whom I work genuinely believe the Gospel but they don't see where such belief makes a practical difference in their lives. Others of them, I am sure, "believe" the Gospel - i.e. they know the basic narrative and they can tell me all about it - but they are not fully convinced that it is true.

Another recent experience happened in discussing the fall of man and God's compassion and judgment for human disobedience. One of the young people in the room looked me in the eyes and - with a little laughter in her voice - said, "You mean God fixed the game." When asked her to clarify what she meant, she replied, "You're telling us that God created us for his glory and so that we could have new life in him and that the only way for that to happen is through Jesus?"

"Right," I said.

"Well, why didn't God just make it right from the beginning? It's like he wanted sin to happen so that he could show us how bad we are and teach us that we can't have life unless we follow Jesus. Did he send the serpent to us? I mean, did God make us fall?"

Of course, my outward reaction was to correct her and say something about "mystery" and God's "love" in general. But I have to admit that my inward thoughts turned immediately to David Bazan's song, "When We Fell" where he delivers a one-two punch of doubt and cynicism:

"When you set the table
when you chose the scales
did you write a riddle
that you knew they would fail?
Did you make them tremble
so they would tell the tale?
Did you push us when we fell?

I know at least a handful of youth pastors who heard these lyrics and cringed. One of them even said, "If we let our youth hear this, we're screwed!"

What I'm getting at is this: when Christians begin being cynical and expressing doubt, are we doing them any favors when we try to suppress these doubts and feelings? For my part, I don't think that suppressing these sorts of thoughts and feelings is very helpful at all. Indeed, it may even be unfaithful.

Douglas John Hall once said, "I am not very much worried about the reduction in numbers where Christianity ...[is] concerned. If am far more concerned about the qualitative factor: what kind of Christianity...are we talking about?"

Indeed, what are we helping to create when we teach young people and adults that faith is about the suppression of doubt? What are we doing to the minds and hearts of young people when we don't honor their cynicism and encourage them to continue to question received tradition so that they can "own" the faith that they profess? I think we're creating individuals who do not know how to express their faith in meaningful ways because they have never had to grapple with its claims on their lives. We're creating religious people. However, we are not in any measurable way creating disciples of Jesus by telling young people and adults what they must believe without making space for them to express and grapple with their unbelief.

Paul Ricoeur wrote of a "second naivete" that comes only after one has both accepted and criticized the foundations of their world view. He wrote,

[I]n every way, something has been lost, irremediably lost: immediacy of belief. But if we can no longer live the great symbolisms of the sacred in accordance with the original belief in them, we can, we modern men, aim at a second naivete in and through criticism. In short it is by interpreting that we hear again."

A man came to Jesus whose son was afflicted by an evil spirit. This spirit "often thrown him into fire or water to kill him." The man asked Jesus, "Lord, if you can do anything take pity on us and help us."

"If you can?" Jesus replied. "Anything is possible for the one who believes."

The man replied, "Lord, I believe! But please help my unbelief." (From Mark 9)

I think that our young people need us to help them question their faith - to become believing unbelievers - so that they can live into genuine faith in Jesus because such faith is not easy and it will call them to do hard things for the rest of their lives. If the people you serve all believe easily and if they all believe without question, then I would say that perhaps you need to "help" their unbelief along. For it is by not believing, for a time, that we come to believe in ways that are good, true, beautiful and - most importantly - real.

I am not saying that we ought to help young people become atheists or agnostics - to actively give them questions and doubts that they may not already have. That, I think, would be manipulative and just as unfaithful as suppressing doubt. What I am aiming it is simply the creation of imaginative space in which young people and adults can ask real questions about the truth claims of the Gospel and their practical significance - and yes, even to express doubt - without judgment or fear of disappointment on the part of their families, ministers and peers.

Lord, we believe! But help our unbelief!

Theology & the local church - too little or too much?

2010-05-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

Matt Archer is a Baptist doctoral candidate at a Catholic University and, best of all, he's my old college roommate and favorite theological conversation partner. Even better than that, he just started blogging and he's recently posted a couple of posts on "Duke / Yale theology and the local church." In a post entitled, "Can theology "fix" local churches? No," he writes,

"I've been thinking a lot lately (some here on this blog) about what theology actually does. How necessary is theology, and how does it relate to the local church?

I've noticed that many theologians and theology students influenced by "Yale theology" or "Duke theology" tend to use this language of "brokenness" regarding regular local churches. You get this picture sometimes that local church congregations in the US are being unfaithful (through being too Americanized, etc.), and that we theology-trained pastors are supposed to "fix" them. One person I know called it the theology "trickle down" theory. My divinity school spent a lot of time and energy forming and educating Pastors with the goal of sending them out to pass their formation and knowledge on to churches that needed it in a model similar to this.

I think this attitude is wrong. This kind of theology emphasizes the "Church-as-polis" aspects of the Gospel, and in doing so I think plays down the language of sin and salvation used in most congregations where Duke or Yale-influenced Ministers would work. I've struggled with this perspective in my own work with churches. When I started working at churches I felt like I should almost correct people when they talk about "getting saved" in a particular experience ("no, you've actually entered a particular cultural-linguistic system and an alternate political witness to the heretical soteriology of the state"). But I learned that the "Church-as-polis" view tends to run rough over the spiritual experiences of many Christians, and not to mention the way many local congregations read the bible. I think some of the philosophical thinking behind this brand of theology puts seminarians' understanding of theology, theology as in reflection/talking about the Gospel, at a problematic remove from people in local churches."

I think his criticism of some forms of academic theology as being "at a problematic remove" from people in local churches are right on. However, another issue that I've noticed in almost six years of ministry in local churches is that pastors / church staff members often think of theology as something which has no bearing on the work that they do in the local church.

I can't count the number of times I've heard pastors and co-workers say things like, "I'm so glad I left all that theology stuff behind when I graduated seminary" or "I don't need theology - all I need is Jesus" and other like sentiments. And I suspect that this marginalization of theology in favor of "personal spirituality" is more prevalent than the idea that theology can "fix" the church. I'm with Matt that theology can sometimes run roughshod over the experiences of ordinary Christians but I think the problem of the marginalization of theology - or at least true theological curiosity - might be more dangerous in a local context because it leads us to think that tradition, history, and orthodoxy are of little importance when compared to one's own personal experience.

Of course both positions are headed in the wrong direction. The work of the church is an intricate dance of personal / communal experience, theological reflection, worship, devotion and service and none of these things can be ignored or marginalized if we are to be faithful to the call of God in our lives - both individually and communally.

Read more of Matt's reflections here.

Liturgy & Human Disability III

2010-02-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

In many ways, I think, our understanding of what it means to be human (and by us I mean Westerners) is inherently related to an understanding of the imago dei - even if some people won't claim that relation. When we think of what it means to be human, we often turn to the idea of human capacities.

Hans Reinders, in Receiving the Gift of Friendship, reminds us that this view of humanity as related to human capacity is - unfortunately - directly connected to historical Christian conceptions of the imago dei. In other words, any Christian effort to insist that "people with profound intellectual disabilities are people just like other people" on the basis of the imago dei is bound to disappointed with what it finds.

Reinders notes that in his research on the imago dei, he found that the theological support for a capacity-oriented imago dei was broad and deep within the Christian tradition - and not only the Christian tradition.

Personally, I have great respect for people who live profoundly disabled lives. But can one even say that? Are the people living such lives the proper object of respect? Any contemporary textbook on ethics will explain to its readers that they owe respect to all human beings, because of their capacity for reason and will. These textbooks do not say this because they are contemporary; readers will find the same view in all major Western thinkers, from Kant back to Aquinas to Augustine to Aristotle, to name a few. One only need substitute "rational soul" for "human being," and one will find the proof of this claim.

Reinders, of course, wants to counter this claim that our humanity or our lives as the imago dei are necessarily related to human capacity. In working through these claims, I am more than willing to go along with Reinders - but in a different direction that he is going. I want to say that our humanity is constituted by our relation to other people and to God and, thus, that none of us are fully human unless we participate in life with others and with God. Of course, this could be a dangerous move because it could lead to the oppression of those who do not understand "right relation to God and others" in the way in which I do. This is something that I'll have to deal with. But the further claim that I am inclined to make is that "right relation with God and others" is forged primarily in the fire of gathered liturgical celebration. Therefore, I have some questions. Implied in each of these is the question of how "historic Christianity" has asked and answered these questions.

Three interrelated questions on Liturgy and Human Disability:

In what ways can liturgy shape our understanding of what it means to be human?
In what ways can liturgy serve as a means of faith formation?
In what ways can the inclusion of disabled persons in the liturgical celebration of Christian communities become mutually edifying and spiritually formative?

