Pilgrimage

So, this morning John and I left my house a little after 8:15 to head to St. John's Orthodox Church in Memphis. After some good discussions of concerns about the 'emerging church' and the Orthodox Church and how each of these line up or don't line up with our notions of biblical Christianity, we arrived at St. John's. Now, St. John's is housed in a previously-owned church building (I'm told the previous owners were Presbyterians). From the outside it doesn't look particularly Orthodox or otherworldly. But the inside was another story.
We apparently walked in at the very beginning of the Divine Liturgy, because the entire congregation was standing up. While standing there conspicuously observing the church at worship, I got to witness something neat: a little girl came in accompanying her family. As each person came in they would cross themselves and kiss an icon of St. John the Evangelist which was at the entrance. This sweet little girl stood on her tippety-toes to kiss the icon, couldn't reach, so she kissed her hand and planted one on the icon's foot. My kids would love the Orthodox faith.
Lately, encouraged by explorations in the nature of first/second/third century Christian worship, I have allowed and even prompted my kids to kiss the icon of Christ I bought at Annunciation. They love it. When I saw this little girl's participation in the faith of the Fathers, I knew my kids would love it.
But I digress.. Heheheh.. Next, John and (John my friend not John the Evangelist or John Chrysostom, the writer of the liturgy.. there's a lot of John's to keep straight-) found some seats (not that they got used much). We ended up sitting next to the Khouria.
The liturgy wasn't too surprising, since I visited Annunciation in June and listen to the Greek liturgy a lot online. Having it in English was a blessing and of course made it easier to follow along.
When it came time for the homily the priest really preached. This felt very evangelical, although I'm told St. John Chrysostom was a great preacher.
Afterwards John and I met the priest's daughter, who it seems like was married to the son of another priest in an Orthodox Church. We met him too. So, the priest's daughter showed us around the church a bit, and eventually we made our way to the fellowship hall where I gravitated to the book and icon store. I managed to refrain from buying any icons, but I did buy three books:
The Orthodox Church by Bishop KALLISTOS Ware
The Orthodox Way by Bishop KALLISTOS Ware and
Pocket Prayers for Orthodox Christians, which is a daily prayer book and includes the Divine Liturgy. Apparently it's translated an published by the Antiochian Archdiocese.

Then we visited for a little while with the Khouria, followed by a Deacon, who introduced us to one of the priests, who took us to meet the other priest. Along the way we also met an Inquirer who is of a Church of Christ background, and had an interesting conversation about the postmodern epistemological dilemma and how the Orthodox faith remedies it by being what it has always been and doing what it has always done.

We had a great visit with both priests, and walked around the nave a bit to look at all the icons I couldn't see during worship. This church building was gorgeous inside. Flanking the platform/sanctuary were massive fresco icons of the Annunciation and Pentecost. All around the walls were icons depicting a chronological view of the life of Christ between the Annunciation and Pentecost. They were beautiful, otherworldly, all the things icons have been described as. Behind the Sanctuary was a fresco of an icon I've never seen, presumably of Christ enthroned with Patriarchs paying homage. Above Him was an icon of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Theotokos, bearing Christ.
Atop the very ceiling was the Christ Pantocrator icon. I'm familiar with that one, because I bought a miniature version of it. I'm telling you this place looked, sounded, felt and smelt like worship.
Did I mention that the choir stood in a loft above and behind the congregation? It was another aspect that made the worship seem otherworldly.
"Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us" is better sung by an angelic-sounding choir above our heads.
Another thing that struck me is the family/informality of it all. While the worship is decidedly formulated and prescribed (they trace it to the worship of Israel, which was an icon of the worship that takes place in Heaven), the people were relaxed. Some people crossed themselves at certain times. Other people crossed themselves at other times. There seemed to some prescribed rule, but it also seemed to be highly personal. Some people knelt. Everyone stood. Some kids ran down the aisles to sit with different relatives or perhaps God-parents. They were all very comfortable.

Well, John and I already decided that we would visit St. John's in another month and we're making plans to take friends, especially Amy and the kids.

My saga continues

Monday Micah and I both started school. He went to school on a bus equipped with booster seats. I went in my 1992 Honda Accord that was given to me by the church, who got it from some missionaries leaving for the Dominican Republic.
My classes so far aren't a real stretch. I only have 12 hours, but I'm trying to get into Spanish 3, since I changed my minor to Spanish. Interestingly even though my classification is junior, I have three 100-level courses. Oh well. It means I have a semester to get accustomed to being a fulltime student again.
Today I used a break in classes to visit the illustrious Kent Library. It was fairly nice. In my never-ending exploration of the church in all its forms (particularly the orthodox forms lately), I did a quick search for Bishop KALLISTOS and found his classic The Orthodox Church. I read that for the rest of my break, and plan on reading it more tonight. I am still planning on visiting St. John's on Sunday. Maybe I'll take my friend John with me. It's up to him, I guess.
In answer to the comment from Bernie: Yes, you're right. And the unchangeing nature of the orthodox church is probably what I'm looking for. It is a ways to the nearest Orthodox church (1.5 hrs), so I will take a bit longer to make a year (or a month) of sundays, especially since I'm quite committed to my current church. (even though I don't work there anymore.)
So, I will hopefully comment some on Bishop KALLISTOS' book. Not that I would presume to correct him. Most of what I've read so far I'd already picked up from hours exploring the websites of the different Orthodox jurisdictions and a few church websites.
Many blessings on anyone who reads this blog. I know it's not very interesting.

Some more thoughts.

Bob Hyatt posted on here that he knew some evangelicals who went to the orthodox faith years ago. He thought that this could have been a pre-pre-cursor to what we've come to know and love as the emerging church. Frederica Matthewes-Green writes in an emergentYS title, and I'd imagine probably what she proposes and even encourages. So, the question remains, why is it that we don't throw our chips with the Orthodox faith?
To me, the problem is an old modern age holdover -- individualism. We talk about how the individual self was a modern construct- probably true. Then we continue to evaluate faith systems based on how it lines up with our conceptions of logic and culture. I, for one, am totally ready to give up my individual rights to be swallowed up in a whole community that is actively seeking and proclaiming truth. Isn't it from Orthodox theology that we get the emphasis on the trinity which will be our anchor in the trying times ahead?
Post your comments.

Becoming Orthodox

Somehow my books got here from Amazon, even though I chose the free shipping option. As soon as I got the books I started reading the older of the two, Becoming Orthodox. Recognizing that this book describes events that took place about eighteen years ago now. To put it in perspective, Frederica Matthewes-Green and her husband came to the Orthodox faith through the testimony of Fr. Peter.
Well, to summarize the testimony of Fr. Peter, which makes up the bulk of this book, along with a brief apologetic for some orthodox beliefs/practices we protestant have long ago rejected as Catholic:
Peter Gillquist and some friends are employed in Campus Crusade for Christ in the sixties. They're going gangbusters to win "the campus for Christ today, tomorrow the world for Christ." However, they realize what they are doing has little or no longterm staying power. So, they, while still working for Crusade, begin experimenting with early church-type things, focusing on community and commitment. Before long they become convinced they all need to leave Crusade. They go into "secular" employment. While in their secular jobs they begin to naturally attract other believers, and various communities grow up around them. They come together to try and determine what this New Testament Church would look like, so they can take their communities there. Their line of thinking was, "Where is the church that Christ founded on the apostles, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail?" They decided to look individually at the Scriptures, church history, and worship to see what they should. Six months later they reconvened to discuss what they'd found. First of all, they found liturgical worship in the second century, in the writings of Justin Martyr. Next, they found Bishops in the church as early as the middle of the first century! They look seriously at the church history to find that the church split apart in AD 1054, but it seems clear to them that whatever the church was before that time, the Eastern Orthodox church had it. All this without meeting a single present-day Eastern Orthodox person! Without much hesitation they began to form their communities into what they were beginning to see as the first century norm. They formed a group called the New Covenant Apostolic Order. By 1977 they had founded the Evangelical Orthodox Church. They were still the same, gospel preaching (sometimes yelling) evangelical preachers, but now their communities called them father. Over some years they became convinced that the modern Orthodox Church was faithful to the original, even in its multi-jurisdictional form here in the US. They began relationships with people in the OCA (Russian), Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. With some negotiations they were chrismated and ordained into the Antiochian Archdiocese by Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba. Nowadays Father Peter and his cohorts are involved in visiting churches which are interested in converting to Orthodoxy. That's right, along the way, whole churches have converted to Eastern Orthodoxy.

I'd already planned on visiting a nearby Antiochian Church in Memphis, St. John's, which was one of the original Evangelical Orthodox.
Some things I see in the Orthodox Church which I need:

• Truth- the orthodox church believes that truth is arrived at communally as leaders get together to make big decisions and those decisions are received by the communities represented by those leaders. This is great in a world where our individual ability to arrive at truth is, and should be, suspect. Since my truth-finding ability is suspect, I need a community of leaders to help me interpret the Scripture. And all that without the problem of contradictory infallible popes. No one is infallible in the orthodox church.
• The worship of the orthodox church is physical, tangible, sacramental. They are teaching us what it means to embrace the mystery in their faith. They know that Christ is Present in the Communion, but they don't how. They know new life begins at baptism, but they don't have to explain why or how.
• The Orthodox Church has established leadership and centuries of beautiful tradition.

