she

I have gotten a few comments on Facebook for posting the free preview to Rob Bell's new nooma, she. I encourage you to watch it here - it is only up for another 24 hours. The comments I have received have been words of caution to me slipping away from Biblical orthodoxy. So here is a version of one response i wrote.

Despite others' thoughts and concerns I do not feel as though I have slipped outside of orthodoxy. I still believe in the authority of scripture and in the 2 foundational Creeds of our faith (the Apostles and Nicaean). My orthodoxy is perhaps a bit more generous and open than others but I am still a Bible believing orthodox follower of Jesus - the way the truth and the life.

As for the concern that Rob Bell is declaring God not to be Father, he does not say that God is not Father. Bell says, "God is not male or female rather Spirit" - quoting Jesus in John 4:24. god being Spirit is as orthodox as you get. this is an historic and orthodox theological statement. Also Rob's emphasis on God's motherly characteristics are take right from scripture, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! (Isa.(49:15) And in fact he says that these references are metaphor and cannot be taken literally. So Rob is therefore NOT saying God is female. He is saying that God is beyond male and female - again, that God is Spirit.

If you someone who thinks God is male that is not orthodox!!!!! Yes the primary image given to us in scripture is Father and ought not be discarded for the sake of political correctness or personal discomfort with the metaphor. I call God Father regularly and believe it to be true. But I cannot deny the motherly images in scripture that enhance, deepen and further enlighten my understanding of who God is as understood through scripture. It is a mysterious both/and, an orthoparadoxy. I want to allow the dual images of God to stand in tension with one another and not disregard one or the other just b/c it seems "liberal" or on the other hand "conservative" or makes me uncomfortable. It drives me to worship, honor and serve God all the more.

Now a caution to all of us who tend to critique the theology of others with whom we disagree . It is one thing to disagree with someone's theology it is another thing to slander a person whom you do not know personally- which the Bible clearly says is a sin. Many people's assessment of Rob is uninformed and not at all accurate. Particularly the claim that he has disregarded the Bible and it's authority. I have sat under Rob's teaching virtually and personally and in my assessment Rob bases everything he does on the Bible. He may not interpret it the same way some would but he is searching the scripture nonetheless. We must be careful not to make broad sweeping assumptions about people and their theology. Many believe that Rob has a moral influence theory of the work and ministry of Christ yet his entire tour "the gods aren't angry" was a presentation in defense of justification through faith and not works. I saw it heard it with my own ears. Yes there was new stuff but still within orthodoxy! The God's aren't angry because Jesus has taken the punishment we deserve.

In our enthusiasm for the truth we must speak it in LOVE; be careful to not alienate and dis-unify the body of Christ which is the primary way that the world will know God (John 17). May we be filled with grace in our fervor to preserve the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

hybrids and cross-polinations

I have not read Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren yet but I feel as though our church, the Open Door and my theology is a generously orthodox. This happens in many strands of our life but most often visible in our worship gatherings. This past Sunday I preached a sermon that was rooted in Reformed covenant theology, we had prayer stations that involved interceding for justice in Kenya, lighting prayer candles, meditating on the significance of the civil rights movement as a "church", we sang an 2 old gospel hymns, had an altar call where 3 people renewed our baptismal vows and anointed with oil and served made to order coffee drinks. I think this is a generous orthodoxy. This "third way" community called the Open Door has an important role to play in the PCUSA presbytery . Call it emergent, postmodern, eclectic, contradictory or schizophrenic the realty is that I/we often find ourselves partnering with churches and people who are very different from one another. I think this is part of our calling to bring seemingly divergent folks together around the common mission of the Gospel and making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We are partners with two PCUSA churches in our neighborhood. One is a classic liberal community and the other classically conservative. I am both comfortable and uncomfortable in certain regards with both communities. I find myself in a unique place in a unique time where I tend to embrace this generous orthodoxy which includes all sorts of hybridizations of seemingly contradictory thoughts and practices. I told someone the other day that we practice contemplative activism, denominational/monasticism, reformed/ecumenicalism, conservative/liberalism, liberal/conservatism, ancient/future worship, evangelical/justice, and other such third way cross-pollinations. I see my role as a faithful subversive or a loyal radical within our presbytery/denomination and am still figuring out what that looks like, but am sooo... thankful to have friends who are charting out this new territory with me.

Howard Thurman - praxis prayer

I am reading Howard Thurman's Meditations of the Heart for an Advent devotional. I read Jesus of the Disinherited in seminary and was really impacted by the book. Thurman (1899-1981) was the co-founder of the first inter-racially pastored, intercultural church in the US. He was a mentor and significant influence on the life and ministry of MLK Jr; and in my opinion he is dreadfully under-read by most Christians; for he is an amazingly insightful theologian, mystic and social critique who was way ahead of his time. I am continually struck by how similar African American/Black theology is to the theology emerging from emergent folks. Why is it then that more African Americans are not engaged in the emerging church conversation? For some great insight into this questions check Anthony Smith's blog, and his chapter, Practicing Pentecost in Emergent Manifesto of Hope. Anyway my main reason for writing is to share with you a section of Howard Thurman on prayer that is typical of African American theology. It is a model of what I will call, praxis prayer which is holistic, active and rooted in a Hebraic understanding of knowing - that if you know, you act and if you do not act then maybe you do not really know; knowledge cannot be separated from action. Thurman, reflectively outlines the natural movement of ones prayer to God which he says ends in the...

