We can't serve both God and Mammon...but we sure do try.

Drew Theological School's Tipple-Vosburgh lectures were this week. Class prevented me from attending most of the workshops and the lectures, however, I did attend one plenary and the closing worship. I really wanted to attend Fred Curtis's (an economics professor at Drew) plenary session on Monday, but it just wasn't viable. It was nice to meet Beth Quick, albeit very briefly! Despite my limited experience of the lectures, for good or for ill, I wanted to offer my reflections:

I'm just not there...and yet, I am there. Perhaps I didn't get the "so what" out of the one plenary because it wasn't geared that way (though I always think we should be asking that question, even in academics), but even the "so what" I heard out of worship didn't push me enough. "Buy clothes from ethical stores and not from WalMart!" "Give out of our excess because we have too much!" Ok...good...but not really very radical. It's not radical to me because we are still participating in this consumer economy that seeks to create our greed, drive our dissatisfaction with the world and our lives, and that still exploits and marginalizes people; we're just putting our money in a different place. It seems to me that while yes - we need things and need to shop to get them - we also need to be subverting the system. Stepping out of that consumer economy all together, if we truly want to be radical.

I think of Shane Claiborne and The Simple Way community in Philadelphia. He made his own habit that he wears every day. The people of the community live together and share their possessions and live in close relationship with the poor around them. To them, poverty has a name and a face...not just a line in the checkbook for donations, or a bag in the hall for stuff to donate.

I struggle with this...a lot. I struggle because I wonder what living like this - in relationship with the poor, living with the basics, sharing our possessions - will look like as there are those of us here at Drew who feel called to a similar lifestyle. So while I'm so far from selling what I have to give to the poor, I do know that there has to be more than just living ethically and responsibly within the system. Ethical and responsible living is a good witness...but doesn't fundamentally change the system. And I'm not sure that Jesus said "live ethically" to the ruler, but told him that he lacked one thing: to go sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus.

So while this message was something that perhaps some needed to hear, I wanted something more. I wanted to be challenged to seriously consider this radical call to discipleship. I wanted to hear something about being in relationship with the poor, not just being their financial liberators or benefactors. I wanted to hear Jesus.

Story-Catching

My church planting class recently had dinner with Tim Lucas, who is the lead pastor of liquid church in Morristown, NJ. The church is six years old, and draws about 800 people to three services on Sunday. Their worship is contemporary, and use lots of art and media to communicate their message.

One of the big ways they communicate is through story, particularly through the medium of video. Tim shared with us that he loved to tell stories about people's lives and the transformation that they find in Jesus Christ...or even telling those stories even if they aren't quite there yet. He explained a video that was going to air on Sunday about a couple and the husband's hesitations about coming to church...not just any church, but liquid church in particular. He told us that the video started out just that way, and that that moment was the hook - the crucial moment - of the whole story.

I was thinking that in seminary, at best we are taught to be story-tellers (but only story-tellers through speaking...if we're lucky, we get to be story-tellers through dance and drama. Art lags behind...as does music and film and worship). However, we're not taught to look for stories, to have that mindset, and to "catch" them in the right way. We aren't taught to have that sort of outlook where the story lies in the messiness of things and not the perfect portrait.

Perhaps this is just an issue for me; I don't consider myself to be a story-teller (though I'd love to learn a few techniques).

Anyway, now I'm just procrastinating from doing my classwork. I'll post my reflections on preaching later on...

Theology of Ministry?

As part of our supervised ministry course, we are required to write a 10-12 page, single-spaced paper on our Theology of Ministry that covers these areas:

1. Pastoral Identity, including self-care.
2. Leadership
3. Theological understanding of ministry.
4. Vision for ministry
5. Implications (what courses or training do we need to take in light of what we talked about in the paper)

With some of the leading questions that they ask us to discuss in these sections, I feel as though I am hitting my head against a brick wall, particularly when it comes to (1) leadership, and (2) theological understanding of ministry.

I'm coming to understand more that ministry happens where it happens, and that more often than not, the modern church with its social club mentality is more of a hindrance than a help to creating disciples of Jesus Christ. Even a good modern church that is missionally-minded, one where disciples are made, and one that takes seriously the call to transform lives and the world...doesn't jive with what I see myself doing as a pastor. We are really taught to be chaplains in ministry - caring for those in the congregation, trying to bring more people (and more money) into the church, and trying to teach and nurture them so that they can participate more in the life of the church.

I wrestle with this. I don't think pastors and the church should simply create church-goers, and equipping the laity for ministry shouldn't just be about mentoring people so that they can organize church suppers. The church exists for the sake of those who are not a part of it - those on the margins of our communities, those who need help - because that's who Jesus would be hanging out with, hoping to transform their lives.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to have the seed of the gospel planted in a community or culture and have it grow. We are called to incarnate the gospel wherever we are, so the church in one place may look a lot different than the church in another community. We are called to be relational, as Jesus was relational, and our primary relationship is our individual and collective relationship with Jesus. We are called to be missional, as we are to be sent out into the world as opposed to waiting for people to come to us. Jesus called us to go out and make disciples. There is nothing about people coming in and becoming church-goers that give out of their pocketbook and sit and attend a worship "serve-us" for an hour.

So why I have to sit here and attempt to fill 10 pages what I can articulate in the space of a couple pages is beyond me. Though it has gotten me thinking that our modern church is pretty sick, and unless we figure out how to incarnate the gospel in postmodernity (whether that means incorporating more emerging elements into our churches, planting more churches with pastors who don't have a modern mindset, or figuring out something else entirely), our denomination is doomed.

Wesley was really on to something back in the 18th century, with his radical call to discipleship, service to those on the margins, and covenanting together for mutual growth and accountability. I may be a bit harsh in saying this, but if we can't even follow Wesley's example, Jesus' example might be a little too much for us to handle.

Religion and the Social Process: An Introduction

It appears to me that for the time being, there are going to be two consistent threads running throughout most of my blog posts. On thread centers on the theological implications of Get Fuzzy. The other will be about thoughts from one of my classes this semester called "Church and Society 401: Religion and the Social Process." To give you an idea of the class, it's affectionately known around campus as...Oppression 101. And many white heterosexual males tremble at the thought!

However, I'm really looking forward to the experience (and I know white males who have come through unscathed and who truly enjoyed the class). We'll be dealing with a lot of "-isms" (sadly, not evangelism...though as my previous post suggests, even evangelism can be used to oppress people). We'll be talking about racism, sexism, ecumenism, ableism...the list goes on.

After only two classes, I have almost a full page of snippets of potential blog posts that strike me during lecture. Often I'll only have time to jot down a quote and a few accompanying thoughts, but hopefully I'll pick one or two and try to flesh them out a bit.

Honestly, right now I don't have the energy for it. I, like a good seminarian, am practicing self-care and going to bed. So much for finishing my reading on conflict management...who needs it anyway? It's not like there's ever any conflict in the church... ;-)