There are decidedly problems for those of us in the "emerging conversation".

• We have a problem with authority, especially the old patriarchal type, maybe rightly so.
• While we are searching for truth is new expressions, we might not like what we find.
• The worship always occurs in a prescribed manner. There's little or no room for that kind of creativity in worship. There will be no laser light shows.

It seems to me like there is one last thing to be said. Fr. Peter says that they didn't come to the orthodox faith for the beautiful worship. They came because it was true.

I already started reading Kh. Frederica Matthewes-Green's book Facing East, which kind of tells the same story for her. I'll post more on that later.

Sitting Here

Monday I picked up my books for my semester at SEMO. I'm excited and nervous as I start fulltime college for the first time in four or five years as a 27 year old man. I'll be classified as a junior. I started reading my book for Symbolic Logic. That'll be a real fun one.
Last night we had a get together at our house for the kids that went to camp and a few friends. It was good. We visited, looked at pictures, watched videos. It was a generally good time. I think the kids enjoyed themselves. Judging by how wild my kids were I would say that they've missed having YoungLife at our house with all the rowdy kids. They sure feed on the interaction with high school kids. I have four-and-a-half and almost-three-year-old teenagers.
I'm listening to the new Relient K. I haven't listend to these guys in a couple of years. Dang. They've gotten really good in the past few years. I'm glad to see them shed their Christian rock skin and step out into the world for a bit.

I'm waiting for a couple of books to get here from Amazon. They're both about the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and specifically about protestants finding a home in the orthodox church, drawn by the mystery and kept by the orthodoxy. It seems to me that the Orthodox church really does have the key to the relational hermeneutic we're searching for. A hermeneutic that doesn't have to have infallibility or an infallible boss to guide it. They simply rely on centuries of church tradition and struggle to guide their search for truth. Anyways, I'm excited to read these books:
Becoming Orthodox by Fr. Peter Gillquist
Facing East by Frederica Matthews-Green

I'll post about them as I read them.

Off again

After a tiring/fun week at Young Life camp in Colorado, arriving home Sunday night, Amy, Neil and I left for Nebraska last night to retrieve our kids from the farm. I will hopefully make use of whatever free wireless access I can find to blog some about YL camp, the farm, and life.

Big water fishing

This week my in-laws were here. Tom and I tried to go fishing on the river (the Mississippi) a few times. It didn't take long to realize that our gear was a bit light for such a big river. One time I casted out and once my line was all the way extended it came off the reel and kept going. Sploooosh! How embarassing to do something like that at all- much less in front of your father-in-law. Argh. On our walk home we went by our very own local tackle shop. We left our stuff outside the door and went inside.
"uh, yeah, we're trying to fish on the river."
"Well, we've got some close out catfish rods on close out."
$29.99.
After a while talking with the fishing guru there started outside. He followed us out.
Looking at our little bass fishing poles he said, "you guys are a little light for the river..."
Later Tom bought me two of the close out big water fishing poles. They're big and nice.
I still haven't caught the elusive catfish Old Man River has to offer.

This morning I got up around 7, grabbed my gear and some chicken livers, walked about a mile to the river and up the bank from town. It was a perfect 75 degrees. Kind of windy, but very nice after all this sizzling heat.
Several times I casted and my sinker went sailing way out in the river while my bait and hook landed not more than twenty feet away. Some times I casted and everything went flying off my line. Some times I got a bite but didn't know what to do with it. I guess I won't quit my day job to be a fisherman. Oh, I already quit my day job to be a student. Sitting there catching nothing got me thinking about my call to love and pursue the lost. I don't catch many. The thing is, I just keep showing up. In my line of business (youth ministry) and most(if not all) types of ministry, showing up is 90% of what's required. Jesus called it faithfulness. So, I will be faithfully feeding the poor, visiting the infirm, and caring for the fatherless. I can't do anything else. Where else can I go for the words of eternal life, except to the side of Christ, who is there pursuing the lost sheep?
Newbigin's The Gospel for a Pluralist Society is blowing my mind these days. It is beautiful how Newbigin looks for a place beyond the either\or syndrome of our times. He seeks a place beyond the debate on exclusivism/inclusivism/universalism to find something that takes God's grace and sin's gravity into account more fully than any of the three options. His stance of agnosticism when it comes to eternal destiny of the faithful of other religions helps a bit.
I'll keep reading. For now, it's back to fishing.

Last Night

Last night was the last of our Summer Faith Pilgrimage trips. We went to a Saturday night mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. It was a pretty normal catholic mass. Our kids hadn't been to mass before.
Afterwards, we got to sit with Father Scott and ask questions. Father Scott was very gracious and had very good answers. All in all, it was a good experience.
So, this summer our youth group has visited:

1. Episcopal
2. Predominantly-Black Charismatic
3. Greek Orthodox
4. Methodist
5. Baptist
6. Emerged Church of Christ Charismatic/Prophetic
7. Catholic

It has been amazing to watch their (and my) misunderstandings fall away. After our visit with Fr. Scott last night one girl said, "I always thought they worshiped Mary. I was guilty of that misconception." What a breath of God's Spirit it is when we come together like that. You can't put a price on experiences like that in the spiritual formation of a group of young people.

Well, that being said, my daughter just reached in the kitchen sink to retrieve her pop tart that she had apparently deposited there earlier this morning. What a life.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my last Sunday on staff at Tucker Street. Did I mention that I have spent the last five years serving as the youth minister of a 30-year old post-denomational/protestant/evangelical church? And they're looking for a part time youth minister, if anyone's looking for a bivocational type of situation.
The thing is, my interactions/conversations with the pastor and the elders of Tucker Street contributed as much or more to my personal "emergence" than all the emerging church-type books I've read. Seriously.
See, about thirty years ago the founding elders were disfellowshipped from Church of Christ. Soon a new fellowship had started. Over the years it has developed its own flavor, conscious of the historic church and faith.

Soon I'll be just a member. Or maybe I should say soon I'll be a member. That's a better way of looking at it. I'm looking forward to being an ordinary member without having to run the youth program. Also, not working there will give me the freedom to be out visiting churches both here in town and elsewhere. We're planning on visiting St. John's Antiochian Orthodox Church some time in August. The Orthodox church has been very intriguing to me.

Needless to say, this transition looks to be a difficult one. It's been hard to paint my office to make it just an office. (In my time there it was painted bright red with a Detroit Red Wings border and lots of memorabilia. Now it's a soothing/serene brown. I'm toying with the idea of hanging a large crucifix on the eastern wall to give it even more of a spiritual refuge appearance. (Plus, that should serve to scare away any hardcore fundamentalists.)

Right now I'm sort of watching my kids as my wife is at a MOPS leadership retreat. Sort of, because obviously they're destroying my house as I post.
In fact, I wrote a more thoughtful version of this post moments ago which was deleted when my son got on the computer to play games while I answered the phone.

I watched a classic anime last night. Probably everyone has seen Castle In The Sky, but it was pretty interesting. The kids and I watched it 2.5 times straight through. They thought it was neat. Man, the English dubbing looks funny. It's like everyone is a skilled ventriloquist. They're talking with their mouths closed. Amazing!

I've been reading Newbigin's The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. It''s a very good read. I like Polanyi's epistemology, or at least, Polanyi's epistemology as dictated/interpreted by Newbigin. It seems to me like this does bring a new higher plane to the debate over liberal/conservative interpretation. Very helpful. For me it has always been more helpful to read books that influence the emerging church folks than to read the emerging church books. So I read Nouwen, I read Foster, I'm working on Lewis, I read Newbigin, I read Guder. Some of that stuff obviously isn't written for mass use, but it's good.

Well, I've rambled long enough.
May God's blessings be on all of you, today and forever.

my state thingy

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...
Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /
Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Sweet corn, Michigan, Indiana

It seems like it was a week ago that I announced my resignation at the church. This week has felt endless already. On Monday morning we got up and started towards Michigan to retrieve our children from my mom's house.
We stopped in Evansville, IN to have lunch with Drew and his wife Resa. Drew is from Caruthersville. I've heard of him and known him for like 4 years, but never met him. Then we met up on line and starting reading one another's blogs. It's strange how the blogosphere can feel can make the world feel so strong sometimes. Lunch was great. Drew and I are alike in a lot of scary ways. Our poor wives sat there, trying to interject comments in the middle of our 100-MPH banter. It was all in all a good visit.
Next we took off towards Indianapolis to catch I-69 to Lansing. BTW Drew, there is NO short way to Indy from E-ville. Argh...
We finally arrived at my mom's house in Michigan at about midnight local time.
I went to sleep on a couch in the playroom where my kids were already asleep. In the morning my son Micah rolled over looking at me, then jumped up and ran over when he realized who I was (I sleep with a mask on because I'm a wimp.). We had a short visit of one day with my family. Yesterday morning we drove back to Dyersburg. It took nearly 14 hours. Unbearable. The kids were pretty well-behaved and it was a great trip.
This morning I got up at 5 to pick up some of my high school friends and be in the field picking corn by 6 AM. Three hours later we had sold 100+ dozens ears of corn and netted $340. Now that's easy work.

I'm getting ready to go to lunch with another high school friend in a bit. I started read Newbigin's The Gospel in a Pluralist Society last night. It's quoted enough that it's an important primary source to read.

