Emerging Church?

Scot McKnight has some great thoughts on the state of what is often called the emerging church. Kenny point this out over on the Resonate forum. I love Scot's acknowledgment that he doesn't need the term emerging to describe what is happening in the church today. Really that is what emerging is trying to label - something is happening, like it or not, and it is easier to deal with a label, to which we can attach definition(s), than just to say "there is something happening."

I know all too well how hard it is to speak with precision about the things that are emerging at the edges of the evangelical church. To make matters worse, other folks like Bruce Sanguin, are also using this same term to name what is happening in other parts of the Body of Christ. When I did my work I had to settle, that is land, somewhere that I was comfortable with and I knew would capture the folks I was concerned with investigating. If I didn't do that I could only go broad and never really go deep into what is making the folks I investigated tick.

I also hear the complaint that evangelism is not the highest priority of the emerging or missional groups. I think this is both true and not true. First off, in this disperate group there are some who are very committed to, even traditional, forms of evangelism. I know that is true of our congregation, although we tend to stay away from confrontational modes, favouring deliberate relational paradigms of evangelism. But when you read broadly from the emerging churches that actually contribute to emerging church literature (I'm convinced some of the best efforts are not even on the map, they are too busy doing the stuff to write about it or self-promote!) there seem to be bigger fish to fry. That makes sense, if this is really a movement to bring at least a part of the church into the post-modern present. I think that these are also very worthwhile contributions to the whole church, especially the challenges to the so-called sacred-secular split. But if you want to hear my arguments on that you have to wait for my paper.

I've become more and more comfortable with the term emerging. In fact I like that it puts off some people. I don't want them comfortably resolving my comments into something that fits their tight little categories. I want a sense of tension. The funny thing is I don't get that outside of the evangelicals. In fact my more mainline friends are quite interested in what it going on at the edges - and I think eager to have a dialogue partner that has the energy of the evangelical church without the head-up-assedness of the evangelical church that sees everyone else as an enemy of the faith.

Politics and Theology

Rudolf Siebert movingly recounts the death of his wife Margie in From Critical Theory to Critical Political Theology. There is a temptation to skim through this painful recounting, but in taking Siebert's earlier advice that this is foundational to his discussion of theodicy, I endured the discomfort. I am reminded of the discomfort many of the hearers of Jesus' words would have felt, something alien to us who want to reconcile and make things like Jesus' proposal of a "good shepherd" nice. Not wanting to face the outrage of such a suggestion, especially towards those who actually were good shepherds. It is with that discomfort that Siebert's funeral sermon hits home. In describing their theological contribution he has this to say:

In our critical, political theology, we never neutralized the prophetic or the Messianic element in Judaism or in Christianity. We did not privatize religion. Our faith did not only consist in the task of saving our individual souls. Our faith was and is eschatological, Messianic, and apocalyptic. Most of all, our faith was, and is, witnessing and confessing communicative action: and this also poitical praxis, whenever and whereever that is possible. We had learned from Max Horkheimer and Theodor, W. Adorno: Politics wihtout theology is mere business! (p.102)

A Little Gutiérrez to Ponder

Man is saved if he opens himself to God and to others, even if he is not clearly aware that he is doing so. This is valid for Christians and non-Christians alike - for all people.... Human existence, in the last instance, is nothing but a yes or no to the Lord: 'Men already partly accept communion with God, although they do not explicitely confess Christ as their Lord, insofar as they are moved by grace, sometimes secretly, to renounce their selfishness.... They reject union with God insofar as they turn away from the building up of this world, do not open themselves to others, and culpably withdraw into themselves.'

quoted in Margaret Campbell's Critical Theory and Liberation Theology, p.63.

Despite the non-inclusive langauge I really liked this quote. I tried to find it in my copy of A Theology of Liberation, but I think the one she used is much older. Perhaps I'm just too tired. Her book is definitely a thesis, so it is well laid out and actually quite well written. It gave me a taste of Critical Theory and now I'm reading Rudolf Siebert's (a student of Peukert) From Critical Theory to Critical Political Theology. I'll probably follow that up with an article or two from the Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (I'm really enjoying that one) and then move onto Charles Davis. It is very stimulating reading.

Critical Theory - the preliminaries

In my directed reading course we divided the texts into four groupings: Ideological criticism, Christological, Biblical, and Eschatological (Kingdom). These groups represent attempts to develop a theology of praxis from various starting points. My initial observation is that many evangelicals want to start with the Bible to do develop their theology. There is a problem with the Bible as the starting point, namely "who's reading of the Bible are you going to use?" However, as an evangelical I also feel that there needs to be a committement to the Bible in the process of building a theology of praxis. I'm going to start with the notion that it is not the reading that is primary, but the context in which that reading is being done. This is James Cochrane's proposition in Circles of Dignity (an excellent read BTW). The thing is we do this anyway. We read in a context. We look, especially those of us from a preaching tradition, for application of the texts we read. This is the process of developing what Schreiter calls a 'local theology' (Cochrane calls it an incipient theology). By taking this process of local theology construction seroiusly, we can begin to develop context appropriate ways of reading the Bible to construct a theology of praxis. At least that is my initial intuition, I'll probably adjust it as I look back at my own assumptions, especially concerning the context in which I read the Bible.

If the Bible is the definitive authority for faith and life, as many of us evangelicals claim it is, then the onus is on us to pay close attention to how we read and employ the Bible in seeking to understand our faith committment to this world.

Almost Final List

I've been working hard on that list and this is what I am proposing to my director tomorrow. This has been a fun exercise, but I could use a few more days. Deadlines are good too though. I wanted to keep it to 20 books as some of these are monsters and I'm probably reading them all at least twice! This is from my worldcat list (pomorev is my handle there):

• Baum, Gregory. Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology. New York: Paulist Press, 1975.
  
  
• Bevans, Stephen B. Models of Contextual Theology. Faith and cultures series. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2002.
  
  
• Campbell, Margaret M. Critical Theory and Liberation Theology: A Comparison of the Initial Work of Jürgen Habermas and Gustavo Gutierrez. New York: P. Lang, 1999.
  
  
• Cobb, John B. Christ in a Pluralistic Age. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999.
  
  
• Grenz, Stanley J. Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Books, 2006.
  
  
• Guder, Darrell L., and Lois Barrett. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. The Gospel and our culture series. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub, 1998.
  
  
• Hall, Douglas John. The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the Suffering World. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
  
  
• Herzog, William R. Parables As Subversive Speech: Jesus As Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville, Ky: Wstminster/John Knox Press, 1994.
  
  
• Johnston, Robert K. The Use of the Bible in Theology/Evangelical Options. Eugene, Or: Wipf and Stock, 1997.
  
  
• Metz, Johannes Baptist, and James Matthew Ashley. Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology. New York: Crossroad Pub. Co, 2007.
  
  
• Moltmann, Jürgen. Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
  
  
• Moore, Russell. The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2004.
  
  
• Nolan, Albert. Jesus Before Christianity. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2001.
  
  
• Schweitzer, Don, and Derek Simon. Intersecting Voices: Critical Theologies in a Land of Diversity. Ottawa: Novalis, 2004.
  
  
• Scott, Peter, and William T. Cavanaugh. The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology. Blackwell companions to religion. Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2007.
  
  
• Siebert, Rudolf J., and Rudolf J. Siebert. From Critical Theory to Critical Political Theology: Personal Autonomy and Universal Solidarity. American university studies, v. 52. New York: P. Lang, 1994.
  
  
• Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.
  
  
• Volf, Miroslav, and William H. Katerberg. The Future of Hope: Christian Tradition Amid Modernity and Postmodernity. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2004.
  
  
• Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster. Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1994.
  

I'll let you know how I fare.

And It Begins

Met with Dr. Heather Eaton today to start setting up my directed reading course. It pretty much went as I expected. We set some goals including a paper which we plan on up to 10 revisions (basically something I can turn around and submit for publication). I need to determine about four academic journals that I want to get articles in, preferably either read by or vetted by evangelical academics. Part of the trouble with studying at a historically Roman Catholic institution is that I don't know what journals would be good to look at. But this side of the course can wait until Oct., the job I have first of all is developing my reading list.

