I've been reading NT Wright's "Suprised by Hope" and my mind is repeatedly being blow over and over again...
I'm in the section right now that's talking about heaven, purgatory, and hell... well I read it yesterday but I'm still just now processing... and I just wanted to share one quick thought.
Wright describes sin as the destruction of the image of God in you, which can be done by a number of different practices. He then goes on to describe the Christian's work as the restoration of the image of God in us, and reflecting it in all of creation.
SO rather than the classic 1990s fad WWJD, what we need to ask ourselves, really we can ask of every thought and action we do... WTETIOGIM?
Will This Enhance The Image Of God In Me?
It seems to me that all moral decisions, all matters of spiritual formation, really any decisions, can be based on this, or a corollary... something like
Will this damage the image of God in me?
Will this enhance/damage the image of God in someone else?
thoughts?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
like a new toy...
I had a kind of new thought (new to me, anyway) on the plane last week and it's taken me a while to hash it out... kind of like breaking in a new pair of sneakers or learning to use a new toy. anyway, this is a quick post to try on some ideas, see how they fit. Let me know if you think they look tacky, or clash with my pants or something.
(sorry... we're in seattle with sarah's parents, who have cable, so I've been watching a lot of shows like "what not to wear"... I now remember why we don't have cable... anyway...)
It seems that for years, people have been overstepping their roles as people; we've been putting ourselves in God's place since the very begining. Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Moses, and right down through the ages. God says "don't eat it" we say "God really just meant we shouldn't eat it right?" God gives us a few broad commandments, we turn it into a jillion specific laws. God sends God's son, we go nutso with rites and rituals and bureaucracy.
I feel like the latest manifestation of this tendancy can been seen in places like aplogetics --places where Christians are trying to convince others of something.
Conviction, I believe, is God's job. Not ours. We can talk people to death, and do, quite often, but if God doesn't work on their heart, it's meaningless. In the same sense someone who's never heard a single evangelistic word can be "strangely warmed" and come into relationship with Jesus Christ in a transforming way.
So if our job is not to convict, what is it?
I think our job as the church is to encourage and hold accountable one another.
THAT DOES NOT MEAN saying things like "what you're doing is wrong by my standards."
I think it looks more like saying "have you really worked that out with God? You really think God is OK with that?" and then, just maybe, being willing to live with the fact that yes, I've worked out my salvation with fear and trembling and no, it does not include some of your sacred moral standards.
What that takes is trust, in two ways. One, it takes trust in others to be honest about their relationship with God and to admit to the things God is convicting them of.
It also takes trust in God to be God. WE CANNOT CONTINUE to be the Church and live as if there IS NO GOD. If there is a God, and God is real, then GOD should be the one changing peoples hearts, convicting them of their sin, shaping their belief. NOT YOU.
OK. end rant. let me know what you think. A little too close to Christian relativism? Maybe. Letting us as leaders off the hook? Yeah, I'd see that, a little. Using scripture out of context? likely. Sorry.
(sorry... we're in seattle with sarah's parents, who have cable, so I've been watching a lot of shows like "what not to wear"... I now remember why we don't have cable... anyway...)
It seems that for years, people have been overstepping their roles as people; we've been putting ourselves in God's place since the very begining. Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Moses, and right down through the ages. God says "don't eat it" we say "God really just meant we shouldn't eat it right?" God gives us a few broad commandments, we turn it into a jillion specific laws. God sends God's son, we go nutso with rites and rituals and bureaucracy.
I feel like the latest manifestation of this tendancy can been seen in places like aplogetics --places where Christians are trying to convince others of something.
Conviction, I believe, is God's job. Not ours. We can talk people to death, and do, quite often, but if God doesn't work on their heart, it's meaningless. In the same sense someone who's never heard a single evangelistic word can be "strangely warmed" and come into relationship with Jesus Christ in a transforming way.
So if our job is not to convict, what is it?