Blessings on my readers.

College Bound

All right. This morning I announced my resignation to the church body. They received it well. The elders are especially supportive of us. Since we're not moving anywhere we will have the unique option to become regular members and continue to attend TSC, but we'll see.
The craziest thing happened tonight. One of the deacons, with whom I wouldn't consider myself to be very tight, made an offer to contribute $5K a year to see me continue my education on the condition that when I attend seminary it be a seminary which he would see as evangelical. So, I'm off to college, it's paid for, and the Lord works in mysterious ways.
On top of that we have gained some new friends in the church since we began announcing our resignation. I guess now that we're leaving (maybe) people want to hang out with us.
Blessings on my readers, both of you.

Off to Michigan

Did I mention that we're headed to Michigan in the morning? Our kids have spent the last week at my mom's in Perrinton. So, if anyone's around the Lansing Area I would love to have some coffee, or even better, some Georgio's pizza.
If that sounds good, give me a call on my cell:
(573)751-0812

The future

Tomorrow morning I will announce my resignation at the beginning of the worship service. I've been on staff at the church for almost five years. It's nothing bad or anything, it's just time. Over the past six months or longer Amy and I have talked and prayed about how I could finish my bachelor's degree. And we finally came to conclusion that the best thing for us to do would be to resign from one of my jobs and go to school full time. The hope is that that will limit the amount of time that we will have to struggle financially. When I told the elders they were supportive. They all could see that this was a good move for us as a family, even if it isn't easy or will be misunderstood by the church family.
This fall I'll be pursuing a BA in Philosophy at Southeast Missouri State University while I continue to live here and work part time directing Young Life.
What will this semester be like? Your guess is as good as mine.

One of the youthers heard early from an unnamed source about my coming resignation. He wasn't happy. We talked for about 35 minutes. And that was after he had vented.
Tomorrow will not be easy. For all but 3 months of our marriage we have worshipped and worked in this church. Please pray for us and pray for those hearing, that they would receive it well.

Young Marrieds Without Children

So, this week (since saturday) Amy and I are seeing what it would be like to be Young Marrieds Without Children. Our kids are in Michigan at my mom's house. Life is a bit more slow-paced with just the two of us. Yesterday we had to go to Jackson to get me a new cell phone. Apparently after about a year and a half a cell phone's software is outdated. What a racket. I gave in to the Man. Bought a new phone.
We went to the park last night and played croquet. We were supposed to have a couple of guys join us, but none showed up. Oh dread.
So we came to watch the Six Feet Under DVD that came in the mail yesterday. But the sleeve had the wrong disc in there. So now we have to wait until Disc 4 gets here. Shoot.
What else is there to say?
Tonight we're having our committee meeting at our house.

Hey all

I hate to do these sort "sell your friends out things" so if you're interested in earning a free iPod click here. I need a few referral in order to get mine. Woohoo. Blessings and good iPodding.

Faith Pilgrimage

Yesterday was a good sunday, even though it started way too early. We left our house around 5 AM. After picking up some breakfast, we got to the church building. We left the church building with a pretty big crowd around 6 AM.

Our trip yesterday was to visit two churches:
Greater Imani Church and Christian Center
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Man, I knew it was going to be a big culture shock both ways, but dang.
The first one (Greater Imani) is a large black church with a great ministry to men and really energetic music. And I mean, this church was black. (Jesus was black in the pictures in the foyer.) So, it was great. I especially appreciated the music and the sermon. The preacher in this church, Apostle, gave a great talk calling men to be real fathers to their children. This was a much needed sermon, and apparently his strong teaching is having quite an impact on the men of the black community in Memphis.
Next, we drove (quickly because we thought we were going to be late) about 10 minutes down the road to Annunciation. Unfortunately, Annunciation is currently meeting in their fellowship hall. They have set up the fellowship hall to reflect a normal greek orthodox worship setting. For the non-experienced when it comes to the eastern orthodox faith, every bit of the liturgy is sung or chanted. It was a very beautiful service. The idea of there being "a" Orthodox faith and practice was curious to me, given my point of view of western christianity, with its many flavors. Especially meaningful to me was the continuity of what the Orthodox church does. It has been approximately the same for roughly 2000 years. The roots of my own christian tradition go back no farther than the reformation. This is a faith tradition that never got involved in the reformation. I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon looking at what my ecclesiology reveals about the importance on place on my own self. In the eastern church, self is subject to the Tradition, the Fathers, and the Church. Also of interest was some stories I heard of a group of American Evangelicals (mostly from Campus Crusade) who converted to Orthodoxy after studying the Scriptures and reading the church fathers. I'll have to read their book : Becoming Orthodox

Out

This past weekend we had our first Summer Faith Pilgrimage trip with our youth group. I was suprised that we had twelve kids plus parents meet at the church building at 8 AM to drive down to our local Episcopal church for the early service. It was great. You could tell that our kids were very interested. They responded well, and caught on to the general flow of the service. They seemed to appreciate it. After the service they were loving the stained glass windows. That's interesting, considering the movement several years ago to remove all religious images from churches to not bother young people and the unchurched. Anyways, after the service Father Jack, who used to work with youth primarily, visited with us and answered questions.
When we got back to our building we discussed the similarities/differences and what was most meaningful to us. We especially appreciated communion at the altar. Our church takes communion every sunday (in the Church of Christ tradition) but it seemed like the whole set up of the Holy Communion at St. Mary's was a bigger deal.
This sunday we are going to be visiting a couple of churches in Memphis: Greater Imani Church and Christian Center and Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. We'll be at the early (8 AM) service at Greater Imani and then at the 10 AM Divine Liturgy at Annunciation. Then on to Huey's for lunch. Our kids are really excited about this trip, since it is the most varied of our church experiences. A large, predominantly black charismatic church followed by a hasn't-changed-in-roughly-1800-years orthodox church. It should give us a good "big picture" of God's church.
Blessings on my readers.

Nationalism/Idolatry

Hey, I just was tipped off to this site: www.bushfish.org
I went there and was appalled. This is about as low as nationalism/civic religion has sunk in America. Come on, guys. How can we see Bush unerringly as God's man in spite of his many verbal jousts and talk of holy war? This is no holy war! God forbid that Jeb run after GWB is done. I don't think this nation could survive another eight years of the Bush clan.
This sticker campaign is one of the pretty good reasons the average American doesn't think much of Christianity or Christians. Hey- that's not Christ they're rejecting! It's us.

Spiritual Disciplines

I've heard it said before, but didn't pay attention: "If you don't have the spiritual disciplines learned, when you are presented with time for silence/solitude, you won't know what to do. Not all spiritual disciplines are for everyday, but they can be added to any day."
So, yesterday when I was driving up to Cape I found that the hour and a half drive was nearly done before I was done praying the Jesus Prayer, praying intercessions, and listening to the Gospel of John. By the time I got done it was time to get off at my exit.
That's not bragging. That's how one can lose themself in spending time without an agenda with God. I've never spent an hour and a half having devotions/bible study, but I was very enriched yesterday.
In other news, I am registered for this fall's classes. I went to a transfer orientation yesterday. I wasn't the oldest transfer student there. The campus was nice. I'm excited. I'm even excited about the prospect of an hour and a half in the car one way three days a week. The afternoon drive wasn't as nice, but it didn't feel very long.
Also of note, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair met yesterday and talked about beefing up aid to the world's poorest nations. I think this is the direct result of people of faith in this country and others praying that God would break our government's collective heart over the issue of poverty and HIV/AIDS. Oh, and the ONE campaign has Brad Pitt, too. Way to go, Brad.
I'm going to try and read Andrew Jones' stuff on "deep ecclesiology". Ecclesiology is one of my favorite interests.
Blessings on my readers. Especially you, Drew. Welcome back to blogdom.

The Sacred Way

I am currently reading Tony Jones' The Sacred Way. It is definitely a worthwhile read. It is kind of a repeat, since I read his SoulShapers book more than a year ago, which is a youth ministry version of the same stuff published under emergentYS.
Reading this book reminds me, though, of spiritual disciplines I have picked up from different authors. It is interesting the way this all works. Everyone is kind of on pilgrimage, seeking something deeper in their faith life. I recall a spiritual director (one of the disciplines I've added to my life) telling me, "The longing is the next step, Levi." I wanted simple answers with 10-steps to holy living. Instead he encouraged that I allow the disciplines to change me and feed that longing that I was trying to figure out.
So, three and a half years later, I am still trying to allow the spiritual disciplines I have acquired order my day and draw me closer to God. I am still exploring new(old) spiritual disciplines to implement in my life and change my heart.
For me, the use of the Jesus Prayer in the morning on the drive across the river has been life-giving. Also, on my laptop wallpaper is a Greek Orthodox icon (not the computer kind) entitle "Christ the Lifegiver". Looking at this icon periodically through my day gives me peace and hope. Most nights Amy and I read through the Compline service from the Book of Common Prayer. There is something very reassuring in the words of that simple service of prayer, contrition, and hope.
I don't know if I've mentioned it, but this summer our youth group is going to do what we're calling a Summer Faith Pilgrimage. Tomorrow we'll have an introduction to church history as in "How'd we get all these faith traditions?" and "where are we now?" Then for six weeks we will visit churches of different faith traditions within Christianity, (our church is non/inter-denominational with a background in the Churches of Christ.) During the course of this time we will visit the early services of four local churches: Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic and go out of town to experience worship at other churches we don't have in Dyersburg: Greek Orthodox, COGIC (the main church is in Memphis), and maybe some sort of seeker-sensitive megachurch. If anyone knows of a church in St. Louis that would be a good addition to this plan, leave a comment.
So, that's what we're doing. I hear people say that it is dangerous to take people's faith and appropriate the parts we like. I understand the danger in that, so we will be visiting regularly scheduled worship services with each of these bodies, and having question and answer times with a leader when it's possible. Right now I'm really excited to take our young people to the Greek Orthodox church. I talked to the priest the other day. He seemed excited to have us visit. We will be blessed and stretched, I'm sure. I will hopefully blog about some of these church visit experiences.

