Catching up on a few things, including posts I've promised to write but haven't gotten around to yet. For Daniel and others who have asked, here is my take on Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy.
I find myself in strong agreement with the notion of a generous orthodoxy that McLaren advocates. A theology that is well-researched, well-thought, and strongly held. But also a theology that is aware of its own short-comings, that listens to those who think differently (and not simply for the sake of shooting them down when they're finished talking), and that is willing to be taught by Word and Spirit. Generous Orthodoxy seeks to find a different way from the old Liberal/Evangelical divide, a divide that strangely enough is formed on mutually agreed notions of "certainly and knowledge" (see pg. 24). Whatever you think of the actual beliefs McLaren writes about, I love the way he holds his beliefs, and hope that, in this sense, I will also uphold a generous orthodoxy.
Now, in terms of what he actually believes...
The chapter "Jesus: Savior of What?" ends with me still wondering what Jesus is the savior of. I totally agree that the gospel Evangelicals preach is too introspective, too self-focused, sometimes too "salvation from hell" focused. McLaren says Jesus saves the world by exposing evil, pronouncing forgiveness, and teaching how to do good. But there just doesn't seem to be much power there, in my opinion. I find the (slightly) more traditional approach of Union with Christ to be a much more powerful and life-giving way for understanding Jesus as savior. But then again, the chapter has forced me to think carefully about what I believe, and I guess that's McLaren's point.
To be honest, I could point to a number of things I found unclear or less than appealing in the book, but in the end I think it did its job in that I was forced to think about hard questions in new ways. So it's definitely worth a read.
One final thing I really liked was the part about why he is an Anglican. He said that there is an incredible diversity within the Anglican communion in terms of theological views, but the communion is not held together by everyone believing the same thing. McLaren says its the Liturgy, the beauty/mystery of the Liturgy, that holds Anglicans together. Even as they interpret that liturgy differently, there is unity within the communion because they hold it in common.
Anyway, those are my two cents and thirty minutes worth on McLaren
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Family Movie Night
In the middle ofFinding Nemo with the girls. Just took the second round of pizzas out of the oven...waiting to eat my 1 piece, after spilling my other piece all over the top of the oven, and making things worse by trying to rapidly remove it (a la the fivev-second rule) and thus smearing the cheese and sauce everywhere. It's more like 3/4 Family Movie Night because Somer's not around. She's off having High Tea at some fancy hotel downtown in honor of our friend Mary Ellen's first baby in the UK (they have three others, all born stateside). The kiddos are ready for dessert...gotta go.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Wisdom
So, what does it look like to preach the gospel to teenagers who could care less?
I've been wrestling with that for a while. At the Thursday night youth club that I help run, we have a slot in the evening for a "talk". It's supposed to be an evangelistic talk of sorts. But to be honest, I just get kinda depressed every time I have to think about it, because the kids rarely listen...usually they're just laughing or texting or taking pictures of each other with their mobile phones.
So this past Thursday I was going to have them listen to a Bob Dylan song instead, and talk about its implications. But I didn't burn the CD properly, so it wouldn't play. Having to come up with something on the fly, I came back to a theme that's been bouncing around on the edges of my life for the past couple of years: Wisdom.
Wisdom is all about how to live life in the world that God has made. The cool thing is that wisdom applies to everyone, even if they don't want to have anything to do with God, because everyone lives in the world God has made. So I picked out four proverbs, including my favorite: The one who answers before listening is a fool and a shameful person (Prov 18:13). It was really funny because there was a group of boys that were goofing off and not listening, and one of the other girls said "Oh, so this proverb applies to those guys". Brilliant!
We also looked at a proverb that talked about parents being the pride of their children, and one about not taking advantage of the poor.
Was this preaching the gospel to the youth club? Hmm...don't know. I do think that Jesus' good-news about the kingdom of God starts with the assumption that there is a King, and that his world needs setting right. And maybe that's where it starts for this group...seeing that the world they inhabit is supposed to work a certain way, but that "way of wisdom" has been broken. Will they get that out of one lesson? Maybe - there was at least one girl who said "I can see that children should take pride in their parents, but it doesn't usually happen that way."
I've been wrestling with that for a while. At the Thursday night youth club that I help run, we have a slot in the evening for a "talk". It's supposed to be an evangelistic talk of sorts. But to be honest, I just get kinda depressed every time I have to think about it, because the kids rarely listen...usually they're just laughing or texting or taking pictures of each other with their mobile phones.
So this past Thursday I was going to have them listen to a Bob Dylan song instead, and talk about its implications. But I didn't burn the CD properly, so it wouldn't play. Having to come up with something on the fly, I came back to a theme that's been bouncing around on the edges of my life for the past couple of years: Wisdom.
Wisdom is all about how to live life in the world that God has made. The cool thing is that wisdom applies to everyone, even if they don't want to have anything to do with God, because everyone lives in the world God has made. So I picked out four proverbs, including my favorite: The one who answers before listening is a fool and a shameful person (Prov 18:13). It was really funny because there was a group of boys that were goofing off and not listening, and one of the other girls said "Oh, so this proverb applies to those guys". Brilliant!
We also looked at a proverb that talked about parents being the pride of their children, and one about not taking advantage of the poor.