Liturgy & Human Disability II

2010-02-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

By what signs can a developmentally delayed person indicate readiness for the Eucharist? They are desire, relationships with people who share faith and prayer, and a sense of the sacred as manifest in behavior. Often these people cannot use words which express their understanding of the difference between ordinary bread and the Bread of God, but they can show that they recognize the difference by their manner, the expression in their eyes, their gestures, or the quality of their silence. God’s desire to be in communion with the person can be presumed; the person’s desire for communion must be awakened and sustained."

~ Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Access to Sacraments of Initiation and Reconciliation for Developmentally Delayed Persons: Pastoral Guidelines for the Archdiocese of Chicago, 9.

Liturgy & Human Disability I

2010-02-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

From an essay entitled "Toward a Spirituality of Inclusiveness" by Don E. Saliers in Human Disability and the Service of God.

Taking one of my accustomed places with others in the great curved choir of the Abbey church designed by Marcel Breuer, I noticed an inner circle of chairs with spaces between them. As we gathered, there occurred an informal procession of walkers and wheelchairs bearing members of the community, most of whom I had not met before.

Following the singing of psalms and a few brief prayers and a reading, vessels of oil were brought forward for the Abbot's prayer of blessing. As this right of anointing was about to begin, something totally unexpected occurred. Abbot Jerome (now of blessed memory) invited all of us, not just the designated deacons, to come forward and lay hands on those in the center. As the blessed oils were applied to those hands and those foreheads, the rest of us followed by touching with a simple word of blessing the whole circle of those elders. This took time. A slow adagio dance. A remarkable circle. The silence was music given pitch and tone by the human and gentle exchange of words and blessing...

In a society whose marketing engines and projected fantasies in the mass media focus on the forever youthful, the ideally attractive, the highly mobile, and the physically strong, such an experience of liturgy is profoundly countercultural. It is the opening up of what is there all the time beneath the bright glitz and glaze of these projected images of our humanity, these projected ideals. Against the oppressive iconography and mythology of the perfect body, something needs to be revealed of another way of doing, and another way of being. At one and the same time, that simple rite of prayer and anointing with oil and human hands, with the touch of faces and foreheads, was both prophetic and priestly. To use nonchurchly terms, the physical action in that assembly was both critical and generative. A critical and generative sign -- a complex of signs -- against the indignity of our noninclusive practices. Yet such a ritual is also a sign of grace and liberation simultaneously.

Mercy-Filled Mondays: Just Peace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation

2010-02-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

JustPeace - Our Attitudes Toward Conflict Matter from JustPeaceUMC on Vimeo.

From the JustPeace website:

What is JustPeace?

"JUSTPEACE, the commissioned Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation of the United Methodist Church (UMC), empowers individuals to engage conflict constructively in ways that strive for justice, reconciliation, resource preservation and restoration of community in and through the UMC, the Church universal, and the world in which we live.

What does the work of JustPeace look like?

"JustPeace brings together the theory, practice and theology of conflict transformation. The scope of JustPeace Center for Mediation and Conflict Transofrmation is to prepare and assist United Methodists with regard to:

Attitudes to conflict
Skills used before and in the midst of conflict
Processes for transforming conflicts
Ministries of reconciliation that support transformative attitudes, skills and processes.

Learn more about JustPeace here.

Just The Essentials: Building a Minimalist Youth Ministry

2010-01-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I was able to attend the National Youth Workers' Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. I was blessed by my time there but not in the way you might think. Honestly, I skipped almost all of the "big room" sessions and spent very little time in the exhibit hall. I didn't play the Christian version of rock band and I didn't sign up for one of those Christian CD clubs. I spent most of my time in a a space that was tucked away in the bowels of the convention center that was centered on helping youth ministers learn to build more prayer-centered, contemplative ministries in their churches.

I attended seminars on lectio divina, body prayer, the stations of the cross, praying with art, creative reading of scripture, creative worship, etc. and I experienced some of the most intensely intimate and meaningful moments of personal prayer and worship that I have ever experienced. In learning about these Christian practices, old and new, I began to wonder if most youth ministries simply didn't get it.

Looking around the exhibit hall and listening to most of the speakers, I got the feeling that - for most youth pastors - youth ministry is an exercise in creating a Christian alternative to almost every "secular" reality imaginable - from music to food, from video games to clothing. Even more, I began to realize that the most common ways of doing youth ministry aren't really all that good at creating obedient disciples of Christ.

What's more, youth ministries (and churches) have a bad habit of trying to do way too many things at once. Combine all these factors and, most of the time, the end result of many (if not most) youth work is a program-laden pseudo ministry of little substance run by thoroughly burned out youth ministers and volunteers.

Over the past few years, I have had the unique opportunity to serve in many different church contexts in a variety of roles and my own youth ministry experience coupled with my feelings above have me toying with the idea of cultivating a "minimalist" outlook in youth ministry. In my experience, churches and ministries are most effective when they are able to do one or two things with real passion, care and effectiveness.

In my own ministry, this is fleshed out by the fact that the primary work of our youth ministry can be summarized as follows: eat, play, read and pray.

The only "program" that exists in our youth ministry is a Sunday night meeting in which we eat, play, read and pray together. That's it. Of course, there is preparation that goes into this meeting and, of course, we "mix it up" from time to time. But, in the end, this is really what the regular youth ministry of our church looks like. But in our local setting our goals are very, very simple: eat together, play together, and creatively read scripture and pray together.

I have yet to find another way of doing youth ministry that is more effective at helping young people to grow into disciples of Jesus Christ. In many ways, I think so much of what passes for youth "ministry" in our American culture ends up simply making young people more busy than they would be if we weren't around. What's more, I think that the way youth ministry is done in our culture places very little faith in God's ability to speak to young people through prayer and through the Scriptures. In a very real way, youth ministry in our culture is quite "faith-less" because it assumes that personal and communal prayer and scripture reading isn't enough. If I can get young people to spend a few hours each week engaging creatively in individual and communal reading of scripture and prayer then I feel like I'm doing what God has called me to do.

What about evangelism? What about service? What about social justice? Of course we engage in these vital practices of the church - but only after we've eaten, played, read and prayed together. Maybe I'm naive, but I really do believe that these activities are truly the church's best hope for creating disciples of Christ who not only know what it means to be a Christian but who are willing to follow Christ with their lives.

What do you think? What's missing here? I'd love to hear from you!

Mercy Filled Monday Tuesday: United Methodist Committee on Relief

2010-01-26T17:16:00.000-08:00

Series preface: each Monday morning on this blog, I want to start the day by briefly highlighting organizations, ministries, practices, etc. that may be of interest to anyone looking to live out the Christian commitment to social justice and the works of mercy.

These may or may not be "Christian" or even "religious" organizations, ministries or practices - the goal is simply to point to ways that Christian people can work to make the world more just and peaceful. For now, the series will be called "Mercy-Filled Mondays." Enjoy!

I have been out of town on a youth trip in West Virginia over the past couple of days so I was unable to post this profile until today (Tuesday). Sorry about that!

Today I want to briefly profile the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), which recently lost two of its most senior leaders in the Haitian earth quake: Rev. Sam Dixon and Rev. Clinton Rabb.

UMCOR is the non-profit global humanitarian aid organization of the United Methodist Church. In this capacity, UMCOR works with United Methodist and ecumenical groups worldwide to provide relief in the areas of emergency response, health, refugee and immigration issues, world hunger and poverty, providing relief supplies and through the work of its 13 field offices in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Not only is the work of UMCOR extensive but it is also trustworthy. UMCOR has received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator and an A+ rating from the American Institute for Philanthropy. You can donate to UMCOR's work in Haiti and to its work throughout the world by visiting this page. And, rest assured, your donation really does go to help people throughout the world because of UMCOR's 100% efficiency promise: Every dollar you give to UMCOR goes to the program you designate. UMCOR is 100% efficient. "The One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) offering allows us to make—and to keep—this promise. OGHS funds the cost of doing business for UMCOR. We do not receive apportionment funds or any other world service funds."

So, if you're wondering how you can help in the relief efforts in Haiti and in other communities throughout the world, consider giving to the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Today @ Sojourners: An Evangelical Missionary’s Honest Perspective on Pat Robertson’s Haiti Remarks

2010-01-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

This is a fantastic article (IMHO) not just about Robertson and responses to him but also about the significant differences between Western liberal Christianity and African Christianity and the possibility of the religious roots of poverty. Here's an excerpt:

Western liberal academia might scoff at the idea that idolatry leads to poverty, but for millions of African Christians, the dots were connected a long time ago. They themselves are fighting against sorcery and witchcraft in their spiritual warfare conferences—without the prodding of Western missionaries. And for good reason. Witchcraft is a poor moral base to build a prosperous society. When people are afraid to succeed in their jobs or businesses because they fear their neighbor will place a deadly curse on them, that’s bad news for the economy. Most African Christian leaders recognize this. This is why when Western media and religious elites treat witchcraft/voodooism as a harmless practice that may or may not be compatible with Christianity, what they’re really doing is trivializing the beliefs of millions of African Christians—a sort of paternalism in reverse if you will.