Okay, I'm torqued.

Did anyone else read this CNN story?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/30/cheney.amnestyintl/index.html

In it, Dick Cheney says that he thinks it was irresponsible of Amnesty to speak about Human rights violations in the detention facilities at Gitmo in their annual report on Human Rights:

http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/2am-index-eng

Cheney said, "The US has liberated and given freedom to more people than any other nation in the modern world."
Is this supposed to be an excuse/permission to abuse prisoners and hold no one accountable?
I'm sorry, Mr. Vice President. You don't speak for me! Amnesty International is an authoritative voice on human rights. If they were agreeing with us, we would certainly hail the results. Now is the time for this administration to repent!

The ALL-embracing church

I've been thinking some lately. I do that once in a while. In our emerging circles there is, of course, the stock participant (affluent, educated, white males). My question relates to the whole rest of the world.
In our churches how are we at including the 'least of these' if the least of these include the (functionally) illiterate masses? It seems to me like in some way this conversation is inclusive of those who can grasp grand ideas of philosophy and theology.
What of those who cannot grasp these abstracts?
Part of this came to me in an extreme circumstance:
In my previously blogged Broadway experience with two KJV-only Baptist preachers at the emergent convention they kept mentioning the "academics". By this term they meant Brian McLaren and the like. Which is funny, considering that I've hear others say, "why should we get our theology from someone who isn't a theologian?"
Now, obviously, I don't share all those two pastors' mistrust for education and the educated. However, I also don't share the kind of awe-inspiring unquestioning respect for academia that's common in other evangelical circles.
Another example: In the church where I serve there are lots of elders and deacons (especially considering the size of the church). One of the deacons is not terribly well read, but a totally committed servant of God. I have heard people question his right to be a deacon, since he can hardly read the Bible. I'm reminded that many great questions not only couldn't read the Bible- they didn't even own one! What kind of superiority complex do we have when we have to use complicated theological words in our sermons, for the benefit of our own egos and perhaps a few highly-educated others? In my ministry my wife looks at me funny when I start to use big words. It usually means I'm showing out or I didn't prepare. Preparing means we communicate complex ideas with simple words and images.
In our world of polarizing classes how will we embrace the increasingly illiterate classes with the love of Christ if we cannot bring ourselves to communicate it to them in plain english?
Now, let me say for the record that I don't think I recommend 'dumbing down' the text or speaking entirely in colloquialisms. It is unnerving sometimes to listen to a speaker speak in a regional dialect without any reference or concern for standard english. However, we would not, of course, speak all day in English to natives in some foreign jungle, expecting them to smarten up.
My pastor taught me this: "studying Greek should mean you wrestle with the meaning of the Greek text- determine the meaning, preach from the Greek- then don't mention it."
My English professor in English Comp 1 said, "Learning English should mean that you can't speak to the Queen without sounding like a dolt, and you should be comfortable speaking to a lower class person, and not make them feel inferior."
So, I'm repenting of my love for philosophical, theological big word-bandying, unless I'm in big word-accepting crowds. I WILL become all things to all people.

Senior Sunday

Yesterday was senior sunday. I think I started this tradition a few years ago, whenever I was a bit newer. It is a great opportunity to honor our seniors and their families.
The two seniors in our church who graduated this year are great. They were in the eighth grade when I became the youth minister at the church, so I've watch them grow quite a bit.

In particular, I was struck again by the importance of intergenerational relationships in the church. One boy, the pastor's son, said, "I was nine months old when we moved here. You guys are all that I know. You're like family to me." After the kids had a chance to share their future plans with the body, and thank whoever, we presented them with a gift and had the elders up to pray over them. It was moving. Not a lot of dry eyes through the whole service.

Well, what kind of traditions/rites of passage do you have in your faith communities? Comment.

Amy and I last summer at Young Life's Windy Gap in North Carolina 

Up too late. Up too early.

Admittedly I stayed up a bit late for me last night. I couldn't make myself get off the phone. For one thing, how often do people ask about emergent/the emerging church and not start attacking shortly thereafter? So, my conversation with my friends was a breath of fresh air. For another thing, Matt and Robin have always been some of my favorite friends to talk with. It strikes me that in conversations with them you have a conversation with both. Neither one sits and listens. They're both engaged in the conversation. This makes it more balanced (not so much male thinking) and interesting- because, who knows who's going to grab the phone?

A Blessing from the past...

This evening I emailed a horde of people directing them to the one campaign website. In response I got a strange call from across the continent. A voice with an abnormal accent said to me, "Levi Hadley, do you know who this is?" Ummmm... Soon I recognized what I already knew intuitively-- the southeastern wyoming accent of my friend Matt Boyd. After a few minutes of pleasantries, I mentioned the Emergent Convention and he asked me to tell him about it. I wasn't selling anything, so I just got off the phone after roughly two hours of explaining the cultural shift in the US and the emerging church conversation.
It seemed to resonate with their experience/observations.

Anyways, I know they read my blog earlier, so I want to say hello to my good friends, Matt and Robin Boyd and their five children. Love you guys.

Books I'm reading currently

All right, so all this contemplative prayer I've been trying to practice hasn't necessarily slowed me down or made me more focused. I'm currently reading or re-reading four books:

1. The Sacred Way by Tony Jones
2. Reclaiming God Original Intent For the Church by Wes Roberts
3. Streams of Living Water by Richard Foster
4. God's Politics by Jim Wallis
5. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I picked up the last one today from the library. It's already pretty good. Interesting stuff. I guess my current reading list reveals that I'm a bit scatter-brained as of late.

On primary sources...

I had my usual weekly Generous Orthodoxy study meeting today with my pastor. We read the books months ago and meet weekly to discuss a chapter or two, especially the parts either of us highlighted. Out of this study has come references to what I would consider emerging issues in his sermons in our traditional church.
In some ways I could say that my pastor taught me about the emerging church before there was such a term.
"All truth is God's truth" is one thing he's been fond of saying. As if to say, embrace and affirm what is of value in world religions.
In the same way, he has taught me that the proper posture towards other christian traditions is that of humble cooperation, not superiority. So it was he who first encouraged me to read the Catholic and Anglican who were taboo in my upbringing.
Today he mentioned that the ideas of the emerging church are not new. I was like, "now you're getting it..."
"Look," he says, "this anglican guy was saying similar things fifteen years ago."
So, this got me thinking... what are some books that were formative for the emerging church before the idea was hip? I'm especially thinking of people who would not identify themselves as emergent or be identified as such.
Some ideas of emerging thought in germ-form:

1. Messy Spirituality - Mike Yaconelli (one of my personal heroes)
2. Dangerous Wonder - Yac
3. Ragamuffin Gospel - Brennan Manning
4. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
5. Celebration of Discipline - Richard Foster
6. Streams of Living Water - Richard Foster
7. Anything by Henri Nouwen

These are some of my thoughts. Any others?

Reflections on Emergent

Yesterday while discussing the convention with my pastor (who doesn't consider himself emergent) before church he challenged my use of the term emerging church and references to emerging/emergent christians.
There is only one church on the earth- that is Christ's bride, the church.
And there are no different varieties of Christians in the Kingdom. For there is no distinction, neither Jew, nor Greek, nor evangelical, nor mainlin, nor emerging. Christ is all and in all.
So, abstractions may be helpful. We use categories to save time in conversation and time in our thinking, but this is ultimately a lazy habit.

The world doesn't need an Emerging Church, or the McLarenites. Wouldn't it be a shame if in twenty years there's a collection of middle-aged Mac-using hippies who identify themselves as McLarenites?
What the world needs is for the church of God on the earth to emerge.

This is a lot harder work than planting a few churches and abandoning institutionalized religion.

Phyllis Tickle referred to the emergent movement (conversation) as a new reformation. Oh, that we would consider ourselves as doing something that important in the whole church, without thinking of ourselves as too important.

Humility. Grace. Compassion. Anger. Peace.

Home at last

We returned home this evening. Our house has the funny smell a house gets when you leave the air conditioning off for a few days. I guess it's the smell of the heated wood floors and what not.

A few things I've concluded:

• The emergent conversation is generally headed in a generally good direction. With the diversity of voices I feel comfortable with the fact that in some way God is guiding this conversation in a direction that will bless the church, and more importantly, the world.
• Because of our understanding and practice of what someone this week termed "epistemological humility", it is unnecessary and even contradictory to spend time "converting", "setting free" or otherwise arguing with absolutists of any stripe. We have nothing to prove.
• I need to find or start and emergent cohort in this area with whom I can share ideas, visit, and travel. Maybe that will be a goal of my fall semester.

