C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

So this is one of the 50 books I want to read and blog on this year. It is a super easy read, probably one of the easiest for me this year. Given my son's addiciton to all things Narnia and his desire to change his name to Peter and become a SpiderMan Knight...I read this book.

The first part of my reflection is this: "People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time." This is Lewis' version of paraorthodoxy. A lot of what Lewis describes in this book has to do with understandings of the kingdom of God. Obvious parallel's abound. Which brings me to today's rant:

I am so sick hearing of people criticizing emerging churches and theologies by saying that they are not new - that they have been doing them since _______(fill in appropriately irrelevant period of time). This whole thing about Emergent is about recovering a gospel which is not so affected by modernism; it's not about just being NEW! So, it's a cultural process and just because you finger painted Jesus when you were in middle school, you are not somehow culturally hip and Emergent. In fact, culturally hip and Emergent are mutually exclusive - they are not the same. I think this is the basis for a lot of this criticism - people who are scared and feeling like if they are not emerging then they aren't cool and will become irrelevant. All that to say - you don't need to announce that you are emergent or that emergent is a fad or say anything abstract about postmodernism to try to undermine it. For me, I am a postmodern person who grew up in a postmodern environment - it's not a bunch of intellectual abstractions to me; it's family, it's relationships, it's Jesus. Just because I (or Emergent) am (is) intellectually wired that doesn't mean that my (Emergent's) relationship with God is intellectual. (breathe!)

The second part of my reflections is how easily the culture industry is having their way with the church. We will sell our souls to any loser who makes a movie that has anything to do with religion. It's as if we don't even notice that if you want to make an extra $100,000,000 for your movie you should market it through chruches. Give pastors free sermons that interact with it and the people will go out in unthinking droves. I am so scared of the implications of this that I can't even imagine how badly we need to think this through. I'm not against Narnia, or DaVinci Code or Passion of the Christ - I just think that we need to be a little more aware of how Hollywood is whoring out the body of Christ.

I'm in...

Ok - so I know that I will have to do pennance for my past sins - more to Sarah Uhden than to Jesus. But I have long been an opponent to the hype that is Pirates of the Gayribean...er...Caribean. And yes I know that's not spelt rite - in the future spelling will be an art not a science.

Anyways - I have decided that I will become a Pirates of the Caribean fan. I won't dress up or anything silly like that, but I will pay my 9 bucks to go see the movie. And pay for my wife also, I'm good that way. Anywyas - I've always loved J.Depp and now I will be a part of his massive clan of followers.

And know the answer to the question you are asking your computer screen...why? What has swayed you? Here's the answer in the form of a quotation of dialogue from the upcoming sequel:

elizabeth: there will come a moment when you have a chance to do the right thing.

cap’n jack sparrow: i love those moments.

(pause)

cap’n jack: i like to wave at them as they pass by.

This post has been edited...

Mike King

Mike King runs a ministry in the middle of the country that I would take my kids to if I was in the middle of the country.

And his blog is killer. Talking about the DaVinci Code and sermon ideas, he recommends, "I'm Sorry that I have not taught the basics of orthodoxy and church history because I have been too busy teaching politics so it is no wonder you are bothered by something silly like the DaVinci Code."

Killer.

TidBits

Some random stuff that is affecting my reality...

>> The Canadian dollar has passed 90 cents which impacts the Candian economy in a negative way and has lined up the international oil trade with the Canadian dollar. The two have nothing to do with each other, but the international trade community seems to think so.

>> LJ is terrified of going numero duex - this morning he went and told Heather that his sides hurt - Heather told him that is his body telling him that he has to go to the bathroom - LJ said that it was his body telling him that mommy needed to hold him.

>> Chelsea is getting aggressive. Her career in mixed martial arts fighting is looking promising.

>> President bush finally called the Darfur crises a genocide. Finally...hopefully...

Sale of YS

Every youth pastor in the nation with nothing better to do watched a little video yesterday letting us know that Youth Specialties has been sold. YS is a big supporter of my ministry - they supply me and resource me and everything in between to help me be me.