Mercy-Filled Mondays: The Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, NC

2010-01-18T04:40:00.000-08:00

Series preface: each Monday morning on this blog, I want to start the day by briefly highlighting organizations, ministries, practices, etc. that may be of interest to anyone looking to live out the Christian commitment to social justice and the works of mercy. These may or may not be "Christian" or even "religious" organizations, ministries or practices - the goal is simply to point to ways that Christian people can work to make the world more just and peaceful. For now, the series will be called "Mercy-Filled Mondays." Enjoy!

Our goal is to create a beloved community and

this will require a qualitative change in our souls

as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC is committed to "fostering and modeling a spirit of community based on Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of a "Beloved Community." Through their work, the center seeks to "envision and work toward social and economic relations that affirm and realize the equality, dignity, worth and potential of every person." The center accomplishes these aims through the efforts of eight "working groups." If you are interested in learning more about the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC, click the image below.

Pro Ecclesia's symposium on Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity

2010-01-16T08:36:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of Pro Ecclesia features a lengthy "book symposium" on Dr. Steven Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision. Dr. Harmon was my theology professor during my first year of seminary before I left Campbell Divinity School to spend a year at Duke Divinity School before returning to Campbell to finish my M.Div. Harmon has since moved to Alabama to teach at Beeson Divinity School where he continues to be a creative and essential voice for the rethinking of what it means to be Baptist (and protestant / evangelical) in light of the "Great Tradition" of the church catholic.

Thankfully, Campbell's library has an extensive collection of such journals, including Pro Ecclessia. I look forward to interacting with the five essays in the book symposium:

"Explosive Devices and Rhetorical Strategies: Appreciation for Steven R. Harmon's Towards Baptist Catholicity" by Richard Crane of Messiah College
"Traditions, Authorities, and the Individual Christian" by Nicholas M. Healy of St. John's University in New York
"Remembering How to Remember: Harmon's Subversive Orthodoxy" by Elizabeth Newman of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, VA
"Towards a Baptist (and Roman Catholic) Catholicity" by Maureen O'Connell of Fordham University in New York City
"Why Baptist Catholicity, and by What Authority?" by Steven R. Harmon himself

I am particularly excited about Harmon's essay because the question, "by what authority," is one that I've been asking of this conversation ever since I was introduced to Harmon and other "Bapto-Catholics." I think it's an incredibly important question and I look forward to hearing and interacting with Harmon's thoughts on a possible way forward in addressing this issue of authority among Baptists.

I just finished reading Dr. Richard Crane's essay. One paragraph toward the end summarizes pretty clearly why the need for clarity on the issue of authority for Baptists is so important. Crane writes,

The most intransigent obstacle to Baptist catholicity is the "quasi-Gnostic" soteriological imagination deeply entrenched in Baptist and evangelical circles. Baptists typically construe "salvation" as a private encounter between the individual soul and God, the "content" of which is the rectification of the individual's juridical relationship with God. The visible community of Christians, the sacraments, the acts of service are seen as secondary, merely external expressions of the "real" inward, spiritual reality where the individual has unmediated access to God. The church is seen as desirable as an aid to individual spiritual growth, but dispensable for salvation.

These "quasi-Gnostic" tendencies are not, unfortunately, confined to Baptist or even evangelical Christianity. I have noticed similar tendencies (markedly so) in my ministry work among all sorts of "mainline," supposedly more "sacramental" communities. The simple presence of the descriptor "sacrament" or "sacramental" within the life and work of the church in its worship and fellowship, it seems, is not sufficient to engender a truly holy communion among the members of a local body which sees the life of the church as both sacramental and sacrament. The question remains, in what ways and by what authority can Baptist (and other "free church" / evangelical) communities claim to somehow be in continuity with the traditions of catholic Christianity when faced with the challenges of gnostic individualism?

Does Hierarchy / Leadership Always Lead to Clericalism?

2010-01-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

Frank Tupper has some wonderful thoughts on clericalism and the necessity of a "functioning" laity (via Tripp Fuller @ Homebrewed Christianity). I'd love for some of you to watch this video and then respond to some of my questions / thoughts below.

"Clericalism, intended or not, will kill the church. The primary role of the clergy in the New Testament is to enable the ordinary person in the life of the church [sic] to do the work of the church for which they are uniquely gifted. Equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. If that is our primary role as clergy and teachers of clergy, we have failed."

Though Tupper is very clear about what he means by "clericalism," I'd be curious to know how his understanding dovetails with various understandings of "clericalism" now circulating throughout the web (i.e. do house churchers who speak of clericalism mean the same thing as Frank Tupper or Rosemary Radford Reuther, for example).

I've seen the term "clericalism" used and have my own preconceptions about its meaning and pitfalls but I am so far unclear regarding what most people mean when they use the term. Tupper, at least, makes clear that clericalism represents the lack of participation of the so-called "laity" in the life of the church. Clericalism as I understand it is the prevention of "every member functioning" of the body of Christ. For others, like my friend Mike Morrell, clericalism appears to refer to any sort of hierarchical form of leadership in the church whatsoever (hence the title of his post quoting Reuther is Ministry Without Hierarchy).

I personally like Catholic blogger Mark Shea's definition of clericalism:

"Clericalism is basically the bad idea that only the ordained and religious are fully Catholic and that laypeople are more or less second-class. With that idea comes a host of other bad ideas, such as "Father is always right," "Never disagree if a bishop does it," and "Don't question anything a priest or bishop does."

Coming from my "free church" background, you'd think I would appreciate more than anyone a church system without formal hierarchy. However, in my work in various denominational settings, I've discovered that "clericalism" as Tupper defines it (i.e. the preclusion of the active priesthood of all believers) can occur in most any setting - even in house churches and neo-monastic communities - when a person or group of people elevate themselves above others. This, as I noted in a comment on Mike's post, is from my perspective primarily a moral and spiritual problem for clergy and not necessarily intrinsic in the structure itself.

I say all of this because I'm curious to know what others of you think. I have friends, colleagues and classmates from various denominational backgrounds so I hope we can have some varied and fruitful discussion around the following question: Is clericalism intrinsic to certain church structures or is it, as I stated, more a moral / spiritual problem which the clergy must overcome in order to be effective in their particular calling in ministry? Stated differently, does a church structure that makes a distinction between clergy and laity necessarily lead to clericalism?

Mercy-Filled Mondays: Cool People Care!

2010-01-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

Series preface: each Monday morning at MethoBaptist reflections, I want to start the day by briefly highlighting organizations, ministries, practices, etc. that may be of interest to anyone looking to live out the Christian commitment to social justice and the works of mercy. These may or may not be "Christian" or even "religious" organizations, ministries or practices - the goal is just to point to ways that Christian people can work to make the world more just and peaceful. For now, the series will be called "Mercy-Filled Mondays." Enjoy!

Has anyone heard about the organization called "Cool People Care"? In today's world, it can be quite difficult to instill in people - religious or otherwise - the need to care about people or issues outside of their own, narrow view of the world. Organizations such as "Cool People Care" are an excellent way to help people engage in global problems and find sustainable solutions! Cool People Care's is out to accomplish one thing:

"To save the world! We believe that the world's biggest problems weren't created overnight, and they won't be solved that way either. So we've got to get to work - fast! That's why we help people live a more caring lifestyle, producing ideas and merchandise that inspire and educate anyone to make the small and significant decisions that will have a positive impact on the world. Everyone at Cool People Care works to motivate and empower others to do his or her part to make the world a better place."

Do you care? I do and that makes me cool because Cool People Care.

All About Cool People Care from Sam Davidson on Vimeo.

Life Expectancy and Healthcare Spending

2010-01-04T17:57:00.000-08:00

A scatterplot done by Andrew Gelman plotting life expectancy and healthcare spending (HT @ Dr. Richard Beck).

I would be curious to know which of the countries with the highest life-expectancies and lowest cost also have so-called "socialized medicine." I wouldn't be surprised to see a correlation. Maybe I'll look into it.

The Poverty and Justice Bible

2009-12-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

The American Bible Society in conjunction with World Vision has recently released a new version of the Bible: The Poverty and Justice Bible. This version, much like the Green Bible, highlights verses of about injustice, poverty and oppression and provides a 56-page guide for personal and group study. It covers many topics including homelessness, healthcare, literacy, immigration and abuse. It can be purchased for $19.99 from Bibles.com.