All in all, I feel blessed to be headed on this journey with such a beautiful group of people.

For my investigating- emergent-friends, check out the order/practices for emergent friends.

Another Thought

A thought I forgot to mention, which I thought should influence the church in the rocky decades to come: we should approach truth and truth claims with an epistemological humility. This is the greatest contribution to the church from post-modern thought. Perhaps the problem is this isn't something post-modern, it's something the church lost in the enlightenment. Too much certainty can lead to arrogance. Now, it's also true that not enough certainty can lead to laziness.

On Margaritas and Burritos

Now I'm going to give a reverse chronological-order description of my day thus far.

Tonight Amy and I found a great place for margaritas and Mexican about three blocks from the convention center. We got after that. I love margaritas with Mexican food. There's no better taste combination.

Prior to that, we went to a viewing of possibly the most bizarre movie I've ever seen: What The Bleep Do We Know. As I already said, this was a dang crazy movie. This movie explores some discoveries in quantum phsyics and ends with the spiritual implications of quantum physics. It was mind-opening, and I'll probably reflect more on it later.

For lunch, I met with a group of fellow-emergents in a discussion/forum on intergenerational issues. This is close to my heart, as I feel like intergenerational relationships are largely missing from both the emerging church and many late-modern forms of church. I met several bloggers I have read or heard of: Adam, Susie, Wes, and Will. This was a great conversation about the need for intergenerational conversation in this emerging story.

In our Learning Community we had a conversation on truth and the nature of truth. This was one of the best thinking opportunities so far in the convention.
In our preliminary discussion these thoughts were put forth by people:
truth is: the assumptions underlying our conversation which either exclude or include others.
to native peoples truth is imperialism/colonialism, because that's what truth has been used for in their context.

The presenters were Todd Hunter (practitioner) of the Vineyard association and John Franke (theologian) of Biblical Seminary in PA. John co-wrote Beyond Foundationalism. Todd started the commentary with an explanation of epistemology. Presumably, there are things, then theories and ideas about things. Epistemology is the collection of theories/ideas about the theories/idea about the things.

To post-moderns, -colonialists, -industrialists truth isn't the important issue. The important issue has become: is the church a force for good on the earth or a force for evil?
This is an important issue to face in our times.

My question was: in order to reach post-moderns, do we have to change the way we think about truth or do we simply have to change the way we teach about truth? What is apparent, given the fallen nature of modern philosophy, is that we should not consider part of our mission to first convert the lost to a modern/cartesian worldview prior to introducing them to Christ. This is maybe the reason for the disconnect between post-modern young people and the current form of Christianity. It isn't that they don't believe in truth, the Bible or Christ. It's that they (and I) don't accept the modern evangelical views of truth, the Bible and Christ.
In our current time we are all a blend of modern and post-modern thought and assumptions, because we're between the times. As in modernism and pre-modern thought, there are opportunities and threats for the church in postmodernity.

From Franke-
the problems postmoderns have with truth:
Hermeneutics of finitude- "absolute" truth is humanly unattainable because of our finitude
Hermeneutics of power/suspicion- If "absolute" truth is attainable for humans, it would be harmful, because absolute truth would be absolutely powerful and absolutely dangerous in the hands of corrupt humans.
The scary thing is: People who defend absolute truth not only believe in absolute truth, they believe they have it and others don't.

So: ultimately, truth is contextual, participatory and experiential.

"The truth is, there is no Truth."
As in, we should accept some forms of truth as a means of maintaining a coherent world and thought system. However, there is no overarching truth.

So, what does this mean in christian thought?
The hermeneutics of finitude relates to the doctrine of creation. Man is a creature, and therefore will not be able to attain full knowledge of anything, especially God and His Word.
The hermeneutics of suspicion relates to the doctrine of sin. Because man is corrupt at his core, there will always be a misuse of truth-claims and power.

A christian translation of the credo of post-modernism:
"The truth is, there is Truth, but not for us, only for God."
Or: our knowledge never equates with God's knowledge, and probably never will.
All truth statements are contextual.

one participant restated this in this way:
"The truth leads me to trust that their is a Truth."

This whole day challenged me intellectually a lot. It's almost time to go back down to the convention center for the general session, followed by worship.

Thursday

Yesterday was a good, long day. It ended with Amy and I sitting in our hotel room watching CSI: Las Vegas. That was good.
But, lest I miss a lot of details and great thoughts, let me start from the beginning.

I got up and went to a Book Club on Brian McLaren's Generous Orthodoxy.The room seemed to be half full with guys from the NPC. That has been the pattern whenever he's speaking. A lot of pastors maybe came to this convention to see what the emerging church is about without having to align themselves with the teachings of radicals like McLaren.
The Book Club was good. Bob and I have been discussing this book for a couple of months and talking out the consequences and implications for it in our context at the church, so it was good, though, to see what other pastors are resisting/struggling with in his books.
"The gospel of the Kingdom is 'God's will be done on earth, not getting it over with quickly.'"


Our Learning Community was on Humanity and it was hosted by LeRon Shults, from Bethel Seminary in Minnesota, and Kara Powell, from Fuller. This was a great discussion on what it means to be human. In a new, non-individualized paradigm, individual theories of salvation and blessing maybe aren't as helpful. This Learning Community time emphasized two things: our need for self-revelating relationships and the relational nature of God and humanity. It is clearly illustrated in the Trinity that God has eternally existed in perfect relationship. There was a lot of talk about faces and knowing a person. I was moved by the reference to the Aaronic blessing: "May the Lord bless and keep, may He make his shine upon you, may He lift up His countenance upon You..." Numbers 6:24-26.

Next, I went to a seminar led by Richard Foster on Using the Scripture in Spiritual Formation. At the outset we were led in prayer/meditation on Psalm 57:1. This was a powerful centering exercise. Foster said a couple of things that I will quote without comment.
"The fires of heaven are hotter than the fires of hell."
"Spiritual disciplines are the indirect route to the character of God."

Next was a learning community about Scripture led by Brian Walsh and Brian McLaren.
(I did get McLaren to sign my copy of Generous Orthodoxy just for fun.)
McLaren biggest beef with the modern evangelical church is the fact that the Bible suffers greatest at the hands of its friends. Sometimes, in his experience, Bible knowledge seems to be directly related to the meanness of said Christian. I liked what short discussion there was on the nature of the canon and why it is closed. I've wondered about that and still do.
Brian Walsh spent some time in Colossians showing us that the plausibility of the Scripture in the world is the plausibility of the fellowship of the community who came to live by the Scripture.

Well, after that learning Community Amy and I went out for dinner, drank some beer and walked back up Broadway. We ran into a couple of pastors who had questioned some of the things Brian said in a seminar. I stopped and told them that I thought intertraditional/intergenerational dialogue was helpful. We spent the next 45 mins hearing why the emerging church is wrong from a conservative Baptist perspective.

Finally we made it to our hotel and watched CSI. And that was our long and tiring day.

Other Blogs

All right, check out this post of other blogs which are being blogged at this Emergent Convention:
Blogs
I have been reading some of these for a while.
I haven't managed to get my blog on the list yet.

After a verrrrrryyyy long day.

This morning we slept in until 8:30 or so. That was a favor to Amy. She loves to sleep. Then we made our way to the convention center to check in.
At 10 AM we were in our first seminar and we were in for a long ride.
Below I will give an overview of the schedule we went through today.

1. Conversation Seminar with Dave Fleming- This seminar emphasized the need for a more conversational form of leadership and community as opposed to a corporate/top-down model. Very valuable insights. Dialogue was a key word. Bob and I practice this type of thing a lot when we discuss theology/emerging stuff on Wednesdays and it's in his sermons on Sundays.
2. Next was an intro to the convention format which includes small, medium, large and extra large activities: forums, seminars, learning communities, general sessions.
3. Next we met with our Learning Community for the first time. The LC is a group of about 200 people linked by a common-colored nametag (ours are sage, I was informed- who knows what sage looks like). During our LC we were presented and led in a conversation by Doug Pagitt of Solomon's Porch and Alan Roxburgh of the Gospel and Our Culture Network. The topic of conversation was Church. (the subsequent topics will be Truth, Scripture, and Humanity). Anyways, this was a helpful dialogue about the meaning of being and doing church in this new postmodern paradigm. It was designed to be a conversation rather than a presentation. This made the whole thing a lot more helpful.
4. The seminar that came next was probably the most important seminar I've ever attended. Pluralism Revisited. The title reveals a lot. The fact that the presenters was Brian McLaren will make some more conservative folks foam at the mouth. (hehehe) Well, Brian did an awesome job of bringing the whole room through a history of ethics/epistemology and leading us to a place beyond absolutism, pluralism or relativism. The problem is, no one knows what lies beyond these. Brian brought us to N.T. Wright's idea of an "epistemology of love." Following Brian's great presentation was an opportunity for questions and answers. The first question was from a black woman. Her question was something to the effect of "What are we emerging to if we build something just like what we're emerging from?" The room (mostly full of affluent white males) was shocked. The next fifteen of conversation of what it means to be an inclusive community was invaluable. No one could have better brought this topic up in a crowd of white emergents. There were also a couple of pastors who wanted to challenge some of Brian's conclusions (or perhaps defend theirs). Brian responded well, with large doses of humility. It was encouraging to see the not-self-declared prophet of the emerging church respond directly to some of his harshest criticisms about the nature of moral absolutes and the exclusiveness of Christ as Savior. Both of which Brian affirmed while challenging the use of such extreme language.
5. Instead of speakers in general sessions, we have a blesser named Phyllis Tickle. Ms. Tickle is an eloquent speaker with a sharp wit. She told a story and reminded us of some 'old treasures'.
6. From there we went to a Taize service at the Christ Church Cathedral Episcopal Church a few blocks from the convention center. Instead of corporate times of over-the-top worship in the convention center we were given three worship options at three different downtown churches. The church where we worshipped was gorgeous. And the music of Taize is wonderful for ending a really long and tiring day.

