the grenzian

I Am the 1%

2011-11-30T08:14:00.001-06:00

Over the past few months, I've watched the Occupy Wall Street movement with great interest. In all honesty, I haven't known what to think. On the one hand, there is much in OWS with which I agree:

I agree that our politicians have been corrupted by corporate interests.
I agree that our consumption is way out of control.
I agree that unemployment, student loan debt, and poverty are issues that need to dominate our national conversation.
I have been appalled by the way some Occupy groups have been treated by police while they attempt to peaceably protest.

At the same time, there are things about Occupy that don't resonate with me:

I'm not sure why, but class warfare rhetoric just doesn't resonate with me.
I also am amused by the seeming double standard of protesters using their iPhones to tweet complaints about big corporations.
I've struggled with the inconsistency of cities like Richmond VA, for instance, that have allowed Occupy groups to use free-of-charge the same park that it charged the Tea Party nearly $10,000 in fees to use.
Most significantly, I am predisposed to distrust government solutions to problems, and - I may be wrong about this - but most of the demands being made by the Occupy groups accompany suggested government solutions.

In the last few weeks, however, I've started to think differently about the whole thing. Though it has had an impact in other countries, Occupy is a very American kind of protest. Its primary branding is related to the top 1% of America's wealthy versus the 99% of everyone else in our country. The "We Are the 99%" posters are brilliantly effective.

Here is what I've been wondering about. OK, so I am in the 99% in America. But where do I rank globally? It's not just about America, right? We are a global community with responsibilities, not just to ourselves and our own national interests, but to all. So ... who are the top 1% on the planet?

I did a little research (googled it up on my google machine), and here is what I found.

According to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic in his book The Haves and the Have Nots, to be in the top 1% globally, you have to make $34,000 per year. I am in the top 1%, and I bet a lot, if not most, of you reading this are too. Here's the breakdown:

$34,000 per year - top 1%
$18,500 per year - top 5%
$12,000 per year - top 10%
$5,000 per year - top 20%

Does that change our perspective at all? Does that change the conversation?

It is so easy to vilify the other, the Wall Street banker, the politician, the corporate tycoon. It is much harder to admit that I can find myself among the other. It is so easy to target the greed of the wealthy and fail to see my own constant consumption.

Certainly, it is important to have prophetic voices that highlight the abuses of those in power. But maybe those in power aren't just the Wall Street banking vice presidents in their $3,000 suits. Maybe those in power are also the soccer moms shopping at Target. Maybe those in power are me. And you. Maybe the finger isn't just pointing at the politicians in Washington. Maybe the finger is pointing at me too. And at you.

In 1 Timothy 6.17-19, Paul tells Timothy this, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."

This passage is about me and just about all of us here in America, for we really are rich in this present world. That wealth must not make me - or us - arrogant, but so often it does. Somehow, it needs to drive me - and us - to put our hope in God. And I - and we - need to find ways to invest in others so that we can take hold of a life that is truly life.

It's a good thing that it's Advent because these are the kinds of issues this season conjures up in my heart. Goodness. Generosity. Sharing. These are the words that are resonating with me. I'm looking for ways that I can take what I have been richly given and use it for the good of others ... not just here in America, but around the world:

We are talking to our kids this Christmas about consumption and not needing more stuff just for the sake of more stuff.
I am thinking about the people across the globe who have had a hand in what I enjoy, be it the clothes I wear, the technology I use, or the food I eat. And I'm trying to give thanks for them and pray for them when I remember them.
I am looking for needs to meet. I am hoping this Advent season to do some small but significant things in the lives of others, generously sharing what I've been blessed with so that others can enjoy God's blessings too.

I'm in the top 1%. Given that I am an American, there is almost nothing I can do about that. It simply is reality. However, there is much that I can do for the sake of others, and that is where my focus is now.

How about you? What's on your mind this Advent season?

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Why I Don't Believe Herman Cain

2011-11-29T08:28:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure I can remember a primary season quite like the one we are in the midst of. From the beginning, Mitt Romney was crowned the front-runner, even though his support rarely waivers from about 20% of likely Republican voters. Each challenger to Romney has taken his or her turn.

First it was Michele Bachman. She won the Iowa straw poll on the same day that Rick Perry announced he was running for President and she got John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy mixed up. (How did Rick Perry put it ... "oops.")

So ... everyone's attention turned to Rick Perry. We've got experience with a Republican governor of Texas being President. What could go wrong there, right? Until we saw him debate ... and that was long before the "oops."

Next up - Herman Cain. Interesting personal story. Something different and unexpected, a black conservative businessman, a true outsider. Certainly, he doesn't have a grasp of all the issues, but he'll learn in time. He's the man ... until the sexual harassment charges begin.

And so now, Newt Gingrich, an intriguing yet flawed candidate in his own right, is the latest ABR (Anybody But Romney).

--

But before Herman Cain is completely disregarded and discredited as a candidate, I want to take a moment to say a few things about the charges leveled against him.

I'm pretty skeptical of the media. I don't believe much that I see or read. I tend to think that authors and writers have agendas that bias the way they report. (I know, I know, it's a jaded way to look at the world, but I can't help it.) Given my own bias to distrust, I would have thought that my reaction to the Herman Cain sexual harassment allegations would have gone something like this:

"Here we go again. When it comes to conservative black men, the partisan media only has one play in their playbook - accuse them of sexual harassment. They did it to Clarence Thomas, and now they are doing it Herman Cain. Ironic? No. Proof that he's innocent."

But that wasn't my reaction. My reaction was that I didn't believe Herman Cain's denials of the sexual harassment charges, and I don't believe his denial of the most recent affair allegations. I think he is lying.

Why I think he's lying may be the most interesting part.

For a decade now, I have been a faithful reader of a fantasy football website called Footballguys.com. The site has a message board called the Free For All where people talk about all sorts of topics. I very rarely contribute, but I try to stay up on most of the conversations. Back in May, a thread began about Herman Cain. In it, some anonymous poster named Jutz wrote this:

Posted 25 May 2011 - 09:40 AM

So... is anyone up for some Herman Cain rumor mongering?

My mom used to work for her home states restaurant association. Each state has a restaurant assoc. and they all roll up to the National Restaurant Assoc. Herman Cain used to be the CEO and president of the National Resturant Assoc. I was watching Fox and the name Herman Cain comes up from the debates. My mom basically says something like...

Herman Cain... the Hermain Cain that was president of the National Restaurant Assoc? He is a player (or something like that). We were all at a meeting and he was blatantly hitting on the head of our (insert town name) chapter president that organized the whole event. They said he was hitting on her all night and later on tried to get her to go to some shady bar's back room area... or something like that.

Yes, my mom has been known to make up stories from time to time, but she has no reason I can think of to make this one up. She might remember wrong though too.I'll be curious if he keeps doing well if any 'stories' will come out.

(Here's the link for those of you who are as jaded as I am.)

Several months later, some stories did come out. And, for better or for worse, I am left thinking that Herman Cain is a liar because of what some anonymous dude on the internet says his mom said.

Am I crazy for believing a fantasy football message board poster and not believing a candidate for President of the United States?

The Thanksgiving Post

2011-11-23T18:32:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. What's not to love?

The best meal of the year.
Gratuitous football.
The parade.
Colder weather.
Leaves changing colors.
Pie.
An entire season devoted to the colors orange and brown.
Silly songs about turkeys.
Leftovers.
The start of Advent and the Christmas season.

Probably like most families, one of our Thanksgiving traditions is to go around the table at our Thanksgiving dinner and have each person share what they are thankful for. Most of the answers are good and appropriate things like "family" and "our home." Often, we'll talk about the things that happened in the past year for which we are grateful.

This year, the focus of my gratitude is a little bit different. I'm not necessarily thinking about where we have been ... but rather where we are going. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for this past year:

Vanessa and I celebrated our 15th year together.
The kids continue to grow in wisdom and favor with God and others.
I don't think Vintage has ever been stronger.
We had some great experiences, like our family vacation in St. Louis.

I could go on and on about the past. But right now, I'm looking forward. And I'm really grateful for what is on the horizon:

The challenge of a new job with a new company.
The opportunity to work from home and create a whole new rhythm of life for myself and our family.
A book to be finished and published in the coming months.
Vintage has never been stronger.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm looking ahead and giving thanks for the road that lies before me.

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What I Learned in My, Albeit Short, Foray Into the Job Market

2011-11-19T11:00:00.001-06:00

On October 24, the company where I have been employed for half-a-decade announced that it would be closing at the end of the year. (Ironically, that day was my 5 year anniversary with the company.) The owner's readiness to retire coupled with upper management's belief that the death of the book in education is imminent spelled doom for a textbook wholesale company. After the announcement was made, I walked back to my cubicle dazed and confused, just like all of my coworkers. In the intervening weeks, the story has changed a bit. We were for sale with several very good potential buyers, and we would only close if we weren't sold. Uncertainty reigned.

On November 17, three and half weeks later, I accepted a position at another textbook wholesaler. Starting in December, I will be the Director of Business Development for them, doing a lot of the same things I've been doing for the past 3 years. But I'll be working from home with a team that is much more bullish on the future of textbooks in education. When I informed my boss, I knew what would happen next ... I was escorted out of the building, a necessity since I had signed on with a competitor. Just a few goodbyes to my teammates who were still in the office. No opportunity to say "thank you" to the people who believed in me and gave me the chance to succeed. More than a day later, I'm still feeling sad about that.

In the three and half weeks of work limbo, I learned (and re-learned) some important things about God, life, and work. Here are some thoughts about it:

You Can't Manage Results, But You Can Manage Activity
I read this line in EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey. He was talking about how to manage people, but I applied this lesson to myself as I was suddenly thrust into a job hunt. The results were clear: I needed interviews that would lead to job offers. But there was very little I could do to make that happen. I suppose I could have occupied some office and demanded a job, but the results I was after were the decisions of other people. I can't manage those. But I could manage my activity that could contribute to those results.

So, each day, I made a to do list of activities I could manage. In the first few days it said things like: rework resume, update cover letter, confirm references, write reference letters for team. As the days dragged on the same activity-oriented items appeared on my to do list: think through network, visit online job sites, send thank you email for interview, troll LinkedIn.

The atmosphere in the office was one of mutual support; we were all rooting for each other to get a job. We would joke around with the person who showed up for work obviously wearing interviewing clothes. But I was amazed at the people who did nothing. I would ask them how their job search was going, and they would say they hadn't really started. "I need to update my resume. I need to get to it." I would always walk away from these conversations wondering where they would be come December 23 ... our collective D-Day. As much as I wanted the best for them and myself, the only thing I could really do was manage my own activity. And so that was my daily focus.

The Power of Network
I could only imagine my resume coming across the desk of an HR person: seminary degree, Bible college, pastoring. When we first moved to Arkansas, it was worse, but I still wondered if I would be taken seriously by anyone looking to make a hire. When I sent my resume off, virtually anonymously through monster.com or one of the other sites, I did so with a lot of realism. I didn't think I was going to get a call back from any of those HR managers. And I didn't.

But ... if a friend who knew me, knew what I brought to the table, knew how my skills and experience translated to different business needs recommended me to a hiring manager, that would be a whole different ball game. And it was. Within hours of the announcement, I was reaching out to friends, asking for their help. I was amazed and humbled at what it produced - sincere offers to help from both people I knew and strangers, meetings with significant business people in Northwest Arkansas, interviews, second interviews. Results.

A week or so ago, I heard Dave Ramsey on the radio reference the book The Power of Who and say that just about everybody in this job market was getting hired through the power of networking not by responding to ads on the job sites. I knew I was on the right track.

The Roller Coater Sucks
I love roller coasters at amusement parks. I hate them in other parts of life. During our company limbo, the roller coaster went up and down: We have prospective buyers. Things fell through. Another company is coming in next week. Customers are abandoning ship. Tell customers that we are optimistic about our ability to continue serving them. Up and down, up and down.

More than once, a coworker sat in my cubicle, red-faced and insistent that we shouldn't give up. I agreed, but I also didn't believe that we could do much to influence the company being sold. And if it did sell, we couldn't bank on our jobs still being there. I just wasn't going to get on that roller coaster. It wasn't that I was being negative. I was trying to be realistic. And I wanted my team to be realistic. And honest with our customers.

The wisdom of Proverbs says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. I struggle enough with anxiety-ridden pain around my heart. I didn't want to add to it by riding the roller coaster of unfounded hope.

Positive Support
In the past three and half weeks, I've had days when I felt utterly hopeless about my prospects of getting a job. I imagined myself standing in line at the unemployment office in January, humiliated and hopeless. That's the situation of 1 in 10 people in our country; why would I be any different?

I consistently had the positive support of Vanessa, friends, and the community of Vintage. All of them were encouraging, not offering cheap cliches, but putting their arms around me and saying that they loved me and were behind me. They participated in my personal ups and downs. They rooted for me when I had interviews. And they shook their heads encouragingly when I got those "thanks but no thanks" emails. This time would have been a lot darker for me without them.

Grace
Is it cheesy to believe that God in his grace actually provided the job I accepted? Here's the thing. Back in August, Vanessa and I were expressing to the Vintage Oversight Team what we were hoping for related to my employment: a bit more money, a bit more freedom, a bit more influence over my own success. The job I accepted gives me all of that. I don't know why I was blessed with this opportunity while so many others struggle to find work in this bad economy. I certainly don't feel like I've earned this. And that leaves me with only one explanation - grace.

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Purity, Penn State, and All of Us

2011-11-10T09:33:00.001-06:00

The Freakonomics documentary explores corruption in the world of sumo wrestling. In the book, sumo wrestlers were exposed for fixing matches to benefit one another in rankings and, therefore, social status and salary. The documentary takes this expose a step further, asking questions about how the cultural perception of purity that sumo wrestling has in Japan actually enables the cheating to take place.

Two Japanese words tell the story. The tatamea, the facade of propriety, that sumo wrestling has through its use of Shinto purification rituals hides the home, the real truth, that sumo wrestling is rampant with corruption and cheating. Here is how the authors of Freakonomics describe it:

"Purity is a good mask for corruption because it discourages inquiry."

"The illusion of purity can not only hide corruption; it can help to make it possible."

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Within the last week, the mask has been pulled off of the Penn State University football program. For years, Joe Paterno has been held up as the paragon of what is good in college sports. He was the successful coach who did it the right way. He ran a model program. He was the living legend. The college football coach of the year award is named after him. He was the moral compass of collegiate sports.

The tatamea is the aptly named Happy Valley, where there was no need to suspect any kind of corruption because the pure Paterno reigned. The home, the real truth, was that the program with the reputation of purity actually employed, protected, and gave access to a brutal pedophile.

Certainly, Jerry Sandusky, the pedophile, is responsible for his actions. But he is not alone in culpability. Penn State, Joe Paterno, the college sports media, and all of us, share the culpability for perpetrating the myth that the Penn State program under Joe Paterno was legendary for doing things the right way. The illusion of purity that we all participated in made the corruption possible.

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Penn State is not alone. Churches and Christian organizations have suffered through this same kind of humiliation as the reality of their corruption has been made public. Certainly, the easy example is the priest pedophilia scandal in the Catholic church. But much closer to home for me is the ongoing investigation into the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism and its protection of a pedophile doctor in Bangladesh.

ABWE projected an image as a professional and pure proponent of the gospel, as the best mission agency with the best missionaries. Accusations of abuse were covered up because they threatened to tarnish that image. The home of pedophilia might compromise ABWE's ability to continue its tatamea of spreading the gospel. Even now, sadly, it seems like ABWE is still trying to sugarcoat the story to protect its image.

Certainly, Donn Ketcham, the missionary doctor in Bangladesh who perpetrated the pedophilia, is responsible for his actions. But he is not alone in his culpability. ABWE, its administrators, missionaries and supporting churches are all responsible too because they perpetrated the myth, not the reality, of ABWE. There was no need for anyone to make an inquiry because the mask of purity was hiding the corruption.

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Individuals do this too. If we act better than we are, people won't ask us hard questions. If we project an image of having it all together, people will just assume that we do. If we wear the mask of purity, we can continue to be corrupt without suspicion.

Here is what I propose:

How about we all just stop pretending?

How about we stop putting ourselves or each other up on pedestals?

How about we stop thinking that some politician, some football coach, some preacher is a moral compass for us all?

How about we stop trusting that governments and movements and corporations and charities and churches are pure or benevolent?

How about we all give up our bias of purity and employ a healthy dose of cynicism in regard to just about everything?

How about we all get real?

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"Sunlight is the best disinfectant." - Louis Brandeis

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Things That Didn't Get Said: further reflections on the atonement

2011-10-16T19:16:00.000-05:00

Today at Vintage, we held a theological symposium of sorts, which you can listen to here, or you can search iTunes for Vintage Fellowship. In our journey through Romans, we have encountered the idea of the atonement, what the death of Jesus accomplishes for us. So, today, we decided to pull back and consider the atonement from a broad theological perspective. We talked about how the best stories can be told and retold from various vantage points and with different emphases. The story of the cross is no exception. Throughout its history, the church has told the story different ways.

Ransom: The death of Jesus bought us back from the power of the Devil.
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Release: The death of Jesus freed us from the power of sin and death.
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Redemption: The death of Jesus paid a price we could not pay on our own.
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Representation: The death of Jesus exemplified God's love for us.
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Reconciliation: The death of Jesus provided a way for us back into relationship with God.
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Re-Creation: The death of Jesus inaugurated a new world and reality.

In the hour or so that we discussed these, there were several important considerations that didn't get mentioned explicitly. They are too important to just ignore, and so I thought I would blog them. Anyone, those who were at Vintage today and those who weren't, are more than invited to join the conversation.

Metaphors

Throughout our discussion today, we referred to the various ways to tell the atonement story as "theories." This is quite common, but the more I think about it, the more unfortunate I think it is. I think it would be better to refer to them as "metaphors."

Theories compete with one another, causing division and argument. Theories typically attempt to be a comprehensive explanation of something and can be easily rejected out of hand. Metaphors are different. Metaphors shed light and spread understanding without explaining everything.

If we think of the various atonement stories as metaphors rather than theories, we can learn from each of them, recognizing that each has something to teach us even without telling the whole story. As metaphors, the stories of the cross are limited and yet complimentary.

Hebrew Sacrificial System
A couple of times this morning, we mentioned the Hebrew sacrificial system and the idea of telling the story through the lens of Jesus being the Lamb of God. What I intended to do and yet failed to do because of time (and my faulty memory) was to place this metaphor as a viable alternative to penal substitution. Penal substitution sees the atonement as a price paid on behalf of a guilt party by an innocent party within the divine courtroom of a just Judge. When penal substitution is told in such a way as to present God the Father as an angry, vindictive being, it can come off as bad news, not good news.

And yet, the themes of substitution are present throughout the Scriptures. In the Hebrew sacrificial system, the guilt of sin was transferred to an animal which would be slaughtered so that its blood could be a covering for sin. Jesus is the substitute for the sacrificial lamb, whose blood covers our sin so that we can be forgiven.

Universal Component
Today, like often happens in atonement discussions, we focused almost exclusively on the personal benefits of the atonement. We failed to explore the universal implications of the atonement. The death of Jesus is not just life for me. It impacts, in biblical terms, all tribes, tongues, and nations. The death of Jesus impacts the planet and the cosmos. Whenever we tell the story as purely a personal story, we miss the important universal components of the story.

