Weekly Update

The week that was:

I was at the Youth Specialties convention in Nashville, my hometown.  I had a great time there with my wife and our other youth pastor couple from our church, Doug and Mear.  We actually drove down which took about 14 hours with a pregnant Holly in tow.  Overall the convention was great and I will be posting a few thoughts from it over the next few days.

We also had a baby shower at my in-laws house that was great.  It was good to get some baby stuff, but even better to see some old friends that came.  Plus the strawberry cake my mother-in-law had made was amazing!

The week that will be:

I'm currently at my sisters house in Chattanooga, TN as my wife started a rotation at a local hospital for the next 4 weeks.  I will be in the area until next Wednesday which should be fun.  We are going to my grandma's house for Thanksgiving and then will be with Holly's family for the weekend.  All in all I'm looking forward to eating a lot of great food and seeing family that I don't get to see very often.

Music I couldn't stop listening to:

I didn't listen to much this week so I'll talk about the groups that we at the convention.  David Crowder Band led worship for two session and did an amazing job.  Mercy Me performed for one session and did a great job as well.  Shane and Shane performed an amazing set with just the two of them singing, one guitar and a very unique drum set.  I really like hearing those guys.  Lincoln Brewster led worship at two sessions and seeing him live is pretty amazing.  I wish I could play guitar like him.  Finally, Starfield led for 3 sessions.  I had heard them on a couple of other occasions and still like them.  I'd recommend any of these artist's albums.

What I'm reading right now:

These books are for a class that I'm teaching starting in Jan.

The Holy Spirit by LeRon Shults and Andrea Hollingsworth.  This book takes a look at how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit came to be and what it's implications are for us.

Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

What I'm keeping my eye on:

The blogalogue that Tony Jones is doing on Same Sex Marriage is unfolding over on beliefnet.com.  There is a link to Tony's blog on the right.

Lastly, Saturday is Phil Fulmer's last game to coach at UT.  I hope the boys send him out as a winner over KY.  Go Vols!!!!

Weekly update

So I am going to institute a new pattern on my blog that I'm stealing from Marko.  I'm going to try and post an update on Monday of each week some thought from the past week and the week upcoming.  Hopefully you will find it entertaining or at the very least informative.  So here we go.

The week that was:

I struggled with all of the rainy weather this past week.  I felt like I was in a funk constantly and didn't want to get out of bed.  There may have been some other factors for that feeling too, but I'm going to blame it on the weather.  My in-laws had visited the previous weekend and therefore I didn't get to be the lazy slob that I usually am on the weekend.  Thankfully I had a great time with them here.  Other than that, I team taught at our church yesterday with Doug and Kelly in our family worship service.  We talked about imagination and how our kids seem to get some of the things that Jesus talked about with regard to the Kingdom of God because they are not jaded by the "real world."  I think it went well and we received some positive feedback, but then again people in the church usually don't rip you to your face do they.

On tap this week:

I have much to get done in the office before Doug, Mear, Holly and I leave for a conference in Nashville and my subsequent vacation after that.  I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this conference.  Mainly because I am spending time with my wife, my good friends and I'm going home.  Holly and I are going to try and show Doug and Mear many of the great things about Nashville, mainly the awesome food.  (Yes Wendy, I talked about food again!!!)  Anyways, we are also having a family/friends baby shower for our daughter that will be here in March.  It should be a great time!

Music that I couldn't stop listening to:

Some of you may not know this about me, but I tend to listen to the same thing over and over again until I move on to something else.  So I tend to find a few albums or songs and then wear them out.  Usually this includes a Dave Matthews Band album which bugs Holly since every time she gets in my car there is a DMB Cd that's playing.  But this past week I bought a new album that I absolutely love.  It's from the worship band at Jacob's Well church in KC.  The artist is listed as Mike Crawford and His Secret Siblings.  What a great name!  Anyways, it's so different from what I would expect that I think I am drawn to it.  Many of their songs are taken straight out of scripture or are engagements with scripture.  I cannot say enough about this album.  It is a 2 disc set that you can buy here or preview some of it here.  If you're looking for something different to listen to or even possibly use at your church, give this a listen to.

What I'm reading at the moment:

Lots of things acutally, but I recently picked up the book The Year of Living Biblically.  This was written by a self proclaimed secualr Jew who considers himself agnostic.  He decides that he wants to try and live for a full year by all of the laws in the Bible.  I'm a chapter into it and find it very fascinating.  I'm also reading a few books for the class that I'm teaching in Jan.  Never too early to prepare!

What I'm keeping an eye on:

Tony Jones is going to be engaging in a blogalogue about Gay Marriage on beliefnet.com.  I am really intrigued because of the pre-posts that he is putting on his blog about how he knows that he's going to take some hits for what he might say.  Unfortunately this is a converstion that the church should be having but many are not.  I applaud Tony for doing this.  I may not agree with everything that he says, but I will read and respect his opinion and that of the person that he is interacting with.

Lastly, I'm keeping an eye on who Tennessee will name as their new head football coach.  This is a very important hire for the university and I have no clue where they will go with this.  Let's hope it is someone who can come in and continue to build a good legacy and win a championship as well.

That's it for now.

Google Reader

About 2 weeks ago I started using Google Reader and let me tell you, I love it!!!!!  I used to check the few blogs that I read consistently a couple times a day to see if they had any new posts for me to read.  It was actually a little frustrating because I did a lot of useless clicking to get to each one.  But as I started using my gmail address more and more I decided to try google reader.  Here's what it does.  You can subcribe to blogs, news feeds, etc so that when something new comes across it is automatically uploaded into your reader.  So no more do I have to go to each blog to see if they have something new, I can just go into my reader.  This has allowed me to expand how many blogs, news and sports feeds that I read.  If you read any blogs or news feed online I recommend this way of doing things.  Thanks google for once again making life a little easier.