We worked on that a bit, 20-25 books. I'm looking primarily at political theology in this paper. So I need to get a sense of how this is working out in the evangelical theological world. On my to investigate list I have:

• Moltmann - Religion, Revolution and the Future; Theology of Hope; On Human Dignity
  
• *Volf/Katerburg - The Future of Hope
  
• Yoder - The Politics of Jesus
  
• Muller-Fahrenholz - The Kingdom and the Power
  
• Grenz - Renewing the Center
  
• Stackhouse - Evangelical Landscape
  
• *Bevans - Models of Contextual Theology
  
• *Schweitzer/Simon - Intersecting Voices
  
• Scott - Blackwell Companion to Political Theology
  
• Lakeland - Theology and Critical Theory
  
• Johnston - The Use of the Bible in Theology
  
• Metz - Faith in History and Society
  
• *Campbell - Critical Theory and Liberation Theology
  
• Siebert - From Critical Theory to Critical Political Theology; The Critical Theory of Religion, the Frankfurt School
  
• Baum - Religion and Alienation
  
• Rush - Cambridge Companion to Political Theory
  
• *Moore - The Kingdom of Christ
  
• Nolan - Jesus Before Christianity

That gives me a place to start. I need texts about evangelical theological methodology, serious works that aren't afraid to question the faith stances within the evangelical world. I'm going to spend some time looking at articles tomorrow, but I need to nail the reading list soon. Many of the above books are just out of simple searches, so except the ones with stars (those I anticipate keeping on the list) they can all go. I expect at least something from Moltmann and Metz on the list as I need to cover European Political Theology; Intersecting Voices is a good coverage of the North American version called Critical Theology; and if Campbell is not good I have a lot of decent texts on Liberation Theology (the Latin American version). Moore excited me because the synopsis sounds like a historical version of my PhD topic!

What will be cool is that I'm going to work with different hermeneutics of reading, I'll read the texts one way then Prof. Eaton will give me a different hermeneutic to re-read the texts with. Should be fun, but a lot of thinking. I started doing this with my masters research when doing revision work. But at this level it is all about method and thinking.

Next Friday the PhD seminar starts up. I'm actually looking forward to it, even though I've not heard good reviews of it.

Frustration

What an incredibly frustrating day. Mostly because my house is a complete disaster! Despite best intentions and efforts, the mess that is getting kids ready for school while avoiding unpacking from vacation continues to overwhelm. Topping that off my wireless mouse finally died! Really sucks. I am going to buy a new one today (I have a half dozen decent wired mice, but none are USB???) What to do with a dead mouse anyway? What about the keyboard Sharon fried with a water spill? (And she wonders why I don't let her use my laptop!) Or the dozen CPUs I have stacked up in our crawlspace (including my original 286!) Peripherals, oh I got me a heap o-peripherals too. It really makes me sad.

I have a friend who makes wonderful greeting cards from old CDs. I have a pile of them to give her tonight. But other than that, I have so much stuff to get rid of that it isn't funny. So why not curb it? Well that is a good question.

If I curb it then it goes to landfill, not so good. I'm sure the inheritors of this planet will not be too impressed even if I have all the instructions to make my old BBS run again! (No ECHOZONE will not live another day on my watch, well I shouldn't say never - but you get the idea) Landfill is my least favourite option. But what other options are there.

I know there are computer recyclers. I should box up all these darn things and take them there. But then the second problem hits me - memories. Maybe it is the last bit of a dying self. Before theology I had a decent IT Security career. At one point I had a large network of computers (PC, Sun, and Mac) so that I could simulate client environments. But what gave out was my heart. In IT you constantly re-invent yourself. I went from college teacher to programmer to multimedia consultant to web developer to database developer to security expert to policy analyst to corporate trainer/PKI and permissions based computing expert to I don't care about computers anymore! Sure it took me many years, but here I am with a dead mouse remembering how much I dislike techy stuff now. To think I was considering trying to fix this darned thing. No my heart gave up on computers long before I did.

So that leaves me frustrated.

I should be excited. I'm in the last leg of my studies. It has been a real fight. But really good. Friday I start a reading course with Dr. Heather Eaton (my director), a research orientation at Ottawa U and I'm hoping to catch up with the rest of Heather's PhD students (there are four of us) for dinner. That means I'm off and running. Messy house and all.

Well I just need to pick a spot and start cleaning. Perhaps the bathrooms.

Writing Projects

I spent a couple amazing days with our dear friends Brad and Mary Culver. They have the only Vineyard in Ontario that is like Freedom. We were just coming off of a family trip (with Sharon's mother, sister and sister's kids) to Niagara Falls. That was a fairly intense time so we were really looking forward to the rest that we feel with Brad and Mary. But it was also a good opportunity to move forward with our writing project. Brad and I are writing a book, collecting some of our thoughts on micro-missional faith communities. We have lots of really good ideas, but right now we are trying to narrow it down to just those things that will be really solid contributions. Our big goal is to not present an alternative model of church, but rather to spark the imagination that fuels our freedom to do church in ways that reach out in sometimes completely new ways. As Brad put it, the game is completely changing, and that is exciting.

On Sunday we went to the Gig, which is an example of what is possible when you don't get hung up on models, but dare to dream with God about ways of reaching into marginalized communities (in this case it is musicians and artists). It was really nice church and they have a huge vision. That night we played Zombies (boardgame) and talked about one of the biggest issues with micro-missional churches - integrating families with kids. I'll keep folks posted on how this project is going. I also want to find a venue for my master's research. Publications under my belt is the name of the game in securing a solid teaching position.

Thwarted by the Crowds

Went out to see Dark Night, but I forgot it was "tight-night" (Tuesday's is cheap night at the theatres around here). It was a mad house. I got lost trying to find my buddy's house - they changed roads while I was away??? But we figured we'd see it on the normal screen instead of IMAX. Both of us are jonesing to see this film. But the sea of people at the theatre was a bad sign. As we lined up for tickets I caught the marquee that said our showing was sold out already!!!! I would have stayed, but my friend has class in the AM so another time Batman, another time!

I also have been trying to get out GPS up and running, with many setbacks. Sharon got one specifically for geocaching. The basemaps on the Triton line suck and the Canadian TOPO maps (Ontario) that I finally decided to buy require me to purchase an SD card! Arggggghhhh. We are really wanting to give this unit a proper field test. We used it coming home, but the current basemap just has major highways??? The new maps are very nice. This isn't one of those car GPSs that tell you where to go. "Turn right now, you are entering HELL!!!!" No, it is made for getting your boots dirty. It will be awesome when we go camping next.

Much as my day has been frustrating I did manage to make some lemonade. On our vacation my only purchase was a Morley Bright Inst-a-tector. Which I am getting the hang of. So far I found two inverted watermark stamps in a big pile of Wildings I went through tonight. I also found a sweet single band phospher tagged 2.5p stamp that I didn't have. Yay!!!! The inst-a-tector is something I've wanted for a couple of years. I showed up at the Unitrade headquarters in Toronto, on our way home, and was delighted to be given a discount on my new tool! So cool.

Sorry, nothing theological here. I'm still on vacation!

Reviewing Books

I will be adding more book reviews here. I joined the Early Reviewers group at LibraryThing and am about to get my second book. I also had a few people online approach me about reviewing their books. I'm quite open to more. What I can guarantee is that I will read the book and place my review both here and on LibraryThing (and if I can find it on Visual Bookshelf (via facebook) then I'll at least rate it there).

What I cannot guarantee is that I'll give you a favourable review. I will be fair and try to look at the book in an academic (ie. critical) fashion. Assessing what contribution this book is trying to make and how well it does that. I will also try to assess how this book will work for the intended audience (as best I can discern that). I will also be upfront about timing. I read quite quickly, but when I'm in the midst of papers or preparing for events free book reviews wait.

Well Prayed Ground

I've been on a bit of a trip this week, took my family to Southern Ontario to visit friends and hang with Sharon's mom and sister in Niagara Falls. I'm not fond of big trips, especially with so many people wanting to do so much. My kids are tired and I'm not really enjoying myself. But soon we will be with our dear friends Brad and Mary, that will be like an oasis just before we return.

But something cool happened. We were leaving Toronto and needed some food for the kids. So I suggested a mall near where I used to live in Mississauga. We got off the highway and fueled up cars and kids for the trip to Niagara Falls. Which BTW is like a giant slug chewed up all the kitsch in North America and vomited it next to one of the most beautiful falls you can imagine??? Certainly the falls shine even brighter next to all this tackiness, but it is seriously unnecessary. But back to my story.