I feel like we just began to scratch the surface this morning of what could (and maybe should) be a full semester of discussions. Thankfully, we have a lifetime to explore together all that the death of Jesus means to us.

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Book Reflection: The Pastor by Eugene Peterson

2011-10-11T17:50:00.001-05:00

My dad gave me his copy of Eugene Peterson’s memoir, The Pastor, when he was here visiting this summer. It sat on my dresser for months. Patiently waiting. Symbolic of the vision of pastoral ministry sketched by Peterson in this book.

Peterson is most well-known as the translator of The Message and the author of several books, including the wonderful Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places and A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. But he doesn’t find his identity in these accomplishments. In his memoir, he finds his identity as the pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in BelAir MD. In The Pastor, he tells his story with humor and depth.

Clashing Visions of Pastoral Ministry
The contemporary vision of the pastorate is one that has been co-opted from the business world - pastor as CEO, pastor as manager, pastor as marketer, pastor as politician. The church of today has bought in to this vision with little reservation. If people’s expectations for their pastor aren’t met, they jump shipping, shopping for who can deliver what they want. As a result, pastors twist themselves into knots, seeking to satisfy while serving.

But Peterson’s vision is so very different, so counter-cultural, so radical. He envisions himself as an unbusy pastor. A pastor who has the time and energy to listen to the stories people are telling about their lives. A pastor who has the time and energy to listen to the story God is telling. A pastor who has the time and energy to connect the two.

I am reminded of Moses, rebuked by his father-in-law Jethro for being too busy to represent the people to God and represent God to the people. I am reminded of the Apostles in Acts, appointing deacons so they they wouldn’t be too busy to give themselves to prayer and study of the word. I am reminded of myself, too busy to pray, too busy to listen, too busy to think, too busy to care.

The Pastor is a wonderful affirmation of the kind of pastor I am trying to be - unbusy, gentle, patient.

As I read Peterson’s memoir, I kept expecting the chapter where he would tell the juicy stories, air the dirty laundry, and show the scars of battle. But it never came. A time or two he hints at an awkward situation, but this is not a book about how to deal with conflict or the crazy people in your church. He doesn’t let on about any sleepless nights he might have had over the people in his church or if he walked around with a pain around his heart like I have for years.

He doesn’t see people as problems. As a pastor, he is not a therapist. He sees his role as listening to and loving people. He isn’t a pastor to fix people. He is a pastor to call people to worship God. And this results in his profound and overwhelming gentleness.

Gentleness doesn't come naturally to me. I am sarcastic. Really sarcastic. I admitted to the folks at Vintage a few years ago that often, I don't really even like people. Hyperbole? Maybe, but still a liability for a pastor. It is in this that Jesus has made all the difference. His life and ministry were all about people, meeting them where they are and having conversations with them. Full of grace and truth. What I am not naturally, I am pursuing for the sake of Jesus whom I follow. Peterson's memoir gives me a good look at what that might look like in today's American pastorate.

And Peterson’s vision of pastoral ministry is one of patience. He co-opted the phrase “a long obedience in the same direction” from Nitzsche, and I have co-opted it from him to describe my life of following Jesus. People don’t change overnight. Churches don’t have to be big and effective in two years time (if ever). Pastors don’t have to have all the answers, right here and right now. We can be patient with others, with our communities, with ourselves.

When we started Vintage, there was all kind of pressure to “succeed” immediately, to be big, to make a big impact ... like the shape shuttle launching. I spent the first few years of Vintage’s existence feeling guilty that we were not bigger, not more than we were. But I don’t feel that way anymore. I’m not in a hurry. It’s not that I am apathetic; I have a strong sense of urgency that Jesus would be exalted in us. But I’ve grown patient with us. The journey we are on is a long obedience in the same direction.

Pastoring Together
There was one other wonderful theme in The Pastor that resonated deeply with me - that pastoral ministry is not done alone.

Peterson speaks repeatedly and with reverence for his life-companion and wife Jan. Jan viewed her role as pastor’s wife as a vocation, a holy rite to be discharged through hospitality and care. Jan reminded me of Vanessa. I’m a lucky guy.

Peterson’s other companions in ministry are other pastors. He describes a diverse group of pastors that begins to meet on Tuesdays. They call themselves the Company of Pastors. They encourage one another, talk and pray. And they continue to meet decades later. The Company of Pastors made me miss the Pastors Theology Roundtable, a group of guys in Michigan that met every couple of months to talk shop. I need that in my life again.

I cannot grow up to be Eugene Peterson, nor do I want to be. I want to be myself and develop, by God's grace, into the pastor that God created me to be. But I am so thankful to have Peterson as a mentor-from-afar, a role model, a friend. He has pastored me.

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An Outsider in Worship: thoughts about Vintage Vespers and the Third Stone Sun Celebrants

2011-09-05T17:23:00.000-05:00

Last Friday night, Vintage hosted its latest Vespers service. Vespers is a monthly gathering at Vintage, curated and led by the wonderfully creative Jonathan Perrodin. The purpose is Vespers is to provide fresh and artistic experiences that aid our spiritual development and life with God. Vespers services sometimes are liturgical, sometimes visual, sometimes participatory, sometimes observational, always memorable.

No two Vespers services are alike.But this last one was more different than others.

This Vespers featured a gathering led by the Third Stone Sun Celebrants, a group devoted to the mythology of Cisneros and the energy and peace of being rooted in the sun and stone.

The room was dark. The Celebrants were shrouded. The liturgy was difficult to understand and follow. The music was haunting. The rituals were bizarre.And I felt a range of reactions from fear to amusement, from being captivated to being bored.

But none of it was real. The Celebrants were not some traveling group with a well-developed tradition. They were my friends who cooked up this idea as they discussed how to push the limits.

But what was certainly real was the feeling of being an outsider in a gathering.

Here are some of the observations I made:

When I don’t know the story and I don’t understand the symbols, all I am left with is whether or not I like the music.
I had a hard time following the Celebrants’ liturgy. I hadn’t heard the stories before, and they were told in a way that didn’t give me much chance to process them. The symbols were strange and unfamiliar to me. All that was left was the music. I think that many people sit in church services week in and week out feeling something similar. At church, it is so easy to talk in jargon and code. It makes me wonder how many people feel lost. I wonder if the way we worship only gives people music to connect with. And maybe that is why people are so passionate about having musical styles they prefer in worship. If we worshipped better, maybe the "worship wars" over music would end.

Sometimes our rituals can appear very strange.
Near the end of the Celebrants’ service, they performed a ritual in which they placed a doll head in a bowl of milk, sprinkled the milk on stones, and then drank the milk. Yeah, it was that strange. It got me thinking about our Christians rituals and how strange they may appear to an outsider. We are so familiar with communion, for instance, that we fail to apprehend the strange power of Jesus’ words, “This is my body for you. Take and eat it. ... This is my blood for you. Take and drink it.” I am not suggesting that we abandon strange rituals, just that we recognize that they may be strange. And maybe we ought to mix-up how we practice them so that new insights and meanings can be found in the unfamiliarity of newness.

Trust matters.
Throughout the Celebrants' service, I kept wondering what I was going to be asked to do. Was I going to have to drink the baby-head-milk? Was I going to have to stand or say something or do something I wasn't comfortable doing? Vanessa and I talked about this a lot after the service. We decided that to fully invest in a service, to fully let yourself go, you have got to trust the people leading the service. Trust takes time to develop. And it requires relationships to be built. If worship leaders simply expect people to participate without first building trust, they run the risk of alienating the very worshippers they are trying to lead.

So does explanation.
I didn't leave this Vespers service knowing much more about the Third Stone Celebrants and their beliefs than I knew before the service. There was no explanation, no teaching. I had to connect the dots myself, and I had a hard time doing it. Certainly, preaching isn't the end all and be all of church worship gatherings. But it is important. The story of the gospel needs to be told clearly and compellingly. Didactic teaching isn't the point of Christian worship, but we can't leave people scratching their heads either.

I know that people had wide and varied reactions to this Vespers service ... I heard many of them while I drank a PBR in the moments following its conclusion. I'm curious for those of you that we were there, what did you learn?

Meltdown

2011-07-30T11:23:00.001-05:00

15 Ways I've Changed as a Person in the Past 15 Years

2011-07-01T10:11:00.000-05:00

1996 was a big year for me. I went to the Bahamas, got engaged, and graduated from college. I got married, moved to New York City, and started my first pastorate. When I think back on who I was then, I want to just shake my head and laugh. The key sentence in the first chapter of my upcoming book sums it up, “I am not who I used to be.”

To commemorate how I’ve changed in the past 15 years, I thought I’d do a series of blog posts about my personal transformation. In the coming months, I'll make lists about how I’ve changed as a theologian, as a husband, and as a pastor. But to get things started, I thought I’d write about how I’ve changed in general, as a person.

So, here are 15 statements that are true of me now, but I couldn’t have said about myself in 1996.

1. I don’t bite my fingernails.
I used to bite my nails a lot. During games. While I drove. But then, a couple of years ago, I got very sick while traveling in Florida. It was miserable. I was too sick to bite my nails. And I haven’t bitten them since.

2. I take money seriously and have an actual plan for it.
If I could tell the me of 1996 anything, it would probably be to take the money stuff seriously and to get it figured out as soon as possible. I can’t believe how much money I’ve wasted over the years. Two things have made a huge difference - the weekly budget lunch with Vanessa and Dave Ramsey.

3. I am authentic.
I grew up in a family and church culture where faking it was the norm. And then I married a person who is relentlessly real. Thanks to her, I’ve learned that it is better - and essential - for me to take off my mask and let people see the real me. Yikes.

4. I have a problem with anxiety.
So, speaking of authenticity, I can now admit that I get this unexplained, uncomfortable, unwelcome pain around my heart. I’ve blogged about it before, and I’ve been doing some things to combat it - giving up caffeine, exercising, and more - but I think being able to admit honestly that it is something I struggle with is a huge first step to getting better.

5. I can make it in the real world.
The summer after I graduated from college was miserable. I bounced from job to job, unable to find a place where I fit. When that kind of thing happens, you begin to wonder if you can make it in the real world. Then I started pastoring my first church, and making it in the marketplace was no longer a concern. Until we started Vintage. 6 years into being a bi-vocational pastor, I now know that I have skills and abilities that translate in the real world.

6. I care less about politics and more about people.
I used to think of politics as life or death, the future of the country and the world hangs in the balance. People on the other side of aisle are to be opposed and defeated. Now, I think of politics as a sport. I still root for my team to win, but I care much more about civility and understand than victory.

7. I embrace mystery.
I don’t have to have it all figured out. How liberating is that?

8. I try to listen more.
When I worked at a church in Boston several years ago, I used to write a note to myself on top the agenda for each interminably long meeting I had to attend - “Don’t interrupt.” I’ve learned that it’s far better to, in Francis Schaeffer’s words, earn the right to be heard, than to simply be the one who talks the most or the loudest.

9. I exercise.
Seriously. Three or four times a week. This might be the craziest thing about me that has changed over the past 15 years.

10. I intentionally sabbath.
Sundays are the highlight of my week: up early for some alone time with God, Vintage, lunch with friends, nap, watching football or playing the Wii with Vin, family TV time, some alone time with Vanessa. This is what heaven is like, right?

11. I parent.
Three times, in the past decade and a half, when driving to either the hospital or the courthouse, I sang, “It’s the end of the world as we know it.” Three times I was right.

12. I value friendship.
It’s not that I didn’t value friendship 15 years ago. It’s more that I didn’t realize how much I should value friendship. Having a few guys that get me and love me. I’ve come to realize that it is a rare gift.

13. I wear my goatee short.
In 1996, my goatee rivaled that of Alexi Lalas. I rocked the long, red face mullet. 15 years later, it’s high and tight, as it should be.

14. I don’t run from conflict.
I don’t like conflict, but I am much less afraid of it. Just when I think I’ve seen it all in church conflict, something new happens. I’ve learned over the years that ignoring it and hoping it goes away doesn’t work. The best way to deal with it is honestly, humbly, and head-on.

15. I have tattoos.
Who would have guessed that.

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Book Review: Quitter by Jon Acuff

2011-06-20T20:40:00.002-05:00

About a year and half ago, my friend Derek and I were having our weekly breakfast at Panera Bread. Over our coffee and bagels, he asked me what my dream job would be. He knew his - running a guided hunting expedition service. I knew mine too - pastoring Vintage Fellowship full time.

And I knew my backup dream job too - being a corporate motivational speaker. How great would it be to travel to distant places, talk to a group of people for a couple of hours about how to clarify their mission, communicate better, or integrate faith in the workplace, and get paid for it?

Dream jobs sometimes feel like pipe dreams.

Jon Acuff's new book Quitter is about how to close the gap between your day job and your dream job. In Quitter, Acuff tells his own story about going from dead-end desk jobs to writing as a part of the Dave Ramsey team. Along the way, he started his very popular blog, Stuff Christians Like, spoke at several major conferences, and published his first book. Acuff's story is interesting and accessible. It offers clear and concrete advice that can help anyone who dreams about doing something different with his or her life.

Here are some of the things that really resonated with me:

Don't quit your day job too soon. Wonderful advice. Far too many people unwittingly sabotage their own dreams by jumping in too soon. A dream job is not freedom from stress and responsibilities. Bills still need to be paid. Groceries still need to be shopped for. These things don't go away just because you get to do your dream job. In fact, a day job can make a dream job possible. I know that for me, my dream job is still alive because of my day job.

Hustle. Dream jobs take work. Hard work. Long work. Creative work. When we started Vintage, I said often that I wanted to leave it all on the field. I knew I needed to hustle. Dreams don't magically come true. Incidentally, this is also why it's really, really important for spouses to be on board with dream jobs. It is likely that they are going to cost you and your family many things. (But it's worth it.)

Don't steal from your day job. Acuff isn't necessarily talking about paper clips and pens. He means bigger, more complex things. Time. Energy. Effort. Like it our not, your day job is still your responsibility. It's really tempting to day dream on your day job. If you're willing to skimp on your day job, you'll end up skimping on your dream too. Day jobs are laboratories for developing the integrity needed to succeed at your dream.

Harmony. Though he doesn't talk about it specifically, Acuff personifies the importance of harmony. Your dream job needs to be in line with your values, your faith, the kind of life you are trying to create for yourself and your family. As a Dave Ramsey employee, it's not a surprise that Acuff endorses the principles of Ramsey's financial peace. How refreshing it was for me to see where my dream job fits in the baby steps.

Quitter was the exact book I needed to read. It is both inspiring and informative, challenging and convincing. Anyone who has a job they dream of should read it.

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Questions for Candidates

2011-06-15T17:34:00.005-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like election season. Exploratory papers are being filed. Funds are being raised. Campaign buses are rolling through early primary states. Debates are being had.

I hate how early presidential campaigns get kicked off nowadays. In a culture where information travels so fast, I would think we need less time for campaigning, not more. But, sadly, that's not the way it works.

I doubt I'll be voting for President Obama. I didn't in 2008, and he hasn't really done anything to convince me to change my mind. I have a great deal of respect for the President, but I simply have too many policy differences with him to be able to support his reelection.

So, I've begun to pay attention to the crop of Republican hopefuls. About the only Republican out there who excites me is Gov. Chris Christie of NJ, but he has said repeatedly that he is not running in 2012. Without him or former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (yet?) in the race, I feel like I am very far from picking a candidate. I guess it's a good thing that votes won't start being cast for a year.

I did catch most of the Republican presidential debate that CNN hosted this week. And it left me with some questions. Here are my questions about the candidates, announced and yet-to-be announced, that will need to get answered before I can vote for one of these men or women:

Michele Bachmann
Congresswoman Bachmann strikes me as obviously intelligent and accomplished. She’ll get a bad rap from Democrats and the media for her Tea Party association, but isn't she just the front-runner in the Veepstakes?

Herman Cain
Mr. Cain is interesting to listen to and has a great story, but I generally don't think of him as any more electable than Papa John. How long will it be before the Alan Keyes comparisons begin?

Newt Gingrich
In 1989, I had a signed picture of Newt hanging on my wall. Keep your Alex P. Keaton jokes to yourselves. Newt was fresh and cool then. He is no longer fresh and cool. Can the Speaker come back from having a stepford wife, no advisors, and a man dump glitter on his head?

Rudy Giuliani
America's Mayor totally blew his opportunity in 2008. He had a short-sighted Florida-only strategy and a myopic 9/11 message. If he jumps in again, can he demonstrate that he learned his lesson and be a viable, national candidate?

Jon Huntsman Jr.
I follow politics pretty closely. I've been known to recognize obscure legislators in shopping mall parking lots and airports. I know he was Utah's governor and President Obama's ambassador to China, but still, I'm asking, "Who?"

Sarah Palin
Palin has a way of connecting with people that the media can't figure out and doesn't respect, and so I'm skeptical of how she's portrayed and often quite sympathetic toward her. Yet, I'm tired of her. Fatigue doesn't usually set in until a President's second term. How can she overcome Palin Fatigue when she hasn't even been elected yet?

Ron Paul
Congressman Paul strikes me as the smartest person in the race. He's principled and charismatic in an old man kind of way. But why can't he attract more than 10% of primary voters?

Tim Pawlenty
I don't know much about Governor Pawlenty, but I'd be willing to bet he's the most effective and pragmatic leader of the bunch. Tell me, Governor, why shouldn't I think of you as just another boring white guy in a blue suit?

Rick Perry
A Governor of Texas with a track record of reaching across the aisle and getting stuff done. What could go wrong there?

Mitt Romney
There are many of us who want Mitt Romney to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan, and we can’t figure out what he’s missing. What is he missing?

Rick Santorum
Senator Santorum appeals to the social conservatives, the Religious Right. I'm not part of the Religious Right, so why should I pay any attention to him?

There is plenty of time to get these questions answered. But the sooner I learn what I'm seeking about the candidates, the sooner I'll be ready to throw my support behind one of them.

By the way, I didn't make up that Newt-glitter thing:

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Guest Post: Lombardi Wins by Bryan Johnson

2011-06-08T20:43:00.001-05:00

My dear friend, Bryan, doesn't like my take on Rob Bell's book Love Wins. We disagree. So ... we could do what so many people did in the wake of the release of Love Wins. We could call each other names, question each other's fidelity to the gospel, and condemn one another to hell, be it a literal lake of fire or a miserable party experience.

But, no, Bryan and I aren't going to do that. We decided to have a civil discourse about Love Wins and the question of eternal, conscious torment. We hope to help each other understand the gospel better while also demonstrating that two people can sharply disagree without resorting to vitriol and judgment.

After reading the book, and what I've written here on the Grenz (links at the bottom), Bryan sent along this guest post. Read it. Enjoy it. I will tear it to shreds in the comments. Join in the conversation.

A Parody of Parity by Bryan Johnson, Winston-Salem, NC 6/6/11
An analogous review of Rob Bell’s Love Wins

Lombardi Wins: Victory, Defeat, and the Outcome of Every Team in the NFL

With cameras rolling, the Super Bowl hero jumps up and down with his index finger pointed upward, shouting on national television, “We’re number 1! We’re number 1!”

Really?
He knows this?
Without a doubt?

In light of the endlessly frustrating NFL lockout, there is a way for Commissioner Goodell to get the teams playing again. But it is also a long term plan that, in the end, will surprise...it will astonish...it will amaze...everyone.

Up to this point in NFL history, it has been assumed that a grueling training camp, a relatively meaningless pre-season and a long, injury-prone 16 game regular season, followed by the playoffs where only a select few teams get to keep playing, has been the best way to play professional football.

