Discovering how healing it is to be @ Regent – to talk about life, vocation, spirituality with other ministers-to-be. There is healing happening here in the context of community. But as I look back in my life I have not always had such support; where the resources of community have been made available to bring restorative listening and “life coaching”. I think of my recent foray into church planting, which has potential to be one of the loneliest periods in a pastors life. So I wonder if there is a way to strategically subvert the alone-ness inherent in planting a church. I’ve already concluded after the failure of missio that if I were ever crazy enough to attempt planting again I would… Read more…
As per my talk last Sunday about rest, I’ve been finding the theme of rest popping up here and there; last Tuesday @ Chapel at Regent, and then different people talking about the need for refueling ourselves as ministers. I’ve heard much of the same that we need rest in order to give others rest, we need to replenish so that we have a resource to tap into to help others in need. Prescribed were all manner of things such as exercise, laughter, company, good food, plenty of water… so how do you stay healthy? How do you find that elusive “rest”?
Yeah, I don’t know about this one. And even less about the lyrics… anybody have any clues about what Bono and co. is on to here? Negativity perhaps, and the general mood of pessimism? It “needs a kiss”? Read more…
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…
This photo just ruins me.
I just want to hold the father and weep with him. You know what we have today is akin to the story of Esther – in which the day of Jewish extermination turned into the day of Jewish vengeance. Gaza is the modern-day Esther story. And like Esther, there is nothing holy about what Israel did in turning around and massacring her enemies. Isn’t it more clear already by now the injustice that is occurring in the so-called “Holy Land” is not just inhumanitarian, but flagrantly unreligious? How could this be the people of God doing these things? The following photos MUST be seen by the world. Proceed at your own risk – they are gruesome – but they must be seen. Read more…
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?
As it is pouring snow outside and I anticipate a few days of complete silence and confinement I turn my thoughts towards devotion:
Whatever your faith practice is, how do u begin your mornings? Read more…
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…
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