I am honestly not sure what to think about all of the "niche bibles" that have been released as of late. Certainly, I'm more inclined to get excited about the Green Bible or even the Poverty and Justice Bible than about the American Patriot Bible. Honestly, I do question the need for yet another version of the Bible which caters to the inherent laziness and lack of commitment to a holistic understanding of the Scriptures that exists within our pseudo-Christian subculture. You would think that a careful reading of the Bible would produce an understanding that Christians are called to work for peace and seek justice. Of course, it is evident that this is not the case - I guess I just lucked out and had folks who were willing and able to instill in me a Christian concern for poverty and injustice.

Because of that laziness, the Poverty and Justice Bible is a new edition that I can really get behind. I do wonder, however, whether this Bible will appeal to those who deeply need to hear the message to be found in the highlighted verses or - as with most products of this type - it will simply be gobbled up by those who resonate with what it's trying to do. I don't know anyone, for example, who bought the Green Bible that wasn't already passionate about environmental stewardship. So I do wonder how much of an impact the Poverty and Justice Bible will have outside of circles that are already concerned with those issues.

That being said, the fact that the ABS & World Vision have teamed up in this endeavor may endear this new edition to those who might not otherwise be inclined to give a second thought to the important issues that the Poverty and Justice Bible seeks to address. Still, I cannot shake my inclination that this is simply another example of our Christian subculture's ability and propensity to take advantage of our consumerist tendencies. Then again, the Red Campaign did the same thing and, unless Bono ended up pocketing all that money, it may have harnessed our greed and self-centered thinking to serve the greater good. Nevertheless, I am skeptical about how much good this Bible can accomplish.

See samples of the Poverty and Justice Bible here and then check back to let me know what you think. If you're a blogger, you also have an opportunity to win a copy of this Bible for yourself. Check it out here.

(HT: @DJ Chuang).

Kierkegaard: The Bible Will Ruin Your Life

2009-11-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you?

Source: Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, ed. Charles Moore

Chri$tma$ Cheer - Embodying the Incarnation During the Holiday Season

2009-11-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Advent is on the way. How will you spend your time before Christmas?

We all know how it goes. Thanksgiving rolls around and the stress begins. We've got to decorate the house, buy office gifts, buy family gifts, buy ourselves some gifts. Far too often we go through so much trouble and endure so much stress just trying to "get through" the Christmas season - never really celebrating as we should. But what if we just decided to do things differently?

This year, my wife and I decided that we're just not going to buy into the buying frenzy. Instead, we're going to cook for our friends, spend time with our families, and give stuff away. The purpose, of course, isn't to make us feel better about ourselves. The purpose of these apparently drastic measures is to remind ourselves of what it is that we celebrate when we celebrate Christmas - the incarnation of Christ, the joining of God with humanity.

The incarnation of Christ as a poor and helpless child in less-than-ideal social circumstances as well as his life of poverty and obedience to God reminds us of several important lessons of which we ought to be mindful as the "holiday season" approaches.

How much stuff you have is no indicator of God's love for you - so stop hanging your identity on what kind of car you drive or how big your house is. These things are not the source of God's love for you - nor are they evidence of God's favor or blessing. Christ is the only measure of God's love and the true evidence of God's favor and blessing.
God does care about how much stuff you have. However, if the New Testament is really our example of faithful living, it quickly becomes clear that God desires that we should have less stuff, not more. Every year, as wealthy Christians throughout the world celebrate the coming of Christ by buying more stuff, thousands of our brothers and sisters starve, freeze and die on the streets; prisoners spend the holidays alone; and many of the sick and elderly have no one to visit them. If you want to celebrate the birth of Christ, give your time and your stuff to the poor; spend time with the homeless; visit the sick and imprisoned; show your love for friends and family by being with them rather than buying stuff for them.

So what will you do this Christmas? Will you buy another CD or deliver a home-cooked Christmas meal to a widow in your neighborhood. Will you spend lots of money entertaining and impressing friends and acquaintances or will you visit someone in prison? Will you purchase more stuff that nobody needs or will you be a witness to the coming of Christ into this world by spending your time with the poor and the lonely?

We all have a choice to make. We can buy into the false Gospel which tells us that our calling is to have more and better stuff than our neighbor. We can please ourselves as we ignore the poor, the sick and the alone. Or maybe, just maybe, we can be a witness to the God whose love knows no bounds, whose grace comes to all - regardless of what we have or don't have, and whose kingdom is embodied in small, revolutionary acts of kindness. The choice is yours. For more resources on how to step out of the vicious cycle this Christmas, visit the folks at Advent Conspiracy and Buy Nothing Christmas.

Grace & peace, A.T.

NC Baptist Convention Severs 20-Year Partnership with the Baptist Center for Ethics

2009-11-18T04:37:00.000-08:00

I just read the following news from a new blog by Laura Barclay - a graduate of Wake Forest's Divinity School and the Ministry Support Manager at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina. According to Executive Director, Robert Parham, the Baptist Center for Ethics has been inexplicably removed from the budget of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, severing a nearly 20-year partnership. According to Parham, no reason was given and no prior communication preceded the ending of fellowship between NC Baptists and the BCE.

Although the lack of communication is inexcusable, the decision shouldn't come as a surprise to those who have been paying attention to the actions of the Baptist State convention which continues to become more and more aligned with the extreme right's political agenda. One has to wonder whether some notable contributors to the BCE website and journal such as Jim Royston and Steve Sumerel were aware of plans to sever the partnership.

At any rate, the severing of financial ties with NC Baptists leaves with BCE with a nearly $30,000 annual budget gap. Funding becomes especially problematic as the NC Baptist State convention has, by severing these ties, effectively banned NC Baptist State convention member churches from giving financially to the Baptist Center for Ethics through the SBC Budget.

The article ends with a plea for thoughtful Baptists in North Carolina to move beyond the increasingly "partisan" environment that has inculcated the NC Baptist State Convention by supporting the Baptist Center for Ethics. I join him in his plea and post his words below:

A new challenge now faces the theologically thoughtful and morally centrist North Carolinians, who belong to churches no longer allowed to support BCE through the BSC budget.

Traditional Baptists in SBC-affiliated churches must decide if they want to be bound in organizations retreating from the 21st century. They must determine if they want to fund organizations which are aligned with Birthers, Tea-Baggers, Disney-boycotters, anti-public school advocates and preachers who think women ought to only be homemakers. That's who the SBC leadership is. And that's what BSC wants to become.

While thoughtful and centrist church members weigh their decision to stay hardwired to the fringe of culture and theology, these good Baptists need to know in concrete terms what BSC's decision means financially for BCE.

Churches through the state convention provided financial support to BCE of $28,369 in 2004, $26,840 in 2005, $26,031 in 2006, $27,001 in 2007, $23,567 in 2008 and $14,879 through September of this year.

We hope goodwill North Carolina Baptist individuals and churches will decide to make up our loss of funding.

If you read this editorial, then we hope you help us make up this defunding. To make a secure, online contribution, click here. If you prefer to write a check, mailing directions are on this same page.

We also hope you will consider getting BCE in your church budget or supporting BCE through the mission resource plan of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina.

We have a clear moral perspective and a transparent one. We disclose our vantage point every day on EthicsDaily.com, through our documentaries and in our online curriculum units. We frame issues from a centrist Baptist position that is rooted in the biblical witness, seeks to interpret and apply the teachings of Jesus, honors the best of the goodwill Baptist tradition, knows that the headquarters of the Baptist faith is the local church and hopes that we both inform and equip church members. We don't speak for Baptists; we do speak to Baptists and other people of faith.

We hope you will speak up for BCE.

The Baptist Center for Ethics was founded in 1991 with the purpose of challenging people of faith to advance the common good - not some narrow, partisan agenda. Their mission is an important one and I hope that you will consider giving to the BCE using the secure links in the article excerpt. Thanks to Laura for raising this issue on her blog.

[Photo credit: Baptist Center for Ethics]

How to know God's will for your life...seriously!

2009-11-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

Thomas at Everyday Liturgy gives two "rock solid" ways to know God's will for your life. But, as you can see, this is not the "prayer-of-Jabez" nonsense you're likely to hear from lots of folks when asked about "God's will."

"People like to talk a lot about how to discern God's will for your life. What to eat? to wear? to buy? to drive? to crave? to do? to be?

People spend time and money contemplating these things endlessly.

If that is you, your toil is over. Because I know two rock solid ways to know God's will for your life.