Huh?
Is it really?

What about the other teams who don’t make the playoffs? What happens to all their effort? Is it wasted? Was it for nothing? Truth is: they spent just as many hours planning and playing as the other teams. Is it fair that they have to go home while a few “elite” teams get to move on? What kind of message does this send to their sponsors and fans?

Can Commissioner Goodell actually send these hard-playing, effort-giving teams into the ill-fated offseason with no hope or reward? What kind of commissioner is that? What type of sports league would reward a mere few special franchises with the chance to play on while punishing multiple others by sending them home for the year?

The playoffs are actually a time for every team to start over. To begin again. Like overtime, there’s a new coin toss. A football renewal, if you will. After all, the ground is level at the 50-yard line both at the beginning of the game as well as at the end of the game. And it’s time the entire season reflected that.

Besides, every player on every team already knows full well both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. For every game already has its own share of winners and losers, victories and defeats. There is victory in every proper formation, every perfectly run pass route, every first down scamper. Likewise, there’s defeat in every fumble, every missed tackle and every wide-to-the-left field goal shank.

Thus, winning and losing are not ultimate states of being, but present realities contained within every game.

Therefore, the subsequent rewarding of the Super Bowl championship to only one team at the end of the season ends up being both unfair and redundant. Plus, it only serves to further underscore (no pun intended) the chasm that currently exists between the football have’s and the football have-not’s.

Think of it: if the only teams who realistically have a shot at the Super Bowl championship each year are the Indianapolises, the New England’s, the Pittsburgh’s and the Green Bay’s of the league, then what incentive do the other teams have for suiting up at all months earlier in training camp? Why play every down of every game all season long if it’s all for naught in the end anyway? Such a system is terribly hopeless and counterproductive for the other 31 teams. More importantly, it raises serious questions about the commissioner, the entire league and even the sport of football itself.

Frankly, who are we to say the team with the most points at the end of the game always wins? Or, why is it the team who wins the last game is always crowned the Super Bowl champion?

For that matter, what exact formula for winning should be followed? Whose criteria for victory should be used? It’s possible for the concept of winning to be defined in many different ways.

Hence, a plan of surprise, a season of the unexpected...yea, a sport where mystery prevails.

What a wonderful surprise to all the Detroit’s and Cleveland’s of the league to take an entirely different approach to the season! It is high time to view Pro Football from a whole new angle.

It’s time for the NFL to change.
It’s time for more….

This season, when the clock runs out on the Super Bowl game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on February 5th, 2012, regardless of the scoreboard, instead of having the “winning” team come to the podium, Commissioner Goodell will invite all 32 teams to the center of the field. And with the sound of Freddie Mercury belting, “We are the Champions,” across the stadium, and with confetti and champagne covering every NFL owner, player, coach, staff member and fan alike, each team will rush the field of their own free will in order to celebrate and then be presented with, yes, its very own Lombardi Trophy in all of its splendor.

Every team.
The Lombardi Trophy.
No one excluded.

Everyone victorious.
United in joy.
A league-wide celebration.

No doubt, this surprising plan will have residual positive effects for the entire league for years to come. Players won’t have to practice each week with the fear of losing in the back of their minds. Free from having to explain failures and miscues, coaches will actually enjoy postgame press conferences. Many insufferable fans who’ve been disillusioned with their team’s perennial Super Bowl absence will be genuinely won back to the game. Many previously non-fans will finally come into the NFL fold away from Pro Tennis and Formula One Racing. Plus, every vendor will make a decent living just selling: “We’re 1 of #32 winners!” foam fingers.

In addition, it will be a huge windfall for the league and for the sport as a whole. Truckloads more in profits and endorsements will pour in. Every owner will be able to afford to build a brand new stadium with all the creature comforts fans so richly deserve. Why, even third-stringers will finally become product endorsers and company spokespersons.

As a result, Commissioner Goodell will be in his glory. He’s always wanted the NFL to be supra-cultural and global in its following. This will accomplish that and more. In fact, he could well become the savior of the entire sport, perhaps sports, in general (think Chicago Cubs, LA Clippers, etc.). Question is: does Goodell always get what he wants?

Think of it: he will be able to end the oppression of the losers and stop the exploitation of playoff-missers. He will rescue the poor in talent by shattering the arrogance of the elite. He will deliver the annually broken-hearted as he crushes the pride of the exclusive winners. Detroit will no longer be football hell. Cleveland will become dog-pound heaven on earth, here and now. Rebuilding years will become rebuilding moments. The future will be the present.

For that matter, consider the trickle-down results this astonishing plan will also have on all the Pee Wee leagues around the country, on every starry-eyed child who dreams of one day playing professional football. No more minivan rides home with a muddy, sobbing 7 year-old loser. No more cocky fist pumps and scornful looks coming from the victor’s sideline, touting the score and their pigskin prowess. No. Instead, participant ribbons for everyone! They’re all winners!

Lastly, this plan should go a long way to effectively (and permanently) end all collective bargaining debates, holdouts, lockouts and labor disputes. For at the end of the season, every team will get to raise the Super Bowl trophy and write ultimate victory into their own franchise story. You can’t put a price tag on that. Besides, it’s the love of the game for which they play.

Remember, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing,” said the legendary coach. And Commissioner Goodell couldn’t agree more. So while the plan may be a bit unorthodox at first glance, the surprising end results are extremely appealing. For winning isn’t everything; it’s the everyone thing. And winning isn’t just the only thing; it’s also the final thing.

So, although temporarily rolling over in his grave in Middletown, NJ, come February, in Indianapolis, IN,...once again...it will be Lombardi who wins.

Love Wins: More Questions, More Answers
Winning! (some thoughts on Rob Bell, not Charlie Sheen)
Hell's Bells: some preliminary thoughts about Love Wins

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Positioned for Irrelevance: WTEM ESPN 980's Terrible Decision to Hold Tony Kornheiser Hostage

2011-06-01T10:42:00.002-05:00

It seems that the older I get, the more rituals I develop. One of my daily rituals is to return from lunch and download the Tony Kornheiser Show podcast and listen to it as I work each afternoon. Tony Kornheiser, former Washington Post writer and hopefully future grantland.com contributor, is best known as the host of PTI on ESPN. But, his radio show might be the best thing he does.

The TK Show isn't all sports. It is a daily ranting commentary on news, pop culture, obituaries, and the weather in the Washington DC area. It is chockfull of inside jokes that leave my work mates wondering what I'm laughing at. Like many other loyal listeners, or "Littles" as Mr. Tony calls us, I gleefully regale my family with anecdotes from that day's broadcast, only to receive a roll of the eyes and a mournful shake of the head from Vanessa. She doesn't get it.

But hundreds of thousands of us do. The TK Show is one of the top ten downloaded podcasts in the sports category on iTunes, which makes last week's change in policy about its broadcast mind-boggling. On Friday, WTEM, ESPN 980 in Washington DC, decided to begin delaying its podcasts for 24 hours. Without explanation and only a brief statement on its website, the station effectively made all of us TK addicts quit cold turkey over the long Memorial Day Weekend.

Since the station has not explained its decision, one can only assume that management believes that the podcast, normally uploaded within a couple of hours of the live show's completion, was syphoning away listeners that could help their ratings ... and thus the amount they can charge advertisers. But they are sorely mistaken. One informal online poll of Littles showed that 79% are unable to listen live, either on the radio or through the live feed on the station's website. I am among that 79%.

Maybe WTEM is trying to protect ratings. Maybe it is trying to maximize advertising dollars. Maybe it is just experimenting with formats. Certainly, WTEM ESPN 980 is positioning itself for irrelevance.

--

We live in a culture of instant information. I learned of the death of Osama bin Laden on Twitter. Last week, from several states away on a business trip, I watched live on-the-ground video of the tornadoes that ravaged places dangerously close to my home. News is not what is new; news is what is now. A day later, even a half day later, it is not news. Commentary on old news is stale and irrelevant.

Our media has changed. Gone is the heyday of the network nightly news. Gone is the time of turning on your radio to get the latest update. Soon to be gone are newspapers. In our increasingly shrinking world, we have the means - smart phones, iPads, laptops - to be connected, and we use the media - Twitter, blog commentaries, eBooks, and podcasts - to do so.

WTEM ESPN 980 is short-sighted if it fails to realize this. Certainly it can figure out a way to make money with it's podcasts, but don't delay them for 24 hours and alienate millions of loyal listeners. They have not positioned themselves for success. They are positioned for irrelevance.

--

I wish I could say this is an uncommon example of being positioned for irrelevance, but I can't. Churches do this kind of thing all the time. Answering questions that no one is asking. Perpetuating ministries and programs that were designed for the culture of the 80s, or worse, the 50s. Alienating younger people by catering to the senior saints who "pay the bills." Positioned for irrelevance.

And so do politicians. Donald Trump, as an example, flashed in the political pan earlier this year, flirting with a presidential bid. Rather than positioning himself as a pragmatic, deal-making, leader who could serve as an effective alternative to President Obama, he peed around the birther territory, claiming it as his own. Positioned for irrelevance.

And so do parents. I knew a mother once who was so afraid of her teenage kids turning out badly that she attempted to micro-manage every aspect of their lives. Rather than affirming and supporting them for who they were, she made herself a stench in the nostrils of her own kids. The older they got, the more they pulled away in rebellion. She had positioned herself for irrelevance.

--

I suspect that WTEM ESPN 980 will acquiesce and remove the 24 hour embargo on the TK Show and its other podcasts. They will probably get a sponsor or upload the complete show, commercials and all. At this point, I'd say the chances are 50/50, but we'll have to see how it plays out. In the meantime, they have proven that they are clueless about what the world is like today, let alone what it will be like tomorrow. Until they get a clue, they are positioned for irrelevance.

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I'm Praying for the Soul of Osama bin Laden

2011-05-19T16:23:00.007-05:00

Which do you value more - your patriotism or your faith?

In the days following the killing of Osama bin Laden, many American followers of Jesus acutely felt the disharmony of two kingdoms. OBL's death gave Americans much to rejoice in: the heroism and skill of Seal Team 6, a significant blow to Al Qaeda in the global War on Terror, hope that military activities in Afghanistan can now be drawn down. And yet at the same time, Christians struggled with the morality of rejoicing over the death of another person made in God’s image.

This dissonance was brought to a head this week by the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach FL that chose to honor an anonymous request and include Osama bin Laden’s name in its prayer list. Setting aside the theological question of praying for the souls of the dead, this choice highlights the tension with which many American Christians live.

Consider some of these quotes:

"I think it's totally wrong, he doesn't belong in the Catholic religion. For what he did to Americans, he doesn't belong anywhere," says Lois Pizzano, a Catholic Church member. "It's unconscionable, it's sacrilegious ... If I wasn't a Catholic I wouldn't think it was right. He doesn't belong there, he doesn't belong with the American people"

"If it was one of my loved ones having their prayer session and his name was also included I'd be very upset. I think the people whose names are on it would also be upset," says Andrea Lazarus.

Unconscionable? Sacrilegious? Upset? Are these the values of the kingdom?

It seems to me that both Jesus and Paul could not have been clearer:

You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5.43-45

Do not repay anyone evil for evil … If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12.17-21

By any definition, OBL qualifies as an enemy. He led a military organization bent on the destruction of the United States of America. He orchestrated the murder of 3,000 American citizens. He was actively plotting to terrorize free people around the globe. If OBL is not an enemy, no one is.

And that is why, in the case of OBL, we must force ourselves to cherish and adhere to the way of Jesus … not ignore it because it runs contrary to our Americanism. America is a wonderful country, full of opportunity and freedom for which we Americans should be very thankful. But it is not the kingdom.

Americanism is the way of competition, consumerism, and conquest. It busies our lives, shortens our attention spans, and saps our souls. Americanism may give us something to fleetingly feel good about – an imperial military victory – but it is out of harmony with eternity.

The way of Jesus is much harder and yet more deeply beautiful. When we turn the other cheek, when we refuse to curse our persecutors, when we pray for the soul of Osama bin Laden, we harmonize our lives with the deeper, more resonate strain of the kingdom of God.

I am not Catholic, and as such, I have not practiced the discipline of praying for the souls of the dead. But in solidarity with my brothers and sisters at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church and in solidarity with the values of the kingdom of God, I will.

Will you join us?

WPTV: Prayer Request for Osama bin Laden at Catholic Church in West Palm Beach

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Responding in a Crisis: What ABWE Can Learn from Vienna Presbyterian Church

2011-05-10T16:20:00.001-05:00

I have been watching with great interest how ABWE (the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism) would respond to a blog created by victims of sexual abuse in Bangladesh. The pedophilia was committed by a missionary doctor named Donn Ketcham. The story is long and heartbreaking, but the bottom line is this - ABWE did not make all the details of the abuse known publicly, and in the minds of many people, Donn Ketcham was able to get away with his crimes.

Since 2001, the victims of this pedophile have been trying to get ABWE to acknowledge what happened and respond appropriately. When those requests fell on deaf ears, the victims created a blog ... and a firestorm. Now, ABWE has finally agreed to an independent investigation. They have finally published the names of their board members.

However, even in recent months, their response in this crisis has been inconsistent and disappointing. There have been many times when their response has seemed much more like self-protection than repentance.

With this as a backdrop, I read with interest the article below that appeared on the cover of today's USA Today. Oh that ABWE would exhibit the same courage and faith that Vienna Presbyterian Church has. Throw caution to the wind and repent!

Church abuse cases and lawyers an uneasy mix
By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

IENNA, Va. — When officials at Vienna Presbyterian Church decided to acknowledge the church's failures in handling reports of sexual abuse by a youth ministries director, they thought it might upset some in the congregation.

Vienna Presbyterian has a new ministry to recognize and respond to sex abuse.

What surprised them was the admonishment from the church's insurance company. And it wasn't the church's lapses in responding to the abuse a half-decade ago that bothered the insurer — it was the church's plan to admit those lapses and apologize to the victims.

The insurance company's position was clear: On March 23, a lawyer hired by the company, GuideOne Insurance, sent a warning to church officials:

"Do not make any statements, orally, in writing or in any manner, to acknowledge, admit to or apologize for anything that may be evidence of or interpreted as (a suggestion that) the actions of Vienna Presbyterian Church … caused or contributed to any damages arising from the intentional acts/abuse/misconduct" by the youth director.

But in a letter sent to congregants the next day, the church's governing board, known as a Session, took a different course.

"Members of Staff and of Session are profoundly sorry that VPC's response after the abuse was discovered was not always helpful to those entrusted to our care," the letter said.

In a sermon the following Sunday, March 27, Pastor Peter James went further: "We won't hide behind lawyers. … Jesus said the truth will set us free."

Then, turning to a group of young women in the audience, he continued:

"Let me speak for a moment to our survivors," he said. "We, as church leaders, were part of the harm in failing to extend the compassion and mercy that you needed. Some of you felt uncared for, neglected and even blamed in this church. I am truly sorry … I regret the harm this neglect has caused you."

As churches nationwide struggle with disclosures of sexual abuse in their midst, many find inherent conflicts between the guidance they find in Scripture and the demands of the insurance companies and lawyers responsible for protecting them from legal claims.

Common religious tenets of atonement — admitting mistakes, accepting responsibility, apologizing — often run counter to the legal tenets of avoiding self-incrimination and preserving all avenues of defense against potential lawsuits.

"This sort of conflict is happening all the time," says Jack McCalmon, a lawyer whose company, the McCalmon Group, is hired by insurers to help churches set up abuse-prevention programs.

"The church is in the business of forgiveness, of being forthright and open and truthful, but that often creates liability in a world that's adversarial, in the judicial world," McCalmon says.

Meanwhile, he adds, insurers are in the business of limiting liability. "So, the insurance company has a contract with the church that says, 'If we're going to put our assets on the line, we want you to perform in a way that protects our assets and interests.'"

Church officials often face a wrenching dilemma: If they do what they feel is right in the eyes of God, they can put their church at risk of financial claims that could end its existence.

For the lawyers and insurers obligated to protect those churches, the decisions are equally difficult: If church officials make admissions that suggest liability for the damage caused by sexual abuse or other wrongdoing, the resulting claims could ravage the insurance company.

It's an issue that can fundamentally shape the way churches respond when they discover sexual abuse involving clergy or lay employees.

Since 2002, when reports of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston made national headlines, scores of churches have wrestled with similar problems.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against churches by people alleging sexual abuse by clergy or church employees. Jury awards and settlements have ranged from tens of thousands of dollars to
many millions.

In a 2007 case, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to 500 people who alleged they were sexually abused by clergy.

It has been five years since the Vienna Presbyterian congregation got a letter from church officials saying they'd learned that Eric DeVries, student ministries director, had "crossed the boundary of emotional and physical propriety in his relationship with female students."

In the years since, there have been many painful conversations, but so far no lawsuits.
DeVries, hired in 2001, resigned in September 2005 amid allegations that he forged romantic relationships with female students. Church officials reported him to authorities upon learning of the conduct, and he was charged with taking indecent liberties with a minor, a felony.

He later pleaded guilty to the lesser, misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and received a 12-month suspended jail sentence.

The church community reacted with a mix of disbelief, confusion and repulsion.
Some supported DeVries, even writing character references for his sentencing hearing. And, as the pastor's sermon noted, the church did little in the years that followed to help the students who said DeVries had mistreated them.

In 2009, the church began to re-examine what went wrong.

It was through that process, Pastor James said in his March 27 sermon, that church officials "became aware that we were not caring adequately for the victims of Eric's abuse."

The church formed a new ministry to care for those women and is setting up a program to educate its community in preventing, recognizing and responding to sexual abuse. The discussions also led to the decision to acknowledge failures in responding to the abuse, apologize to victims, and recommit the church to their care.

In letters and e-mails, GuideOne and a lawyer it hired to defend the church against possible claims raised increasingly adamant concerns about Vienna Presbyterian's approach. Church officials who were handling that matter responded with increasingly adamant refusals to let legal interests steer their decisions.

Among other things, the correspondence shows, the church balked at the idea of defending potential lawsuits by invoking the two-year statute of limitations or raising questions about the sexual histories of women who might file claims.

The conflict intensified when GuideOne learned that church officials were cooperating with The Washington Post on a story about the church's failures — a course the insurance company's lawyer had warned against.

In a Feb. 10 letter, GuideOne reminded the church of its contractual obligation to "cooperate with us to the fullest extent reasonably necessary" in protecting against potential claims.

The church's actions "have impeded our right to investigate the claims and the future defense of this matter," the letter warned. "Any failure … to comply with the conditions of the policy will jeopardize any future coverage available to Vienna Presbyterian Church."

The church stuck to its plan.

"The directions from the insurance company and its lawyer were clear and possibly correct from a legal perspective," says Peter Sparber, who is on a panel of elders handling issues related to the abuse. "They did their job, but as elders, we had to do ours. We still have lots of work cleaning up the mess created by Eric DeVries, but not following their legal advice was a good start."

Officials at GuideOne declined interview requests.

"The situation with Vienna Presbyterian Church continues to evolve, and we have a policy to not comment on open claims," Sarah Buckley, a company spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail.

Buckley noted that GuideOne offers clients extensive resources to help them respond to abuse cases. The company encourages churches to react with concern and compassion, report allegations to authorities, investigate and document all events, seek legal counsel, and encourage counseling for victims, she added.

