Archive - January, 2008

Berdyaev on Vocation and Creativeness

January 31, 2008 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

The Gospel constantly speaks of the fruit which the seed must bring forth if it falls on good soil and of talents given to man which must be returned with profit. Under cover of parable Christ refers in these words to man’s creative activity, to his creative vocation. Burying one’s talents in the ground, i.e. absence of creativeness, is condemned by Christ. The whole of St. Paul’s teaching about various gifts is concerned with man’s creative vocation. The gifts are from God and they indicate that man is intended to do creative work. These gifts are various, and everyone is called to creative service in accordance with the special gift bestowed upon him. It is therefore a mistake to assert, as people often do, that the Holy Writ contains no reference to creativeness. It does–but we must be able to read it, we must guess what God wants and expects of man.  Creativeness is always a growth, an addition, the making of something new that had not existed in the world before. The problem of creativeness is the problem as to whether something completely new is really possible. Creativeness from it’s very meaning is bringing forth out of nothing. Nothing becomes something, non-being becomes being….

God calls man to perform the creative act and realize his vocation, and He is expecting an answer to His call….

It is a process of interaction between grace and freedom, between forces going from God to man and from man to God….

Nicolas Berdyaev in The Destiny of Man (pp. 127-128)

Female Drinkers in College, Wikipedia Ban, and Professor-Student Relationships…

January 30, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

These stories are courtesy of Ivy Jungle’s Campus Ministry Update for January 2008.

  • Female Drinkers: A recent report in the journal, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research confirms that male college students consistently out drink their female counterparts, with one exception: parties with themes, especially sexual themes or costume parties. Those who play drinking games also drink more than those who do not. The report has special interest to researchers on alcohol consumption as it is not based on self-reporting but researcher observation at more than 60 off-campus college parties. (Inside Higher Education January 4, 2008)
  • Wikipedia Ban: Professors continue to ban Wikipedia as a research tool, citing too many incorrect entries. Designed as a user generated and edited encyclopedia, anyone can contribute to or change a Wikipedia entry. One professor at the University of Brighton has gone even further, banning the use of Google. Calling it “white bread for the mind,” she objects to the easy answers to complex questions with little sorting of shallow ideas from serious referenced work. She states, “Google is filling, but does not necessarily offer nutritional content.” (Inside Higher Education January 14, 2008)
  • Professor – Student Relationships: UCLA is one of a number schools which have restricted or banned relationships between professors and students with whom they have – or may have direct supervision. However, Dr. Paul Abrahmson, a married psychology professor at UCLA has drawn criticism for saying that as places of liberty, universities ought not restrict the behavior of consenting adults. He suggests students and faculty sign waivers, similar to a medical release that would warn of the dangers of power difference and favoritism in such relationships and not hold the university responsible for failed romances. Critics point to limits on dating in many work situations and believe the restrictions are important to protect students who may feel victims of harassment if and when a relationship ends. (Chicago Tribune, January 4, 2008 p. 5)

Thoughts:

  1. Is it surprising then that it seems like every fraternity on campus is constantly hosting costume parties with sexual themes (i.e. toga parties, “pimps and ho’s party”, sexy Halloween costumes, etc.)? This is for another post, but when alcohol consumption is up, well, usually sexual activity is as well in college. It’s also no surprise that many of the situations that we have had to counsel women in college about over the years were about the experiences at parties such as these where they drank too much and things got out of control. I think that’s why I’m sad, and generally grieved when I see some of the photos that pop up on Facebook with my students, especially the female students who look like they have drank too much, and guys are mobbed around them. Enough said.
  2. I love Wikipedia, but I think it should not be used as a serious research tool, cited in studies….but, it is a great launching pad to head in the right direction; to find good resources; and to get some easy, general information. I use it everyday.
  3. Glad to see that the school I work with is debating professor-student relationships. I’m surprised that it’s a psychology professor standing up for them. Yeah, not really. Seems to play into every movie stereotype about psychologists, especially in campus settings.

I Can’t Listen To Another Sermon!