1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

2) Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
Those are the two ways you know God's will for your life. If you seek to do these things, you are doing God's will.

The same goes for our churches. Any church accomplishes God's will if always before them is loving the Lord, loving their neighbor, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God. Churches try to discern ways, means, programs, buildings, radio ads, TV dramas, and complicated committees to try and do God's will. But it is right there before us. Let's just go do it."
I give that a big Baptist Amen!

Tony Campolo - Christianity has two emphases

2009-11-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

“I think that Christianity has two emphases...One is a social emphasis to impart the values of the kingdom of God in society --- to relieve the sufferings of the poor, to stand up for the oppressed, to be a voice for those who have no voice. The other emphasis is to bring people into a personal, transforming relationship with Christ, where they feel the joy and the love of God in their lives.”

~ Tony Campolo

Walt Whitman - the Churches of Women and Men

2009-11-05T12:06:00.000-08:00

"There will soon be no more priests. Their work is done. They may wait awhile…perhaps a generation or two…dropping off by degrees. A superior breed shall take their place…. A new order shall arise, and they shall be the priests of man, and every man shall be his own priest. The churches built under their umbrage shall be the churches of men and women. Through the divinity of themselves shall the kosmos and the new breed of poets be interpreters of men and women and of all events and things. They shall find their inspiration in real objects today, symptoms of the past and future…. They shall not deign to defend immortality or God, or the perfection of things, or liberty, or the exquisite beauty and reality of the soul."

(H/T: Inward/Outward)

Free Churches and Climate Change in the West

2009-11-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

Free Church representatives in the UK have urged EU politicians to take concrete action to fight climate change at the upcoming EU summit in Strasbourg.

The Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church have urged the European Union to agree carbon cuts of at least 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and for these cuts to be made within the EU without extensive use of offsets.

Check out the rest of this article @ Ekklesia.co.uk.

At least among Baptists in N. America, ecological concerns have not typically received much attention in the church. Oddly enough, the most decisive stance on climate change issued by a Baptist denominational body has come from the more conservative Southern Baptist Convention with Southern Baptist Environment Climate Change Initiative which was endorsed by a number of prominent SBC leaders. Given the state of the world economy, the fate of such denominational initiatives (not to mention NGO's and nonprofits) working to combat climate change appears grave.

However, such times also serve to remind us not just of our economic responsibilities but also of our responsibilities to the planet. In the Ekklesia.co.uk article, the Rev. John Marsh, moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church, noted that

Climate change is not only an urgent environmental issue, but a justice issue - as those least responsible for global warming are paying the highest price for our irresponsible lifestyles in the West...[W]e call on our political leaders to demonstrate the moral courage and leadership now urgently needed to address this gross injustice. We see the consequences of climate change with increasing frequency, and as Free Church leaders, we express our solidarity with our suffering brothers and sisters in countries who have suffered the latest convulsions of the earth - in the Philippines, Sumatra, Samoa and American Samoa. We offer fervent prayer for their comfort and sustenance amidst the desolation of their grief and loss."

I heard a story once - and would love to see it in writing - that, when asked what the Christian response to the events of September 11th ought to be, Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon responded with a call to send 1,000 missionaries to Iraq. Free Church Christians - and Baptist in particular - have a reputation for being involved in recovery efforts throughout the world in the wake of national disasters. When I hear denominational leaders today speak about solidarity, I wonder if such language represents a misguided (albeit sincere) desire to "raise awareness" without the burden of concrete social action to bring about change. Progressive Christian leaders in the West, it seems, are far more likely to "call on our leaders" to do something about global crises and yet we cannot be relied upon for concrete action to address these "justice issues." It seems the Catholics aren't the only ones with a crisis of vocation. Where are the "missionaries" who will put their faith into action rather than just simply "calling on" the government to do all the work for us.

Chechnya's Crisis of Conscience

2009-11-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

A Recent NPR story has detailed the radical blurring of Mosque / State division in Chechnya. I have provided a summary of some of the recent measures taken by Chechen officials below but I encourage you to read the entire article at NPR.org.

According to NPR, in an effort to "undercut Muslim extremists" local Chechen officials are spending lots of time, money and effort in the construction of mosques and the promotion of Sufi Islam as the only acceptable form of Islamic practice. This is all despite Russian laws which mandate religious freedom and the church/state separation.

In addition to laws mandating the teaching of Sufi Islam in schools, other measures have been taken to ensure that this particular form of Islam reigns supreme:

Television stations must show programs "celebrating Chechnya's Islamic identity while condemning the so-called foreign Muslim trends, which...undermine the state."
Artists performing in Chechnya must tailor the performances to fit strict guidelines that are said to promote "Chechen mentality and upbringing."

Things apparently used to be much more open and the 15 to 20 million Muslims in Russia have typically been afforded much freedom of worship and practice as long as they do not openly oppose the state. Thus, at least on paper, the new rash of changes in Chechnya are a new and disturbing development for proponents of religious freedom everywhere.

The view from my front porch

2009-10-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm vacationing at my parents' home in Waynesville, NC this week. This is the view that met me when I walked onto their front porch.

Is Technology Changing Who We Are?

2009-09-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

With the advent of social media and so many new forms of electronic communication and information sharing so many of us are potentially able to talk to people from all over the world with the push of a button. Lots of people have talked about how this is changing the ways that we think, how we relate to one another (or not), and how churches are doing the "business" of communicating and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the world. But today I'm pondering a different sort of question. I'm asking, "What significance do these changes have for the kind of people we are - and are becoming?"

I am, of course, assuming that electronic media are not wholly value neutral. There are "value statements" and even "faith statements" implicit in the creation of technologies - like Twitter and Facebook, for example. Regardless of whether the creators / facilitators of these new forms of technology explicitly stated it, the existence and sustained success of tools like Facebook and Twitter either assume or imply that quick electronic communication is a "good" or even "necessary" aspect of what it means to be human. I'm not sure if this implication comes from the creators, the technology itself or - and this is why I'm writing this post - from those people who use and enjoy these tools and subsequently discover that they cannot function long without them.

The same, it seems, is true of Christians who become accustomed to particular ways of organizing their day-to-day lives of faith. For example, as a Christian who is used to praying using "fixed-hour prayer" at least twice a day, to go without such prayer for a day feels odd. Or take the example of Christians who are accustomed to worshiping using "praise bands" and video projectors. To attend the small, traditional Episcopal congregation in which I began my vocational ministry would be quite a shock for someone who'd never known church that wasn't entertaining and visually (over)stimulating.

The reason I'm thinking about these things is that, as a youth minister, I must say that I am quite deeply troubled when I look around a room filled with twenty or so young people with their faces glued to their cell phone screens sending text messages to people sitting right next to them. Or how about the night I told them that youth group would consist of a time of quiet reflection and prayer? Five kids' parents literally said that they were too afraid to leave their kids (at church) without their cell phones so they took them home rather than allow them to experience prayer, silence, stillness and listening for God's voice. My wife, who is a youth minister at another church, once told me that the first time she told one of her students that he couldn't use his cell phone at a church camp, he had a panic attack that took about 20 minutes to subside. Is this troubling to anyone else?

Electronic communication is changing, I think, not only the way that we communicate with other people but also what we're afraid of. More people today, it seems, are afraid of being alone, being quiet and being still. What's more, we are far more willing to shell out hundreds of dollars a month on cell phones, home internet, and television, upwards of $500.00 on the latest technologically advanced cell phones, and thousands more on the most up-to-date computers and software packages yet so few of us are willing to spend an additional $45.00 a month to help feed, clothe and educate a child in need. I'm not sure if all these advances in the ways that we communicate have changed our ontology but I do believe that we have become far too dependent on them and that - far too often - these things take up space in our lives better suited for silence, prayer, and real conversations and communion with others and with God.

Of course, there is a bit of duplicity involved in writing a blog post about these things (a post about which I'll soon post a twitter message that will also update my Facebook profile). I guess what concerns me most is that our communication has changed to the point that what we do daily revolves so much around ourselves and not around what's happening in the world outside of our own isolation. It's about the right use (and, more importantly, pausing from the use) of technology and how overuse and addiction can affect who we are - and maybe what we're capable of becoming. Does anybody else feel this way?

Wind and Weather

2009-09-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

I rarely win anything. But recently I was a fifth-place winner in the Englewood Review of Books' "back to school" contest. I won two books by the agrarian horticulturalist, botanist, & poet, Liberty Hyde Bailey. Victory, indeed, is sweet!

If you haven't paid the folks at the ERB a visit, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. Check out their website here.

And now enjoy the poem (which is also the title of one of the books I won) Wind and Weather:

Passengers on the cosmic sea

We know not whence or whither,

'Tis happiness enough to be

Complete with wind and weather.

