Thanks PM

Reggie McNeal Main Session Unleashed Conference 2010 from Unleashed Network on Vimeo.

Paper Pt I

Power and Purpose in a Cross-Shaped Community:

Examining the Contradictions between Theology and Praxis

For the Society of Vineyard Scholars

The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God:

Justice, Power, and the Cross

The Church has a purpose. That purpose is shaped by its theology. In turn, however, Church practice also communicates a theology. A friend of mine once remarked, “the fact that ‘they were fishermen,’1 is a significant theological revelation;” in the same way, the current praxis of the Church reveals a theological vision of God, His action, and purposes. This raises the question: do we violate our theology by our praxis? Yes, we do.

We read in Philippians 2 “Jesus being in very nature God, became obedient to death on a cross.” This was not something that Jesus submitted to as a sort of unfortunate and ill-fitting garment, soon to be discarded, but rather as a central expression of His character and purpose.2 We contradict this character and purpose with our praxis. This must be said more clearly; Jesus’ death on the cross is not him setting aside His power and justice agenda, but rather the cross must be seen as the very manner in which Jesus would display power and implement justice. This forces the Church to seek power that originates in God’s action and to practice it in a manner patterned after God’s use of it; i.e. the Cross. Additionally, this requires the Church to view its purpose as flowing out of God’s creative work and restorative justice; again centered on the Cross. The Church then, must craft its praxis in light of what God has done through the crucifixion of Jesus.

Where have all the Martyrs gone?

"In Acts, chapter 17, Paul is assailed on a charge of saying that there is another king, namely, Jesus. Wouldn’t it be great to have Christians in the Western world hauled up on that same charge today?"

N.T. Wright

Thanks Bro!

"I can imagine a world without evil. A world without war. A world where people live together in harmony... and I can see us attacking that world because they'd NEVER see it coming!"

Jack Handey

Gospel Contextualization for Science Geeks

"I was praying last night and God said..."

translation: "I have established communication with extra-terrestrial intelligence from dimension X."

"I asked Jesus into my heart..."

translation: "I have become a symbiotic host for an extra-terrestrial being."

A Common Mind

"...the covenant community is not a mere human institution following an agenda but a fellowship of disciples together seeking to know, listen to, worship, love, and serve their Lord. In particular, the community we see in Acts, the Epistles, and the writings of the second century was constantly concerned to invoke, celebrate and be deeply sensitive to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit. Repeatedly, this involved fresh searchings of Scripture (for the earliest Christians, the Old Testament; for the next generation, the apostolic traditions as well) and serious prayer and fasting, waiting for a common mind to emerge."

NT Wright

A Taste pt III

The photo comes from an interesting link. A fancy meal, at a fancy restaurant, served to blind-folded diners...

...what a provocative parable!

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...with that image in mind we turn to 'Postmodern' thought.

Many leaders in the Church have spoken with skepticism about the postmodern elements within our culture. They call it relativism, or 'liberalism,' and claim that it is incompatible with Christian faith. Postmodern thought looks with skepticism upon universal truth claims, and it is this attribute that leads many Church leaders to push against it. The postmodern assertion is that all truth claims are ultimately attempts to gain control over others. But the reason for the skepticism of universal truth claims is fundamentally about mistrusting the people making the claims, not so much the claims themselves. To put this in 'Christianese;' postmodern thought is saying 'human beings are fallen, and so their claims about the universe are untrustworthy.'

Postmodernism ultimately becomes a way of speaking about 'the Fall' to the arrogant way in which Modernism has approached the universe.

Postmodern thought has many strengths, primarily the emphasis on the value of individual humans, and the validity of personal experience. A friend of mine always wants to validate the stories, beliefs, and values that I hold as a Christian, while simultaneously validating those of her friend the Spiritualist. This is the great strength of postmodern thought. Personal stories are immensely valued, experiences of beauty, emotion, connection, or even leaps of intuition, are given premium. There is the sense that life is happening, and we must enjoy it; we need to experience all of the subtle flavors, delightful harmonies, powerful rhythms, and riotous hues of life in our universe. We must be sure to safeguard the sanctity of experience, and with that aim in mind, we must not threaten it with questions about the accuracy or universality of that experience.

...the emphasis on personal experience is so heavy that the ability to talk about shared experience (universal knowledge) becomes lost. The weakness of postmodern thought is the apparent lack of language to describe how personal experience might point to something beyond personal experience; postmodern thought often fails to make the connection that my experience of the world might actually give insight about the world irrespective of my experience of it...

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This approach is brought directly to spiritual truth: my friend has told me that 'spiritual truth is like the taste of the apple, for you it is sweet, for me it is bitter. The same apple can taste different to different people. It is sweet, and it is bitter; they are both true. And so, for you Christianity is true, for them Spiritualism is true, and for me neither is true.'