But what happens when a church feels the need to do more — to apologize or accept some responsibility for the damage caused when one of its own emerges as a sexual abuser?

Satisfying those needs while shielding the church from liability "is the most delicate task of lawyering in this situation," says Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at the George Washington University Law School.

"It's not unusual for (church officials) to think they did something wrong because they feel grief or guilt for what happened, when in truth they might not be legally responsible," Tuttle adds.

This often results in discussions between the church, the insurer and its lawyers to "find a way for the church to express the sense of the wrongness of the conduct and to be sorry it happened without inappropriately taking legal responsibility."

Both the church and the insurer have an interest in avoiding a potentially devastating lawsuit, but that doesn't mean they can find common ground.

Clergy and legal experts who have been involved in such cases say churches often struggle with the notion that they should let concerns about legal liability dictate the terms on which they apologize or hold themselves accountable.

"For a church, doing what is right is informed by our understanding of what God would have us do, so there's a very clear standard, articulated in Scripture," says Monsignor Edward

Arsenault, president of the St. Luke Institute, a Catholic ministry in Silver Spring, Md., that offers mental health services to clergy.

Lawyers typically want to shape a church's response based on questions of intent and legal responsibility, says Arsenault, who has advised clergy struggling to chart a course in responding to abuse cases.

Churches, meanwhile, are more inclined to focus on concepts of "restorative justice," taking a more general, unencumbered view of what went wrong and how to make injured parties whole again.
'Do the right thing'

Ultimately, Arsenault adds, lawyers are advisers; the decisions clergy and congregants ultimately reach must be their own.

"I have dealt with instances where there was wrongdoing in the past and my church wanted to do the right thing, but a lawyer representing the insurance company said, 'No, you can't do that,'" Arsenault says. "My solution in that instance was, 'I'm going to do the right thing, and I believe you owe me coverage. And if you don't extend me coverage, I'm going to do it anyway, and then I'm going to come back and argue that you owe me coverage," after claims are settled.

But the risks of such a course are substantial: If a church loses its argument that its insurer is responsible for paying a claim, it could be left with a debt it can't afford. In a worst-case scenario, that could mean closing its doors.

There's no telling how often that sort of impasse occurs. Discussions between churches and their insurers on how to handle abuse cases are typically kept confidential, as are any resulting settlements.

In the case of Vienna Presbyterian, the church's decision to ignore the demands of GuideOne and its lawyer was as plain as The Washington Post's page 1 headline on the first Sunday of April: "A church seeking redemption; Riven by an abuse scandal, Vienna Presbyterian tries to do right by the women it says it failed."

Since the story ran, the rancorous discussion between the church and its insurer about potential liability has remained in limbo. And if no lawsuits are filed in connection with DeVries' abuse, it may never be resolved.

"We don't know what happens next," says Sparber, the church elder. "We'll just have to wait and see."

Bangladesh MK Blog
ABWE Responses

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Book Review: Fall to Grace by Jay Bakker

2011-05-05T20:03:00.008-05:00

I am captivated by grace. It is grace that has changed my life. It is grace that I preach. It is grace, more than anything else, that animates me. As such, I’ve thought a lot about it over the years. I’ve studied it and read a lot of books about it. Some of the most formative books about grace for me have been:

What’s So Amazing about Grace by Philip Yancey
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
The Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindoll
Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I’m glad to now add Fall to Grace by Jay Bakker to this list. Jay is the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, a product of the most over-the-top brand of Christian subculture. He has been in the public eye since the PTL days, and he has stayed there with the Sundance Film Channel series One Punk Under God and his first book Son of a Preacher Man. Fall to Grace keeps Jay in the spotlight, telling his own story of being revolutionized by God’s grace.

Fall to Grace is an accessible commentary on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Jay interacts with the major themes that Paul talks to the church in Galatia about - how to relate to God, how our religion can get in the way of how we relate to God and each other, how grace - not religious rule-keeping - is really the only thing that can change us, and how the fruit of God’s grace in our lives needs to be acceptance for other people.

Those wanting a verse-by-verse exposition of Galatians are going to be disappointed. So are those who want to read a highly technical theology of grace. Rather, Jay tells the story of his own life. He asks the questions with which he has struggled. He authentically seeks the grace and truth found in Jesus. And he invites his readers to enter in. The result is an easy-to-read and engaging book that will encourage, entertain, and challenge the reader.

The most challenging aspect of Fall to Grace is Jay’s insistence that the grace of God requires the inclusion of gay individuals into the Christian community. He is clear that when he discuss this, it is not because homosexuality is a sin that grace is required. He does not think it is. Rather, he believes that the grace of God requires an intentional acceptance of all people. Maybe no group is more marginalized by the church today than those who are lesbian, gay, transgender, or bisexual. It is for this reason that Jay calls for the gracious treatment of them.

He discusses briefly yet compellingly the “clobber passages” of the Bible used to perpetuate the idea that homosexuality is a sin. But his primary appeal does not rest on textual arguments. He makes profoundly personal and emotional pleas for grace. With stories of his own growing acceptance of gay Christians and their struggle to accept themselves, Jay personalizes an issue that all too often is debated by the screaming heads on TV and by the placards at protest rallies.

I don’t know if I agree with Jay about what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. Like him, I was schooled in the traditional approach that leads to both fear and condemnation of gay people, be they Christians or not. Like Jay, the traditional answers and attitudes have not resonated with me. Like Jay, I am on a journey.

On National Coming Out Day in 2010, I gave myself one year to figure out what I believe about what the Bible actually says about homosexuality. During this year, I have pursued some intentional friendships with gay Christian leaders. I am reading several books on the issue. And most importantly, I am going back and studying those well-worn “clobber passages” that Jay discusses in Fall to Grace. I am praying that on National Coming Out Day 2011, I’ll be ready to clearly, confidently, and compellingly express what I believe.

I am thankful for the contribution of Fall to Grace to my journey.

But I don’t think that the purpose of Fall to Grace is to be a pro-gay polemic. I think the point is to encourage followers of Jesus to be completely captivated by grace, to push the limits of acceptance, to be liberated by the mercy and forgiveness of God. That is the overriding message of Fall to Grace, and it’s a message that desperately needs to be heard.

I am with Jay in believing that grace can cause a revolution. I’m quite fond of how Bono put it, “Grace. It’s a name for a girl. It’s also a thought that changed the world.”

Amazon.com Widgets

Is Digital Self-Publishing the Wave of the Future?

2011-05-05T08:27:00.000-05:00

It's not a secret that I am currently searching for a literary agent for my book Butterfly Theology. I've sent out a half-dozen query letters, gotten two rejections, and am now just waiting. Waiting sucks, by the way.

While I wait, I've been doing a lot of reading about the different options that exist out there. Publishing seems like such an impenetrable fortress. I feel like I need as much information as possible.

Yesterday, I was forwarded the Wall Street Journal article below about self-publishing electronically. At first blush, self-publishing seems like the route I'd want to take only if everything else is a dead end. However, there do seem to be some advantages: not having to deal with the waiting game for agents and publishers, more editorial control, and greater earning potential. Honestly, after playing around with Al Gore's new book/app Our Choice, I've been much more open to going the digital self-publishing route. This article just makes that option even more interesting.

Cheapest E-Books Upend the Charts by Jeffrey Trachtenberg

The nation's largest book publishers are facing increasing pricing pressure on the digital front as the number of cheap, self-published digital titles gain popularity with readers seeking budget-minded entertainment.

Amazon.com Inc.'s top 50 digital best-seller list featured 15 books priced at $5 or less on Wednesday afternoon. Louisville businessman John Locke, for example, a part-time thriller writer whose signature series features a former CIA assassin, claimed seven of those titles, all priced at 99 cents.

"They're training their customers away from brand name authors and are instead creating visibility for self-published titles," one senior publishing executive who asked not to be identified, says of Amazon.

As digital sales surge, publishers are casting a worried eye towards the previously scorned self-published market. Unlike five years ago, when self-published writers rarely saw their works on the same shelf as the industry's biggest names, the low cost of digital publishing, coupled with Twitter and other social-networking tools, has enabled previously unknown writers to make a splash.

The issue of pricing has been paramount since Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader in November 2007. The device exploded, driven by the wide appeal of $9.99 digital best-sellers that were available on the same day as the hardcover edition.

Initially publishers sold their e-books at wholesale prices to Amazon, which then offered the e-book at the discounted price. The country's six largest publishers, increasingly concerned that e-book discounting would erode their traditional business, subsequently embraced the so-called agency model in which they set the retail prices of their e-books. On Wednesday, many of the Kindle best-sellers offered by these major firms cost between $11.99 and $14.99.

Amazon says its studies have shown that digital titles sold by publishers using agency pricing aren't showing the same rate of unit growth as books that Amazon can discount. "The publishers showing the fastest growth are the ones where we set the prices," says Russell Grandinetti, Amazon's vice president for Kindle content.

Books are facing competition from a wide array of cheap digital entertainment—from Netflix Inc.'s streaming-video service to Apple Inc.'s iTunes store—easily accessed via tablets, options that don't exist on dedicated e-reading devices.

All of which has helped boost the sales of Mr. Locke, the self-published thriller writer. Mr. Locke, who published his first paperback two years ago at age 58, says he decided to jump into digital publishing in March 2010 after studying e-book pricing.

"When I saw that highly successful authors were charging $9.99 for an e-book, I thought that if I can make a profit at 99 cents, I no longer have to prove I'm as good as them," says Mr. Locke. "Rather, they have to prove they are ten times better than me."

Mr. Locke earns 35 cents for every title he sells at 99 cents. Altogether, he says his publishing revenue amounted to $126,000 from Amazon in March alone. It costs him about $1,000 to have his book published digitally, complete with an original dust jacket image. He also hires an editor to work with him at additional expense.

In March, he sold 369,000 downloads on Amazon, up from about 75,000 in January and just 1,300 in November. His titles are also sold by digital bookstores operated by Kobo Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., and Apple.

Mr. Locke has more than 20,000 Twitter followers, uses a blog to promote his books, and personally answers hundreds of emails each week. "It's all about marketing, but they have to like your stuff," he says.

Amazon pays all authors who use Kindle Direct Publishing, the retailer's independent publishing service, a royalty rate of 35% on digital titles priced below $2.99, and 70% on e-books priced between $2.99 and $9.99.

Mr. Locke could raise his prices to $2.99, a level that would earn him $2 for each title sold. However, he says he's not interested in such a jump. "This is the price that brought me to the dance," he says.

Mr. Locke says he isn't interested in doing business with New York publishing houses. "It wouldn't be fun for me," he says. "I don't want to be told when to publish, I don't want to soften my character, and I don't want to be told what stories to write."
He has, however, hired Jane Dystel, a literary agent, to field movie offers and deal with foreign publishers interested in releasing his books overseas. Ms. Dystel says her agency is negotiating several such deals. "This is a Wild West of a world," she says.

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at jeffrey.trachtenberg@wsj.com

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703838004576274813963609784-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwNDEwNDQyWj.html#ixzz1LU3Z81jt

What do you think? Is digital self-publishing the wave of the future? Is the book dead? Do I really need an agent and a publisher?

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Strategies for Anxiety

2011-05-02T21:34:00.001-05:00

In about a six week period of time near the beginning of 2011, I had two panic attacks. I have had panic attacks in the past once or twice but they were very rare and not close together at all. These two freaked me out - big and close together. And so I sought some help. This was kind of a big deal to me for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which were having to admit that I, even as a pastor, don't have it all together and I was taught in Bible college to distrust psychology. But like everything else in my life that has gotten deconstructed, these biases did too, and I reached out for some help.

I connected with a friend of mine who works at a local mental health agency to seek his advice. In talking, I learned that, apparently, not everyone has a near-constant pain around their heart. I don't think I realized this. I guess I thought everyone felt like I did, always a bit on edge, always a tad nervous, always carrying the weight of the world. And feeling it in my chest.

I never knew it before, or probably would have been able to admit it, but I have a problem with anxiety.

My anxiety rears its ugly head in different types of situations.

For instance, whenever I have a church business meeting of some sort, I get freaked out. I attribute this to be conditioned by business and deacons meetings at churches I previously pastored in which I would be judged, condemned, accosted. On more than one occasion, the Vintage Oversight Team has watched me break into unexpected tears at one of our meetings. Tears of fear that I'm going to be taken to the woodshed for something. Tears of utter relief that the Vintage Oversight Team is so gracious and kind to me.

Sometimes the weather makes me panic, especially when I am traveling. When I was young and stupid, not even feet of snow and ice could slow me down, but now I hate to drive even in rain. I hate it when work takes me out of town and the weather keeps me away from home longer than I expected. I feel like I am letting Vanessa and the kids down by not being there. It makes me feel so powerless and helpless.

Often, people's problems make the pain in my chest worse. I care so deeply that people make wise choices and follow Jesus that it tears me up when they don't. This is especially true when people's foolishness is destructive in the lives of others. So many times, I have fielded a phone call from someone from church that has left me anxious for days.

With the help of my friend and in hopes of being a more emotionally healthy and authentically whole person, I am pursuing a strategy to handle my anxiety that includes the following things:

- Being Caffeine Free: My doctor-friend told me that caffeine is directly related to anxiety. He said that reducing my caffeine intake could be more effective than going on medication. So, I went cold turkey. And that was a big deal because I drank a lot of coffee. I mean, a lot. I had about 10 days of terrible withdrawal symptoms: headaches, muscle pain, flu like symptoms. It was awful, but it passed, and I emerged on the other side without the need to constantly have a cup of coffee in my hand. Decaf tea has replaced coffee, not just for Lent but maybe forever. And the pain around my heart was noticeably lessened.

- Friendships: Loneliness exasperates my anxiety. Therefore, I have been intentionally pursuing friendships. I now have three friends I meet with on a semi-weekly basis. It's getting to the point where I can tell these guys anything and receive their counsel and advice. With their voices in my head, I have a counterbalance to my anxious fears.

- Counseling: Speaking of other voices, I know that I need to talk my issues through with a counselor. As a pastor, that is a hard thing to admit and an even harder thing to do. For several weeks now, I have had an email in my inbox with a list of recommended counselors. I haven't made an appointment with one yet. But I will soon. And I'm sure it will help.

- Exercise: In recent days, I have begun exercising. Three days a week, I am running and working out. I need to lose 17 pounds, and certainly, exercise will help. Plus, the physical activity helps to relieve stress. I've been sore, but I've been feeling good.

- Routine: More than ever, I crave the structure of our daily family prayers and our weekly Sabbath. We need to connect with God each day as a family, and I need to take myself off duty each week. I am now at the point where I relish the relaxation and calm of Sunday afternoons. It just feels so good.

I am not all the way better, but I am on my way. I don't think I'm alone. Any other anxiety sufferers out there who want to share their stories? I'd love to hear them.

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A Birther Backfire?

2011-04-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

I tweeted this morning that I haven't been this happy to see a birth certificate since I laid eyes on my own kids'. The truth is, I may be happier about seeing President Obama's birth certificate. I don't remember caring about my kids' birth certificates, but I am so ready for this birther issue to go away.

The conspiracy theorists claiming that the President's birth certificate is a forgery and fake are both predictable and amusing. I feel a little bad for the guy with the book coming out in a couple of weeks entitled Where's the Birth Certificate? We all now know the answer - it's on whitehouse.gov.

The remaining questions now are these: why did the President wait so long to release it? And, why did he choose now to do so?

Though birthers are painted as right-wing loonies, it may be important to remember that it was the Hillary Clinton primary campaign that introduced this the idea that Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen into the political discourse. This issue was not invented by racist talk show hosts. It has been around since 2007. Of all days to blunt the unfounded criticism, why now?

Could it really be Donald Trump?

Here's my theory: I think that the President's political operatives urged him to release his birth certificate to marginalize Trump. The Donald has proven himself to have far more political cache than anyone exected. With a red-meat issue like the birth certificate, Trump could have built a loyal and sizable base, maybe enough of a base to provide a credible challenge to the President. I think they thought that if they released the birth certificate, it would deflate Trump, short-circuit his campaign before it even started.

And I think they are wrong. Rather than embarrassing Trump, the release of the birth certificate will embolden Trump. What Hillary, McCain, Beck and the bunch were unable to do over months and years, Trump did in a few short weeks. He is projecting himself as a person who can get things done. And, he has. He got the President to do something he had refused to do for years.

Today, the President tried to neutralize Donald Trump, and I think it's going to backfire.

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The Roundtable

2011-04-26T21:41:00.000-05:00

One of my most cherished memories from my time pastoring a church in Michigan is the Pastors' Theology Roundtable. The Roundtable was a group of pastors who got together every couple of months to debate doctrine in a safe environment. All of us had various beliefs that were off the beaten track that, given the rather restrictive nature of our denomination, were unable to be openly discussed in our churches. The Roundtable gave us the opportunity to present our ideas and to hash them out together. We rarely agreed, but came to love one another deeply and to value our time together.

The Roundtable affirmed to me that clear theological debate can take place without the name-calling and condemnation that characterizes so much of the Church today. And it has me wondering ... could we recreate the Roundtable here? Could the Grenz counter the blogosphere culture by being a place where people can pursue truth without sacrificing grace?

Admittedly, the flap over my review of Rob Bell's Love Wins gives me pause. But I believe in us. I am hopeful.

So ... here is what is going to happen.

I have written a paper entitled The Glorious Kingdom: mystery and generosity that I am going to circulate to a couple of pastor friends of mine. I am hoping that they will write a response, poking holes in my arguments and pointing out my blind spots. Then, I am going to post all of them - my paper and the responses to it - here on the Grenz.

I know that this is going to be lengthy. My paper is over 3,000 words, and that's without any responses. But I think it and the responses may be able to do two things: 1) help to dial back the vitriol so common in theological discussion today by demonstrating how to disagree with grace, and 2) further the discussion we are now having about hell and universalism. You can read and think and decide for yourself. And, more importantly, you can enter the discussion.

So, what do you think? Am I crazy for hoping to turn the Grenz into a Theology Roundtable? Do you want a seat at the table?

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Holy Week: Window in the Skies

2011-04-24T06:52:00.000-05:00

The rule has been disproved
The stone it has been moved
The grave is now a groove
All debts are removed

Happy Easter, everybody

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Holy Week: Wake Up Dead Man

2011-04-23T08:10:00.003-05:00

God is dead.

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Holy Week: Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

2011-04-22T15:42:00.001-05:00

You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains
Carried the cross, took my shame, took the pain
You know I believe it
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

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Holy Week: Until the End of the World

2011-04-21T18:00:00.000-05:00

On Maundy Thursday, Jesus shared a meal with his disciples, washed their feet, and taught them how to love. I'm quite fond of the way U2 tells the story.

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Holy Week: Yahweh

2011-04-20T17:21:00.001-05:00

On this day during Holy Week, Jesus was anointed by a woman who lavished her most expensive perfume upon him. Her actions are a reminder that everything we have must be offered to our God.

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Holy Week: One

2011-04-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus spent a lot of time teaching. During these final lessons, he was asked by a man about which is the greatest commandment. His answer - Love. "Love the higher law."

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Holy Week: Out of Control

2011-04-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

"I've got big ideas. I'm out of control." On Monday of Holy Week, Jesus flew into a fit of rage and ran the merchants from the temple. Jesus is up to something important this week, and he's willing to appear crazy to see it through.