When we were getting back on the highway we drove past what used to be a field. A field that I used to walk around in and pray. I had many intimate moments with my Creator in that field. So when I looked over what did I see? A mosque. Unexpectedly this made me very happy. How fitting that the place I found solitude for prayer would become the place of prayer for one of the prayingest religions I know. No matter what else you might think of Muslims, they pray. I think my joy also fitting considering that the days I spent there I was struggling with the theology of the Foursquare church I was helping to plant. I think that place is where I laid the groundwork for my exit from fundamentalist evangelicalism. But it would take quite a while for me to open my mind to see Christ at work beyond the evangelical church.

I think I'll pray for that mosque over the coming weeks. Pray that their times there with the Creator will be as life changing as my own.

What Makes Me Sad about Revivalism...

Todd Bentley is getting a lot of traffic in the blog-o-sphere lately. I think Scott gives a really good treatment of the whole situation. For those of you who know me, I have real mixed feelings about the whole revival idealism that has overtaken the Charismatic world to which I still claim to be a part. But the problem I have is with that word revival. I was a lot more comfortable when we used to call these movements renewals.

I noticed this shift during the Toronto Blessing. For a long time we called it a renewal and felt that it was a time of God refreshing the Church. In fact, I was really refreshed through that movement. But it started to take itself far too seriously - and they switched 'r' words. It reminds me of what happened on the mount of Transfiguration. Which I think simply reveals a human tendency to camp around experiences. What our greatest need is not to do away with experience, but to learn how to reflect on these experiences in a critical way.

But the big problem is that most of my beloved charismatics have run reason and education off their lots, chasing them away with shotguns blazing! I think this is why I appreciate Mark Noll's work so much, especially the Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (which I will buy for you Todd, just let me know.)

I'm a charismatic. I believe in healing, deliverance, prophecy, power encounters, the works. But I'm also using the brain God gave me to its full potential. You might say I'm intent on having my cake and eating it too - but in this case I know I can. The reason is I've experienced it. That doesn't mean it is easy. There are times when you need to just give your self to the experience, and there are times when you need to think before leaping. But not because these are mutually exclusive domains, rather because as Westerners (in particular) we have trouble bringing out full attention to more than one thing at a time.

I think Scott's offer to Todd (end of his
post) is really good. I have yet to see one of these movements pastored well. I actually thought Toronto was pastored well in the beginning, but it felt like the Pentecostals got in there after a while and sorta railroaded things. I still have lots of respect for John and Carol Arnott. I know firsthand how hard it is to pastor in the midst of a renewal. So I have a few recommendations of my own:

1) Distinguish between teacher and pastor. Teachers should be encouraged to study and communicate theology. They should have the ear of the congregation and the pastoral body.

2) Stop picking and choosing from history. Teachers should help the whole movement reflect on what has gone on before and how the church responded. I think we'd save ourselves a lot of grief if we even knew a little about the great heresies of the past.

3) Stop picking and choosing from scripture. Charismatics are horrible exegetes. There I said it. This was Wimber's warning to Toronto - don't try and justify experiences with proof texts taken out of context. Yet, they did it anyway.

4) Stop the cult of personality. That is a frigging plague on our movement. How many of our idolized personalities are going to fall before we realize this? I think about Todd and Shonnah and I'm convinced that this is a part of the problem. It makes me angry because I see so often marriages that become casualties to ministry. There are a lot of facets to this issue, and I'm in no way justifying Todd's actions, but the model it flawed folks and we keep getting wake up calls but not listening.

5) Stop trying to make revival happen. Sure we can pray for revival. Personally, that word is tainted for me. I prefer to line up with Jesus' and pray for the Kingdom to come. Because that doesn't end up as a localized culture ghetto phenomenon. That is what happens in real life, amongst real people. We get into this love of manufactured excitement and miss that God chose a pretty mundane way to reach us. Doesn't mean that the Kingdom never broke in - that is pretty evident. But there is a lot of the story that is just life. I am convinced God wants us to appreciate that and let God show up there rather than in a stadium.

I'm praying for ya Todd. I know folks who have been blessed by Lakeland. I also know those who are frustrated by it. At some point this will blow over and another so-called revival will take its place. But will we learn from this one?

It Is Finished!

I'm sitting next to a pile of three identical documents. Each has the title: An Incarnational Theology of the Emerging Church. And all are authored by yours truly. I am done my Masters research paper!

Because it is a research paper and not a thesis all I do is hand it in and wait. My director (Dr. Heather Eaton) provides the lion's share of the mark. She's already seen it many times and proposed many revisions. So I'm confident that I'll do well.

What an incredible amount of effort went into this. It took a year for me to narrow my topic, research my area, present a proposal (at our seminar), revise this proposal several times, write my paper and do endless revisions. I clock in (with bibliography) at 59 pages - 60 is max. I am really happy I managed to not hit the max - I watched fellow students having to cut, cut, cut - so sad. That doesn't mean that I didn't cut lots along the way, but going into revisions I was pretty close to my targets for each section. There was one stupidly late night where I wrote a few pages, in the morning I ended up taking everything but one or two sentences out!

Well I'm gonna take these down to the school now.

Content of the Gospel

One of the areas I have been looking at in my research is what I call the evangelical witness of various evangelical traditions. The idea of evangelical witness gives me a broad way of talking about a variety of practices that these traditions employ in trying to present their understanding of the gospel to people outside of their groups. But what I didn't think was worth tackling in my paper (which has a stronger focus on the dismantling of the sacred/secular split going on in many emerging churches) is the content of this gospel. As I look at various evangelical movements I see that many of them consider a presentation of substitutionary atonement as the gospel. The Bridge Illustration is a good example of what I am talking about. It becomes a formula: you have sinned, you need to repent, Jesus paid for your sin, here's your get to go to heaven card now take your place on that pew over there. Certainly as someone with twenty plus years in the evangelical world I was led to believe this is the whole of the gospel content, now I am far from sure it is even the most appropriate presentation. Seriously, is this really good news? And if the gospel is supposed to be good news, then what is that good news and how is it relevant to the world that God is supposed to love so much? These are questions worth meditating on before the next time you are tempted to strap on a big placard and go out into public.

BTW the guy in the picture looks like a guy I know, and yes I can totally see him with an sign like this. Scary.

Lumière Festival

Thursday I had a complete draft of my research paper. Clocking in a 57 pages with a selected bibliography, I was happy with my wiggle room for revisions. Then Saturday morning the last of it to pass through my first readers returned and I made most of those changes in the early afternoon. I'm at 56 pages, which is good because I already have revisions to make that will add at least a page to chapter 2. The whole process involves agonizing over word after word. But the revisions are a lot more bearable now that I have a full draft and even better some of it garnered compliments on my improved writing ability.

Last night I took time to take my girls to a new festival - Lumière. What's not to love about dressing up like fairies, plopping glow sticks into homemade lanterns and enjoying dance, costumes, actors, jugglers, stilt walkers, and lots of lantern art. It was still light when we got there and Sharon dressed up in a convincing Snow White, she even dyed her hair. Instant celebrity. My favourite comment was a little girl asking her mom how it was possible for Snow White to be at this festival. I also loved it when kids would come up and my youngest would say, "that's not the real Snow White, it's just my mommy in a costume." It was in that terribly cute matter-of-fact manner that only Chelsea and pull off.

When the sun went down things really lit up. Tonnes of candles were offered up to make the night a success. It was very pretty. We forgot to take a camera, but in the long run I think a camera would have just got in the way. I didn't dress up this year, but I'm thinking if we go back I just might be Prince Charming. Too bad he is a forgettable bit role in the Snow White story.

OK, back to the revisions. Friday my director and I made a plan to get this paper ready to hand in by Friday. Most of it has been through her scrutiny once and a third of it is good to go now.

Have a Jesus Period

Everytime I see that add for tampons that has the tag, "have a happy period," I can't help thinking how many of the women in my life turned into Mr. Hyde just before their visitor arrived. How is anyone going to have a happy period after they've just decapitated everyone they claim to love!!! Well, I found an answer. King of emotionally manipulative kitschy Christian musical storytelling - Carmen, has some really horrid merchandise on his website. He also has surprises for the souls, braver than I, willing to offer him money. Perhaps he has solved other mysteries of the universe.