This is a common postmodern approach to truth.

We take the journey, eat the fruit, and heed the voice, but we do not know where we are going, what we are eating, or who we are following! ...nor do we care to!

God's Plan

"There is a made-up story that describes Jesus returning to heaven after His sojourn here on earth. The angels gathered around the Lord to find out about all the things that happened on earth. Jesus explained to the angels how He lived among people, shared His teachings, expressed His love, died on the cross to atone for humanity’s sins, and was resurrected to declare that the new kingdom is at hand.

When he finished telling his story, Michael the archangel asked the Lord, “What happens now?”

Jesus answered, “I left behind a handful of faithful men and women. They will tell the story! They will express the love! They will spread the Kingdom!”

“But what if they fail?” asked Michael. “What will then be the plan?”

Jesus answered Michael by saying, “There is no other plan!”

Ours is the responsibility to be the instruments for the propagation of God’s truth. That is the task of the church."

Tony Campolo

More Training Wheels

"...the law had a temporary purpose, and when that purpose is accomplished those bits of the law can be wisely set aside, not as archaic or ill-informed restrictive practices that we’ve now outgrown, but as necessary earlier elements in a plan which has now reached a new stage at which those elements, no longer required, are rightly to be shelved. The amphibious craft switches off the propeller when it comes on shore, not because the propeller was a bad thing we shouldn’t have used in the first place but because it was a good thing which has completed its water-related job."

NT Wright

The DR

Assumptions

"Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in."
Alan Alda

A Prostitute's Birthday

"It was the middle of the night, but sometimes sleep just won't come. Especially if there are long plane flights and several time zone changes involved. So it must have been 2am or so when Tony finally gave up, got dressed and left the hotel for a little look around the neighborhood. His body said it was morning and was not accepting any different opinions. The hotel coffeeshop was long since closed, but he found a greasy spoon diner a block or two away that looked like it had been open forever, where he could get some of that life fluid, and a donut. The counterman poured a cup, wiped his hands on an old stained towel around his waist, lifted the lid, grabbed up a donut and dropped it on Tony's plate. Tony decided to eat it anyway..
As Tony sat there at the counter the door opened and in walked three young women, ladies of the evening they used to be called. They took the other stools at the counter and ordered coffee, too. And as they compared notes one of them said, "Did you know that tomorrow is my birthday?" What do you want from me, Agnes?," one of her friends answered. "Shall I maybe bake you a cake or throw you a party?" "I've never had a birthday party in my life, and I've never had a cake, and I don't want you to do anything. I was just making conversation." They soon finished both the coffee and conversation and went back out into the night.
The next time the counterman came by, Tony had a question. "Do those women come in here every night?" "The prostitutes? Sure, regular as clockwork, three am." "Could we have a birthday party for Agnes tomorrow night? She said it will be her birthday." The old counterman just looked at him for a moment, then called his wife from her place at the grill. "Come out here. This guy wants to throw a birthday party for Agnes here tomorrow night. What do you think?" "Let's do it," she replied, and the plot, as they say, began to thicken.
The next night, right at three am, the door opened and Agnes and her friends walked into the diner. Only it wasn't the same diner. Oh it was the same building, but there were streamers of crepe paper hanging from the ceiling. They were the same dirty walls, except one of them was covered by a pretty big sign that said 'Happy Birthday, Agnes'. It was the same counter, stools and booths, but tonight, in addition to Tony and the counterman and his wife, there were dozens of other people, too. Word had gone out and all the prostitutes in town were there, waiting to see the look on Agnes's face.

Agnes just stood there in the doorway, stunned. Finally her friends had to push her on into the room and up to the counter. There among the ketchup bottles and napkin dispensers was a birthday cake. Agnes's birthday cake. She just looked at it in silence. "Cut the cake. Let's eat," came the cry. Agnes didn't move. The counterman handed her a knife. "Cut the cake, Agnes. Let's see how it tastes." Do I have to?" "Come on Agnes, cut the cake." Raising her eyes, Agnes looked at the counterman. "It's so pretty. Do I have to cut it?" "Well, I guess not, if you don't want to."
"I've never had a birthday day cake before," Agnes said, more to herself than anyone else. "I don't want to cut it." Then to the counterman she said, to everyone's surprise, "I don't live very far from here, just a block or so. Could I take this cake home? I'll come right back." "Sure Agnes, go ahead." And Agnes picked up her birthday cake, and holding it like it was the holy grail, she waked carefully out the door, into the night.
Everyone was silent, stunned by what they had just witnessed. Finally Tony said, "Let's all say a prayer for Agnes." Everybody bowed their heads and Tony prayed aloud that God would bless Agnes and watch over her, and touch her life. "Amen."
"I didn't know you were a preacher," said the counterman, as conversation gradually began to grow. "I'm not. I'm a sociologist." "Well, what church do you belong to?" he asked. "I guess you could say I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3 o'clock in the morning.”"