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Holy Week: When Love Comes to Town

2011-04-17T20:04:00.001-05:00

I am going to blog Holy Week this year with U2 videos that capture the destiny, the angst, the hope of what Jesus did for us. I'm a little late getting started, but in honor of Palm Sunday, here is When Love Comes to Town.

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Love Wins: More Questions, More Answers

2011-04-11T13:00:00.003-05:00

An anonymous person commented here on the Grenz yesterday in response to the two blog entries I've posted about Rob Bell's new book Love Wins:

Winning! (some thoughts on Rob Bell, not Charlie Sheen)
Hell's Bells: some preliminary thoughts about Love Wins

I think I have been fairly candid about the fact that I am in the process of clarifying and solidifying my own beliefs about the idea of eternal, conscious torment in a physical locale called "Hell" and the implications of such an idea on our understanding of God. But, this anonymous person has asked several questions of me. I'm going to assume, maybe against my better judgment, that these questions were asked in good faith and not as accusations. So, I've decided to answer them. I'm all for this conversation.

You say you teach grace but I remember when you taught Truth & Grace. What happen to truth?

I believe in truth. I believe truth is found in Jesus. I believe the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is the truest thing we know. I believe Jesus reveals truth to us, and by that I mean that Jesus shows us the reality of life in God. Most people live a sham, far from what God intended, far from the best version of themselves, far from reality, far from truth. The truth we are all desperately in need of is found in him. The Bible reveals and records for us the true story of Jesus. I love and cherish it. And each Sunday at Vintage Fellowship, I attempt to show how the truth of the story of Jesus intersects with our own stories.

How can you not be sure if there is a Hell?

Hell is no joke to me. It is not something I take lightly. A teaching about hell that includes eternal, conscious torment of human beings ought to get our attention. Sit with that for a moment. Eternal. Conscious. Torment.

Who relishes this idea? Sadly, I think some Christians in this Rob Bell debate come off like they do. Well, I don't. And I don't think God does either.

I believe in a God who grace is surprising and overwhelming and irresistible. And while I can't (and don't) say with any certainty, I am holding out hope that God's grace is greater than eternal, conscious torment, that God is moved with pity toward ... not just me and my friends ... but toward all of us. I am not a universalist, but I hope God is.

Is that such a dangerous thing to hope for?

Have you forgotten the words in the Bible or do you not believe them anymore?

I absolutely believe the words in the Bible. It's the translations and interpretations of people I question. When Jesus used the word "hell," what was he referring to? What would his hearers have thought of and understood? What are the Greek words for "eternal" and "forever," and are we eisegeting our western mindset into them when we read them? What is the book of Revelation really all about? How was it received and understood by the original readers?

These are the hermeneutical questions I'm asking of the Bible. I don't mind if someone comes to a different conclusion than I do. I think the Christian tradition is big enough and generous enough to accommodate differences.

You always told us to be very careful, to steer clear of new age religion, now you not only teach it to your church, you teach it to your kids.

I am not sure what is meant by "new age religion," but I can very clearly what I teach my church and my kids. I teach them to trust Jesus. I teach them that on their own, they are only going to screw their lives up. That Jesus is their rescue, their model, their only hope and help. I teach them be kind, to be gentle, to be sold-out for love. I teach them not to expect everyone to agree with them all the time and to, in fact, celebrate and learn from different perspectives. I teach them to think for themselves and to search the wonderful story of the Bible for the answers they seek. I teach them, I hope, grace and truth.

What happened to you Robb?

I'd bet that this question is meant to be pejorative. But it's not a bad question. It's true, I am not who I used to be. Maybe I ought to write a book about how I have been transformed from a fundamentalist pastor into an emergent church planter ...

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Male Friendship

2011-03-31T15:39:00.000-05:00

So, in the last several weeks, I've had four different conversations with men about how they have no friends. This has gotten several questions about male friendship running through my mind:

How do two men become friends?
What binds men together?
How do male friendships differ from other relationships?
And, ultimately, how I can have more friends?

These are things that are on my mind, but I'm curious what other people. Do any of you have thoughts about male friendships? Any ideas about improving them? Any men willing to join me in saying, I don't have enough friends and I'm not sure what to do about?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

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Winning! (some thoughts about Rob Bell, not Charlie Sheen)

2011-03-28T22:10:00.001-05:00

I devoured Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins as soon as it hit my iBook shelves. I was tremendously excited about this book for myriad reasons: I’m a big Rob Bell fan who has read all of his books and really appreciate his style. Also, the controversy that erupted even before Love Wins came out made it a must-read for anyone engaging in contemporary theological discussion.

And … not the least of these, the topic has been of interest to me for more than 5 years now. As I wrote about previously, Vintage Fellowship was birthed in part by a question rising within me that challenged the traditional parameters of heaven and hell. Wouldn’t it be just like God to let everyone in? That’s a question I’ve been asking for a while now. Love Wins is a significant contribution to the answer.

While I am sure the folks at Harper One relish in it, much of the debate about Love Wins is regrettable yet unavoidable. Two things drive the inevitability of the debate: the intentional misreading of the book by some and the intentional vagueness of Rob Bell’s writing.

Our church gives out free copies of Rob’s first book, Velvet Elvis, to people in Northwest Arkansas. We have been criticized for doing so by those claiming that in Velvet Elvis, Rob denies the virgin birth. This criticism is an intentional misreading of Velvet Elvis. I am fairly confident that people reading it with an agenda would proffer much of the criticism of Love Wins. Readers who are looking to label Rob a Universalist will find passages to further their cause.

The presence of those passages, however, can be attributed to Rob’s intentionally vague writing style. It seems to me that Rob is going more for artistic impact that theological precision. While such an approach makes for a well-written and easy-to-read book, it also leaves Rob open to criticism and mis-labeling. In fact, the vagueness and open-endedness made it very difficult for me to discuss Love Wins with people who haven’t read it.

So, is Rob Bell a Universalist?
Uh, I don’t think so.
What does he say about what the afterlife will be like?
Uh, he doesn’t really get into that.
Does he believe in hell?
Uh, yeah. But not like you might think.

Basically, here is my understanding of Rob’s position: God loves us so much that he gives us complete and total freedom. If there is no such freedom, love would not exist. In that freedom, we all choose heavens and hells everyday. These heavens are hells are both present now in life and present later in the afterlife. Hell is the natural consequence of those who pull away from God, but ultimately, God’s love will win the day. Ultimately, all people will be reconciled to God and each other because love wins.

(As an aside, Rob’s strong dependence on the idea of human freedom doesn’t resonate that well with me. I’m a Calvinist, predestined to de-emphasize human freedom. But … I’m not a neo-Calvinist who insists that everyone else see the world the way I do, so I didn’t get too hung up on it in Love Wins.)

Certainly, Rob is under no obligation to answer all the questions his readers have or to package his beliefs in such a way that makes it easy for me to explain them. So, it’s taken me some time to digest Love Wins. And now that I’ve done that, here are some of my thoughts about the strengths of Love Wins and its impact on the debate about heaven and hell.

--

One of the best things about Love Wins is its corrective of the all-too-common idea that heaven and hell are far off and someday places. For too long, our mental images of what heaven and hell are like have been derived from Dante’s Inferno, folk art, and tradition. Seeking different sources, Rob roots his position in an almost mind-numbing barrage of Bible references coupled with his now trademark reliance on Hebrew thought patterns. In the Hebrew mind, questions of heaven and hell are far less important than questions about life here and now.

Christian theologians talk about the “already-not yet” nature of God’s kingdom. Even so, most of the time when we think of it, we think in terms of the “not yet” part. Rob swings the pendulum to the “already,” forcing us to consider the ways in which heaven and hell are here and now. There is a distinctive earthiness to his descriptions of heaven and hell that break our comfortable theological categories and thrust us into new levels of understanding.

Another really important aspect of Love Wins is its embrace of the divine surprise on the day of reckoning. We tend to have it all figured out. We know who’s in and who’s out; who is going to make it and who is not. I joke about churches who think that they will be on the first bus to heaven. (At Vintage, I’m pretty sure that our bus is a Volkswagen … and I hope Jesus will be our designated driver.)

Jesus describes the day of reckoning as a day of surprises. Some who expect to make it, won’t: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” And some who make it can’t figure out why: “When did we see you naked and clothed you?” It will be a day that people are dumbfounded and shocked.

I am sure that Rob’s chapter on how Jesus can be found in unexpected places will raise the red flags of the discernment websites. I can hear the blog chatter now, “Does Rob Bell believe that Buddists will be in heaven?” Or worse, “Does Rob Bell believe that Muslims will be in heaven?” These questions may miss the point. A better question is “Will Baptists be in hell?”

I personally have lost confidence in all of the very assured answers I was taught about who is in and who is out. When it comes to the eschaton, judgment, and eternity, there are only a few things about which I remain confident. One of them is that the whole thing is going to be one big surprise.

The best chapter in Love Wins is the one about the good news. Rob details how a gospel message that is merely a get-out-of-hell free card is woefully inadequate. If we merely view God as some kind of comic bouncer, we are completely missing the point of the story. Heaven is a party, a feast, a banquet, a blast. The good news is so much better than we think!

What is so dangerous about hoping that God is even more gracious than we could have ever imagined? Why are so many Christians threatened by the idea that more people would get to experience God’s eternal love than they had expected? Do any of us get heaven because we deserve it? If I don’t deserve it, what do I care if God shares it with someone other than me? Isn’t that even more a reason to celebrate? What’s so bad about hoping that the good news is even better than that?

--

Love Wins has already resonated profoundly in the Christian community. And I expect that resonance to continue. The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McLaren was an important book in this ongoing debate, but it will probably never have the reach of Love Wins. Many people like me have wondered to ourselves and questioned the traditional answers silently. Rob has put controversial and thought-provoking words on a page and invited people to enter into the white space with their own thoughts and reflections.

At the very least, Love Wins furthers the conversation about heaven and hell, the relationship between Christianity and other religions, the nature of judgment, and ultimately, the character and nature of God. These are important conversations.

These are important conversations because “heretic” is a powerful word that shouldn’t be thrown around lightly.

These are important conversations because beliefs matter, especially for pastors whose jobs can depend on whether or not they ask the question in the right way and frame the answer in a manner that won’t offend too many people.

These are important conversations because much of the planet is engulfed in wars that have alarmingly religious undertones.

These are important conversations because the gospel story we’ve been telling ourselves might be wrong.

These are important conversations because the fate of billions of people may hang in the balance.

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Hell's Bells: some preliminary thoughts about Love Wins

2011-02-28T12:49:00.004-06:00

In large part, Vintage Fellowship was born out of my ever-increasing desire to be part of a faith community that values questioning.

I am a naturally curious person. I like to read books with which I will disagree. I like a good theological or political debate. I like to question authority and push the boundaries of the status quo. I doubt that I'll ever feel like I have arrived. I'm always journeying, always evolving.

This led to profound frustration for me when I pastored established, traditional churches. The denomination of my youth is very settled. They have received the truth once delivered to the saints. There is now no need to question or embark on theological exploration. All we need to do is fill in the blanks of our systematic theology notes and memorize the answers. Who needs questions when you already have the answers?

But I like to ask questions. I need to ask questions.

And sometimes, the questions will get you in as much trouble as the answers ... especially when the best answer you can come up with is “I don’t know.”

--

One of the questions that helped to give birth to Vintage is this ...

Wouldn't it be just like God in the end to let everyone into heaven?

--

The twit hit the fan this weekend over the promotion of Rob Bell's upcoming book about heaven and hell, Love Wins. It's a book that asks some big questions about the nature of how humanity will relate to God in the afterlife. Obviously, Rob Bell isn't the first person to ask these questions. And obviously, given what we know about Rob, the answers he postulates will stretch and challenge the traditional theological status quo.

But I'm willing to bet that the twit storm is premature.

Vintage Fellowship gives away copies of Velvet Elvis on our website to people in Northwest Arkansas who are interested in our church. I've lovingly referred to Rob as one of our patron saints. From time to time, we have caught some heat for this. People have said to us that we are promoting a heretic, that in Velvet Elvis, Rob denies the virgin birth of Jesus.

This is one of the common criticisms of Velvet Elvis. And it couldn't be further from the truth.

In Velvet Elvis, Rob doesn't deny the virgin birth; he uses it as an example of doubt, of a legitimate question that people ask and struggle with that shouldn't necessarily preclude them from the love and acceptance of a church community.

But so many of our church communities don't like questions. Why bother with questions when we already have the answers?

--

So, is there a hell? Will God let everyone in to heaven in the end?

What does Rob Bell believe? I don't know; I haven't read Love Wins yet.

But it does seem to me that the church is not well-served by premature criticism of a book that very few have even read. Are we really putting the best face on the church and guarding the reputation of Jesus by taking to Twitter to denounce one another? Wouldn't it be better if the love of Jesus was trending rather than Rob Bell?

--

But come on, really, is there a hell? Will God let everyone in to heaven in the end?

What do I believe? I don't know.

--

--

--

RobBell.com
Vintage Fellowship
Thoughts About Rob Bell, John Piper, and Justin Taylor by Jason Boyett
Rob Bell: Universalist? by Justin Taylor

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Book Review: The Shallows

2011-02-02T14:30:00.002-06:00

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr was recommended in a meeting I was in. I'm glad I took the advice and got it. In the book, Carr examines the ways in which the Internet, for better or for worse, is impacting human evolution. His basic thesis is that the Internet is a tool that is fundamentally reshaping human reality and our brains in the process. This is not the first time a tool has done this. The clock and the map are two tools that situated human beings within time and space in a revolutionary manner. Our brain chemistry has adapted to the omnipresence of clocks and maps to such a degree that we cannot even imagine how humans existed without them. Many of us, in a similar manner, cannot remember life before the web.

Most interesting to me was Carr's discussion of digital books and the phenomenon of reading online. Many have thought that digital books will make reading far more common and accessible. Likewise, many have argued that melding the online world with education will increase our knowledge because we will have greater access to more information. In reality, more information does not mean more knowledge, let alone more wisdom.

Studies are beginning to show that multimedia educational experiences actually decrease learning opportunities because more of our brains are devoted to decision-making functions rather than absorbing and appropriating information. When my brain has to make myriad subconscious decisions about whether or not I am going to click on an embedded hyperlink or watch a video, it does not have full resources to grasp what I am actually reading.

Further, we read differently when we read online than when we read a hard copy book. Online reading is scattered and distracted, much like we read magazines or newspapers ... glancing and scanning headlines. Books are obviously different, expecting us to read in a linear fashion. When I read on a screen my brain is not used to following a linear path, making reading much more difficult. The counterintuitive truth is that electronic formats for learning in reality decrease recall and comprehension.

--

Other interesting observations in The Shallows include:

The expectation that we can outsource our memory to the cloud may actually reduce brain capacity rather than increase it.

A mere hour-long walk in nature before a test dramatically increases memory and recall.

For as long as they have existed, human beings tend to become one with the tools they use. This is true of a guitar, a hammer, and the Internet.

Google is both freaking amazing and freaking scary.

--

I come away from Carr's book with a few new commitments:

I have got to find more and better ways to unplug. I am way too addicted to all things digital and need to sabbath from them.

I am going to change the way I blog. Rather than embedding hyperlinks in text, I am going to list them at the end of a blog post. This way, my readers' brains can focus on what they are reading and making decisions about following links at the end.

I have serious doubts about the effect of the movement of our educational system toward e-content. I think this is something we are going to live to regret (think: Idiocracy).

The irony that I read this book on my iPad is not lost on me.

--

The Shallows
Nicholas Carr's Blog
Idiocracy on IMDB

--

Vespers: Life Changing

2011-01-30T17:29:00.001-06:00

We had our first Vespers service last night at Vintage. These services, the brainchild of Jonathan Perrodin, our Formational Leader, are designed to create a space for us to be with God. They incorporate liturgy, art, music in new and unexpected ways. I am so thrilled about Vespers that I hardly have words to express my excitement.

This first Vespers service focused on Saul and his encounter with Jesus that so profoundly changed his life. Because he had met Jesus, his life as he knew it was over. A new life was emerging, a life that he lived that was not his own.

During the course of the service, we were invited to come forward, light a candle, and place it at the foot of the cross. This action symbolized that we are living a new life, a life that is not our own, a life that emerges from the death Jesus died. After we placed our candles at the foot of the cross, we were given several minutes to pray.

In that time of prayer, I had a breakthrough.

For the past several months in general ... the last day in particular ... I had been doing some complaining about my life. I had been complaining to Vanessa about the traveling I was doing. I was dreading being away from home. I was wishing that I could live a different life than I was living.

God knows what I want. And yet he has chosen to give me the life I am living. Who am I to complain about it? Who am I to be bitter or angry or pouty because my powerful, gracious, and wise God has decided that I don't yet need what I want. I need what I'm getting.

I wouldn't be happy if one of my kids was treating me the way I was treating God. And I'm sure God wasn't all that happy with me.

So, I didn't just leave my candle at the foot of the cross. I left my bad attitude and my complaints and my unholy discontent about the life God has given me. I was changed by the grace of God at our Vespers service.

Go. In Peace. Indeed.

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I Just Bought a New Bible

2011-01-15T12:44:00.001-06:00

Despite what people might have thought after my last blog post about "being biblical," the Bible is actually quite important to me. I care deeply that people read, consider, and treasure the Bible. In my own life, I don't think anything has formed me more than the Bible has.

For this reason, I get irked when I see shit like this:

On sale at Sam's Club, of course.

We would all consider Thomas Jefferson an American Patriot, right? I wonder if this Bible is anything like his Jefferson Bible?

Anyway, I'm making a shift in the Bible I use. Not to The American Patriot's Bible, but to the new NIV.

When it comes to Bible translation, I am in the camp of people who think we ought to give equal weight to both languages involved in the translation. Many translations, such as the New King James and New American Standard, are very faithful to the original languages but lack readability in English. Others, like The Message and New Living Translation, come off in English as way too forced and campy to be taken seriously.

I'm a gender-nuetral egalitarian kind of guy. I think it's respectful and important to use language that doesn't alienate people through its insensitivity to the ways in which our culture has changed. I want a Bible that reads like I try to speak.

So, since Vintage Fellowship started, I have used and preached from the TNIV - Today's New International Version of the Bible. It's the very popular NIV with special consideration given to egalitarian sensibilities. (The fact that the TNIV has been condemned by the fundamentalist types made it only that much more appealing.)

So now, a new NIV is being released, one that combines most of the gender neutrality of the TNIV with the popularity of the NIV. I'm in.

It won't be out in hardcopy until March, but I just bought it in my Bible app, and will preach from tomorrow.

Here's a very good article detailing what to expect in the new NIV.

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No Time for Finger-Pointing

2011-01-10T10:06:00.000-06:00

David Gergen is completely correct in his CNN commentary.

Editor's note: David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four U.S. presidents. He is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.

(CNN) -- Until we have more definitive information about the shooter, pointing fingers at who might bear responsibility for the Tucson, Arizona, massacre only contributes to what we must end in America: a toxic political environment.

Soon after the news broke, the internet lit up with accusations, even before we knew anything at all about the man who pulled the trigger. Much of the early commentary, especially from the left, blamed the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, etc. for employing a rhetoric of militarism and creating a climate of hate.

Commentators from the right soon retaliated, arguing that the left was just as guilty of rhetorical excess and through bad governance, had inspired a citizen revolt. As of this hour, we have a country that is not only deeply saddened but even more divided than we were before the shooting.

We can do better -- a lot better.