"...sharing of one's desires and hopes for others, and one's sense of need which the whole human family shares - the need for peace, for health, for justice and for decency...one must share with God in the whole task of redeeming human life. It is never quite sufficient to place all the needs of mankind before God and leave them there. The efficacy of prayer is often measured by the degree to which the individual is willing to become involved in actually working in the world to meet these needs. A man may share his prayer concern fore peace in the world and yet in his own little world, be unwilling to change his private attitude of antagonism or prejudice toward his fellows."

May we be willing to participate in the activity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the world - which may be the answer to our own prayers and the prayers of others!!!!

the voices of the others

Over the past three weeks God has been sending his hound of heaven to speak, pursue and convict me of the importance of diversity, plurality, unity, racial reconciliation and multiculturalism in the church. It started as I began preaching through the book of Ephesians and revisited the reality of the Gospel being communal, social and reconciliatory as it torn down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Greek and that Jesus is our peace and creating one new humanity; I then read Anthony Smith's article Practicing Pentecost in Emergent Manifesto of Hope; that some week I want to a seminar on the multicultural church by Rev. Jin Kim who pastors the Church of all Nations; and just his weekend Dr. John Franke talked about how if the PCUSA is going to allow for emergence it will need to continue to reform by listening and learning from the voices of the "other", the minority and realize that there is no culturally free theology and we are in need of hearing from and learning from those who tend to have minority voices; finally at the same Presbymergent conference by my good friend Derrick Weston, I was challenged to reconsider the necessity of reconciliation, relocation and redistribution of the CCDA's vision birthed by John Perkins.

OK I get it Lord! I feel as though God is reminding me a vision that he planted in my heart many years ago. And yet at the same time it is new and fresh. God is renewing in me a passion for justice, peace, a visible multicultural church and the passion to pursue it. I have shed many tears these past weeks. Tears for forsaking the call of the Gospel. Tears for the broken relationships, alienation and injustice among people of different cultures in the church. Tears for the forthcoming struggle of what it will mean to shift, change, let go and surrender to the Holy spirit who is calling the Open Door to more explicitly and actively engage the whole gospel of human reconciliation, justice, peace and the celebrating the marginal voices of the 'others" in our midst. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ empower me to lead and surround me with others who share the vision of every tribe tongue and nation gathered before the throne of the Lamb. May I have the courage to use my white privilege to be a prophetic voice, casting a picture of the shalom of God in our church and city.

I am going to do my best to begin to reflect on some of these thoughts over the next week or two so stay tuned.

presbymergent preaching

This weekend I will be participating in a Presbymergent conversation at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and leading a seminar on Presbymergent preaching. I am looking forward to hanging out with and talking with some old local Emergent Pittsburgh folk and making some new friends from the national conversation among Presbymergent folk. check out Adam Walker Cleveland's and Karen Sloan's blogs.

For my seminar I am resurrecting a homelitic paper i wrote last year where I tried to synthesize some Reformed perspectives on the Word of God and more postmodern epistemological practices of communal, innovative and dialogical forms of preaching. Here is the description.

Is the preaching of the Word of God, as the Second Helvetic Confession states simply and by default the Word of God or is it more dynamic than that? Drawing upon the work of Reformed and emerging theologians and practioners we will engage in a conversation about how we can experience and practice the preaching of the Word that is an artistic, dynamic and Spirit guided contextual engagement of gospel and culture; rooted in the story of scripture with varying forms seeking to prophetically imagine an alternative story that will transform local communities of faith.

I hope you can join us!

England at last

Well Katrina and I fly across the pond tomorrow for my first trip to the UK. We will be doing some study and research, visiting with friends and getting some R & R. Oh and a life long dream of mine I will get to see an English premiere league football game!!! I will be doing some study of emerging churches in the UK and discussing with them the following questions:

1. Why was/is the “emerging church/fresh expressions” movement missiologically essential in England? What was missiologically deficient or lacking in the Christendom model of church in the UK? How is the emerging church addressing those deficiencies?
2. It seems that the “emerging church/fresh expressions” movement is centered on worship renewal; do you see that to be true? If that is accurate what is the relationship between the mission of the church and worship of the church? How do see worship fueling the mission of the church and vice versa?

So you can journey a bit with us here are some of the people and communities we will be visiting over the next 12 days.

1. We fly into London and then take bus up to Birmingham and stay with our dear friends Nick and Lauren Burdette.
2. We will visit with their community B1 in a variety of settings
3. See Arsenal play Aston Villa
   
4. We will visit another church outside of Birmingham called Sanctuary
5. We will hook up with an organization called Faith to Faith which is a national Christian organization which supports Christians and Christian mission in the context of our multi faith society
6. Next is an amazing missional thinker Martin Robinson who works for Together in Mission, which works to equip churches to plant other churches and helps churches reorient around mission.
7. After some sight seeing with Nick and Lauren we head to London to visit with Gareth Powell from Moot
8. We will worship at All Souls Church and Moot on Sunday the 4th
9. And finally visit with Steve Collins from Small Ritual and Jonny Baker from Grace

It should be a blast!