His solution - the Jesus Period. Yup. A Jesus Period. The secret contents of this box are not revealed (unless one send the requisite love gift) but for those of us who suffer the ill effects of PMS (Pretty Messed up Situation that happens once a month (at least) but this makes too long an acronym so we'll just use the first three words) it is really tempting.

Go and Vote!!!!

Scott is hosting the Worst Preacher Ever Championship. You can google up sermons from all of these choice contestants. Some of the pairings are particularly hard - Pat Robertson and John Crowder for instance. I went with Crowder because I don't identify with Robertson so I don't feel like he belittles my faith as much as Crowder does. Benny Hinn and Robert Tilton, both people I would like to hear less from, but with Tilton it is personal and while I dislike the theatrics of Benny and really dislike his theology - I do think there is something going on there.

Personally I'm rooting for Tilton to win!

Go and vote now!!!!!

Liminality of the Eucharist

This is a repost, the article was published in the now defunct Resonate Journal. I needed to reference it for my research, thought you might enjoy it.

Liminality of the Eucharist

There is a mall here in Ottawa where I enjoy sitting with a coffee and my Bible. I am convinced this is one of those places the ancient Celts would say is thin. That is a place where the veil between heaven and earth is so sheer that one almost stumbles through it to the other side, and into the very presence of God. I’ve stumbled across the threshold in that mall a few times now so just going there gives me a sense of expectation and longing. That mall is a place I want to experience with eyes wide open.

The Eucharistic Community

In the community I pastor we have been exploring the corporate Eucharistic experience. I have had the privilege of hanging out with some very cool Roman Catholics over the years. Their passion for the Eucharist has stirred up in me a deep dissatisfaction over the whole Protestant minimalist approach to this practice. I realize that I had been missing out on something good – and it had little to do with theology and a lot to do with expectation. For my Catholic friends the Eucharistic celebration is a thin space. In the sacrament they are actually encountering God and participating in God’s life. What is even more exciting is that their liturgical structures foster this expectation and create an environment where God actually shows up.

There is a lot of fear that can rise up whenever we talk about the Eucharist in this way. Many Protestants have been prejudiced with a notion that a sacramental theology excludes salvation by faith alone. This is the fear that the sacraments hijack the role of faith in the life of the believer. Many are scandalized at the notion that anything more than flat allegory happens at the communion table. And as a result it is no wonder that, since the time of Luther, there has been very little liturgical reformation in terms of the Protestant communion.

Maybe there is some validity to this fear because personally I now find the typical Protestant communion, with its little cups and little squares of bread, to be quite absurd. We need to ask the question: “What are we afraid of?” Are we afraid that God might really show up? Are we afraid that we might encourage people to recognize in the bread the body of Christ broken for them? Or that they realize, through the wine, that the blood of Christ seals the deal of a whole new covenant with God? These are legitimate fears. When God shows up things change and that can be hard to deal with. Just think of the frustrated disciples leaving for Emmaus; when they recognized Jesus everything changed.1

Many of us recognize that if we want to see healings, then we have to make space for them in our lives and communities. We need to ask in order to receive. We recognize that in the tension of these times we do not always see the things we long for – but that doesn’t stop us from asking, hoping and expecting. We can be comfortable with things like healing prayer, but still neglect a God given space for life changing encounters.

Not everyone will participate in the healing space, but almost everyone will participate in the act of communion. Jesus brilliantly tied His saving work to the most basic of human actions – eating and drinking. God “uses material things like bread and wine to get the new life into us. We may think it is rather crude and unspiritual. God does not.”2 In fact it is hard to think of any spiritual action that is more inviting and natural, yet also so meaningful. In order to overcome the fears that cause us to shy away from creating this space for Eucharistic encounters, let us examine some of the benefits that such a space can give our communities.

Shaping Eucharistic Encounters

The most basic benefit, and likely the most appealing, is the didactic nature of rich spiritual actions. Recently I attended a mass at a local Charismatic Catholic community. In the mass we were given the opportunity to write our troubles on a piece of paper and then toss them into a garbage bin set at the foot of the cross. It was a poignant moment in the service. After everyone was done the priest took the bin around asking who would like to have their burdens back? There were no takers. Actions like this make a dramatic impact on the participant. A richer vision for the Eucharist provides fertile ground for just such an impact.

When the elements of the Communion are small, they loose a lot of their potential impact. The richer the experience the more it will impact the participant. Recently in a home group we were celebrating the Eucharist and I happened to look down to see crumbs everywhere. I was scandalized. Not because I felt it was literally God underfoot, but because the whole thing was so messy. I realized that this made me very uncomfortable. In that moment God began showing me how comfortable I’d grown with the cross. The cross was almost a flippant part of my conversation, instead of the scandalous extent of our Great Lord’s love. This teaching moment would have been lost in small elements that possess no possibility for messiness.

There are many such moments in the Eucharist. Moments where we suddenly get what God is trying to show us, where the veil over our eyes is pulled aside and we catch a glimpse into the very heart of eternity. The Eucharist is only equaled by baptism in its rich potential for such an encounter. Our efforts at teaching are but letters on the page – it is not until the Living Word infuses them with presence that they burst to life in our veins invigorating our spirituality and passion for God. Those travelers to Emmaus found their hearts burning within them. Yet, it was not until the Living Word Jesus was recognized that the words propelled them to change their course of action.3

This invitation to change is the second benefit of a rich Eucharistic experience. The theological debate about the location of “real” presence need not find an answer in order for us to have a real experience with God. We are often so afraid of being deceived that we throw out the potential that maybe God will show up if we ask Him. Like most Protestants, I am not comfortable with the veneration of a host (wafer), but unlike most Protestants I expect to encounter the real presence of Jesus whenever I partake in the bread and the wine. In our fear we have done a disservice to the hungry masses, longing for real experience, real encounter. We have failed to believe that when God shows up everything changes.

You might suggest that we already have a space for encounter in our songs of worship or even some other aspect of our corporate liturgy. Corporate singing is quite accessible, but not everyone feels they can or should sing. Everyone eats and drinks. Jesus marries mystery to the mundane in a way that invites all of us to have that intimate encounter with Jesus. I like to think our community does intimate worship in song fairly well. When we had our first communion service in our newest home group, the response that struck me the most was “I liked it because it was intimate.” There is something about the invitation of the table that draws us into God’s presence. When we sing we exhale, lifting our voice and breath up to God. But when we eat and drink we take into ourselves the very meaning of the elements, taking God into ourselves in a very intimate way. I am convinced that we need to treat the Eucharist as a part of our corporate worship.

The third benefit might stretch our operative theologies. (Despite the challenge it is something very important for a full and rich Eucharistic experience.) When we celebrate the Eucharist we unite with the celebration of the Church throughout all of Salvation History. The reason this notion is a problem is that a connection has been made to the crucifixion in a way that suggests the Mass is a re-enactment of the sacrifice of Jesus and that in the celebration Jesus is perpetually offered in sacrifice for our sins.

Some conceptions and theologies of the Eucharist conform to this understanding, but there is another way of approaching this, one that I believe works with both understandings of the Eucharist. We see the participant as sharing in the collective memory of God’s saving action, participating in the reasonable response of deep gratitude that is the Eucharistic celebration. This participation in the shared collective memory is often called anamnesis, which is Greek for memory lifted up.

When we see the Eucharist as an invitation to participate in this anamnesis then we are acknowledging a connection with both the historic Christianity of the Last Supper and the fulfillment of history in the coming Kingdom Feast. The Last Supper narratives in the gospels represent the ways that the primitive Christian communities celebrated the Eucharist. It is not until the fourth century that the Eucharistic forms begin to become overly complicated. At that point we see the addition of venerations, processions and other ceremonial actions.4 Looking at the pattern of the gospels there is the implication that the Eucharistic event is both a memorial and a moment of recognition and that both are received with thankfulness as the word eucharist suggests.

The God Who Invites

But the idea of a memorial does not adequately capture the sense of anamnesis. It simply implies that we remember what God has done, give thanks and go on with our lives. But there is something deeper at work here.

There is an open door in the Eucharistic experience. God stands on the other side and beckons us across the threshold into that dangerous space where He is present. The latin word limina means threshold, and so this Eucharistic experience is a liminal experince.