I love that they are selling and gaining more resources through Zondervan. Zondervan, of course, belongs to News Corp, so now maybe YS will become more supportive of W., like FoxNews is (please note I am as serious about this as I am about the Christian butt-jeans).

Anyways - the biggest reason that I love YS is for the way that they make me feel "normal" for having a calling to youth ministry. Through their conventions, books, emails, and encouragment that makes them more than a company, they have become a friend/organization that isn't shocked for the love that I have for teens in Albany.

I am a friend of Emergent, yes, but I am a really good friend of YS!

Our Medium Group

I kind of lead our small group. Except there is about 18 people in it, so I like to call it a medium group. But I can't do that too often because it makes it sound like a coven. We meet everyother Friday night and pay to have the kids taken care of. I really love the people in our group.

We are normal people, ex-anythings that are trying to learn to follow and become a community of Chrsitians who are committed to each other, Jesus and those not in our medium group. We want Albany to be better because we are becoming more like Jesus. We want to gather and yet be different so that we have diverse relationships.
We are all similar age and have kids, but that was an accident (not the kids, the formation of the mediums).

So last week we started watching The Jesus I Never Knew with Yancey. When we came back from the video (VHS, we had to watch it in another room) I sat on the floor (like the hippy I am) and the whole group set up in stadium seating on the couch and stools behind the couch. Since I am trying to help us create a group instead of a feeding trough I asked (told) them to move around to the side and make more of a circle. I asserted my leadership. I got a couple weird looks but they moved and we had one of our best groups ever. The conversation wasn't all through me, it actually moved around the room and there was direct interaction between people. I was very blessed.

I am thinking about this, though, becauseo reading Dan Kimball's reflections on pews and thinking through my own theological avariance to pews (it worked in a system that is now obsolete). And I am thinking about our small group last year, where I tried to not be the leader and just be communal. That sucked. The group was great, and I loved the people, but we went no where. Albany was not better because we met on Friday nights.

This year I have been asserting myself as an emerging leader. It feels weird, different, but I am, I think, more truly living out my calling as a pastor when I am leading people (youth, adults, seniors, whoever). Not way out in front, but just barely ahead and helping them to come see more of the Jesus-way (props to Sander's Spiritual Leadership).

Who would have thought all this up? What a blessing to partner with the Lord in what is coming soon and is already here...but has been forever.

J<><

Sharks

Jaws came out when I was very young. I am afraid of sharks and because of that I hate them. I hate being afraid of anything. So I think I need to make it one of my life goals to touch a shark.



maybe a small one in captivity would be a good baby step...

SHAQ

This year I was nervous. I have to admit it. The HEAT just didn't seem to be getting it together. But - SHAQ IS BACK!!

scoring 49 points in two games on only 30 shots (let's see Kobe do that!) and shooting 73% from the line.

Detroit who? Pistons? I might remember them...they used to be the favorites, right? Before SHAQ woke up?

Doug Pagitt, Preaching Reimagined

I read this book before going to the National Pastors Convention (which is a set of blog posts that I need to finish) where I was going to learn from Doug. I went to a early morning book club, but Doug talked for a long time and I didn't get a chance to ask my questions...that sucked and I was disappointed for getting up that early.
This book is a viewpoint that preaching goes more on the pastor side (as oppossed to the prophet side, ala Driscoll and Bell). It has some really interesting insights - if you are one who leads and addresses the whole congregation, it's very likely worth the read. Here's some stuff that I was drawn to:

>> Doug's style of preaching is (self-) called progressional dialogue. He calles traditional preaching, "spreaching". Saying that the church is the only place in culture where spreaching happens. I think comedians do it to though...but I don't know what the implications of that are for preachers...

>> p. 31 "We tell the story of the Spirit blowing where it will. Yet we resort to speaching in an effort to protect the story, to make it digestible and applicable. The gospel is simply too powerful for that kind of control."

>>p. 35 "I'm not suggesting we need a new kind of preaching to reach a target market. Rather we need a new kind of preaching because we need a new us."
And I (james) think the same can be said for forms of church!

So what is the role of apostolic leadership in the emergent church?