Tony Campolo

Set Loose!

I am not great at this, but I want to learn! (There are those out there who model this skill very well.)

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My first response to almost all of my culture (American culture and Church culture) is critique. My response to other cultures, however, is largely to listen, learn, ask questions, reflect, affirm, and then seek to redirect towards the Kingdom...

...affirmation and Redirection!

This unfortunately, causes me to approach with contempt the group to which I am a missionary! I need to learn the desire for redemption of culture as the first response! Not critique, nor blind allegiance, but redemption!

To redeem is to buy the freedom of someone who has been enslaved. We must buy-back the good in our culture that the enemy has stolen!

This means that we must look first for the good!

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We find ourselves, as followers of the Messiah, in the position of being attacked by a man enslaved. He does not attack us at his own bidding, but rather by his master who has chained him. I must admit, my first tendency is not to loose the chains but rather to punch at the man wearing them.

Halford Luccock

You remember that among the Franks, whole armies were sometimes given baptism at one stroke, and many warriors went into the water with their right hands held high so that they did not get wet. Then they could say, “This hand has never been baptized,” and they could swing their battle axes just as freely as ever. The modern counterpart of that partial baptism is seen in many people who have been baptized, all except their pocketbooks. They held these high out of the water.

And We're Off!!!

Cory and I leave today for the Dominican Republic!

The Importance of the Big Picture

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."
Sun Tzu (400 BC–330 BC)

A Taste pt II

There is a form of thought (often called 'Modern' in philosophical conversation) that bends itself toward concrete analysis. It is a way of approaching the world that seeks to reduce everything to the smallest possible unit, in order to understand its functions, attributes, relationship to the whole, and so to approach knowledge of the universe.

These people ask, "Is the apple real? Can we know anything about the apple? What is it's color, texture, weight, and size?"

Moderns talk only of the observable truth of the apple; it is solid, actionable, universal, public knowledge. This is the strength of modern thought. It allows us to build buildings that withstand earthquakes, to raise large metal objects into the sky for extended periods of time, discover unique compounds of matter that removes pests, or alter certain plant species to make them yield greater caloric output for the same resource input. (Even in this list, is the beginning of the critique!) Modern thought has many strengths, its weakness, however, is its impersonal and calculating heart.

This type of thought yields tremendous evidence for the existence of the apple. There are hard arguments about its makeup. These arguments are convincing, but...

...the apple is dissected and categorized but untasted, it is understood and yet, not understood.

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This same approach is taken to spiritual matters. As ~eljeffe points out, "I wonder if these common battles lead the earlier Church to develop the famous "Creeds" that have been recited over the generations." Concrete thoughts and definitions are deeply needed, however (while the Creeds are a formulation of a premodern Church) the people of God in Modern times have adopted Modern thought uncritically. The emphasis has become convincing argument, propositional truth claims, often to the exclusion (or even outright disparaging) of experience...

We understand the map, we dissect the apple, we recite the Creed; but we do not take the journey, eat the apple, or listen to Jesus.

Combating Evil

"And Abraham’s a bit of a shaky character too in various ways, because the people who are called to be the bearers of the solution are also part of the problem."

N.T. Wright

A Taste pt I

Just the other day I had someone tell me, "That's true for them, but not for me."

This led to a long conversation.

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I said, "Can it really be true for me and not for you?"

My friend responded, "Sure, you tell me the apple is sweet, but when I try it, I say it is bitter. One is true for you, the other is true for me."

"But surely the statement, 'This apple taste sweet on that tongue,' is true for all people at all times?" I replied.

My friend retorted, "Okay, then 'This person believes that to be true,' is also true for all people at all times, but that doesn't make what 'this person believes' true for all people!"

I responded, "But, isn't that begging the question as to whether spiritual knowledge is describing how the apple tastes on my tongue? Shouldn't we be trying to determine whether spiritual knowledge is describing how the apple tastes to me, or information about the existence, substance, and attributes of the apple? Or even information about the nutritional and culinary benefits of an apple?"

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I am fascinated by the fact that most people who express this sentiment believe they are 'free-thinkers' who are rebelling against the mass of cultural opinion. The truth is, of course, the opposite; they are actually expressing popular opinions that they have been inculcated with via various sources of cultural influence.

The main reason they don't recognize this influence is that it rarely takes the form of explicit argument, but rather takes the form of implicit story. This brought me to some reflection on the contrast between these two forms of thought and the subsequent world-views produced.

Pastor Rob

If your relationship with God doesn’t bring you into conflict with your culture, then you need to reevaluate you relationship with God.