My experience in government is that typically, a lot of what we think we know in the first hours of a calamitous event turns out to be wrong. In the White House Situation Room just after President Reagan was shot, we were first informed that press secretary Jim Brady had died; we said a prayer. Later we learned that he had miraculously survived; we said another prayer. It took even more time to figure out whether the would-be assassin John Hinckley was a loner or what his motivations were. Even now we are still unsure about what prompted his madness.

As a young man, I was struck by how quickly, after Lee Harvey Oswald had murdered President Kennedy, speculation centered on whether Oswald was acting on behalf of the right-wing John Birch Society. Instead, we learned that he was tied to Fidel Castro.

The country would be well served now if we cooled the accusations until we learn more about the man police are holding in Tucson, Jared Loughner. He appears to be mentally unhinged, someone who has threatened others. Why he targeted one of the most admired and popular political leaders in Arizona is unclear.

None of this is to excuse the climate of hatred that has built up in the United States over our politics and our politicians. Its origins go back a long time, but it has undeniably grown worse in recent years -- during the George W. Bush years, when the left was intensely alienated, and now during the Obama years, when the right has become vitriolic.

During the 2008 campaign, many of us in the "commentariat," including me, openly worried that occasional calls for violence at Palin rallies would lead to bloodshed. To his credit, Sen. John McCain eventually stepped in and called a halt. Since Obama's inauguration, there have been many signs that threats to public officials have been rising.

All of this should be the subject of renewed "soul-searching", as Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik called for in the midst of the carnage. So should the continued, easy access to guns in this country -- something we have fretted about for years but haven't resolved. How can it be that a young man with so many signs of derangement as Loughner could purchase a very dangerous 9 mm Glock handgun less than a month ago -- and legally?

Too many times in our history, assassins have struck down our leaders with guns. Four presidents have died at the hands of gunmen -- Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy. Four other presidents have narrowly escaped -- FDR, Truman, Ford and Reagan. Gunmen have also taken the lives of some who have served in Congress.

And now we have Gabrielle Giffords, apparently the first female member of Congress who has been shot, courageously fighting for her life. Six others are dead. This is not a moment to point fingers and make accusations. But it is a time to pray for the victims -- and to pledge to each other that we will struggle for a more civil and decent America.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Gergen.

The Rhythms of Life

2011-01-05T20:51:00.005-06:00

In the past couple of years, Vanessa and I have been very concerned about recognizing that we were designed by God to live according to certain rhythms. We've discovered (Along with a lot of other people. I'm not suggesting that we are pioneers here.) that while technology has provided us with many wonderful advancements, sometimes the unintended consequences of our technology is that we get out of sync with the natural rhythms and routines of life.

Lights and TVs and iPads keep us up to all hours of the night.

Planes, trains, and automobiles move well-preserved foods from one corner of the globe to another.

Credit and even debit cards prevent us from connecting the dots between our labor and its fruit.

Microwaves and high speed internet keep us from ever having to wait.

And as a result, we have found ourselves tired, crabby, impatient. We've become more and more unhealthy. And we always have this sense of kind of being disconnected.

So, we have begun trying to reconnect to the rhythms of life. This hasn't been a whole-sale thing, changing everything about our lifestyle all at once. Rather than that, it has been a slow unfolding of new ways to find routine and rest in life, adding additional puzzle pieces as we begin to feel passionately about them.

Over the past couple of years, we've incorporated these kinds of things into our lives:

We are trying to eat as locally as possible, visiting the Farmer's Market, local produce stand, and buying pasture-fed local beef.

We also try to eat food when it is in season. Summer is for strawberries and peaches, regardless of what's for sale at Walmart in January.

We sabbath. Hard. On Sundays, we don't work. We spend time with friends, take naps, play on the Wii. And we have a Sunday evening routine with the kids - AFV and Extreme Makeover while we eat toast and hot chocolate.

We also have assigned the kids daily chores that they are expected to complete. And we pay them an allowance for them, every other week, like I get paid. Payday for me is payday for them. We've used the envelope system to help them spend their money wisely. And they each now have their own savings account.

We have become more conscious of the church calendar, caring about seasons like Advent and Lent.

With the arrival of the new year, I decided to participate again in the Daily Audio Bible. It's a daily podcast that reads through the Bible. I took a year or so off, but it feels good to make this a part of my morning routine again.

And, since the kids went back to school, we've added a new routine that we are very excited about. We have begun doing Morning and Evening Prayers as a family, using Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer as our guide.

Because our kids are early risers (read: Calvin), their job is to bring coffee to Mom and Dad at 6:45. They all pile into our bed and we do the prayer liturgy and readings together. Then, by 7, we are up and at 'em, ready to show the world what we're made of. We do Evening Prayers around the table when we are done with dinner.

It's only been three days so far. Two week from now I may be embarrassed that I put this out there because we've given up. But for right now, we are loving bookending our days with a recognition that God is here, that there is more going on than we can see, and that we are in this thing together.

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Books in the Queue

2011-01-01T12:11:00.003-06:00

With the start of the new year, I'm thinking about all the books I'm going to be finishing/reading in the next few weeks. Here's a look at what I've got queued up:

The Shallows
what the internet is doing to our brains
Nicholas Carr

Drops Like Stars
a few thoughts on creativity and suffering
Rob Bell

The Tangible Kingdom
creating incarnational community
Hugh Halter & Matt Smay

Eating the Dinosaur
pop culture and sports
Chuck Klosterman

The Orthodox Heretic
and other impossible tales
Peter Rollins

What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality
rethinking the scriptural passages
Daniel Helminiak

Emergence: A Year in Review

2010-12-31T10:19:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite parts of this time of year is all the "year-in-review" articles and stories. Here is one by Jonathan Brink about what the Emergent Church was up to in 2010. It's honest and hopeful. I especially enjoyed this paragraph:

The emerging church isn’t dead. It’s just finally wrestled with the angel and won. It’s shedding it old image, the one that got people so riled up in the first place. The conversations won’t ever go away because in the end, we’re looking for what it means to be human. We’re looking to discover the reality that Jesus was trying to present, one of infinite grace and beauty, stark reality of the kingdom of God in our midst, and a renewed sense of possibility for the restoration of the world.

My Triumphal Return to Fantasy Football

2010-12-29T10:43:00.002-06:00

When we moved to Arkansas, I was busy. Working two jobs, trying to launch a church, trying to be decent dad and an adequate husband. I knew something had to give. I couldn't do it all. So I gave up fantasy football. Leagues that I had been in for years died. And my Sunday afternoons were profoundly changed.

In a return to normalcy, this year, I decided to make my triumphal return to fantasy football. We set up a league with friends from church and work. Calvin and I managed a team together so he could learn the ropes and be ready to have his own team next season.

We rode the Peytons, Manning and Hillis, all the way to the Championship Game. Where they let us down. Last night, we lost the championship by 8 points.

So much for my triumphal return to fantasy football.

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The Grenz Is Back

2010-12-27T16:22:00.001-06:00

More than a year ago, I decided to move the Grenz over to my personal website and use iWeb to update it. This was a great idea in theory. I wasn't blogging very much anymore anyway, and I was going to focus on writing less frequently and more substantively. But I didn't.

As it turns out, being that iWeb is an offline program, I had to be very intentional about blogging. And it felt like I was blogging in a vacuum.

I missed the Grenz.

So, I decided to bring the Grenz back, here on Blogger, where it was born. It's had a bit of a facelift, and I'm planning on using it like I always did - linking articles, pictures, snide remarks that are too long for Twitter, and occasional thoughtful commentary. I'm excited about this ... and looking forward to being a blogger again.

Here's hoping I've still got a few readers.

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On Being Biblical

2010-12-27T15:26:00.001-06:00

*originally posted on December 10, 2010

I was born and raised in a particular brand of Christianity that championed the superiority of the Bible. Above all, we were exhorted in church, camp, and college to "hold fast the faithful Word," to "think biblically," to "run everything through the grid of the Bible." In a very real way, the Bible was the mediator between us and God. We did not ask if something was holy or godly or good. We asked if it was "biblical."

We didn't worry too much about spiritual disciplines, we worried about our "quiet time," which was code for a academic version of inductive Bible study. We slapped each other on the back for making new observations from the biblical texts. We argued over the merits of various interpretations of just about every biblical passage. And we studied Greek and Hebrew so that we could do our study in the original languages, which we surmised got us even closer to God.

This approach to the Christian life is helpful in a lot of ways. With the Bible as an anchor, it keeps people from wandering through life like a person who has lost her compass. It also drives people toward searching, questioning, and seeking ... Which is good, of course, if the Bible is the only place they look for answers. And, all in all, it's not a bad thing to have ever-increasingly thoughtful Christians.

But as with so much else I was raised with, I'm starting to have my doubts about this kind of Bible-centered Christianity.

First, I consider what Jesus said in John 5 to the biblical scholars of his day, "You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." Jesus seems to indicate that the Bible is not the mediator between us and God; he is. How similar have we become to our ancient forefathers who knew the Scriptures but not God when he was speaking to them? That's a probing question that needs to be honestly considered.

Second, I'm beginning to wonder if being "biblical" is the best way to judge a theological system. With so many interpretations, how do we know which one is really right? With so many approaches to belief and life, how can we say with any confidence that I've got it figured out and you are mistaken? With so many worldviews, how can we say that one is true while others are not?

If our standard is simply what is “biblical,” we are left with having to choose who has made the most convincing case based on biblical grounds. And if the history of the church tells us anything, we may live to regret what we claim the Bible teaches:

•The case for the Crusades was made on “biblical grounds.”
•The case for slavery was made on “biblical grounds.”
•The case for torture is being made on “biblical grounds.”

In addition to these, the Bible has been used to justify war, oppression, the death penalty, bigotry, polygamy ... and just about anything else we want to try to justify.

Maybe “biblical grounds” are more shaky than we realize. Maybe we need some other way of discerning what belief systems are good, bad, and ugly. Maybe we need to listen to Jesus again.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (Matthew 7.15-20)

Jesus does not say that we will be able to discern the validity of someone's belief system based on their ability to prooftext their argument. He says very clearly that it is the fruit of a person's belief system that will be the indicator of whether or not their approach to theology and life is good or bad. Fruit is what matters.

How do we know whether or not fruit is good to eat? We look at it, smell it, squeeze it, tap on it and listen to find out if it sounds hollow. We discern and examine it against what we know good and ripe fruit to be.

In the spiritual realm, we know what good and ripe fruit is. It is that which is loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled (Galatians 5.22-23).

So, if I am going to follow God in the way of Jesus, and I am examining the validity of a theological system or a belief structure, I need to ask these kinds of questions:

•Does this belief system promote sacrificial service of others, particularly those who have been unloved previously?
•Does this belief system foster a deep and abiding joy and satisfaction in life?
•Does this belief system make the world a more peaceful place?
•Does this belief system slow people down enough that they can seek to understand one another better?
•Does this belief system lead to gracious actions?
•Does this belief system encourage people to be present in the lives of one another?
•Does this belief system affirm a posture of vulnerability?
•Does this belief system encourage people to be true to themselves?

Recently, I heard a young woman speak about her struggle to find acceptance in the Christian community. She talked about how she tried to conform to the expectations of others, expectations produced by their belief system. And after years of trying, she was unable. The fruit of that belief system was a fragile and fractured young woman, depressed and suicidal. That can't be good fruit, can it?

In all honesty, I don't know where this journey will take me, but I do know that I've got a new compass and a new map. I'm going to begin to care less about whether or not something lines up with my interpretation (let alone someone else’s) of a given biblical passage and more what its fruit looks like

Beliefs Have Consequences: A Review of Putting Away Childish Things

2010-12-27T15:14:00.003-06:00

*originally posted September 2, 2010

In his new novel Putting Away Childish Things, Marcus Borg invites us into the world of academia, following the decision making process of professor Kate Riley as she flirts with leaving her tenure-track position at a liberal arts college to teach for one year at a mainline seminary. For three months, we are flies on the wall as Kate interacts with friends, colleagues, and students, teaching about how people think about God all while wondering where God might be leading her.

The story itself is well-written and engaging, even if the title seems somewhat disconnected from the story itself. There are no shocking plot twists or scenes that would require big budget special effects if Hollywood ever makes a script of it. Rather, the tension is intellectual and emotional. Predictably, from Kate's religion department chairman to the charismatic leader of the evangelical campus group called The Way, the "bad guys" are straight, white men. More predictably, Kate decides to ... oh, nevermind ... I don't want to give a spoiler alert.

The impact of Borg's novel will be in the area of narrative theology, in a manner very similar to Brian McLaren's New Kind of Christian trilogy. He artfully uses both classroom and personal discussions to raise issues relevant to our understanding of Christian faith in the postmodern era:
•How are we to think of the fantastical stories of the Bible?
•What impact has the Enlightenment had on the Christian religion?
•Is there a better approach than the traditional one for Christians to think of homosexuality?
•What is an evangelical?

While he gives many helpful insights into these and other questions, for me, the strength of Borg's story is its parabolic illustration of this truth: beliefs have consequences.

Like Kate, I have lived this truth.

As a pastor of a fundamentalist congregation, I experienced the hurt expressions and gossipy complaints of congregants when I dared to question President Bush's triumphalist language in the wake of 9/11. I expected that if I raised my own doubts about our denomination's eschatological certainty, I would be called on the carpet by the board. I knew that if I publicly voiced my questions about the early chapters of Genesis, I would certainly lose my job. My beliefs had consequences.

And so do Kate's. She feels as though she is challenged on both sides. Evangelicals condemn her as heretical and even unAmerican for writing about the differences between the biblical birth narratives of Jesus. Progressives question her scholarly credentials for writing about CS Lewis and faithfully attending church. What she authentically believes keeps her on unsure footing.

But the consequences of our beliefs are not just negative. For Kate, her beliefs produce many beautiful opportunities. Because she is genuine as both a Christian and a scholar, she has the chance to be more than a teacher to her students; she can be a mentor and friend. And, more significantly, because she does not fit the traditional religious studies professor mold, she is courted by the seminary to join their team. These positive consequences would not be available to Kate if she were not authentic in her own spiritual and intellectual journey.

For me, the consequences of my own faith journey meant that while I had to leave behind fundamentalism, I was given the glorious privilege of being part of a new community. I now enjoy more genuine friendships, more vibrant worship, more engaged discipleship because I was unwilling to fake it any longer. I had to become an emergent church pastor; the consequences of my beliefs were inescapably wonderful.

I am thankful for Marcus Borg's book because, though Kate's circumstances and choices are much different than my own, our paths are parallel. Our beliefs have consequences, and we could not have it any other way.

A New Kind of Christianity by Brian McLaren

2010-12-27T15:07:00.003-06:00

*originally posted on February 19, 2010

Brian McLaren has done it again.

When I read A New Kind of Christian trilogy several years ago, I was in the midst of a spiritual and emotional depression. I was, in McLaren’s words, “between something real and something wrong.” I had begun to question a lot of what I had been taught, a lot of what I preached, a lot of what gave me identity as a Christian and as a pastor. And I knew that if I expressed my questions and doubts, it would cost me my job. A New Kind of Christian gave me the courage to step out and journey onto some terra nova, leading eventually to the launching of Vintage Fellowship, the emergent faith community I have the inexpressible privilege of shepherding.

For me, Brian McLaren’s books are like a turn-by-turn GPS, always one step ahead of me, guiding the way. In the same way that A New Kind of Christian charted the path I would journey, so now, I believe A New Kind of Christianity will chart the path that Vintage Fellowship is journeying.

A New Kind of Christianity has framed the ongoing discussion our faith community is having. It’s like Brian has been having coffee with us. He asks 10 essential questions:
-What is the overarching storyline of the Bible?
-How should the Bible be understood?
-Is God Violent?
-Who is Jesus and why is he important?
-What is the gospel?
-What do we do about the church?
-Can we find a way to address human sexuality?
-Can we find a better way of viewing the future?
-How should the followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions?
-How can we translate our quest into action?

McLaren engages each question thoughtfully, opening up a space for discussion, dissent, and development. I am sure my fundamentalist friends will not be OK with his questions, let alone his proposed answers. But I am no longer a fundamentalist, and I love the space to explore and wonder. Many times throughout the book, I felt affirmed, reading a perspective on a question that I shared. Many more times, I was challenged to look at a question from a new perspective. And what a blessing that space is.

As tremendously important as McLaren’s framing of the quest for a new kind of Christianity is, maybe his most important contribution to the discussion is his gracious and gentle manner. He describes some of the reaction his teaching has engendered. And he responds to some of his critics. He could have reason to come on strongly, defensively, and argumentatively. He never does. He maintains the kind of irenic spirit that I think makes God proud. I hope that I can emulate it.

Constantly searching for metaphors to help map the territory ahead, McLaren describes the maturation process of humanity in general and religious thought in particular in terms of the colors of the spectrum. As I read his description of the movement from red to yellow through green and blue to violet, it was as if I was reading my own story. In short, reading A New Kind of Christian and launching Vintage Fellowship was my journey into the indigo shade of honesty. But I am ready to move beyond honesty to peace. I am ready to continue my quest. I am not confident of much, but I am confident of this: A New Kind of Christianity will be a map I return to again and again as I seek to lead myself, my family, and my church into the violet horizon of a hopeful, peaceful future.

Thanks, Brian, for doing it again.

The Grenz Is on the Move

2009-10-16T07:20:00.004-05:00

Friends, after 5 years of living here on Blogspot, the Grenz is moving. It will now be found at thegrenzian.com as a part of the new RobbRyerse.com. I hope you'll check it out and keep following me over there.

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Ridicule Me 2009

2009-09-04T09:05:00.002-05:00

Here is my annual Ridicule Robb post - my picks for the upcoming NFL season.

AFC East: New England Patriots
AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Indianapolis Colts
AFC West: San Diego Chargers
AFC Wild Cards: Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans

NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles
NFC North: Green Bay Packers
NFC South: New Orleans Saints
NFC West: San Francisco 49ers
NFC Wild Card: Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants

The Wild Card races really intrigue me this year. I think there are going to be a lot of teams in both conferences in the Wild Card hunt in December. I wouldn't be surprised to see Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, Minnesota, Chicago, Seattle, Arizona, and even Cleveland fight for those four final spots down the stretch.

Super Bowl -
Green Bay Packers 24
San Diego Super Chargers 20

The Brett Favre demons are finally exorcised ... and he retires ... for good ... maybe.

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Did You Know?

2009-08-19T09:10:00.001-05:00

ESPN used to have a segment on Sportscenter called Did You Know? in which they would regale us with obscure statistics. I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable sports fan, but yesterday I learned two things I did not know before. And, frankly, they shocked me.

Did you know that professional football players do not wear cups? I heard Mark Shlareth, Stink, on Mike & Mike say that during his career, he never saw anyone wear a cup. That is shocking!

Did you know that Nascars do not have gas gauges? I heard a driver on Jim Rome talking about how they have to calculate MPGs and hope they run out of gas. That is shocking!

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Big Ups to the VOT

2009-08-17T12:50:00.002-05:00

I don't like church business meetings. I have been through more than my fair share of miserable ones.

Once, a lady stood up at a business meeting, read my job description and said, "I don't think Robb is doing his job." that started a 2 hour conversation about whether or not I was doing my job.

I've been dismissed from meetings so that people could discuss whether or not I deserved a raise.

There have been plenty of meetings that felt a lot like being taken out to the woodshed.