>>Chapter 11>>Implication vs. Application>>This chapter put to words much of my thinking on the application/implications that are presented at the end of Purpose Driven sermons..."Think about the ways in which the disciples responded whenever they listened to Jesus preach. They wondered what this call would mean for them. They talked to each other about what they'd heard. They asked Jesus questions about how his words were changing them. They were not asking questions of application, but of reorientation."

The gospel is not a prescription!

What does this look like in youth ministry?

>>p. 145 on pastor burn-out rates: "Something is tragically amiss when the life-giving gospel becomes hazardous to the lives of the people most engaged in it."

Divorce kills the Sabbath. Kids spend the week at one place and the weekend somewhere else....where do they rest if both parents are trying to get maximum relationship out of the kids?

I think I like this book mostly because it helps me to go somewhere with my
thoughts. Pagitt doesn't tell me things as much as he gets me going in
directions that lead to really really awesome thoughts, feelings, changes
and expressions of Christianity in a postmodern world.

We've gone too far...

We should, in the America that is marketed Christianity, take notice when the Christianity we are marketed may have gone too far. This, I believe, is too far.



But it is so dang* funny!!

(*that dang was especially for Cassie...)

Recent Searches

Here's some recent searches that have ended up in the reorientation:

>> mtv overdirve (and yes, that's spelt wrong...)
>> "mark driscoll"
>> leron schults
>> "shed his blood with me today shall be my brother"

Prayer Rug

So I get this prayer rug in the mail, two or three times now and they say that if you mail it back, after using it, that you will be blessed a bunch. So I checked the appropriate boxes (asking for a blessing to cover all of our debt) and sent it in. Thing is, I used the name John E. Rocket. They sent me a book now! It's called the Seed Principle, and you can see where this is going. Apparently now I mail something else in, the little card on the back, and they rush me something else so that God can be my financial partner.

Th church website is here, and apparently they have been accused of being a scam trying to get people's money - I don't know how that could be!

This is even better than doing the publisher's sweepstakes!!

Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

After reading this book, I am going to buy Mark's other book, Radical Refomission. It's really, really super. I am going to go through my regualr drill of quotes, questions and thoughts, but you should know that I stayed up until 2 am on a Saturday reading this book, and then spent two hours praying really hard. Then slept for almost three hours and went to Sunday - ministering to/with people from 8 am to 10 pm with a 1 hour lunch and a 15 minute dinner - and I didn't feel all that tired...a little scatter brained, but most people don't notice that as unusual.

Anyways - here it is!!

>> I noticed right off that Mark sees himself as a missionary, and sees it as his job to know the culture and the things that are shaping that culture in order to help his church enter that culture effectively

>> In the introdution, question two had a great little checklist that can help be a diagnostic for some church leaders

>> p.22 "The emerging church is a growing, loosely connected movement of primarily young pastors who are glad to see the end of modernity and are seeking to function as missionaries who bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to emerging and postmodern cultures"

>>AMEN!! Are you glad to see the end of modernity?!

>>p.23 "Will you proclaim a gospel of forgiveness, fulfillment or freedom?"

>>p. 47 "Over the years, I have become increasingly troubled by the frequency with which young pastors simly dismiss the New Testament teaching on church leadership and discipline, so that f four guys are drinking beer in a pub, they can call it a church...[I say] that sometimes a whore wears the same perfume as a wife, and it's no different with the bride of Christ."

>>p.48 (on homosexuality in the church) "It seemed odd that a male greeter who had likely had sex with a man before church chastised me for wearing a hat in church because I was disrespecitng God."

>>p. 59/60 Mark gives an example of his fine counselling skills. Buy the book for these two pages alone!

>>p. 67 on marrying people, "knowing that their marriage is for the gospel as much as the gospel is for their marriage."

>>p. 71 "I can honestly say it was the gayest thing I have ever been a part of." (referring to a church painting party)

>>p. 77 in response to the desires of some to have collective sermon preparation...like Doug Pagitt's book, Preaching Reimaging, "My people needed to hear from God's Word and not from each other in collective ignorance like some dumb chat room."

>>p. 78 "I decided that being coo, having good music, understanding postmodern epistemology, and welcoming all kinds of strange people into the church is essentially worthless if at the bedrock of the church anything other than a rigorous Jesus-centered biblical theology guides the mission of the church."