One might wonder...

So I have been reading and studying the book of Acts lately.  I have actually never read through the book from start to finish even though I've said that I wanted to many times.  In light of that I am trying to read a few chapters and week and do some extensive research by reading commentaries and doing some word studies, a la bib ex class in college.

Anyways, I wanted to ask you what your take is on the story of Ananias and Sapphira.  Here is a very interesting story that seems a bit out of place in light of the God that is portrayed in the New Testament.  I have a few thoughts that I will share as the conversation unfold in the comments but wanted to hear from you as well.  The whole story context is found in Acts 4:32-5:11.

Name calling

Do you remember when you were a kid and how calling somebody a name was like the biggest slap in the face?  You probably had your standard once and for all name that you used frequently too, didn't you?  For some it may have been boogerhead, dufus, dummy, four eyes, etc.  Growing up when I did I think I used Beavis a bunch.  Now that I am approaching my third decade of living, am involved in youth ministry and have a child on the way, I find myself thinking back to my own childhood and the things that I did.  Why did I feel the need to call someone a name?  Most of the time it was out of frustration because the other person didn't do something I wanted.  I don't really know what made me think calling them a name would change their action, but that was my line of thinking.  In fact, as best as I can remember, name calling usually made the situation worse because the one named now feels as if they need to defend their honor.  Which would lead to more name calling and eventually some sort of scuffle.

Now that I am an adult I cannot really say that the world has changed too much.  We still call each other names.  We think that if someone is labeled as a liberal or conservative, Jesus freak or pagan/sinner, athlete or nerd, orthodox or emergent, that it will cause them to see the error of their ways and lead them to a path of change.  The truth is that our labels often lead to more division.  The line of thinking usually goes something like this.  We could not simply associate with that person because they are.....  Or they wouldn't want to talk about this or go to this because they are.....  Our labels put us in a box that we cannot break out of.

I speak to all of this because I recently found out from a credible source that I have been labeled, a couple of different things.  I don't really care that I have been labeled becaue in one of the cases there is a bit of truth to it.  Here's the thing that bothers me about this situation.  These people that have labeled me have not spoken to me personally about it.  They have not approached me to talk about if I may actually be what their label points to.  Truth is they may not actually know what their label fully means.  My point is this, the church as a whole has to get beyond this way of conducting ourselves if we ever hope to be fully missional in our communities and the world.  Those who we hope to reach usually do not look like, act like and think like we do.  So a part of reaching out to them is to look past any lables or names that we may call them.  But if we are not doing this with those who share a faith in Christ, how can we ever hope to extend a measure of grace to those who do not share a faith in Christ?

Thankfully we serve a God that looks past our labels.  I am reminded of a sermon that one of my professors, Dr. Tim Green, gave a time when he spoke at a church I was serving in.  He was working through the story of Hagar and Ishmael and talking about labels.  The narrative in Genesis 16 says that Abram and Sarai referred to Hagar as "my servant" and "your servant", never by her name.  She was ultimately driven out into the wilderness by Sarai and it was here that God came and spoke to her through his angel.  Then the coolest thing happened in verse 8.  The first word out of the mouth of the angel was Hagar.  God had given Hagar her name back.  In God's eyes she was not labeled as a servant or slave, but as Hagar.

In the same way, I need to be reminded that God sees me as Jared and not by the labels or names that others may project on me.  Thank you God for the grace that you give to your servants and may we in turn offer that same grace to our friends, our enemies and the strangers and aliens among us.

The Promise and Threat of Missional Theology

Our next talk was given by Darrell Guder.  If you have never heard of Guder then you should know that he was the forerunner of this whole Missional Theology Conversation.  It all started with a book that he edited called Missional Church.  I personall have not read this book yet, but it is on my desk and laudry list of "to read" books.  I have read a book of Guder's in grad school called The Continuing Conversion of the Church and found it to be a great read.

On to Guder's talk.  Guder began by talking through the reason for even needing a term like missional in the church.  He reminded us that mission is the definitive of the church and that missional is not a noun.  It is an action word.  Guder then talked about our current North American context.  He claimed that we are in one of the most difficult mission fields ever.  This is so because Christendom was rooted in a Western mindset that left out mission as a priority in the church.  Our mission focus has always been out there, instead of right here.  Guder reminded us that the theology of the church should be rooted in the mission of God and that mission is the fundamental calling and action for the church today.

Now on to the promises.  Guder claims that we stand closer to the pre-Constantinian church than ever.  (For background on the Constantinian shift click here.)  He claims that we have lost the power and prestige of Christendom which frees us to reengage our mission as servants of Christ.  I loved a point that he made about how we do not take Christ anywhere but instead witness to what Christ is already doing in that particular place.  Guder concluded on the promise of how missional theology will help us to view our Christendom legacy with integrity.  He believes that we can address our theological divisions and ecclesiological divisions in a new light in this post-Christendom era and come to a point of landing where God would have us to be.

What are the threats you might ask?  Guder believes that there are some who fail to see the need for the church's continual conversion.  They are fine with the way things are now or have been for decades and centuries in the past.  He also believes that the church could become a servant of culture which would cause it to lose sight of the very mission it is called to fulfill.  He see the compartmentalization of theological disciplines as a threat as well.  His call is for all of theology to be based on missional thinking even to the point that we view church history through the missional lens.  Guder thinks that another threat is that we view Christendom as a problem that needs to be solved.  His response is that missional theology seeks to move on as if Christendom had never existed.  Lastly, Guder thinks that triumphalistic theology is another threat.  Our confidence should be in God and not ourselves and in that we are called to live in solidarity with the world.

Where do you see missional theology in your current context and how radical would this be to those that you serve?