Generous Orthodoxy

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

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Roasted Seeds

I love roasted pumpkin seeds. Today Andi and Jodie helped scoop out the contents of two pumpkins. Then I cleaned out the seeds, rinsed them, boiled them in salt water, and toasted them in the oven for about half an hour. Crunchy salty goodness.

Pool Tournament

We haven't had the Hub the past few weeks. We've been having some building work done in the back of our center. We still see the Hub guys all the time, though, and tonight we took a few of the younger guys to a pool tournament at another LCM center.
I have to say, we got a sound thrashing from the other center. When we walked in, I was feeling a bit bad for them, because all our guys looked older and bigger than the other guys. But as it turns out, they beat us soundly - winning 19 of 28 matches.

My Theologian/Feminist Daughter

So, my daughter turned three last month, and I think I have a budding theolgian and feminist on my hands. A couple conversations with her recently:
J: Daddy, God isn't real, is he? He's just pretend.
Me: No, God is real. We can't see him, but he is real.
A couple days later she's praying...
J: God, thanks for making me, even though I can't see you. You really are real.

And this one in the car...
J: Mommy, who made me - God or Jesus?

Earlier today, her feminist side came out...
J: Daddy, did God make people and houses?
Me: No, God made people, and he gave people the skills to build houses.
J: Oh, so God just made people, he didn't make houses. But the people make houses.
Me: Right. And when you are older, I can teach you some of the skills to build a house. I can show you how to use a hammer and a saw.
J: Yeah, because I might be a girl, but I can still do those things.

It begins

Our week with the WHM emerging generations team has come to an end. Pat and Jen are staying with us until Saturday, but I returned to work at Bethel this morning. John and Kathy leave tomorrow morning with two of their daughters.
And now the big news...It looks like God is calling us to focus on an area just north of the center of London. Camden Town is a busy market center and hub of life for many people on the fringes of mainstream culture. Islington is two miles east, with lots of young professionals and creatives; and in between is Kings Cross, an area undergoing massive redevelopment. While this is still a sizeable area, knowing that we will focus on Camden/Islington feels a lot more concrete than London as an entire city.
We ended our time together yesterday at Tinderbox on Upper Street in Islington. Team leader John gave all of us rings from Camden market to mark this significant decision in our lives, and then read a passage from The Return of the King to spark our imaginations. And so it begins...

Open Source Theology

We had lunch on Wednesday with Andrew Perriman. Andrew is the originator of the Open Source Theology project, which seeks to develop a collaborative theology for the emerging church. It's a great site with lots of potential value for us as we seek to plant missional churches within the emerging culture of London. I'm hoping to find some time to reflect and get involved in the conversation there...probably after our team leaves next week.

More on the week

Today we met with some with some people from our mission, one of whom has been living here for ten years. Good perspective, and a good time with friends and food. My friend and fellow WTS grad Jeremy was there...I had hoped we'd see him but didn't know what his schedule was.
Pat blogs his perspective on our week together over at teamgimli. See especially this story about how I made him eat Stinking Bishop cheese.

Emerging Games

Yeah, I use emerging just for the heck of it sometimes. Just wanted to give you a little update on our week of seeking God's direction for our WHM team. This morning we met with a couple people from London City Mission. We had a great time, and it reminded me again of how small I am in the face of what God is doing and has been doing in London for centuries. I was also convicted of much of my distaste for the ways of the traditional church...probably needs to be some on-going repentance before the Lord on that one.
We had some very fruitful discussion about different parts of the city and the shape of church-planting. I don't want to give too many details because we're all still trying to process what we've seen and heard and smelled.
Tonight I gave Pat and John a little wine lesson - Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Reserva 1999 paired with Somer's lamb kebabs. A beautiful wine, classic Rioja - the best part about it in my opinion is the long vanilla finish (oh, and that I got it at half-price at Tesco).
We finished the night with a couple games of Settler's of Catan. John the team-leader hates games, but graciously agreed to play anyway. That didn't stop me from beating him twice.

World Harvest Team

This week we have a couple guys from World Harvest visiting. Pat and John are here with us checking out possible spots for a church plant. We're asking God to show us where the next phase of life/ministry needs to be for us.

Autumn's Arrival

I think autumn might just be my favorite season. There's something about the smell of decaying leaves, the cold, crisp air and the bright sunshine. It reminds me of playing soccer for my high school; and makes me think of carving pumpkins and jumping in leaf piles and building a fire in the back yard to roast marshmallows. While we officially have three more days of summer here in the northern hemisphere, it's definitely felt like autumn the last few days in London.
There's also something spiritual about the change of seasons. And no, I don't want to become a Druid. It's just that there's this reminder that things won't always stay the way they are. The earth is constantly changing; and I think that change is good for my soul. All my senses have been heightened.
I sat outside at lunch on Wednesday to pray. I watched the clouds rush past in the wind and the sun peak through to warm the pavement where I sat. I saw people riding past on bicycles, women walking back from doing grocery shopping, and people rushing past in their cars or airplanes. In all of it I felt some of the delight God feels in his creation, and my praying was furthered by the experience. Yesterday we went to the Tate Modern art gallery. The girls love describing the art to us. Afterwards, we sat by the Thames and ate Chinese at a street fair. Everything felt right with the world. So praise God for autumn.