~ Liberty Hyde Bailey

Our Conflicting Allegiances: Christian Faithfulness in American Politics

2009-09-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

C. Wes Daniels at Gathering in Light has posted some great thoughts on Christian political engagement in the seemingly dire political milieu in which we find ourselves. Christians, he says, often divide along party lines but to be a Christian is to distinct from any of the two "reigning" parties. We are - by our baptism, confession and our lives - members of the Kingdom of God and it is to this party that we owe all our allegiance. Here's what Wes has to say: "I gladly do not identify with either the left or right because for me to be a Christian is to pledge allegiance to only one political party, Christ’s kingdom."

Christians who identify with what Wes and others are saying are bound to find themselves out of step with the dominant political "discourse" (if we can really call it such). I, like Wes, often find it hard to hope that our political climate in American can ever become anything other than the power-grubbing circus that it has become. I'm reminded here of what Rod Dreher wrote in his article Zombie Conservatism:

A leading Republican congressman recently chirped that things are looking up for the GOP because of people's fear. Another Republican lawmaker indicated distaste for school-speech demagogy but explained that one must understand that Washington is in the middle of a nasty health care fight.

Which means what, exactly? That winning is the only thing, and to hell with the good of the country, civil society and the possibility of intelligent debate about serious matters? Watching the school-speech insanity blow up on the right, a friend who has been deeply involved for decades at the top of Republican politics, e-mailed to say that she was done. The conservative movement is hurtling off a cliff – and she was bailing out.

Despite what Sam Tanenhaus says, conservatism is not dead. Rather, it's undead. The conservative movement is herking and jerking like a zombie, dedicated to little more than frenetic gestures execrating Obama, and to regaining power. To what end? Given that they're birthing a conservative party whose instincts are dictated by loudmouths, reactionaries and crackpots, and overseen by cynics, it's dispiriting to contemplate.

Of course this is not just a problem that conservatives are having. Democrats, too, are all too eager to give up their scruples, moral bearing and integrity to win power and influence people to support their narrow political agenda. Anyone who's been around for any time at all shouldn't be surprised that politicians are going to lie, cheat and constantly fail to live up to the lofty promises they make when trying to win elections.

What concerns me the most about our current political morass is the way in which Christians on "both sides" of the aisle and evangelicals in particular still have not learned that Christianity does not equal allegiance to one of the two party options our political system offers. Christianity is, itself, a politic and we are called to submit to Christ and to a cruciform way of life. Christianity does involve a particular allegiance but Christian leaders are often so thoroughly beholden to dominant political ideologies that they forget the world-transforming, counter-cultural mission of Jesus.

The church is itself a politic that answers to God, to Jesus’ ethics, rather than the king’s. We are to embody love of enemy, we are to do good to those who abuse us, we are to welcome the “alien” among us, and we are to give daily bread to those praying for it. Therefore, whether or not we live in a country that votes, has soldiers “protecting those freedoms!” or has leaders who believe the proper religious dogmas (often at the expense of actually living those dogmas) is all beside the point. Yes, I (typically) vote and help where I can within the established political system. I live in a country that (still) allows for disagreement and participation (though those on the fringes of the Right seem to favor less difference of opinion, maybe even difference of conviction, with growing fervor even in a free country such as ours), and the outcomes are still (for the most part) not predetermined. But I am not required to do this as a Christian, it is not our duty to transform the world by the means of the world. My duty is to love without measure and pray with my life that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, even if (or when) it costs me everything. As Christians, or people seeking to practice daily the Sermon on the Mount, I cannot see how this would ever be done with violence, lies, greed, exploitation and other under-the-table charades.

If Christianity has such a character as Wes has offered (and I believe strongly that it does), what does it mean for Christians to practice politics with integrity? What is involved in faithful (and public) witness if we are to be people who are clear and honest about our true allegiance to the Kingdom? Paraphrasing the words of Isaiah, what does it mean for Christians to seek the peace and prosperity of the city - to participate in the political world in which we live - while still being obedient to the reign of God? Certainly, as Wes has pointed out, it will involve a commitment to nonviolence, to truth-telling, to generosity and to overwhelming love.

But a nagging question remains: Given the shear loudness and incivility of these conflicting ideologies how can faithful Christians speak through the cacophony of competing allegiances to recover our true allegiance to the cruciform life of God's Kingdom?

What if the iMonk is Right - Finding Hope in the Coming Evangelical Collapse

2009-06-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

“I sit in church every Sunday morning…for a full hour…and I feel nothing. I get nothing. I experience nothing. You say you wonder why some parents don’t bring their children to youth group, don’t make them come to Sunday school and seem not to care that their children aren’t involved with church. I say you should just look around. Nobody really cares about this stuff. Most people come because it looks good...People are leaving because God’s Spirit is leading them to the one place where they’re sure to hear God speak – private devotion, friendship and family. I’ve taught Sunday School for ten years and I’ve never seen things this bad…this empty.” (From a recent conversation with an anonymous Sunday School teacher)

A few months ago, Michael Spencer, A.K.A. the internet Monk, wrote an important and heavily blogged about piece about the impending collapse of evangelicalism in the West (particularly America). The full-text can be found here. The iMonk chronicles six main reasons why he thinks evangelicalism is on a quick descent into possible non-existence:

Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism

Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people the evangelical Christian faith in an orthodox form that can take root and survive the secular onslaught

Evangelical churches have now passed into a three part chapter: 1) mega-churches that are consumer driven, 2) churches that are dying and 3) new churches that whose future is dependent on a large number of factors.

Despite some very successful developments in the last 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can hold the line in the rising tide of secularism.

The deterioration and collapse of the evangelical core will eventually weaken the missional-compassionate work of the evangelical movement

Much of this collapse will come in areas of the country where evangelicals imagine themselves strong...At the core of this collapse will be the inability to pass on, to our children, a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

I’ve had plenty of time to think about the iMonk’s assertions and so, although I’m incredibly late to the game, I’ve got a few thoughts of my own derived – in part – from my experience over the past six years in youth ministry in “mainline churches.” Granted, six years isn’t an eternity in ministry but I do think it’s long enough to notice some important cultural shifts.

In my experience, mainline churches - even in the South - don't conceive of themselves as "evangelicals." Despite this phraseological discrepancy, I think the Mainline churches must be included in the iMonk's assessment. Among the most prominent factors is the growing dissatisfaction with the top-down hierarchical nature of most of the mainline denominations. I think people - baby boomers and their children - are beginning to figure out the institutional church's big secret: that the clergy class is just as clueless as the rest of us.

For all our theological education, our "leadership skills" and our cultural engagement, pastors and other ministry workers are increasingly unable to provide compelling reasons why others should live engaged lives of Christian faith.

Case in point - a local church in my area is planning a revival. The publically stated purpose: to bring the "un-churched" back into the church." Ministry leaders are increasingly out of touch with the reality that, by and large, Western culture stepped outside the doors of the church about 30 years ago and most of them simply aren't looking back. Language of “churched” and “unchurched” either sounds foreign, silly or creepy to most folks to whom it refers.

The reality is this: I work in a "traditional" mainline church and I love what I do. I pray that God will continue to work in all of the forms of church as we continue to move into the future and work for the coming of the Kingdom of God. In spite of my work and my hope, however, I have the distinct feeling that I'm riding a big wave on a sinking ship. I believe that there's a future for intentional and communal Christian formation in the 21st century and beyond. I am highly skeptical, however, of the ability of any institutional form of Christianity to truly "be" that sort of community.

In the past, I have been critical of folks like Frank Viola for criticizing and speaking out against practices of institutional churches which have no basis in scripture. The main reason I think I've been critical, however, is that the logical conclusions of such assertions leave me without a job.

I wonder how many others are in similar situations: seeing so much that's wrong with the church but failing to speak out in order to survive. How long can ministers continue to reap the benefits of "working for the Lord" while at the same time stubbornly hardening our hearts to what God can do perfectly well without our help?

What options are there for a class of people - the "minister" class - whose major skill sets are "preaching and visiting?" I'm reminded of a lecture that Wendell Berry delivered during my year at Duke Divinity School in which he more or less said that most pastors today are useless outside the safe walls of what we so arrogantly call "Church." Pastors, he said, ought to learn a trade so that they can actually make a meaningful contribution to their communities.

I think he's right. At the very least, those who minister in today's institutional churches ought to start looking outside the church for sources of income. The current situation of the church is unsustainable. I, of course, am writing this as one who benefits from this unsustainable system. And, of course, I am more than willing to admit that I don’t have all the answers. What I’ve got is a wife and a son that I love more than my own life so I’m willing to make some compromises so that we can pay our bills. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love working in youth ministry at my current church. But I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable with deriving all of my livelihood from money that could just as easily go to start a community garden or provide food for the homeless or any number of other forms of community development.