>>p. 83 on his church changing meeting locations, "In the move, we lost some of our least-committed people, as I was hoping we would."

>>p. 103 "As I studied the Bible, I found more warrant for a church led by unicorns than by majority vote."

>>p.112 "As people completed the [membership] class, they were encouraged to either sign up as members or leave the church and go elsewhere."

>>p.113 on giving "So we started asking members for annual pledges, tracked their giving, and contacted them if their giving was significantly below their pledge."

And finally, why I love Driscoll...

p.182/3:

When we started the church, I was full of pride, and by God's grace, I am now down to perhaps half a tank. I routinely critiqued the work of other men, particularly older men who had faithfully served Jesus be reaching modern and suburban types of people. It was typical young-buck-in-rutting-season folly.
But now that I've had a few years of ministry beatings, I am increasingly grateful for the Christian leaders whom Jesus is using even if they are considerably different from me.

If you are a church leader, paid or not, buy this book. Make your mission the gospel of Jesus Christ.

THAT IS IT!

This is my final opinion on Mark Driscoll....drumroll: I love the guy.
...pause...
Like he cares.
...pause...
I don't always agree with his statements, or with his apporaches, but I do agree with a huge stinking lot of what he is doing and how he is doing it. Why do I put this post up? basically because I have been wavering for three years with what to think about the pastor who I totally relate to, but is just so different than me at the same time. Finally, three things have cemented my thoughts:

1. He changes. His opinion on things 5 years ago is diferent than now. This gives me permission to be the same. So I can blog and not have to worry about it when my kids read it 3 years from now, because I am in process.

2. I just finished his new book. I am going to go through it on this blog. It has moved me.

3. The advertisements for the men's retreat at marshill seattle are posters with the picture of David carrying Goliath's head over his shoulder back home. That is what men's ministry should be about. The MEN in the Bible....

4. I know I only said three...but on Mark's blog today he put a whole post on Ulimate Fighting and had this line about why more men aren't in church:

So, I’ll just say that while young men are watching tough men compete, the reason they don’t go to most churches is because they could take the pastor and can’t respect a guy in a lemon-yellow sweater, sipping decaf and talking about his feelings.

Bring it.

You have to read this...

I came accross this article today on Mike King's blog (see Sidebar). The main points are thus:

How has this unfortunate situation come about?

1) We have been more focused on sin than the sinner.

2) We have been more concerned with creating a safe society than with making a positive impact on culture.

3) We have bought into the notion that we could effect a change upon society through politics.

4) We have opted for morality over the gospel.

5) We have become the self-appointed last line of defense that God doesn’t need and never asked for.

And the best line is:

Who told us to become the Moral Majority? Why was that the most important thing? If we were listening to Jesus, why wouldn’t we have become the Merciful Minority, infiltrating the world with God’s love?

You can read John Fischer's article here: The Separation of Church and Hate.

Illness and Production

So the family is mostly sick. Lj is getting over it, Heather is in the middle of it and Khobi is about to get it. I went two nights with 2 hours sleep this past week. Really feeling stupid - which is awkward when people ask you something really simple and you can't figure out what's going on. It's probably my deconstructionist philosophy slowed down that is most frustrating. I kind focus on things in a holistic sense and answer the question at the same time!!

That being said, I have been productive lately:

>> I preached in church last week on the latter parts of Mark 12. Used the term revolution frequently and feared that people would dismiss it as "that young pastor"...so I prayed that I would never lose my belief and passion in the revolutionary ways of Jesus Christ. You can listen to the sermon online at our church website (it will only be there for 6 weeks - so get it while it's hot!). Also, I referred people to two websites within my spreaching, The Simple Way and the Jesus Creed. I also told people to google Gamaliel the Elder so that they could understand where Jesus was putting Himself in the theological context of His day...wondering if anyone did that....AND I gave an NT Wright article about the Historical Jesus and Christian Theology from his website. Can you tell I was trying to make the sermon more than a 20 minute speech? Check it out!

lj - emerging theologian 2

Tonight, LJ is haveing a hard time falling back to sleep so we are looking for a picture of Jesus with a blue sash on the internet. We find one, but it's not exactly the one we are looking for. Then LJ explains his theology of salvation...