The whole history of the Church is about this struggle at the threshold. When we celebrate the Eucharist we are standing with the whole of a great cloud of witness, seeing not only the accomplished work of the cross – but the invitation into the Kingdom work of the Church. God stretches out His hand and says of the bread, “behold what you are, become what you see.”5 This is memory come to life in the believer: the recognition that we too participate in this thing called Salvation History. This has the potential to really impel the participants into all that the Father has in His heart for them.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, we are inviting an encounter with the Living Word. We are inviting a visit from the God who changes everything – including our hearts and minds. We are participating in the rich heritage of the Christian Church – joining our hearts with the faithful before and after us in holy declaration that all Jesus has done for us makes a difference in our lives.

By celebrating the Eucharist, we are opening ourselves to stepping across the threshold between this world and the next – into the very presence of God. And we are letting the Word teach us through profound act and action. In the Eucharist we find a thin place just waiting to be experienced. The celebration of the Eucharist will be a place where you will want to keep your eyes wide open.

=====
1 Luke 24:13-33.
2 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1944), 62.
3 Luke 24:33.
4 Paul F. Bradshaw, In Search of the Origins of Christian Worship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 216.
5 Eucharistic formula usually associated with St. Augustine.

Postal Story of Redemption

Just spent the evening with a dear friend sorting out the stamp collection he inherited from his father. He was hoping to sell it off and raise some money to buy an item of interest that he could remember his dad by. As with most collections, there was a lot of material but not a lot of value. But the value isn't in the stamps anyway. The value was to his dad who in times of failing health had a much loved (obvious from the breadth of the collection) hobby to keep him company.

I know I promised to share my own story, I think it is something I should put right into my collection so that when my kids inherit it they can understand the value it had to me even if it doesn't bring in much monetary value (I am a realist). Stamp collecting for me brings me a lot of peace because God met me in a special way through reviving my childhood collection.

I collected when I was young, I think up until High School. My neighbour was a stamp dealer and the closest I had to a real mentor. I would take my little want lists over and he'd sell me stamps, but he'd also help me manage my collection and we were both part of the philatelic society. I have a newspaper clipping of a presentation of topical stamps I did with some classmates, boy was my haircut bad. One day I noticed that Mr. Henderson, my neighbour, had a bag where he was chucking damaged stamps. I asked him if I could have that bag to fill in some of the more pricey holes in my collection. He told me I could, but warned me that I would regret it if I did that. I didn't listen and found out he was right when one day I traded away my good copy of a stamp. I was very angry with myself over that.

I also had another incident that brought me shame. I had found a copy of a stamp that was misprinted. It was postmarked out of Bridgewater (known copies came out of Toronto) and was on piece (meaning it was still on the paper so that people could see I hadn't altered this stamp). In High School I had stopped collecting and was more interested in drugs at one point, hard up for money I remembered this stamp. There was a show that weekend so I took the stamp and sold it for drug money. I knew I got ripped off actually, but I just wanted the money.

I hadn't really thought of my collection for years when my folks forced me to take it to Ontario. There was a lot of shame tied up in it. A lot of old wounds. It reminded me a lot of my squandered youth. But my father-in-law was a big collector and I had trouble connecting with him. He wasn't sure a minister was a good match for his daughter. So I thought I should clean up my collection (getting rid of those damaged fillers) and show it to him.

I started in on the project and quickly realized how emotionally painful this was going to be. When I realized that the collection was representative of my past I felt like God was saying that we would work together to make this collection right. I spent many a tearful session going through my albums and thinking of how God's grace doesn't erase the past but helps heal the shame and regret.

What was amazing as well was how taking my collection back up gave me the connection with my father-in-law that was lacking. We began to work together and he helped me get my bearings in philatelic scene. He has since passed on, but I am grateful for the chance to share something with him and I think of him often when I'm sorting through piles of stamps.

I didn't think I'd do much more than clean up my old collection. I guess I thought I'd give it to Sharon's dad or something. But tonight I found a few things from my friend's dad's collection that should live on in my collection. The stamps might not be valuable in a monetary sense, but they sure are valued.

One Step Forward, Ten Steps Back

I'm really not liking this Pope Benny, if he sticks around much longer the gains of Vatican II will be lost for the Roman Catholic church. Consider the reinstatement of the pre-Vatican II Latin Rite mass. This concession has appeal only for the hyper-conservatives who oppose the advances of Vatican II. Now I hear about the reinstatement of indulgences??? What the hell is Benny thinking. For those of us who know our church history, indulgences was a key contributing factor to the Protestant Reformation. The idea that the church can impart its supposed merit on behalf of another has no grounding in anything but medieval notions of a mechanistic relationship to salvation. I do x and God is obliged to do y, and it is all endorsed by the church. This is actually the sin of witchcraft, the idea that we can manipulate God. It is also bad theology of the Church which is not an independent repository of merit or grace. Grace comes from God alone and not on account of anything we do - it is a gift. Indulgences is a truly horrifying practice, an artifact that I had hoped had long since passed.

You know I would have no problem if Benny pronounced a special blessing on those who visited Lourdes, or even took up any of a host of questionable Roman Catholic practices. But by elevating this to an indulgence he has given in again to the forces that wish to see Roman Catholicism returned to the culturally neutered forms of the past. Bad move Benny, perhaps our Just God will extend your time in purgatory to compensate for the false bill of goods you just sold all those faithful Catholics.

Best Blog Post Ever!

Speaking of Scott, his blog is going on my blogroll next update. He has a great sense of wit. For your enjoyment please read this post all the way through!

Laugh out loud funny!

This is not Mysticism

This is just plain offensive. What have we come to that we can market such blatant self-indulgence as if it is legitimate spirituality? I like to party as much as the next guy, and I love to laugh, but this just makes me want to cry. The presence of God is never a joke, but from what I've seen in this and other videos - John Crowder is a joke. What kind of crap have we sown to reap this? For an analysis of Crowder's horrible attempt at preaching, see Scott's blog. In the meantime I'll just be over here lamenting.

On the Mend

I finally got sick of being sick, so off to the doctor I went. It has been a full year, I don't much like doctors. If you've been following the saga of my Masters year, you will probably recall that I've been sick a lot. This is not normal for me, I'm usually a pretty happy and healthy guy. But stress does a number on the body. A little over a week ago I got a bug which came with a sore throat, well the doctor confirmed that my throat is infected. I also have a burn on my leg that became infected. My immune system is working somewhat, otherwise my throat problem would have migrated to my lungs. But the pills he prescribed should bring me back up to snuff in no time. In a couple days I should be back on my game and ready to resume writing in a serious way.

I also got a call from my brother that my mom took a tumble and broke her collar bone! They took her to the hospital in Halifax as she might need surgery. They were planning on coming up in a few weeks, but I'd be surprised if they make it now. If you pray, please lift my mom up. Fortunately my sister can look after their store, allowing my dad to be with her. Of course that means my dad is driving mom crazy.

I have been picking away at my second chapter. I'm trying to take it easy to give my body a rest. It is a balancing act though - the more I put things off the more stressed I get over being able to finish it. I should be fine though. The more I pick away at it the more I am mastering the material that I am trying to present. Clarity is a good thing.

To relax I have been spending some time with my stamp collection. I sorted out a bunch of Dutch stamps yesterday, actually found 25 stamps that I needed for my album. There is something cathartic about sorting stamps. Not to mention that there is a redemptive story of God's grace to me behind my collection, I'll share that here sometime.

Survived Second Round

The changes my director asked for on this iteration of my first chapter (second round with her)are all much easier fixes than the last round. Nothing truly major, mostly just some inside language that I need to fix up. Inside language is terminology that is used as if it has self-evident meaning but really is jargon from within that community. The big one I've been wrestling with is Church. Originally I had used that term to speak of groupings of traditions and worldviews. But Church is too loaded a word to use without spending ample time setting up brackets around the meaning you wish to convey - and, as my director argues, if you mean something else then why not say what you mean. But this is easier said than done. As a result the only church I use that word for is in the naming of the emerging church.

I should finish the revisions of this chapter tonight. Last night I relaxed after a stressful day not wanting to get sick anymore. I've a good chunk of my second chapter done, too. This project is definitely taking longer than I would like, but it is coming along.

Teaching and RPGs

I just have to point to Dr. Chris Heard's tres cool post.