Thinking through this whole day, I'm really glad to have been here. The seminar with Brian McLaren was better than I can explain. And I have been blessed a lot today.

A blessing on any readers.

Already this has been the best convention I've ever attended. I'll write more about it. Unfortunately for my fellow emergent-bloggers, they don't have internet/wifi access. We, however, have free high speed in our room. Heheheh.
That's right. free high-speed in our room at the Best Western 4 blocks from the convention.
Anyways.. I'll write more later about the Learning Community session on Church and the Brian McLaren seminar entitled: Pluralism Revisited. Both were great. Now we're headed to general session and, most likely to a Taize service.
Blessings.

Blogging into ether

I just spent a little while checking the blogs that are supposed to be blogging from the convention this week. It's interesting that a lot of people mention that this is the last convention of its kind. Youthspecialties will no longer plan or be involved in the emergent convention or the national pastors' convention (which is happening simultaneously in the same convention center). Now, this is particularly funny because it has taken me this long to come to an emergent convention. I have been following the emergent/pomo conversation since the last time I came to a YS youth workers' convention here in Nashville. That's when I met with a Spiritual Director and started on a whole new direction.

I'm really excited just to have this time away with Amy and to get reacquainted, but I'm also very excited about experiencing this convention with her.
In a half hour or so we'll go register and get our convention giveaways and cute nametags. Yes!

Brewery Restaurants

Amy and I are settled in our hotel in Nashville. We walked down to Broadway and saw all the Music City downtown has to offer. Not much. Or, at least, not much for my taste.
We had dinner at a brewery restaurant. I love brewery restaurants. Anyways, after dinner and beer tasting (the food was fantastic), we walked back by the convention center and to our hotel. The last time I was at the Nashville Convention Center was about 3 years ago. I met Mike Yaconelli at that convo. The picture is still on display in my office.
I am looking forward to a lot of quality time with Amy and good conversations at this convention.
It seems like that will be the case.
We'll check in tomorrow about 10 and the first general session is at 11.

Nashvegas!

I'm really excited for our trip in a bit.
Once Amy gets done with MOPS we'll be headed home to take off for Nashvegas. (Well, actually, we have some packing to do first.)
Now, I'm at my office taking care of stuff.
I know my posts have been short and boring, but I will be posting more stuff soon from my convention experience.

Emergent Convention

So, tomorrow Amy and I are leaving for the Emergent Convention in Nashville. The good thing is Nashville is only 3 hours away. That's awesome! Besides, the convention, this will also be our 5th anniversary trip. Can you believe she's put up with me this long? Dang. She's a saint.
Anyways, there's going to be free high speed at our hotel, so I'll be blogging from the convention.

Conference Time of the Year!!

Well, we returned last night from our conference in Branson. It was great/horrible. Great because the kids had the time of their lives at Silver Dollar City, we got to spend time together, and it was a little restful. Horrible because all of the above meant the kids had to be there with us the entire time. Now we're tired and recuperating.
Tonight we'll have club at our house. Yeah.
I'm getting even more excited about the Emergent Convention now that this convention is over. It will be here in no time.
Yes.
I'll try to blog more tomorrow.

Here's me shaving Ted's head Wednesday. 

Micah and I shaved our heads for Ted. 

So I haven't blogged in a while

I haven't written a thing on this blog in a while. Sometimes I write, think, and do things in a cycle. When I'm thinking about serious things it is hard for me to write without 'tipping my hand', so to speak.
The last week or so has been pretty rough. Last Wednesday I found out that one of my high school friends, Ted, had a tumor. That afternoon I drove to Memphis to visit him in LeBonheur. He was doing pretty well. His surgery was scheduled for Friday. Friday I showed up at his hospital room at 9:30 AM to visit. His older brother was there, too. We're pretty tight. So, I played poker, with Ted and two brothers. A few hours later it was time for Ted to go in for the five-hour surgery of removing the tumor. His family said, Levi will you lead us in prayer. So I did. We committed Ted to God's care and asked for peace for our hearts. Then we all followed him as far as we could down to the OR and ICU. Ted's mom turns to me and says, "Levi, come here, you're our minister." I was kind of shocked, but honored, so I went into the Prep room with Ted and his parents. I grabbed Ted's hand. You know the way tough guys do, and I cried on him. He look terrified.
It was at that point that I knew I had to see Ted when he came out.
So I visited with his family. And I visited with his family.
At one point I had a great conversation with Ted's dad in the hospital chapel.
Finally, about seven hours later Ted was ready for us to see him.
What a relief to see Ted doing okay, and his grumpy self.
Did I mention that in the process Jake and I shaved our heads in Ted's hospital room?
And did I also mention that along in there somewhere about 50 kids at CHS shaved their heads? [Thanks Bro. Jim, if you read this.]

So, that's been my week. It's been long and tiring. Yesterday was my last day of class. Finals next week. Today Amy and I drive to Branson with the kids for a Staff Family Weekend with our folks from across the state.
In a couple of weeks Amy and I will be going to the Emergent Convention in Nashville.
It's going to get hectic. I'm going to take my laptop everywhere I can and blog as much as possible in this crazy month. Did I mention that in May I will celebrate my 27th birthday, as well as our 5th anniversary?

Hasta la vista.

Universalism

In answer to a comment about McLaren's apparent toying with Universalism and Inclusivism here is a quote from Lesslie Newbigin which we would do well to read and be informed by:
"exclusive in the sense of affirming the unique truth of the revelation in Jesus Christ, but not in the sense of denying the possibility of salvation to those outside the Christian faith; inclusive in the sense of refusing to limit the saving grace of God to Christians, but not in the sense of viewing other religions as salvific; pluralist in the sense of acknowledging the gracious work of God in the lives of all human beings, but not in the sense of denying the unique and decisive nature of what God has done in Jesus Christ."
(Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989, 182-3)

I think that this expresses the tension people could feel when given the opportunity to choose between universalism, inclusivism and exclusivism.
This thinking also leads to a deeper conversation. If McLaren were to say, THIS IS THE WAY IT IS, as he is prompted by both liberals and conservatives, the conversation could be effectively over. I'm not exactly what happens to people when they die. Maybe McLaren is there with me.

Working Working

I've been hard at work today getting stuff together for club tonight and doing whatever it is I do.

Missional Church has been a challenging read. Both challenging in the sense of using big words/concepts, taking a while to get through AND challenging as in deconstructing a lot of what I thought I knew about church. I don't have much to respond with yet.

My wife started reading The Last Word and highlighting it. She and I talked a little about it. She already thinks McLaren's apparent laxness with the teaching of universalism will cause divisive problems. I can see that. I don't think he comes out in favor of our against universalism. That might be the problem everyone sees.

I am still trying diligently not to start reading the Wallis book, but I think I might give that up.

The Last Word

Friday my two new books came: God's Politics: Why the Right gets it wrong and the Left doesn't get it & The Last Word and the Word After That. I'm still in the process of reading Missional Church and highlighting the heck out of A Generous Orthodoxy for my study times with Bob, so I didn't mean to start reading either book yet. Oops. I started reading the McLaren title and couldn't stop. I finished it at about 11:50 PM last night. My head still hurts. I will try to respond to that book in my blog and my life over the next several weeks. Meanwhile, my kids woke up this morning to find that my dad isn't here. He's like that some times. He showed up on Friday. We didn't know he was coming until he was almost here. The he just leaves whenever he wakes up. Crazy. Oh well.
Blessings on all of my readers, if I have any.

My Psych Paper

I just finished typing my Psych 2 essay on critical incidents and trauma/stress-related mental illness. Woohoo. I'm pretty tired now. My head hurts.
I don't know if my paper's any good, but Amy's proofing it right now and then I'll put it to bed so I can go to a middle school for lunch in 30 minutes. Yahoo.
In this particular class it seems like I'd have to turn it a really rotten paper in order to get a less than great grade. Last month I turned in a mediocre paper two days late and still received a 95. What the heck? I was almost embarassed to get that grade on that stinky of a paper done late. Well, such is life. I guess I'll see if Amy's done proofing yet.
Blessings.

I'm a nerd and a geek.

Well, I got a new Bible yesterday. Amy actually both got new Bibles. I've been waiting until the TNIV was done to buy a new Bible because I think it is the best Bible translation found for both public and private use. That's the kind of Bible I need. I might sometimes still use my NAS when I speak to older groups. Anyways, since I was really excited to get a new Bible Randall says I'm a nerd. He's probably right.