I think our job as the church is to encourage and hold accountable one another.
THAT DOES NOT MEAN saying things like "what you're doing is wrong by my standards."
I think it looks more like saying "have you really worked that out with God? You really think God is OK with that?" and then, just maybe, being willing to live with the fact that yes, I've worked out my salvation with fear and trembling and no, it does not include some of your sacred moral standards.
What that takes is trust, in two ways. One, it takes trust in others to be honest about their relationship with God and to admit to the things God is convicting them of.
It also takes trust in God to be God. WE CANNOT CONTINUE to be the Church and live as if there IS NO GOD. If there is a God, and God is real, then GOD should be the one changing peoples hearts, convicting them of their sin, shaping their belief. NOT YOU.
OK. end rant. let me know what you think. A little too close to Christian relativism? Maybe. Letting us as leaders off the hook? Yeah, I'd see that, a little. Using scripture out of context? likely. Sorry.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
three posts really...
It's been a mad mad month around here, and things aren't getting any saner. I haven't had the time I usually have to blog, which means I haven't really had much time to process lately, which for me is not good. So, I have a long day in the office with a long To-Do list in front of me and I'm going to put it all off a half an hour and do some blogging. Actually I'm going to put blogging on my To Do list. So here they are: three things I want to blog about, take your pick.
1) Worlds of Fun: Christian Edition
This past saturday we went to the "Heartfest" day at Worlds of Fun, our local amusement park. Every ride had at least 30 minute lines and the parking lot was packed with church vans and buses from around the midwest. Surely this would be a great day at Worlds of Fun. We were disappointed. Lots of stories about that, including David Crowder Band's incredibly predictable and uninspired concert, but I just wanted to share this little scene which I feel captures the attitude of a lot of Christians right now: A couple walking through the grassy-hill concert seating area, the one wearing a classic pop-theology, penal-substitutionary-atonement-theory (I think) tee-shirt that said "Jesus died for myspace in heaven" with the word "myspace" using the logo from the popular social networking website. Typical, I thought, but then I had to laugh when I read the t-shirt of the guy she was with; his said "I'm open to suggestions, as long as they're mine." Classic. Nothing like the double barreled shotgun of closed mindedness and narrow mindedness to really express your love of Jesus Christ.
2) Speaking of being disappointed, Tony Jones is Disappointing me. I read on a blog that he was starting up a new website called "rethink Christianity" intended to be "interactive with posts and videos" I thought that sounded cool, so headed over to the site, and I was intrigued by their tag line, an apparent play on the radio shack commercials, it read "We have questions, you have answers." Now that sounds like a nice idea to me, but then I found that the only way I can post my answer is by video. I contemplated the possiblity of using my morning to shoot,edit, and post a video in response to their question, but besides my not having time I felt it was a bit of cheap gimmick. AND the more I post, the more chances I have to win a free iPod! Woooo! I must have this sort of mental filter that kicks in whenever the words "free" and "iPod" are combined in an effort to get me to do something. But this site, it seems, represents the co-opting and corporatization of at least some of the "emergent" church.
3) A few days ago I had an affirming comment about my "job performance" over the past three years at St Luke. The person who made the comment actually didn't realize it pertained to me in any way, but it did. She found out that I worked at "the church next to penguin park" and started telling me about how she used to go to the youth group there, but that she "just felt like another number" and that every time she was there she ended up being asked to talk or do something else that embarrassed her. The group was just too big. And when I arrived at St Luke, I felt the same way: there were almost 40 kids coming on Wednesday nights. Some people may see the fact that we're down under 10 on a regular basis now as a failure of some kind on my part, remarking how sad it is that we have such a small youth group now, but really I think it's much better this way. It's a tricky balancing act in youth ministry, trying to be responsible in doing outreach but at the same time wanting to have a small enough group that a can get to know them all and build relationships. In the end it looks like I chose a small group of close relationships over a large group with high-energy/high-emotion meetings, and I'm glad I did things the way I did. I think the kids in that group are too. Last night was my last official meeting with them, and we had some really nice conversations. I felt good about where we've come from and where the church is headed based on last night's conversation.