I find hope in the emerging / emergent conversation at the same time that some (including, sometimes, myself) are also disappointed with its (lack of) direction. I don't have a lot of answers but I believe there's hope for the church. I just pray that people will begin to see the potential beauty in this mess we call church.

Leonardo Boff - "God the Family"

2009-06-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

"The ultimate principle of the world and of history is not a solitary being...but God the Family - God-Communion. From all eternity, Yahweh is a bond of loving relations, an unfathomable Mystery - the unoriginated Origin of all - called "Father." This Mother and Father emerges from the depths of divine mystery in an act of self-communication and self-revelation within the Godhead itself, and this emergence is the second person of God: "God the Son." Now Parent and Child - "Father and Son" - join in an embrace of love and in so doing express and give origin to the Holy Spirit, who is the Oneness of the first and second persons. This Trinity has not remained enclosed but has communicated itself, making human life its temple. The Trinity dwells in our history, divinizing each of us" (Quoted in Stanley Grenz, Rediscovering the Triune God, p. 120).

Paul Fiddes on Living the Trinity

2009-05-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Given my recent interest in the Trinitarian shape of the church - as provoked by Ian Mobsby's book, The Becoming of G-d, I was thrilled to run across these passages by Paul Fiddes on participating in the life of God:

We dwell and dance in triune spaces. The room that God makes for us within God’s own self is not a widening of the gap between individual subjects, but the opening up of intervals within the interweaving movements of giving and receiving...

...The comprehensiveness of Christ as incarnate wisdom consists therefore in his relationship as Son to Father. This relationship in which Christ participates within the communion of God’s life comprehends the infinite aspects of all relations of giving and receiving in God. The filial relationship of this particular human son [Christ] to God exactly corresponds to the movement of relationship within God which is like that between a son and a father; thus, in Christ, human sonship is the same as divine sonship not only in function but in being, since relations in God are more being-full than anything else. This means that the pattern of son-to-father relationship made visible in the life, death and resurrection of Christ becomes the key to our own participation in God. It is this flow of relationship upon which we are dependent and must engage in the complex and inexhaustible communion of God’s life...

Enough by Will Samson - an Ooze Viral Bloggers Review

2009-05-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

So adjusting to life with a new baby has been amazing but - as you might imagine - a little hectic as well. Thus my blogging has been sporadic over the past three months (heck, even longer than that). Into the frenzy of work, school and family, Will Samson's book, Enough has brought me a new perspective on the faith that grounds everything I do.

Samson was brought up in "Bible church" culture, attended Liberty University and eventually began working on politics - citing Francis Schaeffer and William F. Buckley as heroes and guiding forces in his political engagement. He left politics when the conservatives launched their "contract with America" in 1994, believing that "we had won" (25). At the time he thought that "morality" had come home to reign over America for good.

Any student of history knows that things were - and continue to be - quite a bit messier in the political realm. Political life in the United States was and is by no means monilithically "moral." What's more, over time Samson's perspective on faith, Scripture, politics and culture has - in the intervening years - undergone a radical shift. Enough is the fruit of those years of hard thought about the reality of greed, consumerism, morality and culture in "the West" in general and America in particular.

I simply loved this book! In Enough Samson adeptly engages and challenges the notions of individualism and consumerism that have turned biblical Christianity into a parody of the life that God has called us to. The Trinitarian life of God is a life of community, of love, of sufficiency and abundance - a life of love. But if one were to look into the lives of Christians in America, however (not to mention America in general), what would that person observe? It seems fairly obvious these days - with the economy going crazy and people worrying about it constantly - that life in America is mostly a life of stuff. We worry about how to get it, how to pay for it, what to do with it when we have it, how to get more of it and how to get rid of it when it has served its purpose. We are a people, in short, who are consumed with stuff.

In 2003 nearly 50 percent of American household expenditures were for "nonnecessity" items. Compare this to the 21 percent of nonnecessity spending in 1901 and 35 percent of nonnecessity spending in 1960. We are spending more than ever as a nation on items we don't need, but we sure do want. In 2004, American consumers spend $2.2 trillion on entertainment, and $782 billion of that on televisions, radios and sound equipment. In 2005 we spent $86 billion on sporting goods, including $852 million on snowmobiles and $338 million on archery equipment. (Archery equipment? Really? Who saw that coming?) Every year we spend more and more on products and services created by our "growing" economy.

Of course the rebuttal might be made, "But we're making more money these days." Samson addresses that by noting that the same repot "even when we increase our income, we still spend more than we have. This is not just a problem that can be solved by tweaking our systems. Something deep within our souls longs for more stuff" (34).

Samson goes on later to note that part of our problem is that we've got a messed up understanding of of freedom. "We now have a historic level of choice over what to buy, what to believe, and how to act. But has this made us more moral or more whole" (38)? People in America often concieve of freedom as the simple liberty to choose what we buy, believe and do. The upiquity of "choice" has led us to be a people incapable of making up our minds. This is a problem of a fully embodied Christianity because, as Samson puts it so well (referencing Charles Finney),

"The end result of this multitude of choices is that we tend to pick the simplest one. This is what [Charles] Finney realized...rather than call people to live in eucharistic community, a call that would require a great deal of sacrifice, Finney invited [people] to walk down the aisle and 'ask Jesus into their hearts.' All that was required was a simple accedence to the most basic part of the gospel.

This has significant implications for our theology here in America. I fear that Jesus has been transformed from the God who radically and incarnationally engages with the world, to the God who was around long enough to perform the divine transaction of our salvation. 'God became flesh and dwelt among us,' and yet most of us have given no thought to the lessons we might learn from the life of Christ, including those lessons that relate to our questions of sufficiency and contentment" (59).

The issues of sufficiency of contentment, for Samson, is the hinge on which a large part of this book rests. We in America no longer believe that God is sufficient for our needs so we stockpile all this stuff - in the end, all this junk - because we no longer have faith that God can sustain us. So many of our practices - from the way we dispose of our trash to the way we get around from place to place each day - are lived in such a way that shows that we believe we are the only ones who matter.

Samson believes that life in the way of Christ not only requires but makes possible new perspectives and practices regarding consumption, waste, sufficiency, goodness, morality - all of it! The point, however, is that this new life - this way of God - is not possible for the individual. The final few chapters of Enough point to practices of community that enable us to both see and experience this way of life that sees God as the provider and sustainer of life, that moves us away from mindless and seemingly endless consumption and that helps us to recognize the need for sustainable practices that enable us to see that a new way of being human is possible when we live "eucharistically."

To live "eucharistically" means to live into the story that is different (and better) thant he story of constant consumption. "Our communities should tell a story of Christ in the Eucharist, a story that there is no longer Jew nor Greek, homeless nor homeowner, addicted nor clean, broken nor whole. Rather we are all broken, blessed, and offered to a world in need" (97). Eucharistic living is a life of abundance, wholeness, true fulfillment and true sacrifice in which we are constantly offering ourselves to our friends and our enemies in order to draw others into the transforming presence of Christ. Practices that Samson mentions that help us engage and enter such a life are those of meal sharing, supporting local and alternative economies, reducing our reliance on motor vehicles and others that point prophetically to the new life available in Christ - a life which is often talked about but rarely tried. Enough is a wonderful and charitable book. I hope many Christians will read it and use Samsons suggestions to begin living into the life to which Christ calls us.

Grace & peace,

A.T.

Everything is Amazing and Nobody's Happy

2009-05-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

Please watch and enjoy this (somewhat old) exercise in truthtelling from Late Night with Conan O'Brien:

Peter Rollins denies the resurrection...and so do I

2009-02-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

A recent quote from Pete Rollins' blog :

"Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me well could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think...

"I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm the resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed."

I don't know about you, but I deny the resurrection far more than I affirm it. Mental assent is in this light clearly insufficient for true discipleship.

Advent Conspiracy

2008-12-10T05:27:00.000-08:00

If your family is like my family then you're not yet completely prepared for Christmas. We've just gotten our tree up last week and we're cleaning the house to prepare for a Christmas potluck this Friday night. AND, we've only gotten gifts for a couple of close family and friends. Life with exams, work and a baby on the way is quite hectic and into the fray of these joyous and stressful life events steps Advent Conspiracy:

This Christmas, Lydia and are trying to make a conscious effort to buy less and spend more time with friends. We've always made our Christmas cards and have always tried to spend small amounts on Christmas presents but we're still tempted to fall into the delusion that Christmas is about the stuff we give each other and our family and friends. Lydia's sister saw the video above and is asking that nobody buy her presents for Christmas - Lydia and I have decided to ask the same thing. We've got all the stuff we'll ever need and what we really need are our friends and our families. So, check out Advent conspiracy and check out Tripp Fuller & Chad Crawford's latest homebrewed Christianity podcast where you can find an interview with Robby Seay (founder of Advent conspiracy.