[THO] Todd Bentley has bad theology

"Miracles and healings are evidence," Bentley said. "They are signs of the Kingdom, and if we don't have signs then all we have is a bunch of theology. How one individual wants to interpret Scripture and how another individual wants to interpret Scripture."

Todd Bentley quoted in USAToday.

This is the kind of inane comment that I've come to expect from Canada's bad boy of evangelism. It ranks up there with nonsense like being spiritual without being religious or the completely ignorant claim churches make that they don't have a liturgy. Thanks to Scott for pointing this article out.

First off, the article points out that Bentley doesn't have the evidence he would like us to think he does. But, I don't think that he needs to have it. Yeah, I know, but that isn't the point. He also questions how one can be too focused on miracles, well here it is. You can be so obsessed that you risk fabricating proof, or worse you focus on the miracles so much that you miss what God is doing.

But to the matter of theology - I have two concerns.1) theology is not just about scripture and 2) you have theology whether you think you do or not, just some is bad theology and some is good theology. Bentley is definitely in the bad theology camp, but hey, lets tackle this one thing at a time.

1) theology and scripture

Scripture studies is one aspect of theology. Depending on who you ask, it is either one of the most important aspects or it is one of the least. Personally I'm somewhere in the middle. Wimber wisely cautioned the Airport church not to try and extrapolate scriptural "evidences" for the manifestations. If it is God then what does forcing a meaning onto a passage of scripture do but give detractors a case for your poor biblical theology. If it is God, then let it be God. Don't focus on those things, focus on what we do know - what John Wimber called the main and the plain of the gospel.

Also theologically one has to compartmentalize or else you cannot gain the critical distance needed to make a proper assessment of your theology. I know this is important especially when miracles are happening. Lots of great healing ministries crashed and burned because they thought they were the end-all-be-all of God's activity on the earth. Pride comes before a fall - always. I for one would love to see one of these movements pastored properly. But hey, we all have dreams.

2) You got theology Todd!

Theology is too much of an afterthought for folks like this. Just cause something seems to be working, does not mean it is good or right. There seems to be a notion that God isn't in theology, this notion comes from the anti-intellectualism we inherited from the Fundamentalist movement (early 19th century). Can you not see Paul shuddering at such a preposterous idea? I can. You have theology, you have religion, you have liturgy - now what are you going to do with it?

What are we so afraid of that we have to talk down to anything intellectual? I know this is there, I have had to deal with these prejudices in my own heart. Somehow thinking that God can't help me with my academic pursuits - even though I do them to honour God, is something that I've recently become aware of. (This is probably why I dislike this kind of anti-intellectualism so much.) God is not afraid of our minds. God is interested in a whole person and bringing whole people to maturity. Seriously, this is a need of our time. God is not afraid of the truth either - and just cause you've convinced yourself that you have the truth, doesn't mean you do. Theology is a tool that helps us in the quest for truth. It is a good quest and one God is in. But when we talk about theology this way, we are implying (as Bentley does) that the truth is in the miracles. That is scary because Christians don't have the market on faith healings. If we stop the quest for truth when we encounter a supposed miracle, then what an impoverished people we are indeed.

[THO] What is an Evangelical?

"Evangelicalism" is not, and never has been, an "-ism" like other Christian isms - for example, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, or even Pentecostalism (where, despite many internal differences, the practice of sign gifts like tongues speaking provides a well-defined boundary). Rather, "evangelicalism" has always been made up of shifting movements, temporary alliances, and the lengthened shadows of individuals. All discussions of evangelicalism, therefore, are always both descriptions of the way things really are as well as efforts within our own minds to provide some order for a multifaceted, complex set of impulses and organizations.

Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, 8.

[THO] Bush Presidency, Onion Style

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
If only Bush really did survey the damage he has done, not only to his own country but around the globe. Yesterday as part of the July 4th celebrations at the US Embassay they had a flyby from some US fighter jets. During that flyby, we were heading into the grocery store, let me tell you seeing US fighter jets fly North overhead was anything but comforting (I found out later that evening that it was part of a 'celebration').

[FUN] Pokemon

This morning Elyssa and I will be making up new Pokemon decks. One of the things that I love to do is play games, and there are a few games that I've found particularly fun to play with my oldest daughter. Just a note of clarification, there has been a bit of paranoia amongst Christians over many of the games I enjoy (see a great example here, I love how easy it is to blame children's misbehaviour on anything but bad parenting!). But despite the fear inspired assumptions, pokemon are not demons! The names are most often reflections of what that monster is - pikachu (Peek at you), Mankey (monkey man), Doduo (Do Do bird with two heads), etc. Nor is the game a gateway drug to Magic (as if there is anything wrong with the game Magic in the first place, but for the record I've felt no urges to play Magic the Gathering before or after playing Pokemon). Ok, nuff said.

I sometimes chat with other parents who are interested in the games I play with my daughter, because they too want to find activities they can share. Here are some of our favourites:

Pokemon TCG - It is a really easy game, there is some reading but a deck has 60 cards and most of it is learning the meaning of symbols and numbers (stats). The deck is shuffled so it is a new game every time, and cards are available everywhere, including pre-made decks with all the counters you need to get started. (5 stars)

Harry Potter TCG - Too bad this one is out of print. It has a similar dynamic to Pokemon, but it requires a fair bit more reading. The play is simple, collect lessons, cast spells and summon animals (all the things that make the magic paranoid Christians cringe!) - just be the last wizard with cards left and you win! This was our first TCG (trading card game) so it has a soft spot in our hearts. (4.5 stars)

The Kids Next Door (TCG) - The other TCG we play. This one is pretty much the card game WAR with flair. The best part is the make it yourself cards. Kids like it, it is simple, but it will not have as much longevity with the parents. (2.5 stars)

Carcassonne - This is a great little tile placing game, not very hard and no reading for kids. My 5 year old joins us in this game. (4 stars)

Sword and Skull - This is one of my newer games, picked it up for fairly cheap at CanGames this year. I also mentioned it in this blog post. This is an easy version of Talisman, and has a lot of similarities to Monopoly. There is a lot of reading for kids, but Elyssa is a voracious reader these days! You basically go around the board until you feel strong enough to take on the master pirate at the center, if you defeat him (or pay him off) then you win. (4 stars)

Roborally - A classic! I have the original with the pewter minis, and they've been painted by a pro (the guy on the left). Very little reading, basically you pre-programme your robot for five moves. You have to capture flags to win the game. As you play out those programmed moves bad stuff can happen! Lasers anyone? At CanGames there are always folks playing on custom (3D) Roborally boards. The game moves pretty fast, very enjoyable and better with more players. (5 stars)

Zombies - I know, this game is pretty grim. But if you don't use the cards, the game play is simply fantastic for kids. The zombies (you can get glow in the dark ones!) are silly and the goal is to escape with your life. This is a tile laying game with a twist. I've yet to play it with the cards, Richard introduced us to it at the cottage one year - we played with his daughters as well. No reading needed, but this game is not for everyone, but we like it. (4 stars)

Luxor - Ravensburger makes great games. This one is like a matching puzzle with an Egyptian theme. No reading and fun for the whole family. The best thing about this game is how awesome the game is made. (4 stars)

Of course we play normal games too: Sorry, Candyland, Bibleopoly (the game that is only really good with kids), Janga, etc. But those get boring pretty quick. I'm always up for new suggestions. Hope you get to enjoy some fun time with the little people in your life. I'm off to make my Pokemon deck!

[LIF] Happy Canada Day (2008)

Happy Canada Day!
My home has 100 years on me today. But I still love the old gal. I'm off to enjoy the festivities and hoping to see a mighty fine fireworks show tonight. Have great day all!

[LIF] Took a Day Off

Tomorrow I'm back at writing. Today I just hung out with my kids. We went to the store to get Lady in the Water, they had been asking to see that one again. It was there for $6.99, score! I bawled like a baby (again). I won't wreck the movie, it does have a few startles and a wolf-like creature, but I'm convinced it is a kids movie. It is based on a story M. Night made up for his kids. What gets me is Paul Giamatti's character, he does such a great job.

