Love him or hate him – he’s important. He’s the new voice of evangelicalism, and while he may not have received the warmest reception from the chilly crowd in DC, he is going to be the next Billy Graham advising presidents and world leaders. He’s in a caliber of his own. So here I’ve transcribed the text of his invocation – it’s choppy – so feel free to correct – but what did u think of his invocation? Read more…
Will be preaching this Sunday @RCC about vocation and the theology of work. It’s also a great topic to gripe – err.. blog about. Sure people have a love / hate relationship with their work – where do u stand? I’d love to hear from you as I put my sermon together based on Ecclesiastes 2:11 – 24; perhaps your story will even find its way into the message. But tell me – do you love / hate what you do, and why?
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Apparently he’s in the news again, with rumors of making some kind of comeback via documentaries. While the past few years have been rough on him – some say the homosexual-bashing conservative evangelical deserved it – I don’t see what he’s trying to accomplish with a public statement – perhaps some vindication. You gotta feel bad for the guy – his life, vocation, future, promise, career, possibly family life – all destroyed. As a pastor myself I am sad for him, but at the same time I don’t know why he’s trying to get in the spotlight again – no one ever really recovers from these things. But the real question is – how did this ever even happen in the first place? Did he have any accountability or any confessor at all? Was he alone in his struggles? And how much imbalance did he have in his life to get to the point where he was using crystal meth and seeking out prostitutes? I know first-hand the hardships of pastoral ministry – but someone tell me -
how does somebody get like that?
No better way to get the year started, aye?
Instigated by my recent foray into the theology of the Old Testament under professor Ian Provan, I found myself fascinated by a number of things – his perspective on Ezra / Nehemiah / Esther for one – but also the look into the wisdom lits, particularly Song of Songs. Long been held an allegorical reading of the love of Christ for the Church, I’ve always walked away thinking that was a stretch; it always seemed to me a pretty obvious picture of one thing: eros. Defining songs as allegorical just never really convinced me as I can’t seem to see that as the author’s intent. At any rate this is not so much about splitting hermeneutical hairs as much as it is about the deep redemptive value of a theology on sex; Songs has the potential to address the neurotic dysfunctionalism of our view on sex today; the problem is the allegorical message of Christ and the church keeps getting in the way – it seems to be blinding us to the more obvious – the literal interpretation of songs as a theology on the “healing of sex”. But at any rate:
Is there indeed, such a thing as a “theology of sex”? Is it in there, in the text? Is it an a priori of secularism? Is it relevant, devotional-type material? Can you make heads or tails of it? Does it speak to the church or the individual?
Maybe last night’s sermon @ NCC that Christmas is “jihad” went too far. Read more…
Which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying “What is church?”
So contribute your thoughts, perhaps it will land in (or influence) the paper I am writing now titled, “The Kingdom As Church”. What is church? Is it a congregation? An established institution? Is it static and theoretical or dynamic, mission-birthed, people-oriented? Do you jive with the polemics of the progressive anti-institutional intelligentsia or do you prefer the familiarity of the old forms, traditions, liturgy, patterns? My answer to that question would be “yes, and…” but at any rate…
Further ponderings on the “success” question.
Some may disagree but I think there is a legit need to define quantifiable progress in church / missionary endeavor. Sure numbers are not everything but I think it’s necessary to know what is the telos of our work. A paradigm of mission is needed. Do we do good for goodness’ sake or is there a deeper reason? Before you fire off and say “Why? Do we always need a reason to do good?” I would say place yourself in my shoes of shutting down a dream and re-ask that question. Why do good if in the end it doesn’t happen? Why do good if in the end your efforts leave you discouraged, burned out, sucker-punched? Of course we could say with Mother Teresa, “do good anyway” – but that is not enough. There must be a telos to all of our frenetic religious activity. There must be quantifiable results. What are we driving at / towards? We must be able to answer that question. And the answer must be bigger than us. So what do I think is the telos of all missional / missionary activity? Read more…
Man it feels good to be back in Canada.
The above title was the convo @ the church planters gathering in Bellingham (Hothouse). Some of the attention was turned on me as those gathered knew about my recent heartache of closing down a church. And so I was queried about how I felt and if it was a loss or waste. It was therapeutic to be a bit narcissistic and talk about my angst but at the end the question was on the table and still stands: Read more…
It’s with a heavy heart that I announce this Sunday will be the last service for missioDei. Just shutting down the website now almost made me tear up, and convos w/folks have made me somewhat more heavier this week. There were some tears at the past few services and folks have been sad but supportive. I’m making the rounds now to make sure those committed few will continue to grow and get plugged in somewhere. What really bites is knowing that some great people invested deeply in us and if you know me you know that one of the things I hate the most is disappointing people. I wish I coulda done y’all proud but things just didn’t go our way. So here I am eulogizing the past 2 years with missio: Read more…
Thoughts galvanized by David Park re: Rev. Jeremiah Wright
Granted, the need for liberation amongst Asian-Americans is not really a pressing concern – after all, what do we need liberating from? But I think David is spot-on with his assessment of the future of Asian-American religion. Do we remain the strong, silent, passive types or do we have it in us to be aggressively assertive when it comes to relevance in American society today? I quote: Read more…
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