Rethinking Life with Tuck Bartholomew

Tuck Bartholomew has a great post at Common Grounds Online, discussing the implications of Romans 12 as a communal call to sacrificial living. Tuck writes:
The church is a new humanity in Jesus Christ, and the way we rise from our natural conformity to the broken habits of life is through celebrating, talking, reading, worshiping, thinking, and serving together as God’s people. Paul wants us to press God’s mercy across the spectrum of life...
Whenever I read something like this, my heart always starts beating faster. Partly because it scares the heck out of me. It confronts the way I've bought into the hum-drum stories of comfort, wealth, security that our culture tells.
But it also excites me; because this is what life is all about. Becoming part of a new humanity with Jesus and his people is a story worth being part of.
Go check out Tuck's article, and let it challenge and excite you toward giving yourself in community with God's people for the sake of God's world.

The End of the Story

Ever wonder what's so good about the good news the church proclaims?
Today at Sunday worship at Church on the Corner, Mark gave a sermon in his "Chaos Theology" series on Meaning. Lots of really good stuff - there should be a link soon on his blog (he's probably just getting home from the evening service now). One of the things he said is that in sharing the "good news" with people, the church tends to focus on the mechanism of salvation, without giving much time to the end or the goal. In other words, we talk a lot about the death/resurrection of Jesus (maybe also about his life if we have the extra time) - but then we leave it at that. We tend not to take people to the end of the story of redemption, where God makes all things new.
Here's one practical example of where this might go...bear with me, please, because I'm still working this out and would love your thoughts:
Last night we had lots of storms moving through the area. My children were afraid of the thunder. As they went to bed, we read the story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples. Jesus falls asleep, a storm comes up, and the disciples wake him up in a panic. With a word, Jesus calms the wind and the waves. Jesus is in control of the storms, I told my girls, and he loves you and is here with you now.
Now, everything we read and talked about is true, and I don't necessarily think I should have said any more to them last night. But the story of redemption doesn't end with Jesus calming the storm. And it doesn't even end with him reconciling us to God. It ends with him re-creating the heavens and earth. That picture in Revelation 21 of a new heaven and earth is an unbelievable ending to the story of history. It says that storms - fear, chaos, destruction - are not the final word. Not only are they under Jesus' control, but they don't have the final say. There is a day coming when all that chaos and destruction are gone.
I'm very hesitant to bring it up, but how do you think a story like this might play in New Orleans? I mean, I don't think there's a whole lot of comfort in saying "the storm is under God's control" and "God is good so we have to trust his goodness in the midst of this". O.k., I realize that there's probably some comfort there. I also realize that churches in the surrounding area aren't offering words...they're busy taking care of people, and that's way better than any words at this point. But I think at some point, the church needs to finish the story and say "You know what? This storm sucked. The government's response may have sucked. But all that destruction, all that chaos - they don't have the final say. There is a day coming when there will be no more sea to flood our cities and brew up monster storms. Those storms have their day, but they are not the final word."
[update] I just read this great post by Adam and it helped solidify the vague feeling I had that something was missing in what I said here. It's this: All that help the church is giving people - that's the concrete demonstration that God is making all things new. It's the tangible evidence that the new creation is coming, because it's the new creation entering now. It's the "proof" if you will, that the story isn't over yet.

Uncle Stockton's Tomato Gravy

When I was a kid my family used to spend a couple weeks at the beach with my grandparents and cousins. My uncle used to make this stuff he called "tomato gravy". We've had lots of tomatos from our plants (including this giant weighing in at 1 pound 2 ounces), and I needed something to do with all the tomatoes. So I decided to try my hand at my uncle's recipe. To my surprise, it turned out exactly as I had remembered it. Really brought back the memories from childhood. It's amazing how taste can do that.

Becoming English

To all my English readers (if there are any of you): I apologize up front. I realize that my 9 months in your country have done little toward making me English, apart from the few surface details I'm about to enumerate.
Item 1: I drank tea last Wednesday, and liked it. I'm talking real English tea with milk. If that isn't impressive enough, I also had a scone - no, check that, two scones - with jam and double cream on top, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
This was at a party hosted by one of the Wednesday group from Bethel.
Item 2: Cricket. That's right all you Americans, I said Cricket. I figured out the rules, and now I'm hooked. It doesn't hurt that England have been playing very well this summer in the 5-match Ashes test series against Australia. They're up 2-1 with one draw and one match being played as we speak. With about a day and a half left to play, England have about an even chance of winning the match and the test series. You can get scoring updates and a good explanation of the game from the BBC.

Oh, and one more thing: According to a recent advertisement I saw on the Tube (I think it was for Harrod's), it's very English to apologize up front.