That Jesus is my savior...he's my favorite one...he's my savior. Blue Jesus is in my heart...walking around trying to find his friends. And his parents are going to come and pick him up.

Thank the Lord LJ isn't a Calvinist...then he'd be really screwed up...kidding...mostly.

NPC - CCC#4 - Leron Shults

It seems it is taking me quite a while to work through a lot of my thoughts that developed at the National Pastors Convention. That's good - dang good - because my church fronted dolla's (that's rap for a bunch of cash) to send us. So, of course, they hope it's somehow worth it.


The fourth presenter at the emerging critical concerns course was Leron Shults. I had never heard of him before, but he would be THE reason I would consider going to Bethel Seminary. He is really smart (his blog is here), but he helped me to further develop my beliefs about process salvationism (combined with what Campolo taught about Einsteinian physics...more on that much later) and he writes killer books. He's also just one more reason why I keep thinking it sure helps you to be emerging if you are Wesleyan...

From the titles of his books you who think I am a little too deep can see why I am going to be buying them when my book buying fast is over:
The Postfoundationalist Task of Theology
Reforming Theological Anthropology: After the Philosophical Turn to Relationality
The Faces of Forgiveness: Searching for Wholeness and Salvation
Reforming the Doctrine of God &
Transforming Spirituality: Integrating Theology and Psychology

So here's what I heard and learned and thought...

> His main point was to talk about Decentering the Renewal: the disturbing spirit in the emerging churches

>the emerging church must be driven by a centrifugal force (out of control)
>examples of Jerusalem against Antioch as major centers of the early church

>the natural response to loss of control is fear (my thoughts: is that what the Spirit of God does...instills the fear of God?)

>Acts 9:31 =

>the secret to church growth is the FEAR of the LORD (we should fear no other) and comfort...these two conditions lead to vulnerability.

>salvation: the reordering of a community because of the presence of the spirit of God. (my thoughts: not only does this help me explain process salvationsism, but it is also a commentary of communal salvation...which I beleive in but don't totally understand, yet.)

Challenges from the panel...

> our theological categories must change because they are based on theories of understanding which are no longer contemporary.

> my notes: this is the massive underlying truth about the emerging movement - the old ways of knowing are leaving because the things that people believed were true are simply not anymore. It's very similar to the times when they found that the world is not flat...only now we are finding that the universe is not infinite, just curved. Funny thing is...some church leaders think that this is a load of crap, a fad. I wonder if that's what they thought when they suppressed Galileo for saying the earth wasn't the center of the universe...

Harambee this summer

Through a wildly God-ordained series of events, our high school group is following God's lead on a summer missions trip to Harambee Ministries in Pasedena, to serve God in the greater LA region.

It's so ffunny how, no matter how hard I seem to try, God gets His way and always has a GOOD way. So, is this a conincidence (LACY FOX!), nope, I don't think so. But I could be 90% wrong.

Either way, I think I might be more excited about this missions trip than the previous two (and I get pretty worked up about student missions) for a couple reasons:

1. We are not going in with YouthWorks. I love, absolutely love, YouthWorks, but we sensed God leading us to go it a little more on our own, so we are partnering with local organizations and just going in. This makes me nervous because I will really need to have a handle on things and I will need the best possible leaders.

2. We are going to LA, the furtherst this group has gone (since the South Tremont days...inside joke alert) since over a decade ago when they went to Mexico with Oregon City. This makes me nervous because of raising gas prices and long drives for my excellent leaders.

3. We get to meet and work with Rudy Carusco. I really love what he is about and the way he is engaging the emerging church in an urban setting, when so much of it seems to be happening to white suburbans...it's really a cool thing. This does not make me nervous.

So - all in all - this is really big....applications are due on Wednesday night.

ONLINE!

Heather finally did it! - she went ahead and called the company and got us the internet at home. Much kudos to here for holding out so long, though.

Now, I'll be taking bets for a pool to see how long before she sets up a blog. I don't think it will be long - and then the world will see (or the two or three people who actually read this) how Heather can rant with the best of them.