I've endured a lot of fair and unfair criticism. Not the constructive kind. To my face and behind my back.

I've had to stand up alone before groups and propose and defend decisions I wasn't really personally on board with.

All of this is why business and board meetings tie me up in knots. I get that pit of the stomach feeling. I get the spastic colon.

Yesterday at Vintage, our Oversight Team met. On the way to church, I said to Vanessa, "Will I always feel like this before meetings?"

Such feelings are totally unwarranted when it comes to the Vintage Oversight Team. Rarely have I ever had the opportunity to serve with such a humble, gracious, and good group of people. They amaze me with their concern for our community and for me and Vanessa.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to these special people.

I Hope No One's Turned Me In Yet

2009-08-04T18:50:00.004-05:00

Since when does the White House "keep track" of our "casual conversation" that they might contain "disinformation"?

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I find this seriously unsettling.

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Maybe the Greatest Video Ever Made

2009-07-26T18:25:00.001-05:00

Spiritual Disciplines: Solitude

2009-07-20T21:56:00.001-05:00

I posted a new reflection on the spiritual discipline of solitude on the Vintage Fellowship blog. Check it out.

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Blue Skies

2009-07-20T12:48:00.002-05:00

I consider myself a cynical optimist. It's a strange mix, I know.

On the one hand I am a very hopeful person with a positive worldview. My theology is very optmistic. I love what Wolfhart Pannenberg said, that God is the power of the future.

On the other hand, I'm pretty cynical. I've been disappointed enough times to be dubious about getting my hopes up about much.

Yesterday at Vintage, we had a time of silence in our worship gathering. I had just spoken very optimistically about how the silence allows us to hear God. During the time of silence, I was struggling with my own cynical self-talk.

In this, for me, typically paradoxical moment, I was standing by the back door, looking out the window. And it was as if God drew my attention to the beautiful blue skies above.

Blue skies have this way of brightening our mood without us even realizing it. They capture our imaginations as we try to make shapes in the clouds floating through them. They symbolize that today is going to be a good day.

Too often, I am "blue skies" about everything but what is happening in my life. I got a sense yesterday that God was calling me to a better version of myself, one that is less cynical and more hopeful.

God has interesting timing.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

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This Made Me Laugh

2009-07-18T16:47:00.001-05:00

Book Review: Nickel and Dimed

2009-07-15T12:16:00.003-05:00

I don't know if would be too self-indulgent of me, bit I thought I would make some comments about the latest book I've read, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

In her story, Ehrenreich tells of trying to live as a member of the working poor. She tries several jobs, such as waitressing, cleaning, and retail, in hopes of making enough in a month to buy food and pay her rent. She experiments in Key West FL, Maine, and Minneapolis. And she doesn't have much success.

I am left with a couple of fairly obvious observations. First, being poor sucks. My mom says that God teaches us lessons, regardless of whether we are rich or poor. Then she jokes that she's ready to learn some of those lessons that rich people learn. I think a lot of us think of ourselves as poor. But how many of us have really been in the quicksand of poverty? If Ehrenreich's experience is true, it is a scary place.

My second thought is that I don't know what the solution is. I've always been skeptical of government solutions to problems. But I also recognize that the market has gaps. Ideally, the church and other faith-based groups could fill those gaps, I suppose. But the problem of deep poverty is so big that I am uncharacteristically pessimistic about it.

At the very least, Nickel and Dimed gave me more exposure to the problem. And that is a good thing.

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Spiritual Disciplines

2009-07-13T19:07:00.005-05:00

As a part of our new series at Vintage, There's An App For That, I've posted a new entry on the Vintage blog about spiritual disciplines. Check it out here.

Totally Looks Like

2009-07-05T21:36:00.001-05:00

I am totally addicted to totallylookslike.com.

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Book Review: The War of Art

2009-07-04T12:03:00.005-05:00

An old friend recommended The War of Art on Facebook. Our library had it, so I checked it out ... and barely could put it down.

In this book, Steven Pressfield describes the challenges people face whenever they begin a creative endeavor. Drawing from his own experience as an author and extrapolating it into other artistic fields, Pressfield aptly names the Resistance artists face.

The Resistance takes many forms - procrastination, perfectionism, fear of failure, fear of success, distraction, self-talk - but it always conspires to keep us from our genius, the inner calling of our soul and the seat of our happiness. If, for instance, you have some inner calling to write a book, the Resistance will throw everything you've got at you to keep you from writing, which will ultimately lead to deep unhappiness and depression.

Pressfield's ultimate encouragement is that artists need to be professional about their art, seeing it as work. Work that must be done. Work that doesn't have to be all-consuming. Work that is deeply satisfying and fulfilling. To help us with our work, Pressfield believes the heavens have sent Muses to guide us. While he describes these Muses very literally, I prefer to think of them in the abstract, as vision, mission, values - the inspiration that sustains our projects.

I don't think it's any secret that I have always wanted to write a book. I think I've got a couple of pretty decent ideas. I've got a skeletal outline for one, and I've discussed with Vanessa how we could write another together. Pressfield has given me a new way to think about these endeavors. Now I'm ready to go to work, entering the fray of the war.

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Ain't No Sunshine

2009-07-02T19:01:00.001-05:00

Apps: I Heart Radio

2009-07-02T17:59:00.005-05:00

I love listening to the radio. I am a fan of talk radio - political, sports, finance, aliens. If someone is talking about it, I love to listen to it. I think my affinity for talk radio stems from the fact that I am an auditory learner. In college, I figured out that if I just listened in class - not slept - I wouldn't have to take notes. I would be ok. For me, listening is where it is at.

The I Heart Radio app for the iPhone gives me access to several hundred radio stations across the country. I can listen to them live, at my desk. The quality is good - very clear. The formatting is nice, allowing me to choose between by style. I can also favorite the stations I listen to frequently. If I'm listening to music, I can tag a song so I can check the artist, title, lyrics - and even buy it on iTunes.

My only complaint is that occasionaly the app will crash. A simply restart of it usually fixes the hangup.

Currently in my favorited stations:

WTAM - Cleveland
KFI - Los Angels
WNDE - Sports Talk (for Dan Patrick and Jim Rome)
New! Discover & Uncover - new music

I am hoping that when(!) Tony Kornheiser returns to radio, I Heart Radio will allow me to listen live rather than being a day behind on the podcast.

The I Heart Radio app is highly recommended!

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Movie Review: Confessions of a Superhero

2009-07-02T11:45:00.003-05:00

The other night Vanessa and I watched the indie documentary Confessions of a Superhero. It tells the story of four people struggling to break into the acting business. Rather than working at the Cheesecake Factory to pay the bills, these individuals dress up like superheros and have their pictures taken (for tips) with tourists on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Ming's Chinese Theater.

Superman - the uber-serious, memorabilia-collecting alleged son of an Oscar winning actress

Batman - the self-described George Clooney lookalike with quite a story of his mob-connected past

Wonder Woman - the daughter of a Baptist pastor who suddenly found that she is no longer the proverbial big fish

The Hulk - formerly homeless man who is convinced that his mis-sized teeth are keeping him from hitting it big

Watching these stories unfold, I was struck by several things. First, I am amazed at the lengths we go to to support ourselves. We live in quite a country where people can make somewhat of a living by panhandling for tips as makebelieve characters to tourists who must have more disposable income than I have.

Second, I am amazed at our cultural obsession with being famous. We really are addicted to making a name for ourselves. As the movie unfolds, you watch these individuals relish attention from media outlets such as Jimmy Kimmel, the local news, and various magazines. There is a pervasive desperation to get noticed in these stories that makes me wonder about how well our families, churches, and neighborhoods are doing at accepting and loving people. Maybe we have created this crisis.

Third, I am amazed at the delusion some people operate under. I don't mean to pick on these four people, but I was flat out dubious about some aspects of the stories they told. Was your mom really an actress? Did you really work for the mob? Did you really watch the riots from that mountain? Maybe it's me, or maybe it's that I'm pretty sure that people who wear masks for a living are hiding something.

Ultimately, Confessions of a Superhero left me sad. Sad for these four people. And sad for our culture that has created them.

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Dreaming of Community

2009-06-24T12:42:00.006-05:00

He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I have been thinking a lot lately about community. It is word we use often in our emerging conversation. But maybe for all of our talking about the need for community, we haven’t reflected enough on how it is actually experienced. My thinking lately has coalesced around three ideas: community takes actual relationships, a heavy dose of reality, and a good bit of resilience.

I am always amazed by people who speak of community but don’t invest themselves in actual relationships. I’ve seen this as a pastor when people talk about how they love church community but they don’t talk to people at worship gatherings (if they attend at all) and don’t join small groups when they are offered. It reminds me a little bit of the young woman who has every detail of her wedding planned and is only missing the groom. What is community without relationships? Community is not some mystical or magical thing that happens outside of ourselves. Community only takes places where relationships exist, where friendships are growing, where people are connecting.

Relationships require investment. If I am going to be in community with a group of people, I need to invest myself in them and be prepared for them to invest themselves in me. Investment takes time, emotion, energy, even money – all of my precious resources that are already scarce. I need to listen and not just talk. I need to give and not just take. I need to initiate and not just respond.

True community also requires a substantial grip on reality. Bonhoeffer’s observation that people who love their dream of community more than the actual Christian community end up destroying the actual community is a profound one. How often has a person been so enamored by the prospect of being in love that they have driven their potential lover away by being too clingy and needy?

The same happens with churches. People come to church will all sorts of expectations (frequently unrealistic) and ideas and dreams. Many who have been hurt and burned by church are hopeful that their new community will finally live up to those dreams. Rarely can a church leap such a high bar. I get a little skittish when new folks at Vintage gush about how it’s the church they’ve been looking for. I know that if they invest themselves in relationships within our community that it’s only a matter of time before they experience reality. The reality is that churches are made up of weak, frail, and hurting people – and those who are pretending that they are not.

Weak, frail, and hurting people tend to hurt each other sometimes. Words are spoken out of turn. Memories fail. Priorities differ. Expectations are unmet. People are often selfish and immature and slow to do the right thing. The dream of community and the reality community are often far apart in our actual experience.

Does this mean that we should abandon the church whenever our feelings are hurt? Absolutely not. If we abandon anything, we should abandon our dream of community and embrace the reality of community. And this takes resilience. Community grows and develops over time. It is deepened and solidified by interpersonal conflicts.

Community is not a happily-ever-after fairy tale. Community is, to borrow another phrase from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, life together. It can only take place when we commit ourselves to experience the ups and downs, the joys and disappointments, the twists of turns of reality in relationships with one another.

This runs counter to our cultural inclination. We live in a disposable culture. Take the unfolding saga of Jon and Kate Gosselin of Jon & Kate + 8 fame. While it might be easy to join the crowd that is casting stones at them for disposing of their marriage and family. Maybe we ought to consider how we collectively have used up and disposed of them. Their story was entertaining for a while, and as it has taken a turn for the worst, we’ve been content to stand by and crack jokes. Soon, we’ll be on to voyeuristically enjoying some other celebrity’s crisis. When we haven’t invested much in them and when we weren’t realistic about them in the first place (even though they were on a “reality show”), it doesn’t cost us much to dispose of relationships.

We dispose of relationships far too easily. As Bob Dylan once sang, “But to remain as friends you need the time to make amends and stay behind.”

If we dispose of actual community too soon in hopes of finding our dream of community, we will end up never experiencing either. Community is experienced when we know each other well enough to be ourselves. Community is experienced when forgiveness is needed and extended. Community is experienced in the tears of disappointment and recommitment. Community is experienced in the joy and pain of reconciliation.

In Philippians, Paul spoke of the fellowship (relationships) of sharing (resilience) in the suffering (reality) of Jesus. That’s not a dream; that’s how actual community is experienced.

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Jon Arbuckle Rules

2009-06-23T18:49:00.001-05:00

Man, Garfield Minus Garfield makes me laugh.

Disturbing Picture of the Day

2009-06-20T14:51:00.002-05:00

Apps: Bible App

2009-06-20T12:07:00.003-05:00

I thought I would share some of the apps I have on my iPhone that I use a lot and enjoy.

One of the first apps I downloaded was the Bible App from YouVersion. This is a very clean Bible reading app with lots of versions, including the TNIV that I most frequently use. The search functionality is good. So is the bookmarking ability. It also has a daily reading section for people who would like to read through the Bible in a year.

My favorite part of the Bible App, however, is that you can tap on a verse or passage and be connected to online commentary about that verse or passage. This feature links you to blogs, sermons, online commentaries, and even YouTube videos about whatever you're reading. This dynamic and networked commentary is something previous generations of Bible students never would have imagined.

The Bible App comes highly recommended.

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Book Review: The Unlikely Disciple

2009-06-16T09:28:00.004-05:00

Kevin Roose strikes me as the kind of guy Jesus would be friends with.

In his fascinating book The Unlikely Disciple, Roose tells the story of living undercover as an evangelical for a semester at Liberty University. He describes with humor and compassion what it was like for an Ivy Leaguer to pretend to be a product of the evangelical subculture.

Oh the evangelical subculture! Do we really talk like that? Are we really concerned about those things? Are those really the arguments we are having?

Roose holds a mirror up to what we really look like. And I've got to admit - I cringed. I cringed at our thoughtless cliches that we substitute for really wrestling with problems. I cringed at our pat answers. I cringed at our hero worship.

More than that, though, I cringed at how we tolerate some sins while pouncing on others. The students at Liberty are probably a good labratory for understanding how evangelicals in general look at the world. And it's obvious that in the evangelical mind not all sins are created equal.

Why is homosexuality wrong but homophobia is ok?

Why is masturbation wrong but being judgmental is ok?

Why is evolution wrong but being mean is ok?

Roose's findings confirm what many of us have sensed for a long time, that the evangelical approach to both life and politics is too shallow. Followers of Jesus who care only about abortion and gay marriage are missing a big picture that includes things like the environment and poverty. Likewise, personal piety includes more than sexuality; it also impacts interpersonal relationship and and attitudes.

Roose is far kinder to evangelicalism than it deserves, and he's far kinder than some of us in the emergent conversation have been. And that is the charm of his story. He's fair, honest, and kind. He disagrees without being obnoxious. And he seeks to understand without assuming the stereotypes are true.

That reminds me of Jesus, which is why I think Kevin and Jesus would get along so well.

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Fascinating Video

2009-06-10T16:50:00.002-05:00

Thoughts?

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Walk Like an Egyptian

2009-06-09T20:51:00.004-05:00

Check out this picture I came across while checking out behind-the-scenes photos of the President's trip to Egypt on the White House's twitter feed. Did the ancient Egyptians know something ahead of time?

God Said Something

2009-06-01T10:41:00.008-05:00

I don't expect God to speak to me very often. I know some Christians do, expecting that God will open up to them frequently, even daily.

My sense about this has been tempered by my experience along with my reading of the story of Abraham. In the narrative, God shows up and talks with Abraham about once a decade. That fact is easy lost on us since these events happen back-to-back in the pages of our Bibles. The reality, however, was that there were long periods of time in between these bursts of revelation. In the downtime, Abraham had to simply act on what he knew, doing what God told him to do until he got further word.

That's how it is for me. Only a few times in my life have I had a strong sense that God has spoken to me. It's never been an audible voice or some Shack-like experience. Rather, it's as if words are formed in my heart and I recognized the voice. It's not something I look for, necessarily, but I know it when it happens.

It happened Friday night.

I had gotten some bad news. The past couple of weeks have been tough ones for me around Vintage. Money is tight, people are hurting, there is always more to do than time to do it, and I generally have felt like I was failing. I'm not sure my feelings are / were accurate, but they were my feelings. After what felt like a couple of weeks of body blows, I got an email Friday night that I didn't expect and that threw me pretty good.

I think I had what could only be described as a panic attack. This was not a pleasant experience, and I would be happy never repeating it. But I was just that low. A couple of times I asked Vanessa to say something as she sat helplessly by watching me struggle. But she had nothing.

But God did have something to say.

Several times in those moments of panic, I sensed that God was saying to me, "Fight for it."

Fight for it.

God usually speaks to me in bumper sticker-like phrases. Fight for it.

Those words brought a lot of calm and peace to me. I knew instantly that God wanted me to not stand back and simply absorb what I was experiencing. He wants me to react to it with an appropriate amount of resolve and determination.

I don't think "fight for it" means being caustic, argumentative, or abrasive. Rather, I think it means that there are people in my life and church that are headed in directions that I don't think God wants them to go. I don't know who wants them to go in the directions they are headed, but I am fairly confident that it is not God. And he wants me to do something about it. He wants me to speak up, to take action, to challenge, and to fight for it.

And so that's what I am going to do. I am going to fight for the growth and maturity of my church. I am going to fight for the well-being of my family. I am going to fight for the health of my friends' marriages. I am going to fight for the spiritual development of my friends.

Until God tells me otherwise, all I can do is fight for it.

Busybody America

2009-05-30T09:30:00.002-05:00

Whatever happened to live and let live? Our obsession with managing each other's lives has become chronic. When will it stop?

Here is a story about a Marine vet in Dallas whose homeowner association is threatening to fine him and tow his car because they claim he has violated the homeowner association's policy against advertising. He has 7 Marine-oriented bumper stickers on his car.

And here is a story about San Diego County trying to shut down a small group Bible study of 15 people at a pastor's house because the group doesn't have a permit for religious assembly.

Good grief.

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The Less Clutter, Less Noise Blog Tour

2009-05-29T05:34:00.004-05:00

Today, the Grenz is participating in the Less Clutter, Less Noise Blog Tour. Kem Meyer, communications director for Granger Community Church, is answering a series of questions. Below is my Q & A with her.

We'd love for you to get in on the discussion. So ... share your thoughts about what we're discussing, and I will choose one participant in the discussion to receive a FREE copy of Kem's book Less Clutter, Less Noise. (Hey Facebook readers, if you'd like to be eligible for the free book, your comment has to be posted on The Grenz rather than Facebook, ok?)

Here is what Kem and I are talking about.

ROBB

Our church likes to be (more than) a little edgy in our sermon themes, hoping to speak the language of our culture. For instance, we preached a series on sex called Turned On. We've also themed series after movies such as Vantage Point and Transformers. Can you suggest any guiding principles for choosing themes that are very relevant but don't cross the line of being in bad taste?

KEM

Robb, there is just no foolproof answer to this. Speaking the language of our culture is always going to take us into places of uncomfortable tension because we have the burden of knowledge and desire for purity. And, like every topic under the sun, there will be liberal and conservative debates about it. But, I think it’s worth the risk and you have to find where your own personal conviction lies. It’s different for every church and maybe even different for each pastor on staff at the same church.

For example, in our church, we try to avoid dropping trucker slang because we just don’t feel it’s necessary. Although the definition of “trucker slang” varies for every single person on our staff. Shut-up to one person is as inappropriate as the f bomb to another.

We recently did a series called “Sex for Sale” and we were fine with it. No moral conflict whatsoever. A few months earlier, we chose not to do a series on forgiveness called “The other F word” because we felt it might be going too far. Ironically enough, the “Sex for Sale” series won us hate mail and phone calls from people who called us evil, corrupt and reported us to the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau. (I kid you not.)

Whether you are a pastor, church leader, or ministry servant, do not fear the wrath of what other church people think about the risks you take. Instead, fear the thought of people who will live an eternity without experiencing Christ. Sometimes, you have to lower the bar so someone can accept the invitation to a higher bar. It’s worth it. Where is that line for you? That’s between you and God. I believe he uses all of us in different places to reach different people. You maintain your confidence and keep pushing the edge. I’ll pray along with you for divine intervention and wisdom.