1) Worlds of Fun: Christian Edition
This past saturday we went to the "Heartfest" day at Worlds of Fun, our local amusement park. Every ride had at least 30 minute lines and the parking lot was packed with church vans and buses from around the midwest. Surely this would be a great day at Worlds of Fun. We were disappointed. Lots of stories about that, including David Crowder Band's incredibly predictable and uninspired concert, but I just wanted to share this little scene which I feel captures the attitude of a lot of Christians right now: A couple walking through the grassy-hill concert seating area, the one wearing a classic pop-theology, penal-substitutionary-atonement-theory (I think) tee-shirt that said "Jesus died for myspace in heaven" with the word "myspace" using the logo from the popular social networking website. Typical, I thought, but then I had to laugh when I read the t-shirt of the guy she was with; his said "I'm open to suggestions, as long as they're mine." Classic. Nothing like the double barreled shotgun of closed mindedness and narrow mindedness to really express your love of Jesus Christ.
2) Speaking of being disappointed, Tony Jones is Disappointing me. I read on a blog that he was starting up a new website called "rethink Christianity" intended to be "interactive with posts and videos" I thought that sounded cool, so headed over to the site, and I was intrigued by their tag line, an apparent play on the radio shack commercials, it read "We have questions, you have answers." Now that sounds like a nice idea to me, but then I found that the only way I can post my answer is by video. I contemplated the possiblity of using my morning to shoot,edit, and post a video in response to their question, but besides my not having time I felt it was a bit of cheap gimmick. AND the more I post, the more chances I have to win a free iPod! Woooo! I must have this sort of mental filter that kicks in whenever the words "free" and "iPod" are combined in an effort to get me to do something. But this site, it seems, represents the co-opting and corporatization of at least some of the "emergent" church.
3) A few days ago I had an affirming comment about my "job performance" over the past three years at St Luke. The person who made the comment actually didn't realize it pertained to me in any way, but it did. She found out that I worked at "the church next to penguin park" and started telling me about how she used to go to the youth group there, but that she "just felt like another number" and that every time she was there she ended up being asked to talk or do something else that embarrassed her. The group was just too big. And when I arrived at St Luke, I felt the same way: there were almost 40 kids coming on Wednesday nights. Some people may see the fact that we're down under 10 on a regular basis now as a failure of some kind on my part, remarking how sad it is that we have such a small youth group now, but really I think it's much better this way. It's a tricky balancing act in youth ministry, trying to be responsible in doing outreach but at the same time wanting to have a small enough group that a can get to know them all and build relationships. In the end it looks like I chose a small group of close relationships over a large group with high-energy/high-emotion meetings, and I'm glad I did things the way I did. I think the kids in that group are too. Last night was my last official meeting with them, and we had some really nice conversations. I felt good about where we've come from and where the church is headed based on last night's conversation.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Two DVDs, one big Idea
In the past week I've watched two DVDs. The first was Rhythm, one of the Nooma videos By Rob Bell. The second was August Rush.
August Rush was supposed to be really good, and we finally watched it thanks to a Large drink from McDonald's and a RedBox machine that didn't work. Anyway... It turned out to actually be actually quite good. A bit of a cliffhanger ending, but a really great story. The basic idea is that some people can just hear music in everything. They may be an accomplished musician, a struggling rock star, or just an orphan with no musical training, but if they can hear the music, it will guide them, even haunt them, and never let them go. At one point someone (Robin Williams' kind of deranged character) describes music as "a harmonic connection between all things."