Grace & peace,

A.T.

@ Mike King - THANKS A LOT!

2008-11-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

So, Lydia and I had the first of our "every two weeks" baby doctor visits today and we had some time to kill after the appointment was over. So, after hearing our baby's heartbeat and watching Lydia get a flu shot, I naturally wanted to stop by my local Cokesbury store and browse the youth minitry resources section. Little did I know that this particular visit was going to ruin my life as I know it...

I picked up Mike King's book, Presence Centered Youth Ministry and was immediately drawn in when I read endorsements by what is essentially a "who's who" of youth ministry workers today. Tony Jones says that this book is "Truly setting the course for a new day in youth ministry." And Kenda Creasy Dean (author of The God Bearing Life) writes, "If brother Lawrence had been a youth pastor, this book would have been his favorite resource." To say that I'm eager to finish this book is a profound understatement.

But my excitement about this book is founded on a newly discovered fact about myself. Fact: I love youth ministry!! I've been working with young people in the church - in various capacities and among people of various traditions - for going on five years and I must be honest, I've always been one of those people who is only doing youth ministry until I can get to "the big show." If you're involved in youth ministry, you know exactly what I mean.

I have been one of those youth ministers who works with young people - not because I'm passionate about it - but because I have viewed it as a springboard to "bigger and better" things. Friends who know me well would probably attest to this. I've always thought that I'd "do" youth ministry until I could pastor a church or earn a doctorate and teach in a university or seminary. But these days, I'm beginning to view youth ministry more as a calling as opposed to simply one "career option" among many.

Given my renewed openness to the possibility that God might be calling me to ministry among young people - long term - I was thrilled to read the opening paragraph of Mike King's new book where he says, "I am past my thirtieth tear of youth ministry. Sixty percent of my life has been devoted to it (p.15)." A year ago, if I was confronted with King's words, I would have probably thought something like, "whatever, dude, you can waste your time playing games and eating pizza with kids - I'm called to do real ministry." These days, I'm rethinking all of that.

These days, I constantly find myself looking back on the ministry I've done with young people and I'm beginning to realize that - although my heart has not always been in the right place - I have genuinely enjoyed and continue to cherish the relationships that I've formed with the few young people whose lives I'm grateful to have been a part of. Of course I've made mistakes (quite a few, actually). But when I reminisce about my years so far in youth ministry, I am thankful for those moments when I've seen young people begin to genuinely seek after God - not just through the programs or games I've come up with but through a deep-seeded longing after communion with God. This is a communion that comes not as a result of my work and my plans but as a result of the Holy Spirit's working through - and maybe in spite of - my efforts to call young people to a life of Christian discipleship.

Mike King's words so far have helped me to embrace the possibility - without conditions or preconceptions - that God might be calling me to a life that is spent in ministry to and with young people. He writes, "As youth workers, we must be passionate pursuers of God and invite youth to come with us on this journey (p.12)." I don't know about anyone else, but lately I can think of few things more exciting than living a life recklessly abandoned to God's calling and I can imagine no other work more challenging and rewarding than inviting young people to come on that journey with me. All of this is to say that a couple of months ago, if someone had asked me what I thought my life would look like in ten years, I would have said that I hope to be teaching in a university or pastoring a church. But now - thanks, in part, to Mike King's new book, I think from now on my answer will be, "I don't know, but I hope I'm doing youth ministry." I mentioned earlier that my visit to Cokesbury "ruined" my life. What I mean, of course, is that my life - until God calls me otherwise - will from now on be spent in the immensely challenging, yet infinitely rewarding work of ministry with young poeple. And thanks are due, in part, to Mike King's new book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation.

Working with young people is often thankless and stressful. It appears to be constantly frustrating and disappointing. But when you've witnessed what God can do in the life of a young man or woman to call them to live lives of radical obedience to Christ, you will begin to wonder, "Is God calling me to this?" For the sake of the future of the church, I certainly hope that - if you've ever felt a nudge toward ministry at all - you'll read Mike King's book and ask yourself that question. And if God is indeed calling you, I hope your answer will be "Amen."

ZIzioulas from Being as Communion

2008-11-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Enjoy the following tasty quote:

“The question that preoccupied the Fathers was not to know if God existed or not – the existence of God was a “given” for nearly all men of this period, Christians or pagans. The question which tormented entire generations was rather: how he existed. And such a question had direct consequences as much for the Church as for man, since both were considered “images of God.”

“To answer the question about the being of God, during the patristic period, was not easy. The greatest difficulty stemmed from ancient Greek ontology which was fundamentally monistic: the being of the world and the being of God formed, for the ancient Greeks, an unbreakable unity. That linked together the being of God and the being of the world, while biblical faith proclaimed God to be absolutely free with regard to the world. The Platonic conception of the creator God did not satisfy the Fathers of the Church, and this, precisely because the doctrine of creation from pre-existing matter limited divine freedom. So it was necessary to find an ontology that avoided the monistic Greek philosophy as much as the “gulf” between God and the world taught by the Gnostic systems – the other great danger of this period. The creation of this ontology was perhaps the greatest philosophical achievement of patristic thought.”

I love Zizioulas. The end.

Ed Cyzewski - Coffeehouse Theology

2008-10-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

I've just wrapped up my initial reading of Ed Cyzewski's newest book, Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life and I've found it to be a worthwhile read. So worthwhile, in fact, that I had to make myself put it down in order to do required reading for some of my seminary classes!

One of my goals in life is to earn a doctoral degree and teach theology in a university or a seminary (a tall order, I know - we'll see how things turn out). Although I'm still in the early stages of preparation for such a vocation, I must say that if I were currently teaching an introductory course in theological method - i.e. how to do theology today - this book would be required reading for the class. It represents, in my view, a personal and well-argued account of how one might go about doing contextual theology in today's postmodern world.

If you're like me - a young student of theology who's still got loads of questions about how to formulate a theology that makes sense in today's world - then you'll be refreshed when you read this book. And - if I've read him correctly - I believe Cyzewski would say that all Christians need to be about the business of formulating such a theology. Such work must be biblically oriented with an ear to tradition and working constantly to hear from and be corrected by the voice of the global Christian community. Because, as Cyzewski writes, "the truth is, whether we acknoweldge it or not, we constantly deal with the influences of culture on theology." Because this is true, we need these sources to work out who we (the church) are in relation to the world.

But none of these sources are to be thought of as impersonal references so we can get our facts right. If I have followed Cyzewski closely, I understand him - throughout this book and in various ways - to be saying that Contextual Christian Theology must be done in the church. In other words, Contextual theology is a communal discipline of the church and it would be a mistake to approach any of the main sources - scripture, tradition and the global church - as though they were encyclopedias of right teaching to provide proper thought points for our litmus tests for doctrine. No! In today's world, to think of the work of doing theology as forming a litmus test would be counterintuitive to the living out of the mission of God in the Christian community. Consider - in this light - Cyzewski's own words regarding the "web of theology" he has tried to paint in this book:

"Doing theology in the postmodern context challenges us to read Scripture with an awareness of how our culture influences who we are and how we see the world, while daloguing with Christians from history and around the world. This process involeves reading Scripture and then rereading Scripture in light of what our traditions and global believers teach us. While it sounds like a formula, contextual theology really only involvesa commitment to reading Scripture while learning from Christians who have different perspectives (p. 207)."

I have always tried to cultivate - wherever I happen to be - an ecumenical perspective both within myself and in anyone who will listen. Ed Cyzewski's Coffeehouse Theology has done - in my view - begins that conversation again for our generation. Sure, there are points in this book with which I would disagree (such as Cyzewski's reliance on what I've begun to call "the primacy of the postmodern" in thinking about theology and culture today) but - on the whole - this is a delightful book which I recommend to anyone who's interested in doing "theology on the ground."

For more information about Ed, check out his personal and theology blogs. And for further insight about this book, check out Ed's introduction to the book @ the Ooze and his recent post @ Emergent Village.com. Also be looking tomorrow for DJ Chuang 's contribution to the blog tour (which, if his other blogging is any indication, is likely to be excellent!) and check out the roster of upcoming stops (as well as those who came before mine) by looking at the Blog Tour Schedule. I'd like to thank Ed for allowing me to contribute to the tour and I look forward to reading this book again!! Feel free to voice your questions and comments.

Grace & peace,
A.T.