Was this preaching the gospel to the youth club? Hmm...don't know. I do think that Jesus' good-news about the kingdom of God starts with the assumption that there is a King, and that his world needs setting right. And maybe that's where it starts for this group...seeing that the world they inhabit is supposed to work a certain way, but that "way of wisdom" has been broken. Will they get that out of one lesson? Maybe - there was at least one girl who said "I can see that children should take pride in their parents, but it doesn't usually happen that way."
Deputation
Speaking at a church tomorrow for "Deputation". LCM have a great system, in that none of their missionaries have to raise their own personal support. Instead, churches and individuals give to the mission as a whole, and then each missionary is assigned a couple weeks worth of deputation visits to supporters each year. So tomorrow I'm going with Julian to talk about our work at Bethel. I'm supposed to be pulling a short scripture message together...but I have no ideas at this point, and it's past midnight...
Update: Deputation went really well. I ended up just reading from Proverbs 18:13 and telling how that verse had been kind of a theme for us. I talked about what I have learned/valued about LCM this year: Their commitment to patient, long-term engagement with a community; Their engagement with the entire community, not just a select portion; and the way they uphold and promote the unity of the church of Jesus.
Update: Deputation went really well. I ended up just reading from Proverbs 18:13 and telling how that verse had been kind of a theme for us. I talked about what I have learned/valued about LCM this year: Their commitment to patient, long-term engagement with a community; Their engagement with the entire community, not just a select portion; and the way they uphold and promote the unity of the church of Jesus.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
New Books
Just a quick update on the books I've added to my "reading list". White Teeth was recommended as a good book for understanding life in London. I'm a little over half-way through, and it's a great read. Very interesting to read it at the end of our first year here.
Exclusion and Embrace is a bit of a challenge. I'm reading it for the Emergent Theological Conversation at Yale that I'm attending in February. So far it's good, but ocassionaly I have a hard time following Volf's line of argument. I do love his focus on the centrality of the Trinity and the self-giving love of God as expressed in the cross. May do some more discussion here at a later date.
The Character of Theology is a good book, though the most academic of the three. For me, that means it's slow-going. But it's worth it. Franke provides a good reformed perspective for doing theology from within the emerging culture.
Exclusion and Embrace is a bit of a challenge. I'm reading it for the Emergent Theological Conversation at Yale that I'm attending in February. So far it's good, but ocassionaly I have a hard time following Volf's line of argument. I do love his focus on the centrality of the Trinity and the self-giving love of God as expressed in the cross. May do some more discussion here at a later date.
The Character of Theology is a good book, though the most academic of the three. For me, that means it's slow-going. But it's worth it. Franke provides a good reformed perspective for doing theology from within the emerging culture.
Learning the Faith
This past week we took a bunch of the people from our Wednesday group at Bethel to a hotel/retreat centre in Kent. We were by far the youngest people in the group...all but one were over 70. Somer and I were the drivers (me in a 15-seater borrowed from the Ford factory in Dagenham, and Somer in our car with one woman who couldn't climb the step into the bus). We had a good time and came back exhausted from all the driving.
Probably the best part for me was seeing our girls take part in the holiday. The older crowd took the girls on as surrogate grandchildren, buying them balloons, candy, and coloring books. The girls, in turn, took to walking around the tables at meals and greeting each person in turn. The reason this scenario was so appealing to me is that Somer and I want to teach our faith to our children by having them participate in the practice of our faith right from the start. We've actually seen this "learning through participation" taking place all through our year here, and this week just captured it beautifully.
Probably the best part for me was seeing our girls take part in the holiday. The older crowd took the girls on as surrogate grandchildren, buying them balloons, candy, and coloring books. The girls, in turn, took to walking around the tables at meals and greeting each person in turn. The reason this scenario was so appealing to me is that Somer and I want to teach our faith to our children by having them participate in the practice of our faith right from the start. We've actually seen this "learning through participation" taking place all through our year here, and this week just captured it beautifully.
Diwali
Today is Diwali the Hindu festival of lights. There are fireworks going off everywhere around us. They've been going for at least the past hour. I walked out into our back garden and didn't know which direction to turn to watch...I kept spinning around to catch the bright flashes in the sky. Really puts Americans' celebrations of 4th of July to shame in terms of sheer volume. In fact, fireworks have been going off for the past four days...with each day getting more and more intense. Our neighbors were out on Sunday in their back garden, so we got a bit of a private fireworks display (though it scared the girls a bit).
This is one of the things I love about London. The diversity of the city is unbelievable. In addition to Diwali, on either Friday or Saturday the Muslim celebration of Ramadan will end with the Eid ul-Fitr. Also on Saturday is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failed attempt by several Catholic Englishmen to assassinate the king and the entire Parliament by blowing up the houses of Parliament while everyone was inside. Apparently this is also celebrated with fireworks displays and bonfires, along with burning effigies of Fawkes.
This is one of the things I love about London. The diversity of the city is unbelievable. In addition to Diwali, on either Friday or Saturday the Muslim celebration of Ramadan will end with the Eid ul-Fitr. Also on Saturday is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failed attempt by several Catholic Englishmen to assassinate the king and the entire Parliament by blowing up the houses of Parliament while everyone was inside. Apparently this is also celebrated with fireworks displays and bonfires, along with burning effigies of Fawkes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)