In Rhythm, which is basically a 10 minute sermon with some extra visuals and background music, Rob Bell talks about how he thinks of God like a song. This song is a compelling song, one which is in all people but which some know better than others. It's song we can recognize when we see it, in things like love and truth and justice. And some people, Rob says, have studied it, and know all about the technical aspects of it and can hear things other people can't. Other people just have an innate ability, maybe even an unexplainable ability, to know the song and live it out.
I think as Christians we need to combine these two ideas into a theology of connection, where we recognize that in God we are connected to all people and through God we are shaped and tuned and composed. Different people add harmony. Denominations strengthen the melodies. The song is real, it is everywhere and on some level you can't deny it. God describes God's self as "I am."
God is.
Our striving in life should be to also be as God is.
August Rush was supposed to be really good, and we finally watched it thanks to a Large drink from McDonald's and a RedBox machine that didn't work. Anyway... It turned out to actually be actually quite good. A bit of a cliffhanger ending, but a really great story. The basic idea is that some people can just hear music in everything. They may be an accomplished musician, a struggling rock star, or just an orphan with no musical training, but if they can hear the music, it will guide them, even haunt them, and never let them go. At one point someone (Robin Williams' kind of deranged character) describes music as "a harmonic connection between all things."
In Rhythm, which is basically a 10 minute sermon with some extra visuals and background music, Rob Bell talks about how he thinks of God like a song. This song is a compelling song, one which is in all people but which some know better than others. It's song we can recognize when we see it, in things like love and truth and justice. And some people, Rob says, have studied it, and know all about the technical aspects of it and can hear things other people can't. Other people just have an innate ability, maybe even an unexplainable ability, to know the song and live it out.
I think as Christians we need to combine these two ideas into a theology of connection, where we recognize that in God we are connected to all people and through God we are shaped and tuned and composed. Different people add harmony. Denominations strengthen the melodies. The song is real, it is everywhere and on some level you can't deny it. God describes God's self as "I am."
God is.
Our striving in life should be to also be as God is.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
and the winner is...
me! well, one of the winners. Jesus Manifesto, an online magazine which I really enjoy reading, held a Pentecost Writing Contest, which I entered back around Pentecost time. It's exciting for me because it's the first writing contest I've ever won. Anyway, be sure to read it here and make a comment, either there or here, about what you think!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Love me Light me Give me Guide me
This song came up in the shuffle of mp3s today, and I think it's a good prayer for where I'm at right now. I feel like my life has been in transition for years now, but for the first time I'm actually starting to see a possible clearing up ahead.
press play in the box, then read the words below, and some of my thoughts below that.
"Mansions" by Burlap to Cashmere
God of light, light me some passion.
Green fields and lovely mansions.
Let your mansions live inside me.
Love me, light me, give me, guide me.
Cross of skin and naked figure.
Broken legs and crooked fingers,
Help me live for good tomorrow,
Today's too late and full of sorrow.
Light is good and dark is evil,
But I'm running around
Through the cross and through the steeples,
Trying to make it to higher ground.
Come on light, please live beside me.
Love me, light me, give me, guide me.
Pride and hate, they live inside me.
I need your love enough to guide me.
Help me walk across these borders.
I'm a pilgrim in deep waters.
Faithful God, like faithful sunrise,
Help me break from all these old ties.
Lead me all to that is holy.
Break these chains, but break them slowly.
Some lines in particular that I like...
"...but I'm runnin' around / through the cross and through the steeples / tryin' make it to higher ground "
This speaks more to my cynicism of organized religion than anything else, and I'm trying to be less cynical so I won't go into it. too much. Only to say that I feel disillusioned by the church, even deceived. I felt that the best way to honor my commitment to God was to work in the Church, full time even, and I've since come to realize that it's just not true. I leave my job at St Luke in a little less than 2 months and I do not intend to be employed by the church ever again. Now, having said that, I will not say "no" if God calls me back. I'm just saying I don't think it will happen.