Curious what other questions Kem is answering? Read more of the Less Clutter, Less Noise Blog Tour at her blog, Less Clutter, Less Noise.

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Ancient Wisdom

2009-05-24T15:48:00.002-05:00

Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

- Philo of Alexandria

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Clumsy During a Growth Spurt

2009-05-23T21:20:00.003-05:00

We've always been able to tell when Mattie is about to grow. Her sweet little cheeks get all chubby. And she gets clumsy. She walks into things, falls down for no reason, gets hurt in unusual ways. It's like her body can't keep up with itself, like she's trying to adjust to her new size. It's been this way since she was a toddler, and we still see it now that she's on the brink of being a "double digitter," as she calls it.

What is true physically for her is true spiritually for me. When God is up to something in my life, when I am on the brink of big changes, I tend to get a little clumsy. I'm not as careful as I should be with my words. I am even more easily annoyed. I don't think well of people as I should. Normally, I end up tripping into the people closest to me - Vanessa and the kids. Sometimes I even stumble into a friend.

Being clumsy sucks. But it also gives me hope that maybe I'm growing.

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Escapism

2009-05-23T14:29:00.003-05:00

One of the things that bothers me most is our human tendency for escapism. When things are hard to face, we love to run and hide (kind of like Adam and Eve in the Garden). Rather than facing our lives and authentically dealing with our shit, we would rather try to escape, pretending like it all isn't happening.

Escapism is pretty easy to stop in alcoholism and drug abuse. It can also be seen when a young husband plays video games for hours instead of talking to his wife or when a mother dinks on Facebook instead of actually parenting.

But maybe escapism is most insidious when it is couched in religious terms. Today, I was waiting for Vanessa at an estate sale when I overheard a lady talking about how much she and her mother had accumulated. She said that she knew they should do something about it, but she just didn't want to. Then she said, "Hopefully the Lord will come back and I won't have to deal with it."

Huh. Is that why Jesus is coming back - so I can escape?

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Theology Group

2009-05-20T18:26:00.003-05:00

Here are what my notes for this section of our theology small group have looked like over the last couple of weeks. I'll spend some time deciphering this in the coming days. In the meantime, I thought the picture looked interesting.

Oh Crap ...

2009-05-20T17:17:00.005-05:00

... I better blog something.

The Grenz and Vanessa's Happiness will be featured in a blog tour by Less Clutter Less Noise author Kem Meyer. Check out the details on her blog. And stop back here between now and May 29 as I try to beef up the content in preparation for this little cyberspace experiment.

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Separated at Birth?

2009-05-16T21:38:00.004-05:00

Thoughts?

2009-05-16T15:29:00.002-05:00

In prepping for tomorrow's sermon about the sin of Adam and Eve, I came across this picture. It intrigued me. Thoughts?

Thank You, Justice Souter ...

2009-05-01T15:04:00.003-05:00

... for saving us from the swine flu.

In the political discussion today, much is made of media bias. It's usually an unproductive debate, as each side points to examples. FoxNews is conservative. MSNBC is liberal. Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough like Republicans. Anderson Cooper and Katie Couric like Democrats. The NYTimes leans left. The Washington Times leans right.

Some people decry media bias, expecting objectivity from our news people. I, for one (an emergent, postmodern type), have no such expectation. I don't think that a person can divorce themselves from their own perspective. It will cover and shade the stories they choose to tell and the way they tell them. Media bias doesn't surprise or particularly upset me much.

But beyond politics, what every media person is most biased about is ratings. Networks want viewers; newspapers want readers; websites want hits. For the past couple of decades, the path to increased ratings is sensationalism. Media people tend to make a huge big deal of problems, maybe even exacerbating the problems through their coverage. To gain and maintain viewers, the media needs to convince us the public that this crisis is the biggest and baddest crisis we've seen in our lifetimes.

Feeding off our short memories, our collective attention deficit disorder, and our woeful lack of knowledge about history, the media sensationalizes just about everything. The examples are near endless.

Most recently, it's been the swine flu. Masks, pandemics, xenophobia. This story has it all and is an apocalyptic wet dream for the sensationalistic media ... and it will never be anywhere near as bad as they say.

But a bigger story is brewing. David Souter is retiring from the Supreme Court. Few things are bigger to the media than a SCOTUS opening. So, let me be the first to say it.

Thank you, Justice Souter, for saving us from the swine flu.

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One of My Favorite Websites

2009-04-30T20:50:00.003-05:00

This Garfield Minus Garfield resonates with me.

Another Prayer for Today

2009-04-29T21:26:00.001-05:00

Our Prayer for Today

2009-04-29T12:03:00.000-05:00

"Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you hallowed earthly pain and gave us the example of obedience to your Father's will: Be near me in my time of weakness and pain; sustain me by your grace, that my strength and courage may not fail; heal me according to your will; and help me always to believe that what happens to me here is of little account if you hold me in eternal life, my Lord and my God."
Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer

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A Path to Community

2009-04-22T17:45:00.008-05:00

Believe - Behave - Belong

For a long time, churches have operated with this process to assimilate new members. To be a part of a church, the first step a person had to take was to subscribe to believing the doctrinal statement of that church. If a person had doubts or differences on various things, large or small, it would cause a huge hurdle to belonging. An elder or deacon board could even deny a person membership to a church for not believing the right things. As a result, people learned that to belong, they would have to cross all the right belief T's ... or at least pretend like they did.

Once a person consented to believing the right things, then they would have to behave a certain way to achieve belonging. In some cases, they would have to renounce movies or alcohol or wearing jeans on Sundays or swearing or smoking. At one church I am familiar with, a man had to quit his job as a casino security guard before he was allowed to join the church. Once again, people had to act a certain way ... often faking it ... so that they could be a part of the church.

The result of this approach is inauthenticity and judgmentalism. The people on the outside wanting to get in are guilted into hypocrisy by putting on their Sunday best and pretending like they've got it all together and have all the answers. The people on the inside get to pass judgment on who is or is not worthy of membership based on people's ability to conform to some external standards or their ability to articulate an approved belief system. Either way, the path to belonging is easy thwarted.

Belong - Behave - Believe

At Vintage, we are trying to invert this order. While we are not the church for everyone, we are a church for anyone. A person doesn't have to agree with everything the pastor says to be a part of our community. Nor does a person have to be free of doubts and questions to be accepted, loved, and included. For us, it's not about who is in and who is out. We see ourselves as a community of people on a journey, trying our best to follow Jesus together. We want to affirm anyone who is on that path, regardless of how far down the trail she may be.

Don't take this to mean that we don't think theology or discipleship is important. Quite the contrary. We think it is very, very important to understand and clearly articulate what we believe. We are trying to help people wrestle with their doubts and grow in their faith. And we think it's very important that people live according to the example of Jesus - with love, grace, justice, and truth. We are trying to give people the tools and opportunities to walk in Jesus' steps.

We know that our approach makes things messier sometimes. But we're ok with that. We're convinced that when people find a community of friends to live life with, a church to belong to, they will be able to best experience the grace and truth that will develop them into the people God wants them to be.

The Vision of Vintage Fellowship:
Because of Jesus’ grace in our lives, we at Vintage Fellowship belong to him and each other, becoming more like him, so that we can behave like he would, helping others to believe in him too.

Vintage Fellowship is an emerging church in Fayetteville AR.
visit Vintage online

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Bolt!

2009-03-28T11:12:00.003-05:00

I just finished watching Bolt with my kids. As a guy who recently rescued a puppy, I've got to say that it got to me a little bit. Really enjoyable flick.

Bracket Fun

2009-03-21T10:36:00.004-05:00

I love March Madness. I was telling Vanessa this morning that there is a big reason why the NFL and the NCAA Tournament are so much more popular than every other sporting event of the year - fan investment. For most sports, fans are invested in their favorite teams. But once you get beyond their favorites, the passion a fan feels for a sport drops dramatically. Both football and college basketball have figured out ways to keep their fans invested in the sport irrespective of how their own favorite team is doing. For the NFL, it's fantasy football. For college basketball, it's brackets, baby.

Here's my Final Four:

Louisville
Memphis
Duke
Syracuse

I've got Duke beating Memphis in the championship game. (I wanted to pick either Louisville or Memphis, but so many others had them in the bracket pool at work that I didn't think it would be a good strategery.

For fun, I also filled out a bracket based purely on team mascots. It's Final Four:

Demon Deacons
Golden Eagles
Blue Devils
Sun Devils

I had the Demon Deacons beating the Sun Devils in the end. Oops.

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My Spicy Chalupa

2009-03-21T10:33:00.001-05:00

Shamrock Shakes

2009-03-21T10:22:00.004-05:00

I love the annual McDonald's tradition of Shamrock Shakes. There is nothing better to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than a cup of cold and green minty goodness. After the kids' GT program, which happened to be on St. Patrick's Day and Mattie had done a special project on Ireland, I had hoped to take the family to Micky D's and introduce the kids to Shamrock Shakes.

Only ... they must be a northern thing. I told some people at work about my plan, and they had never heard of Shamrock Shakes. I called 5 McDonald's in Northwest Arkansas (I didn't yet know about this site). No one had them. I was sure I had seen them this year ... but as it turns out, that must have been when I was in PA early in the month.

What a shame. I was so disappointed. We ended up going to Sonic instead and eating normal ice cream. It wasn't nearly as fun as it could have been.

Where Is God?

2009-03-16T19:06:00.003-05:00

Bad things happen. No one really expects otherwise. We know that one of these days, the shit is going to hit the fan, and we're going to be covered in it. I'm not sure if I'm like most people, but I always have some vague sense of impending doom, like at any moment the happiness is going to be shattered and everything I've been working to build is going to come caving in around me. ... And I consider myself an optimist.

Whenever bad things happen - the diagnosis, the dreaded phone call, the foreclosure notice, the offended friend - I've observed that people react to God with classic fight or flight tendencies. Some will take the opportunity of bad things happening to run from God, shaking their head and walking away muttering like Robin Williams in Patch Adams, "you're not worth it." Others will argue with God, debate with God, wrestle with God, trying to make sense of what God is up to or to trying to convince God to do what they want him to do.

Either way, most people end up asking the question, "Where is God?"

The idea is that if God were here, this wouldn't have happened. It's another way of saying, "Why would God allow this to happen?" We try to convince ourselves that the famous Footprints poem is correct, that eventually we'll find out that God was walking with us and even carrying us all along. But still we wonder. Where is God?

--

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but my church background taught me to think of God as standing in the past. God elected, predestined. He chose and willed. We had the idea that everything is settled, that God ordained it, that one day he sat down and decreed all that should come to pass. With this mentality, when we face hard times, we comfort ourselves with phrases like "God is in control" and "God has a wonderful plan for your life."

But this approach, when taken by itself, can lead to some unfortunate side effects. It's easy to develop a rather fatalistic attitude. We're just robots. Everything is settled, so why bother? Or, when things don't turn out OK, we are left searching for the grander purpose and reason in our tragedies. God must have some reason to give us this trial, we tell ourselves. But what happens when we can't figure that reason out? Do we end up blaming God? We end up blaming God, not just for keeping us in the dark, but for preordaining the bad things to happen.

If God is standing in the past, aren't we moving further away from him with every passing day?

--

In recent years, it has become popular to think of God as being exclusively with us in the present. Some theologians, in an attempt to answer the question, "Why would God allow bad things to happen?" have suggested that God experiences those bad things right along with us. Since he is bound by time, living in the present. He not only hasn't stood in the past and ordained what would come to pass, he's not exactly sure what will happen in the future.

This approach is supposed to comfort us by letting us know that God is as deeply wounded by, disappointed about, and regretful of the bad things that happen in our lives as we are. He feels our pain. He's sorry we're going through what we're going through. But does it leave us with a God who is merely wringing his hands, ultimately helpless, neutered by the infinite options that leave him unable to make a difference in our lives?

If God has no better vantage point than I do, what's the point?

--

I've come to think of God as residing in the future. This doesn't replace for me what is valid in the other perspectives, but it augments them with a fresh way of thinking. I now think of God as one who has a dream, a vision, of what the world - his kingdom - is to be like. And I think of him as having a dream, a vision, a goal for me. Maybe we could picture an artist with a masterpiece in mind that is presently being pieced together. I think God is there in the future, drawing me toward himself, inviting me to participate, to move toward him with hope for what could be.

This approach reverberates throughout the biblical story. Jesus told us to "follow him," saying that he is going on ahead of us to prepare a place for us. Also, in Ephesians and other places, Paul repeats a theme of fulfillment and fullness, indicating that God is moving things along toward a final destination in which all things are brought to completion in the kingdom of Jesus.

So when bad things happen, I don't need to hunt for all the hidden answers and purpose, nor do I have to either blame him for ordaining this or defy logic by somehow letting him off the hook. When things go wrong, I don't have to put my arm around God and comfort him because he's so upset too. Rather, when tragedy strikes, I need to keep moving toward God. When I'm asking "Where is God?" I need to keep reminding myself that he's up ahead. I need to remember that he is up to something in my life and in this world. I need to keep journeying, to keep taking steps in his direction by responding and reacting as kingdomly as I can. And I need to keep hope.

Wolfhart Pannenberg said, "God is the power of the future." For me, that's the most comforting thing of all.

Notes From The Road

2009-03-06T14:51:00.003-06:00

I am currently sitting in an Irish pub in the Pittsburgh airport, hoping to get to Chicago and then home tonight. This time is giving me the opportunity to reflect on my latest trip. Here are a couple of observations.

First, on the menu currently in front of me, in the healthy alternatives section there is a buffalo chicken wrap. Ok, might be healthy ... Until you read what it comes with. The menu reads, "Served with pork rinds." This is what is considered a healthy alternative in Pittsburgh, I guess. And speaking of Pittsburgh, all normal hate aside, could there be a more dirty city than this? Ugh.

Second, on my flight from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh yesterday, the flight attendent gets in the mic and says - and I am not making this up - "Our pilot today is Captain Kirk." Seriously? If you were a pilot named Kirk would you ever let any one call you Captian Kirk? I know I wouldn't. When she said it, I looked at the guy across the aisle. We both just started laughing.

It's actually been a long time since I made a pastoral visit to a hospital. (I think that has something to do with pastoring a church with an average age under 30.). Yesterday, I did two. I went to see Vanessa's sister who has been sick and landed in the hospital in Pittsburgh and her dad who had both his knees replaced in Meadville. I was happy to do it and very glad that my business trip afforded me the opportunity.

Now, if I can just get home tonight ...

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Finally ... I Am Posting Some Grand Canyon Pictures

2009-03-01T21:29:00.002-06:00

Enjoy, but keep in mind that pictures don't even begin to capture the grandness of the Grand Canyon.

Blogging Lent

2009-02-27T17:06:00.004-06:00

As a part of my intentional Lenten journey, I've started a blog for Vintage called Blogging Lent. For those of you few Grenzophiles out there, you may find me more at Blogging Lent than here for the next 40 days or so. I hope you'll visit.

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Vintage In the News

2009-02-21T09:49:00.002-06:00

Check out a nice article about Vintage and some other NWA churches in today's Morning News.

In Praise of My Wife

2009-02-14T13:22:00.004-06:00

It's Valentine's Day, and I am feeling all Valentiny. So I thought I would make a couple of comments about my valentine.

Vanessa constantly amazes me. She fascinates me and frustrates me like no one I've ever met. This is the 15th Valentine's Day since we met. And I remain as intrigued by her as I was back then.

She is the most resourceful person I know. And she may be the hardest working person I know too. She cares deeply about our kids and about people who are struggling, feeling weak and forgotten. I don't think I would use the word "sweet" to describe her, necessarily, but she has a level of true compassion that is rare.

She thinks I'm funny, which goes a long, long way with me. And she is genuinely amused by our kids. She gets the vast majority of the credit for how funny, polite, smart, and interesting they each are. When I came to the end of the Daily Audio Bible and listened again to the description of the "Proverbs 31" woman, I honestly couldn't help but think of Vanessa. So, today, I rise up to call her blessed.

But really, I'm the blessed one.

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OK. Let's Talk about Jane Seymour

2009-02-14T13:04:00.004-06:00

Have you seen these commercial? My goodness, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything more absurd and pretentious.

First of all, has no one told Jane that her "open hearts" design looks A LOT like a butt and a pair of breasts? Is that what she was shooting for?

And ... she actually says in this commercial that it is her desire that her open hearts design becomes "the universal symbol of love and hope." Seriously? SERIOUSLY? You want your squiggly lines to be the UNIVERSAL symbols of love AND hope? Can they cure AIDS and cause world peace while we're at it?

And ... and ... don't we already have a universal symbol for love? Isn't it a ... heart?

These commercials are more than I can take.

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"Exclusive"

2009-01-27T13:43:00.003-06:00

I don't think anyone should be able to advertise an "exclusive" interview with IL Governor Blagojevich as I've heard several times over the last two days and just saw on foxnews.com. This is, of course, unless "exclusive" now means "on everyone else's show too."

Amen.

2009-01-20T16:45:00.000-06:00

My New Favorite Commercial

2009-01-18T14:38:00.000-06:00

Iconic

2009-01-18T13:04:00.006-06:00

Right now at Vintage, we are doing a series called God, Is That You? (emphasis on the "that") In this series, we are considering our perceptions (and misperceptions) of God, and we are challenging ourselves with some of the highly unusual ways God reveals himself in the Bible. Two weeks in, it feels like the kind of series we're going to remember for a while!

In conjunction with this series, on Friday night, we gathered at Vintage for a unique worship experience. With lots of music and candles and quiet, we made Post Secret-like cards that express how we view God. The result is a fascinating collective theology project that is now hanging on the gallery wall at Vintage.

Enjoy.

Mine is taken from a compelling quote from theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg.

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4 Things That Could Make a Bad Sunday Worse

2009-01-15T17:43:00.002-06:00

Sunday is a Cleveland Browns' fan hell. The Browns' two most hated rivals square off with the winner heading to the Super Bowl. There is no way around it, no one else to root for. Either the Steelers or the Ravens are going to be AFC Champions again. And not only do Browns fans have to contend with another "rebuilding" year, they have to do so with one of their biggest rivals as the reigning Conference (and possibly League) champion. Ugh.

But it could be worse.

Here are four things that would make it even worse for Browns fans on Sunday.

- It would be worse if John Elway were the one handing the Lamar Hunt Trophy to either Mike Tomlin or John Harbaugh.

- It would be worse if partway through the game it was announced that former Browns/Ravens owner Art Modell had been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

- It would be worse if Matt Stover, the only remaining Ravens player who had played for the Browns at the time of the move, hit the game-winning field goal.

- It would be worse if it turned out to be an epic game, remembered as one of the greatest ever, replayed for decades to come on ESPN Classic and NFLN. It would be worse if it simply became known as "The Game."

I don't think I'm going to watch.

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Mattie Turns to Me and Says ...

2009-01-10T12:18:00.003-06:00

We are at dinner last night talking about how a celebrity (whom I couldn't remember at the time) had recently given birth to twin girls and named one of them Charlie (turns out it was Rebecca Romijn) when Mattie turns to me and says, "Is there a cause and effect thing between getting married and having a baby?"

Uh ... Vanessa, do you want to handle this one?

And ... my baby girl is now thinking in terms of cause and effect? Impressive.

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