January 28, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

I believe that the time of long lectures, when someone spoke for an hour and the audience was condemned to sit and listen to whatever they were given, is…perhaps over–not just for me but for everyone. What we need in theology and in the church is–Oh, I don’t want to use that wretched word again–”conversations”. What I mean is simply that we should talk together and try to arrive at answers together, instead of someone trying to present something to other people as though the Holy Spirit has dictated it to him in person.

I posted that quote by Karl Barth back in August of 2006 when I was really wrestling over the topic of preaching. And I’m still wrestling over this topic.

You can see some of my thoughts on this topic below:

But it just seems like I can hardly sit through a sermon these days. This is probably more a statement of my own heart and disposition right now than it is anything about a sermon. But maybe also, I’m just tired of the way we have been preaching sermons for years and years. My students are probably pretty sick of the way that I go about preaching sermons as well, that’s why I have been wrestling over the topic for years.

But what you have is a vicious cycle that continually reinforces itself. You have the tradition of the typical expository sermon, presented in three steps or points, coupled with the expectation from the audience to hear that same method of presentation. But while this cycle continues, I often get the sense, and often hear the conversation, that both the preacher and the congregation are wanting something different. We just don’t know how to get out of the cycle. Or maybe we do, but we just don’t have the courage to try something different, take some risks, fail at some things. So what you have instead, is people literally bored out of their minds every Sunday while someone up front speaks at them in a very non-engaging style. And what you probably have as well is speakers and pastors up front bored out of their minds as well.

As I mentioned before, my former student, Brian Kiley, who is now a college pastor, has been posting some fascinating stuff on the topic of preaching. Read his posts Am I a Speacher? and Implication vs. Application. In these posts, Brian is reflecting on Doug Pagitt’s book, Preaching Re-Imagined.

Drew Sams is trying to figure this out as well, as he is in the midst of a blogging series on the use of story in youth ministry.

I’m obviously a firm believer in preaching….I’m just wondering if we need to change some of our methods. I know I need to. So let me leave you with another quote from Barth about the power of preaching.

This is why the movement of the Word as preaching was so crucial to his interpretation of the Word as threefold event. By the logic of his doctrine of the Word, it was only as Christian preaching that the Word remains ongoing. The Word becomes present as preaching in the same way that the Holy Spirit makes God present to us. That is, just as the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Word as preaching proceeds from revelation and scripture. Barth’s point was not that the revelatory and scriptural forms of the Word cannot be made present. Rather, just as the Father and Son are made present only through the movement of the Spirit, the Word as revelation and scripture are made present “in, with, and under” preaching and only through preaching.

By “preaching” Barth meant more than Sunday sermonizing or even the general ministerial work of pastors. Preaching included all forms of genuine Christian witness, including, “whatever we all ‘preach’ to ourselves in the quiet or our own rooms.” It included even the work of theologians, insofar as they understood and practiced theology in a ministry of the Word of God and therefore a form of preaching, he argued. (The Barthian Revolt in Modern Theology: Theology Without Weapons, pp.78)

I would love to hear your thoughts on preaching? What do you think? Is it just me, or are you feeling the same thing?

A great new blog from a former college student

January 24, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

Brian Kiley, who was a former student in our college ministry, and is currently a student at Fuller, has a great new blog. Live Generously.

I especially love his latest post on “speaching.” Check it out.

Brian, I’m wrestling with this right now…and have been for a while. Looking forward to hearing more.

Quick Hits

January 23, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

Martin Luther King Jr. and Fixing the Road to Jericho

January 20, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day I want to leave you with an excerpt from one of his speeches. I was reminded of this part of his speech by Shane Claiborne when he spoke at our staff chapel this last Tuesday. I started thinking about the importance of how we not only help people, but how we address the systemic issues that keep people trapped in certain patterns of helplessness, etc.

Shane mentioned King’s idea of “fixing the road to Jericho”, which it seems can be attributed to a conversation between King and Ambassador Andrew Young.