I'm thinking even more seriously about getting off the career track for a while and pursuing a Bachelor's in Philosophy somewhere full time. It would be tough on us as a family, but our kids certainly aren't going to get younger. They get more expensive all the time!

Last night my friend Brandon and I borrowed JY's boat and put in at the boat club. The boat club is on a chute off the Mississippi, so it's big and scary. Especially in the dark. Especially in a little johnboat with a trolling motor to get around. Heeheheh.. Well, we didn't catch anything, but we scared the bejeebies out of ourselves. That is one huge body of water, and we never left the chute. (don't plan to, either.) Planning on going out there again tomorrow only heading up the chute into the bayou. That should be fun. I'm pretty sure we won't catch much.
Yeehaw. My crazy life.

My Meandering Existence

Have I mentioned that we are coming up on five years of ministry in this location. That's pretty interesting considering how random the move was then. We knew two people down here basically, but we moved anyway for the job. We know a lot more than two people now. We have been absolutely swallowed up by the area. Our kids have southern accents. Amy and I are from Nebraska and Michigan, respectively, but we have children with southern accents. Micah is registered to start attending preschool in the fall in town. Then his southern accent will get more southern-y. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that I couldn't have told this whole story to someone five years ago. Five years ago today I was enrolled at Western Nebraska Community College. Amy and I were coming up on our wedding in about a month and a half. We were singing in the choir together. In fact, I was on a full tuition choir scholarship singing in three choirs, voice lessons/recitals and a barbershop quartet. By this time I had moved into our apartment. I was settling in the apartment we planned to share after the wedding. Amy still lived on the other side of town with Laura.
If someone asked me then where we would be in five years I don't know what I would have said. I probably would have looked puzzled and assumed the person was joking. If they proceeded to tell me this long story I definitely would have thought they were crazy.
But are we better, is the world better for this experience?
I have to say that I know we are. We have been away from family for the past five years. We have learned to trust God and take care of each other. We haven't had any family to support us or help us fight or get in the way. It's just the two of us. Or, rather, the four of us.
That's another thing: four years ago I wouldn't have pictured my little boy a rambunctious four-year old getting ready to start preschool.

Through this whole story of my last five years I can see God has led me. It didn't start five years ago, either. Christ has guided me through my days and weeks and years with gentle proddings and a few spurs.

Feeling well?

I'm not so fired up today. I just don't feel very excited about any of this life stuff today. I have class in 45 minutes. I got a thing today that told me I had 48 hours. That means at the end of the semester I'll have 55 hours. How depressing. I'm so far off from even a dang associate's. It will take me forever. Today I want to quit my jobs and move to a college town to focus on college more until I at least have a bachelor's. Who knows what Amy and I would do for a living. We would need to figure something out in that area.

I definitely feel like God has some long range plans I need to find my way into. I think studying and getting myself prepared is a part of being faithful right now, but it's dang hard while I work two jobs and try to spend time with my family. When do I have time for college?

So, I'm in a quagmire here. Do I continue stumbling along through college while I work or do I quit working so much for a while so I can finish my education in preparation for whatever God has for me? I can't discern this one. I know both the ministries need me. Or I feel like they do. But, then God will not working with one group or another because I am not present. And I'm not being all that effective while I'm super-busy all the time. Maybe focusing on one thing at a time would make me a better minister/servant of others.
Anyone who's reading this have any ideas?
I definitely am convinced that I need to finish some education to get ready for the future of living in God's plan.

Missional Church

At best I would say my ideas about ecclesiology are nebulous. The views I do hold are probably more informed by my non-denominational independent church background than by anything I've read in the Bible or theological books.

That said, I am reading Missional Church: A Vision for the sending of the church in North America in my spare time. This idea of a missional ecclesiology seems right. I can see the contrast of a missional ecclesiology with a denomination-building, society-dominating, or even church-growth approach, because they all tend to come from an establishment mentality of doing/being church. It's all too building-/institution-minded. That's not the community which Christ initiated.

At any rate, I am working my way through this very interesting book, and my mind is being stretched all the time.

Good Friday

Okay, this year I went to the Holy Thursday Mass at Sacred Heart. It was a beautiful service that has served to focus me more on "the true meaning of easter."

Last night my wife and I led a Good Friday service with the youth of our church. It was extremely dark and melancholy- it was a service written by Steve Case. Anyways, the service went really well, except for some reason very few people came.

Our young people definitely grew from the experience- they always do- but I feel bad having them lead a service that not even all of our elders were at. And only one deacon.

This morning I'm going to a Resurrection Breakfast in my town. It usually has good food, a couple of hymns and some speaker. I think it's supposed to be evangelistic. I can never really tell. I probably wouldn't take my lost high school friends there unless I knew them really well (had earned the right to be heard- and ignored).

Family Pic 

The two most beautiful women in the world. 

wow

Continued
So, I stood there watching my little angel have a seizure, something I've never witnessed and hope to never witness again.

Tom, Kyle, and I are convinced something is seriously wrong.
The ambulance arrived.
"She sure has beautiful red hair."
The EMTs assure me that the seizure was probably caused by the fever and there's nothing seriously wrong with her.
The ER doctor said the same.
Our family doctor agreed with the ER doctor in Nebraska.

Thanks be to God.

Trip

A trip... that's how I would describe our visit out west with my in-laws and the various other people we know in the Western Nebraska Region. Let me tell you the whole story with my own crazy commentary. (Note: some elements and occurences have been extra-dramatized to make them funnier than perhaps they were.)
First, we were leaving on Tuesday. Tuesday before last, that is. I had class all day and Amy had MOPS, so it was a busy day to be leaving. I got home around 3:30.
"Okay, I'll take a shower and a nap, then we can go."
After my shower is completed and I'm getting ready to lie down for a nap I say, "Why don't you check when the car rental place closes just to doublecheck?"
"It closes at 6."
"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"
(The car rental place is a good 1 1/2 drive away and it is currently 4 PM. Barely any of our stuff is packed.)
"That means we need to leave in thirty minutes," I say, as I get up from my two minute nap.
While driving up to Cape to pick up our rental car, I call the rental place,
"Uh, yeah, we're like coming up to rent a car we reserved and we're running a little late."
"Well, we leave right at 6. So, we won't wait for you."
I mumble something I shouldn't type here and set my cruise at 80.

We made it to the rental place okay, got a pretty nice car, and moved all of our stuff into it.
Soon we were on our way.
At about 6 AM we stopped for gas somewhere near Sidney, NE. It was beginning to get light outside. Our kids were awake for the next 1 1/2 hours. The worst of our ever-loving lives.
We got to the farm around 8 AM. The folks were glad to see us. We were glad to see them, especially since they would probably take our unruly kids all over the farm while we slept.

I won't comment on the wedding rehearsal or the wedding itself, except to say that it was a beautiful (perhaps too beautiful?) service and I wish Brian and Mandy all the blessings and guidance God can provide.

Saturday was our day. We had invited out scores of people to come see us at the farm. Troy and Dayna never showed up.
Before the crowd started coming Neil and I drove to Scottsbluff and had some Taco de Oro. Yum.
It wasn't long after we got back that the friends started showing up, their children playing with the chickens as the parents visited with Amy and myself.

Saturday night was hard. Alexis and Micah had been sick with the flu the whole time we were there. That afternoon she refused to take any medicine. Amy and Donie left to go to the school musical. After most the people left it was Kyle, me, Tom, Alexis, and Micah was asleep. Tom laid Alexis down in his bed to sleep. She had a bit of a fever.
A little while later Tom looked in on her and said "Something's wrong with Alexis." My heart immediately started racing. Going into their room, I found Sissy having a seizure on the bed. I was terrified. I had no idea what was going on. My brain stopped working.
"Tom, call 911."
Tom went to get the phone and call 911.
I was holding Alexis- something had to be seriously wrong.
Tom got on the phone, "Hello, yeah this is Tom ----, we have a two year old girl out here at our place passing away."
Hearing Tom say that didn't help my nerves any.

Continued

That quote captures/distills something I have been feeling about my own Christian tradition for a while. Did Jesus really come just to "save my soul"? That seems so crass these days. What about that strikes me as arrogant? I guess it's the idea that Jesus' lifetime ministry of loving the oppressed, poor, and outcast was worthless. He didn't do me any good until he died on the Cross. Those 32 years were wasted. He didn't mean the part about setting captives free, proclaiming peace to the oppressed and freedom.
But I see now that God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the entire world to Himself. Creation longs for the ultimate redemption which is in the consummation with Christ.
That means I'm not better or privileged for having found Christ. It's not about me in the least. Christ found me anyways. In spite of worst/best efforts he reached out to me and cleansed me.

This Morning

This morning I got up a bit too early, then went to my usual prayer breakfast. It's kind of an interesting thing. It's just me and some older guys. We start out by singing a few hymns/crusader songs (the book actually says "Crusader Songs"), someone gives a talk, then someone closes in prayer. I have no idea why anyone would call that a prayer breakfast. A breakfast yes, but a prayer breakfast, no.

All right, so the best chapter of Generous Orthodoxy is 5, "Why I Am Missional". In that chapter his description of the modern evangelical church is right on:

In this diagram, my largest concern is me, my soul, my personal destiny in heaven, my maturity, and my rewards. Occasionally, after "winning" people based
on personal self-interest, churches can entice people to care a little
about the church-- but is it any surprise that people "won to Christ" by
self-interest come to the church asking, "What's in it for me?"