"Help me walk across these borders / I'm a pilgrim in deep waters "
well, that's pretty obvious. I am leaving the US, crossing several borders, and I will be a sort of pilgrimage for Sarah and I. We are even now realizing that this is going to take more then we have, and we will at many times be in deep, deep waters.
"Faithful God, like faithful sunrise,
Help me break from all these old ties.
Lead me all to that is holy.
Break these chains, but break them slowly."
Leaving St Luke, my job, our appartment, and eventually the country will be for us the beginning of a new chapter of life. My prayer is that we will have the strength and courage to turn the page.
"Help me live for good tomorrow / Today's too late and full of sorrow"
another prayer for the next chapter of my life. I don't feel like I've really been "living for good." I've been thinking about it, talking about it, but I haven't really started living it.
"love me light me give me guide me"
This is the Church, or what it's supposed to be, it one of the simplest and most beautiful statements I have come across. People come together to show love and ignite passion for good. then we are sent out, given to the world, and guided.
Amen.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Trip Update
We've been talking a lot about our trip- especially since we announced it to the whole congregation on Sunday- and though we're still both really excited, now the hard part begins.
We are stuck in a series of catch-22's, most of which will hopefully be worked our by a cooperative travel agent and a little higher limit on our credit card...
The biggest problem seems to be that tourist visas to Paraguay only last up to three months, and in order to get one, we have to have a return flight within those three months. We won't be staying in Paraguay the whole time (we'll leave to visit Argentina and renew our visas then) but we aren't planning to fly back until February. One solution is just to buy two round-trip tickets for each of us, but that of course is not cost-effective (they're about $1800 each.)
So we need to buy our tickets ASAP, besides the fact that prices will be going up the longer we wait. However, we need money to do that, and we haven't raised any money yet. So as you can see, it's not all fun and games. But we're working though it all. We also have shots to get, insurance to buy, figure out our mail and storage of our stuff, our car, etc. It's crazy, but it's worth it.
I've been reading a lot about Paraguay lately, mostly on Google news (I told it to show me any story with the word "Paraguay" in it...) I read all about the native Guarani people and their spiritual beliefs, and about the new Presidente Fernando Lugo, who before running for office was a Catholic bishop. Interesting things! I feel like I use the word "excited" so much it looses any meaning, but that's how I feel. Although ost of the stories are just about soccer.
Sarah and I will be in Terre Haute for the weekend visiting family. Also, our Church lost one of it's members yesterday, and we'll be back in town Saturday to help with the funeral. We thought about rescheduling our trip, but we're pretty much booked from now until February of 2009.
We are stuck in a series of catch-22's, most of which will hopefully be worked our by a cooperative travel agent and a little higher limit on our credit card...
The biggest problem seems to be that tourist visas to Paraguay only last up to three months, and in order to get one, we have to have a return flight within those three months. We won't be staying in Paraguay the whole time (we'll leave to visit Argentina and renew our visas then) but we aren't planning to fly back until February. One solution is just to buy two round-trip tickets for each of us, but that of course is not cost-effective (they're about $1800 each.)
So we need to buy our tickets ASAP, besides the fact that prices will be going up the longer we wait. However, we need money to do that, and we haven't raised any money yet. So as you can see, it's not all fun and games. But we're working though it all. We also have shots to get, insurance to buy, figure out our mail and storage of our stuff, our car, etc. It's crazy, but it's worth it.
I've been reading a lot about Paraguay lately, mostly on Google news (I told it to show me any story with the word "Paraguay" in it...) I read all about the native Guarani people and their spiritual beliefs, and about the new Presidente Fernando Lugo, who before running for office was a Catholic bishop. Interesting things! I feel like I use the word "excited" so much it looses any meaning, but that's how I feel. Although ost of the stories are just about soccer.
Sarah and I will be in Terre Haute for the weekend visiting family. Also, our Church lost one of it's members yesterday, and we'll be back in town Saturday to help with the funeral. We thought about rescheduling our trip, but we're pretty much booked from now until February of 2009.
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