Ambassador Andrew Young, my personal hero and mentor, the global spokesman for Operation HOPE, and the first lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recounted a conversation that he and Dr. King had on this very topic. Dr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King had just returned from Israel, and predictably people began talking about the Good Samaritan and the Jericho Road, and associating this image with Dr. King. Dr. King told Andrew Young then, “….Andy, I think the Good Samaritan is a great individual. I of course, like and respect the Good Samaritan….but I don’t want to be a Good Samaritan.” Dr. King continued, “…you see Andy, I am tired of picking up people along the Jericho Road. I am tired of seeing people battered and bruised and bloody, injured and jumped on, along the Jericho Roads of life. This road is dangerous. I don’t want to pick up anyone else, along this Jericho Road; I want to fix… the Jericho Road. I want to pave the Jericho Road, add street lights to the Jericho Road; make the Jericho Road safe (for passage) by everybody….”

Here is the part of the I’ve Been to the Mountain Top speech, delievered April 3, 1968 (King was assassinated the next day):

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus, and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base….

Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn’t stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother.

Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn’t stop. At times we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn’t be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that “One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony.” And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem — or down to Jericho, rather to organize a “Jericho Road Improvement Association.” That’s a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect.

But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles — or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you’re about 2200 feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked — the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

Heading Into the Weekend

January 18, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

I usually don’t like to blog on the weekend, and I usually start feeling that way by Friday. So as I get close to shutting it down for a couple of days, here are some things to check out. I’ll keep it short and simple…so if you are looking for a really exceptional roundup of the week, and not my lazy attempt at it, check out Brent Thomas’ blog, Colossians Three Sixteen every Friday.

  • If you are looking for a good book to read, check out Leadership Network’s Book Blog, where I have been blogging a little over two months. It’s a great place to see what other church leaders are reading and recommending.
  • Check out the new Youth Ministry blog, Collection of Crumbs, where I, two Jr. High Directors, and a High School Director try to think theologically about youth ministry. Drew has a great series going on regarding “The Power of Story in Youth Ministry.”
  • Benjamin Myers has some theology highlights of 2007.
  • Cynthia Ware of the blog Digital Sanctuary always has great stuff on technology and church/ministry. I’m learning a lot at this site.

Shane Claiborne, Four Models of the Emerging Church and the Ability to See With Fresh Eyes

January 16, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 11 Comments

Last night our college ministry partnered with our Middle School, High School and Young Adult Departments in hosting a night with Shane Claiborne called, “Have Less, Live More.” It was the culmination of six months of collaborative study and teaching on the Minor Prophets between our departments and we brought Shane out to embody some of the messages we see in the Minor Prophets regarding poverty, wealth, social justice, community, truth, love, et cetera. I thought Shane was amazing and we were quite spoiled by having him speak at our morning staff chapel, enjoying lunch with him and then seeing him speak last night. I have a lot of things going through my head and I’m trying to process all of them. But the one message that resonated with me was:

  • How can I be a different kind of (fill in the blank)? Doctor, lawyer, teacher, pastor, counselor, engineer, parent, et cetera.

As Shane shared stories of people who have chosen to be different kinds of doctors, lawyers and engineers I was thinking to myself how can I be a different kind of college pastor/a different kind of marriage and family therapist? It seems like a simple question, and it is. But the reality is, is that we are often so busy and too consumed with ourselves that we rarely take time to think differently. He told the story of a robotics engineer who instead of just pursuing that work to it’s own end and making lots of money, he has chosen to build robots to disassemble land mines in foreign countries that often take the lives of children. He talked about a Harvard lawyer who decided to move to the South and represent those on death row who are often without money or the right resources. He talked about a massage therapist who decided that instead of just having a practice where she charges $100 to give people with money massages, she goes into the inner city, washes the feet of the poor and gives them foot massages. That is being a different kind of (fill in the blank).

I also have been thinking a lot about Shane and where he fits into Evangelicalism, Christianity, et cetera, mainly because he attracts a wide variety of people from various denominations as well as various strains of Christianity, both Catholicism and Protestantism. His message has really resonated with me and my students this last year as well. So that’s why I was intrigued this week to read the post Four Models of Emerging Churches by Wess Daniels. Wess describes the four models (emerging churches and their thinkers/practitioners) as:

  • Deconstructionist Model (Peter Rollins, Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, etc)
  • Pre-modern/Augustinian Model (John Milbank, James K. Smith, etc)
  • Emerging Peace Church Model or/Open Anabaptism (Shane Claiborne, Rob Bell, etc)
  • Foundationalist Model (Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Erwin McManus, etc)

If you know me, or read this blog, you know that I talk a lot about the emerging church, and that I’m very drawn to many, many aspects of it. But I was intrigued by Wess’ critique because I never thought myself as placed in the “Emerging Peace Church Model”, though the people Wess characterizes as a part of that model I am very drawn to. This last March we hosted Rob Bell on his Sex God Tour, last night was Shane Claiborne as you know and two years ago we hosted, a night with Donald Miller. Though Wess doesn’t characterize Don as falling into one of the models, I wonder where he does fit. I think he might fit into the “Emerging Peace Church Model” as well, and I don’t think it’s a surprise that Miller recently preached at Bell’s church.