I also picked up Eastern Promises and Balls of Fury (I really like Christopher Walken, I hope this movie is totally odd). Rogers has a sale on for used movies. I plan on using these as carrots. I'll watch one when I get a draft of chapter 2 done and maybe the other after I make the revisions on chapter 2. Things are going well on my paper. I have the intro and first chapters in for my director to tear apart. I am pretty happy with it though, Sharon says it is my best work to date. I feel like I'm learning how to write all over again. My goal is to get it done (in the A range), but I want to master academic writing (as a skill) in my PhD programme. It is quite different than the stream of consciousness I can pull off on a blog. It is even quite different than the technical writing that I did when I was an IT policy analyst, and that was pretty precise work. I'm growing in confidence that I can actually learn this, and learn it well. It is definitely a particular skill.

[THO] Homosexuality on TV

I've been watching the Torchwood series online, a natural progression for a Doctor Who fan. Right from the get go there is a lot of ambiguity around Jack's sexual orientation. This just adds to the mystique of the show. I find Jack to be fairly unattractive too, which is odd because he is supposed to have this sex appeal. As the show unfolds we find out that this ambiguity has something to do with his origins in the 51st century where sexuality is a lot more fluid than we think of it today. Fair enough.

The last episode is a really good. Jack meets the real Captain Jack and his initial comment throws me, "I never thought he'd be so hot." It was like an aha moment. The series actually explores sexuality, but not very directly. In this episode there is a touching moment when these two men kiss. Yeah, you read that right, touching moment.

So I decided to do a little searching to see what folks were saying about this same-sex snog. One comment really hit the nail on the head (not sure where it was I looked at a bunch of blog entries). Basically it said that the american film/tv portrayal of same-sex acts of affection were distastefully executed, but that Torchwood was really tasteful. I must admit that even the kiss with James Marister didn't seem out of place - which is the way I would describe it. It seemed sort of a natural part of interplay with Jack's character - what I would expect Jack to be possibly do (will he kiss you or kill you? or both?)

But something about the sexuality of Torchwood does bug me, and it bugs me a lot.

As you can probably tell I'm not anti-gay. In fact I am quite comfortable with my own sexuality (I'm not gay myself) and with the sexuality of my gay and straight friends. Sexual orientation is something that doesn't throw me at all. I have my stance about what I think theologically about homosexuality, but what is important is that I'm not called to change or condemn anyone, but to love folks and reveal the love of God to them. Another discussion for another time perhaps - now back to my point. My problem is with promiscuity portrayed as a norm.

I think that Torchwood captures the promiscuity of our culture all too well. I am disappointed with any of my friends who treat sexual acts (including passionate kissing) like an easy commodity. I am convinced that promiscuity destroys the credibility of what should be positive events, like the gay pride parades. When my gay friend tells me that he is going to the gay bar where they "make out and shit" (his words) I get a sick feeling inside. It is not the idea of same sex partners kissing, but of random people "hooking up". I really want to see gay men and women who take pride in themselves and are not really just masking their hedonism with an excuse of sexual orientation. Promiscuity makes all gays look bad, and as a Christian I can't find any wiggle room in scripture on the issue of lust, either hetero or homosexual in nature.

This isn't a gay problem. I really am just as bothered when my heterosexual friends talk about casual sex (what the hell is casual about sex anyway?). It is a problem of not knowing how to deal, as adults, with our sexuality. I think we, as a North American society, are very immature in terms of sexuality. I could blame the puritans, but really it is up to our generation to decide if we are going to continue the madness. This isn't a gay problem, it is a people problem and it is a problem we need to face.

[THO] Attractional and Incarnational

I just finished up my first chapter with a brief, very brief, discussion of attractional church as a contrast to incarnational church. It is really evident how bad of a caricature this false dichotomy presents. I reflected back to Jerry Cook's discussion in Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness, where he contrasts the inward looking church-as-a-field to the missional, but horribly named, church-as-a-force. I think that the dichotomy does serve a purpose, it brings the paradigm you want to endorse (Incarnational, church-as-a-force, missional, etc.) into clear relief against a starkly contrasted position.

My concern over such word-play is that we miss the reality that these models function together. Of course there are various ways we can weight the influences - and I do think that a more incarnational focus is good. But the attractional church is not bad, it is not even undesirable - it is also good. I think that needs to be clear.

At our last pastors gathering, Gary Best took on this whole issue. His concern is that there are strongly attractional churches rejecting strongly incarnational churches, and vice versa. That to me is very sad. The last thing we need is another division in the Body of Christ.

What I propose is that we open up to and learn from each other. Fact is attractional churches do pretty sweet church. Incarnational churches do too, but the emphasis is a bit different and worth rejoicing in. The other fact that us emerging types need consider is that incarnational is often more of a talk than a walk, so what is the real difference between us and the attractional church? We all have a long way to go. Perhaps instead of stark contrasts we need to just enjoy the journey and embrace as many partners along the way as possible.

[THO] Landing and revising....

One of the tasks that I had to do was land on a topic for my paper. This sounds easier that it is. I had gone in several directions, but most of them were not well suited to a mere 60 page paper. Postmodernity, though an important topic, is really not something anyone can tackle adequately in such a short paper. Even if I were to look at cultural postmodernity, I'd waste half my paper just trying to establish what cultural postmodernity was and why it is different than philosophical postmodernity. Heck I'd even have to waste another half figuring out if there even is a postmodernity!

Because my passion is social engagement (social action with our whole bodies), I knew I needed a way to enter that discussion. My exploratory research goal was to figure out what theology(s) were animating/enabling/sustaining social engagement. My thinking was that this is a component of the emerging church puzzle that has potential for broad application in the evangelical church. I found pretty much what I expected - Kingdom Theology (a lot of it is from the Fuller influence), Cultural critique which is mostly a deconstruction of modernity, Ecclesial critique which also ends up as mostly a deconstruction of modernity, Missional Theology and Incarnational Theology. That's not all there is, but those categories allow us to group certain patterns of thinking from the writings.

I decided to do Incarnational Theology and I am using the response to cultural irrelevance as a way of getting into my subject. I am not looking at all the possible aspects of an emerging church Incarnational Theology, but really two features: The inward embodiment of Christ in the Church (how do we as the Church emulate Christ) and The outward presentation of Christ to the world. I'm borrowing one of Len Hjalmerson's term - Public Presence for that one.

I have a good chunk written now, but I had the emphasis on cultural relevance rather than Incarnational Theology, so I'm redoing what I've written. It is a tonne of work.

[LIF] Life is funny, sad and surprising

Sometimes life is an odd combination of all three and more!

What I thought was my good friends Jeff and Melanie just had their first baby. One of the reply-all responses to their announcement was, "Screenshots or it never happened." But what is sad is that I think life has become that blurred for many people. Screenshots indeed.

Sad because another dear friend was spilling his heart to me about how Christians had let him down in his hour of deepest need. That really surprised me too, but it shouldn't have, I've known for years that Christians tend to shoot their own wounded. Why is it that Christians can be some of the least Christ-like people on the planet? That is sad.

And lastly I was surprised to find some really dear but long lost friends on facebook. This is a couple that have encouraged me at critical moments over my life. They are the kind of Christians that make me proud to also be a Christian. Nothing funny or sad - just a delightful surprise.

OK, back to writing!

[LIF] Happy Father's Day

I wish all the fathers a wonderful day, not that I have anything against the non-fathers, or even against fathers having wonderful days at other times, it is just that today is Father's Day!

BTW I'm moving from the Fundamentalists to the Neoevangelicals today (in my paper of course).

[LIF] Writing....

shhhhhhhh. I'm writing my thesis.

[THO] Feeling a bit dizzy

I woke up today having dizzy spells. Probably a bug. It is pretty annoying because I'm so close to finishing my research work - ready to write. My director returns on the 10th from Crete, I need to have something ready to show her. But it has me wondering about why I have been so sick this semester. Seriously, I was sick just a few weeks ago, lost three days of research. And I have never been sick this often. Sharon is encouraging me to do a cleansing fast when I'm done. I think that is one aspect. Intense study has led me to not take as good care of myself as I should. So obviously that is one point. The other is that I've never worked as hard as I have this last semester. Sure I've pulled all nighters on projects, even sustained that sort of madness for weeks on end. But I really have had to run full tilt for months now, and it isn't letting up. Hence, my body is telling me that I need a sabbath.

Earlier I was holding my head and praying one of those desperation prayers - 'Oh God, not again.' It is frustrating when you can see the end in sight. But I also see several late nights in the library, banging out pages, sneaking sugar and coffee fixes. If you pray, I could use it.