Is it any surprise that with this understanding of salvation, churches tend to
become gatherings of self-interest-- constantly treating the church as a
purveyor of religious goods and services, constantly shopping and "trading up" for
churches that can "meet my needs" better? Is it any surprise that it's stinking hard to convince churches that they have a mission to the world when most Christians equate "personal salvation" of individuals "souls" with the ultimate aim of Jesus? Is it any wonder that people feel like victims of a bait a switch when they're lured with
personal salvation and then hooked with church commitment and world
mission?
(A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 107)

Reading A lot

So, while I am studying/reading Generous Orthodoxy with my pastor, I am also reading other things in my spare time. Like my psychology textbook, different articles and Donald Miller's Searching for God knows What. It is interesting in Miller and McLaren to read two different views of this emerging culture of postmodernism and its implications in the church and spirituality. Miller comes from a decidedly more relational/real life place, while McLaren is delving into more theoretical issues. All the while, McLaren's Generous Orthodoxy never gets far from relationships. You can sense the way that relationship is forming this whole emerging response, and that makes me so hopeful.
When I look at my local church, where I'm the youth minister, I see a congregation of disconnected isolated individuals who no little about each other's actual lives, outside of how we are on Sunday. This concerns me, especially considering the fact that new people who come to our little church are usually most impressed with our church's closeness. If our church is close, I don't want to see a cold, distant church. Admittedly, our church is very friendly on Sunday mornings, but if we want to talk to anyone in the church during the week, that's our problem.
So, maybe in the postmodern era we will find a way to build intimacy into our churches/communities-- I think that is the thing we need most of.
It looks to me like the Emergent Convention will be an event that empasizes community/fellowship. That has always been a joy even at YS's huge super conventions.

Today

Today I took a day from work-- well, sort of. Anyways, I made some of my world famous chili and hot wings, then had a couple of guys over for chili, hot wings and poker. It was fun, save for the fact that my wife won. How sad is that? I won't let her play again.
Well, that was my day.
Nothing profound to say now.

The Authority of Scripture

I just read a really great article challenging our modernist-evangelical views about the authority of Scripture.
How Can The Bible Be Authoritative? by N.T. Wright
It really challenged/increased my thinking about the authority/inspiration of Scripture. It presents what I would consider a Missional Hermeneutic that pushes the church into dialogue with the world.

Emergent Convention

Well, it's official, Amy and I are signed up for the Emergent Convention in Nashville in May. I'm super excited.
I've been reading A Generous Orthodoxy lately and discussing it with the pastor at my church one day a week. It's been really invigorating and exciting. He and I are really coming up with some direction and help for our church context. For instance:
Our church started 30 years ago with a group leaving an extremely separationist tradition. Originally they even named our church from the old tradition. Before long it became obvious they wouldn't remain a part of their home tradition, so they changed the name and bought a building. Since that time our church has been a refuge for people who left or were sent out of. So, in essence our church has a thirty-year history of being an "emerging church" as the practice and theology and methodology of the church has been in transition the entire time, always in flux (even if it is very slow flux).
For this reason A Generous Orthodoxy gives me hope for not only my seemingly dying church, but for all institutionalized churches. There is hope. We don't all need to abandon these groups- we need to work within them for reformation. That was Luther's idea with the reformation. Not that the Church was ready to be jettied, but that we should strive to rework it with new ideas, methods and messages.

On a less serious tone:
Fat Dutch Kid
Watch this video. It made me laugh.

So, I'm recommitting myself to blogging to be ready to blog to the masses my experience in my first time at an emergent convention.

A Brisk Morning

This morning I rose and crossed the river about thirty minutes after sunrise. The sun was shining in my face, blinding me and warming me.
The river seems to be about a mile across these days, with all the flooding. This river which has for centuries provided fertile soil for farming can destroy roads, homes, lives.
Isn't that a picture of our relationship to God? There's time when it feels like he is overwhelming us, causing our lives to come apart at the seams, or maybe allowing our lives to self-destruct. We feel as if we cannot stand before his terrible wrath.
But He has clothed us in His Son's righteousness. God the Father unleashed all of His wrath against our sin on Jesus when He was in anguish on the cross.
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.
He who knew no sin became sin for our sakes.
He crushed for our iniquities.
Christ, we adore You as the Lord and Creator of all. We worship You as our Benefactor, Sacrifice, and Redeemer. You have redeemed for Yourself a people of constant worship across the globe. We exult in exalting You. Our hearts leap at the mention of Your holy name.
Lord Christ, continue to draw us out of our own selves. Christ, we need You.

Writing again

I just had an epiphany.
If I've waited this long to write any more on this blog, any readers I might have had are probably all gone.
Oh well. I'm not concerned with that.
Anyways. I will not write much now, but I'm staging a big comeback.

Today Again

Every morning I write something witty about the weather. The weather here is just doing nothing. It's not particularly cold or extremely hot. It's just there. It's, in fact, pretty sunny, but that's not affecting the temperature.

Let's see, Thursday I took an oral exam for my spanish class. I got a perfect score on a graded ten minute conversation with a Colombian professor. How cool is that?

This weekend I spent a lot of time at home. But it was the kind of time at home that didn't make me completely crazy. Our little family fits well in our little house.

Yesterday Amy and I went to our probable new house across the river. We bought some picnic food and had lunch there. That was fun. The kids were excited. They were actually pretty disappointed when we didn't stay there for the night or something.

Other than that, I'm working on re-focusing the youth ministry at the church. It's a pleasure. Then I'm working on the TMS packets. That's really fun actually.

Now, on the topic of writing anonymously. I definitely need to. I am withering on the vine, so to speak, with this as my creative output. If any of you read my haiku from over the weekend you know what I mean. I guess I'll think about that. I don't want to risk risking bringing any shame or anything like it on the ministry which I'm working hard at.

That's all I'm concerned about. And that's what makes me really nervous when I'm writing on my blog now.

Whenever my blog went public locally my boss said, "What were you thinking? Why don't you just email that to some people?" Maybe I will. My private thoughts might be best private for a while.

more haikus

I like to write haiku because it is rhythmic and a fun challenge to count the syllables and make something clever up. Here goes...

Amy just left the room

walking briskly down the hall

stop stop don't do that

lick a lollipop

refreshing lime flavor type

now discard the stick

watch that cow show now--

no cows can not talk like that--

home on the range farce

I thought that I was a poet. Sorry.

Sitting at home

It's the most wonderful time...of the year...

I'm sitting here at my house. It's pretty cold outside. I just noticed I haven't posted since like Monday or something. I'm pretty worthless at blogging since my blog went public. I have been working on the websites for Cville YL. That's been pretty fun. Other than that, I haven't been doing much.

Amy and I are supposed to go to the Madrigal tonite. We're having trouble finding a babysitter, so I think I've convinced Amy to find a gal to go with. I hope she does. That'd be good for her to do some contact work on her own.
Anyways.. I'm thinking that blogging is dead for me. It has lost some of its fun-ness.

I started this week on the Topical Memory System. It's been great. I've memorized the first eight verses. I guess you're actually supposed to memorize them slower, but I'm working on memorizing the New Believer pack, and didn't figure I had to work too hard on those. But they are good.

Well, now I'm done writing, and I've not said much. I pray that I would be writing something of a bit more consequence soon, but not too much consequence.

Haiku

Since Drew seems to be having so much fun over at www.ravishedbyhim.blogspot.com writing poetry, I thought I would post my own fun haiku this morning before I go to literature class.

too many secrets

running all our lives aground

total deprivation

most santas ho ho

this one sat and cried so long

most pitiful man

sitting at my desk

reciting haiku lines now

i am no poet

False memories true

holding onto past thinking

how long have i been

hazy day of gray

most have closed their blinds to this

retreating inside

Integrity and uprightness

This morning I got up at my normal time, and here I am at my office listening to Josh Groban and resting to start my day.

I read Psalm 25 this morning. "Let integrity and uprightness preserve me" stuck out to me. Those are two things that seem to be lacking in my character. The psalmist is revealing how he views those attributes as necessary for life.

Yesterday I gave a Young Life presentation at the church. It went pretty well. I think it helps to let them see my heart.

I'm looking at all the stuff I have to do today and realizing I should get after it.

Working

I'm busy working on two new websites for Young Life. You can check them out.
Young Life Pemiscot County and Caruthersville High School Club
They're not spectacular yet, but I will be customizing them more soon.

Other than that, I have just been reading some blogs.

Today

Yesterday my blog was wandered onto by my roomate from Bible School. How cool is that? Anyways, it was good to talk to him. It seems like we knew each other in a past life- that's how vastly different our lives are now.

I'm tired and recuperating from my visit with the in-laws over the past week. It was great, but very tiring. Now we get to go back to our normal routines and be the Hadleys once again. Sometimes when her family's in town we have to be her family for a while. Oh well.

I'm playing around on Napster right now. Just doing my part to support The Man and keep a brother down.

Anyways. I had an awesome campaigner Bible Study time last night with my guys. They we more irritable than usual, but we had an awesome time of studying in John's Gospel. I guess it's random things like that that God gives me to keep me going.
And now I'm going to do something else. Blessings.