So to bring it all back together I’m asking myself the questions:

  • Is there a connection between my attraction to the emergent church, and the ability to be a “different” kind of pastor/counselor/father/husband/friend, et cetera?
  • Is the emerging church the one strain of Christianity (at least right now) that allows for some rethinking, that allows others to see things with fresh eyes?
  • Does mainstream evangelicalism or mainline denominationalism prohibit or restrict those within it from seeing things anew because of the inability to break free from certain traditions, rules, polity, etc?

Just thinking out loud…..

If you are drawn to the emerging church, what do you think of the four models and where do you see yourself?

Formal charges against another church over same-sex blessing…

January 13, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 4 Comments

Bel Air Presbyterian Church files a formal complaint over same-sex blessing ceremony

I’m very curious what you think about this issue. I think how this issue is talked about or addressed within the church (Bel Air Presbyterian Church), is very different than how it is perceived outside of it.

I have been in constant conversations recently with those involved in young adult ministry and under (i.e., college, high school, jr. high, etc.) And for those we minister to this issue seems to garner several responses.

Here is what I/we hear:

  • People have an opinion about it, and they may be for or against same-sex blessings/marriages, etc. But they don’t feel it is worth fighting.
  • Or, they may not agree with same-sex blessings/marriages, but they don’t believe bringing up formal charges is a good pastoral response. Or not the Biblical thing to do.
  • Then there are those who think this is a non-issue. “Why are we talking about this?” type response.
  • Then there are those who say, draw the line in the sand and fight this. They see this as the slippery slope and it’s time to take a stand.
  • And everything in between.

I don’t know if this issue would play out differently in another part of the country than Los Angeles. It’s too early to say.

Where do you stand on this very heated issue?

(Full Disclosure: I’m not ordained PCUSA, and just this week withdrew my name from the ordination process after being in it for several years. So there are issues that I don’t completely understand, that those of you ordained PCUSA would understand as far as the ordination vows and bringing up formal charges against another church, etc. And most of you know, but Bel Air Presbyterian Church is the church where I work).

I will keep you updated on how this all plays out…

Here is the full LA Times article:

Same Sex Blessing

In an unusual action, one Los Angeles-area Presbyterian church has filed a formal complaint against another, trying to stop a same-sex blessing ceremony scheduled for Sunday.

The “stay of action” requested by Bel Air Presbyterian against Brentwood Presbyterian was denied by a church judicial commission, and the blessing will proceed, leaders of both said.

“We’re not trying to make an ecclesiastical statement,” the Rev. Charles Svendsen, interim pastor of Brentwood Presbyterian, said of the planned ceremony for the Rev. Lisa Bove and Renna Killen. “We’re doing this to extend pastoral care to two people who have been part of our faith community for many years.”

Bove, an ordained Presbyterian pastor now employed as a medical social worker, and Killen, a bone marrow transplant nurse, have been attending Brentwood Presbyterian almost eight years, Svendsen said. They asked the church to hold the ceremony to celebrate their 10-year relationship and their family, which includes 9- and 6-year-old daughters who take part in the church’s programs.

The service for more than 200 guests was planned partly with the girls in mind, Bove said. “To them, it’s an important symbol of the church blessing our relationship and our family,” she said.

Presbyterians, along with members of other denominations including Episcopalians and Lutherans, are deeply divided over issues related to homosexuality and biblical authority, including same-sex blessings and the role of gay clergy. Under current Presbyterian guidelines, same-sex weddings are prohibited, but blessings are permitted in certain circumstances.