The thing about being sick is that it is beyond your control. When the dizzy spells would hit it was all I could do to keep from vomiting. Now they are just dull occasional waves of discomfort that the back of my head. I like to be in control - but part of living life is learning that we are ultimately not in control. So much of what passes for Christian spirituality these days is about control. It is focused on us and helping us have the life somehow we've been told we should have. It is a funny reading of the Bible that lets us do that. Jesus himself is quoted as saying "in this world you will have trouble" but we seem to think Jesus was just having a cloudy moment. Funny, the disciples used to think the same think about Jesus' predictions of the cross - that was until they could no longer pretend Jesus was just joking. I think the same thing happens to us - we hit rough stuff and we can't pretent any longer. At least not right away. Getting sick reminds me of my need for Jesus. I need Jesus the realist who adds, "take heart I have overcome the world." Not so I can pretend life isn't hard, no, so I can remember who writes the last word. Jesus always has the last word.

Despite the sickness I will persevere. I'll probably have a rough month (again those prayers are appreciated). But at the end I'm confident that Jesus still has something to say. May we become less so he becomes more.

BTW Dan has a wonderful post on Lakeland, well worth reading.

[THO] It's a Western thing...

The debate over the emerging church is very frustrating for me. I continually feel that those attacking postmodernity fail to realize that simply pointing out the dangers of postmodernity will not dispell the changes we see in popular and academic culture. Just because there are changes does not mean we need to characterize or even demonize the changes, any more than we should blindly embrace every wind of change that blows across our landscape. I do get what is at stake epistemologically, however, I don't see much that really makes me want to return to even a moderate foundationalism as Scott R. Smith has suggested. I just don't think that truth is the issue here. (I also think that Smith fails to grasp the implications of the realization that we are a symbolic species, but his suspicion of evolution already reveals his bias. See Truth and the New Kind of Christian.)

What I am more and more convinced of is that we are in a liminal time, and likely will be for at least my generation. There will be and should be churches that are attractional, highly propositional, missional, incarnational and whatever-else-inal that our God given imaginations can concieve as long as these churches represent the important paradigms of thinking of people God desires to reach. Personally I think that the postmodern condition is the opportunity we need to shake up all that can be shaken in the church. At the end I expect that the Church will emerge stronger than ever, but I don't pretend to think it will necessarily look anything like it does today. It might be a small comfort to folks like Carson and Smith that they will only see rumblings of the future in their lives. Me, I'm just a bit more impatient, but I'm a realist. As a practitioner, leading a church into an emerging form, I know how deeply engrained modernist thinking is in people. This is the challenge of ministry in our day. For me I'd prefer to rise to the challenge.

[THO] Yup it's my Birthday

And I've been thinking about postmodernity all day. I've been thinking about how the critics of the emerging church like to cast one picture of postmodernity that isn't quite accurate and the emerging church itself resorts to modernist categories to cast it another way that also isn't quite accurate. But at the end of the day the postmodern condition is actually described by this mutual stumbling! It is enough to make ones head swim. So as a remedy I'm letting my lovely wife take me out to a comedy club (my first time ever) and we'll see if by the end of it I'm not laughing at the preposterous poject I call a masters research paper!

[LIF] Anticipation

Today I had my first appletini, it was soo good. (1 part apple vodka, 2/3 part Sourz apple, 1/3 butterscotch schnapps - shake with ice and strain into martini glass, garnish with apple slice.) I had to figure out how to make it for my party tonight. Sorry if you didn't get invited. We are just playing poker and we have quite a few coming, so we had to stop inviting folks. Sharon has some sort of prize lined up (something chocolate I bet) and I think she is getting me a cake!

My birthday isn't until the 3rd, but this was the best time we could find to do something.

I've been experimenting with blind structures that allow us to finish an evening at a decent time, but are also fun for everyone. Tonight we are doing 20 minute blinds and each person starts with $40K in chips. With this progression:

100/200/0 (ante)
200/500/0
500/1K/100
1K/2K/200
2K/4K/500
4K/8K/1K
8K/16K/2K
16K/32K/4K
32K/60K/8K
60K/100K/16K

Should wrap the game up in the third hour. We might do a break midway for appletinis and other fancy drinks. For those of you worrying, there is no real money involved, just food, friends and lots of fun! As you can imagine, I just can't wait!

[THO]I Want to Believe...

[EDIT] Some are claiming that this video is false, edited from longer talks to make false claims about Bentley's violence. I know it is edited, but I wasn't aware that it was edited in a malicious way. I certainly hope this is the case. However, it is disturbingly not far off of what I've seen in other feeds from Bentley's "revival". I have a hard time watching too much of Bentley because his fake accent drives me around the bend - that might be more about my own issues with my Pentecostal roots where literally you adopt that southern accent if you want to be taken as seriously "annointed".

Chris posted this video and I know it is edited, likely to put Todd Bentley in a worse context, but seriously Todd, get a fricking grip. I can see that you are emulating Wigglesworth in actions, but did Wigglesworth boast about his wackier actions in healing? I know others wrote about some of them, but Wigglesworth was a humble man of God. Seriously, can you picture Jesus behaving like you? "Yeah, I rubbed spit and crap in that guys eyes, you should have seen it dudes. Then he got healed." From what I've read Jesus was 100 times the healer you'll ever be, so you might want to take some notes.

The thing is I want to believe God does unexpected things, heck I've seen many amazing and unexplainable things! But you can't make light of this. And if you are just bullshitting us, then grow up already.

The other thing that bugs me is that for some reason Todd thinks that claiming God told you to live out your WWF fantasies at church is good enough explaination. If God told you, then obey. But you better be sure God told you or else have a good team of lawyers. Consider that a prophetic message, I call it common sense. If you did that kind of crap to me and then turned me into the story of the week, I'd definitely not be impressed. In fact I might just fight back (or run away as I don't wear biker boots!) Think about what kind of an example are you setting for those who want to emulate your ministry. I want to see more Jesus and less Todd Bentley.

[EDIT] RobbyMac has some excellent posts on this. My favourite.

[LIF] No Comment Wimps

Yeah, you know I'm talking to you. You post an item on your blog but leave no room for interaction. Come on. What are you afraid of? I know there are lots of wankers out there just waiting to crap on your ideas. Most of them will be Anonymous. But seriously. The day of talking heads telling us what they think and not having to face the questions is fading fast. So bring it on. Bring on the comments. Tell me I'm full of crap. But lets run with this thing. What are we afraid of? If we really love truth then we will risk all in the pursuit of truth, otherwise we just love our houses of cards.

I say bring it on baby, bring it on.

comments anyone?

[REV] Practitioners

Ok, I have read quite a few books from the emerging church conversation, after all that is my area of expertise. But I just finished what has to be the best book from the emerging church. Of course the best book on the emerging church is still Gibbs and Bolgers classic Emerging Churches, but that is more an exploration of what is the emerging church. This book is a diving into the conversation. And it is really well done. The book is called Practitioners: Voices within the Emerging Church.

The editors are Greg Russinger and Alex Field. The book has Joyce Heron (she married recently, what's her name now?) and David Ruis in there. Oh yeah, and Doug Pagitt who is rapidly becoming my emerging church hero! But it isn't the articles that make this book so good. In fact I think some of them are fairly weak, considering. What makes this book rock is that it is really a blog in print form.

At first this quirkiness bothered me. I wasn't getting it. Then it clicked, this is how a blogging generation interacts. And this book is interactive. How many books tell you to stop reading and do something, and have a splash page of options! That won my heart right there.

Truth be told they already had me at page 34. This book explores culture from the inside out. It isn't a reflection on culture so much as an expression of what the mutual encounter of gospel and culture can be. This book opens up conversations. This book opens up potential!

OK. I'm taking a deep breath. Ahhh, that's better.

I hope this isn't the only project like this. In fact this book came out in 2005, so the web component is already dead and buried. So sad. But don't like that deter you. This book is like a blog that won't go away. Robert Webber, in Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church, recognized that the voices in the emerging church conversation are not academic theologians, but practitioners seeking understanding of what they are discovering as new ways of being and doing church. Practitioners is a great case in point. I have to agree with McLaren's comment on the back cover, I too am greatly encouraged.