The Rev. Mark Brewer, pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian, said that despite a long friendship with Svendsen, he and other leaders of his congregation felt obliged to file the complaint, even though the ceremony is not a wedding. “Our feeling was that the service was so close to a wedding that not to file would be compromising our understanding of Scripture,” Brewer said.

“It’s like calling a cop on a neighbor you’re good friends with,” Brewer conceded. “But because of our friendship, we also felt we could do this without a lot of acrimony. It’s not personal. It’s a theological thing.”

Brewer, who said there were no plans to disrupt the ceremony, added that a decision had not yet been made about whether to appeal the judicial commission’s ruling.

Bove said she and Killen were happy the ceremony could proceed, but saddened by Bel Air Presbyterian’s action. “It’s devastating to think that someone wanted to stop us from having this in our own church,” she said.

Kindle and the Continued Emergence of Online Collaboration

January 9, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

In the previous post, What Buying, Collecting and Amassing Large Libraries of Books May Say About Us, I reflected a little on Amazon’s new wireless reading device, Kindle. A couple of the questions that I raised were:

  • Will a movement towards electronic reading promote more collaborative writing efforts? How will this effect new theological thinking and publication? And what will this do in terms of authorship and ownership?
  • What will be the future of publishing as we know it now?

Concerning these questions, I was most intrigued by this following passage in the article:

In a connected book, the rabbit hole is no longer a one-way transmission from author to reader. For better or for worse, there’s company coming.

Talk to people who have thought about the future of books and there’s a phrase you hear again and again. Readers will read in public. Writers will write in public. Readers, of course, are already enjoying a more prominent role in the literary community, taking star turns in blogs, online forums and Amazon reviews. This will only increase in the era of connected reading devices. “Book clubs could meet inside of a book,” says Bob Stein, a pioneer of digital media who now heads the Institute for the Future of the Book, a foundation-funded organization based in his Brooklyn, N.Y., town house. Eventually, the idea goes, the community becomes part of the process itself.

Stein sees larger implications for authors—some of them sobering for traditionalists. “Here’s what I don’t know,” he says. “What happens to the idea of a writer going off to a quiet place, ingesting information and synthesizing that into 300 pages of content that’s uniquely his?” His implication is that that intricate process may go the way of the leather bookmark, as the notion of author as authoritarian figure gives way to a Web 2.0 wisdom-of-the-crowds process. “The idea of authorship will change and become more of a process than a product,” says Ben Vershbow, associate director of the institute.

This is already happening on the Web. Instead of retreating to a cork-lined room to do their work, authors like Chris Anderson, John Battelle (“The Search”) and NYU professor Mitchell Stephens (a book about religious belief, in progress) have written their books with the benefit of feedback and contributions from a community centered on their blogs.

“The possibility of interaction will redefine authorship,” says Peter Brantley, executive director of the Digital Library Federation, an association of libraries and institutions. Unlike some writing-in-public advocates, he doesn’t spare the novelists. “Michael Chabon will have to rethink how he writes for this medium,” he says. Brantley envisions wiki-style collaborations where the author, instead of being the sole authority, is a “superuser,” the lead wolf of a creative pack. (Though it’s hard to believe that lone storytellers won’t always be toiling away in some Starbucks with the Wi-Fi turned off, emerging afterward with a narrative masterpiece.)

Fascinating stuff…..

I have been blogging for about four and half years and during that time I have had the opportunity to collaborate more online with others than was previously possible. Now I’m only a click away from collaborating on articles and some book ideas with those around me, and with Facebook, blogs, wikis and more the possibilities are endless.

I still enjoy going away alone to a quiet place or sitting in a coffee shop as I write, but the possibilities of collaborating with others (reading, writing, commenting, bookmarking) through some wireless reading device such as Kindle is so exciting.

This is an area that I have just recently begun to seriously think about, so I’m going to point you in the direction of some others who have been doing this already, and who have some more astute thoughts on some of these issues than I.

Check out Open Source Theology which is a site that encourages a collaborative effort in the development of an emerging theology for the emerging church. Not to be confused with emergent village.

Read Neal Locke’s Challenge to Emergent Authors

As for me. I’m currently exploring a collaborative writing project with four others through the use of a wiki. If anyone has any wikis they love using, let me know.
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