Brian McLaren was in town last night speaking about his new book Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. It was an excellent presentation, one of those "big idea" kinds of presentations that just build and build. I thought he did a great job of packing all of these concepts into a 1 1/2 hour presentation. While I felt like I was keeping up with him, tracking with where he was going, I still left with my head spinning. There was just so much that he covered and the implications are innumerable.

Later in the evening Brian joined us at the Princeton Emergent Cohort and we were also joined by the North Jersey Emergent Cohort. We packed 20+ people into a small corner of the Yankee Doodle Tap Room. It was a great time of informal conversation and we picked Brian's brain about Narrative Theology, Stanley Hauerwas, Radical Orthodoxy, global economies and local economic practices, Wendell Barry, Plato, eschatology, N.T. Wright, Andrew Perriman, terrorism, the presidential election, pastoral care, dealing with conflict in the local church and the writing process. It was a great conversation with a great thinker.

I've loved all of Brian's books that I've read so far but I had Everything Must Change on the backburner. No more. After last night I want to dig deeper into what Brian's getting at in this book because I think it's going to be incredibly important for the church as we quit playing "intramural games" as he put it, and start addressing how the Gospel frames and narrates our lives in such a way that we are sent into the world in a posture of serving, reconciling, compassion and healing.

If this stuff excites you like it does me, be sure to check out the Deep Shift tour. Brian will be in the Bronx May 2-3rd. If you can't make it to the tour be sure to check out everythingmustchange.org where people are contributing and dreaming of ways to change the world one act at a time.

Labels: Discipleship, Emerging Church, Life, Non-Violence, Politics, Theology

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As I've been preparing for an upcoming series on sexuality in our High School ministry I've been trying to read some fresh stuff that engages sexuality from a theological point of view with special attention towards discipleship. I've been pretty underwhelmed by so much of the church's teaching on sexuality for so long. I've used curriculum that I felt went straight for the "what's over the line" question and felt schizophrenic in it's mixture of guilt and affirmation of sex. As I teach on sex I wanted to really do an excellent job of engaging sexuality, theology and discipleship this time around. So two books immediately hit the top of my "must read" list. 1. Rob Bell's Sex God and 2. Lauren F. Winner's Real Sex. I've heard Winner speak on the topic of chastity in a break out session at Youth Specialties this past year and she was great.

I'm really glad I took the time to read Bell's book before engaging this subject with the youth at our church. Bell's style of writing is so conversational that it belies the deep theological work he's doing in this book. Bell's catch phrase quickly becomes "this is really about that." And over and over again he makes connections between sexuality and spirituality and about how "this" is really all about "that." Bell's definition of sexuality alone was extremely helpful.

"For many, sexuality is simply what happens between two people involving physical pleasure. But that's only a small percentage of what sexuality is. Our sexuality is all of the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God (42)."

Hmm, sexuality is all the ways we try to reconnect? That means that even the celibate can practice and express their sexuality. And on the very next page Bell makes this point saying,

"Some of the most sexual people I know are celibate.

They sleep alone.

They have chosen to give themselves to lots of people, to serve and give and connect their lives with beautiful and worthy causes (43)."

Bell takes this understanding of sexuality to deconstruct our culture's definition of sexuality. Some of the most overt expressions of "sexuality" in our world are the exact opposite of real sexuality. To illustrate this Bell describes the infamous "Red Light District" in Amsterdam where women sit in store front windows advertising themselves for prostitution. The transaction that happens between a man who goes to one of these prostitutes and the woman herself is just that, a transaction. Physical sex happens, but there is no reconnection. Indeed this kind of sex only serves to further divide and isolate the two parties. The man uses the woman for his own physical gratification and the woman falls deeper into the darkness of her situation. This is the exact opposite of two human beings reconnecting, and we still call it sex.

Bell's treatment of pre-marital sex is good. As far as I remember he never even used the term "pre-marital sex." Instead Bell contrasts "taking your clothes off" and "getting naked." Anyone can take their clothes off and have sex, but in the end this is not true reconnection. Real reconnection happens in physical sex when both parties can be naked with one another. Being naked is about way more than taking off clothes, it's about trust, it's about security, it's about accepting the other person with all their faults and still loving them. It's about being willing to die for the other person and the promise to remain faithful. Getting naked requires the commitment of marriage, the commitment to serve one another as Christ did the church. As always, "this" is really about "that."

I could go on and on... needless to say, I thought it was a great book.

Labels: Books, Discipleship, Emerging Church, Theology, Youth Ministry

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A few days ago I finished Jesus for President and I've already lent it out to the first person on the growing waiting list. What a magnificent book! If you went to seminary and constantly had your nose stuck in a Hauerwas or Yoder book but wished you could lend a more accessible version to someone... this is that book. It isn't dumbed down, let me be clear about that, it's just that this book was really written for the church. This isn't the kind of conversation that takes place in the ethereal upper layers of academia, this is the best Kingdom-of-God theology taken to the streets. And what would we expect? Shane & Co aren't professors, they're subversive prophets living in the abandoned places of the empire. Making their own clothes, living with the poor, dumpster diving for food... always pointing to Jesus. They are living at the margins pointing us to Jesus. They are shouting with their lives (and this book) that the America we live in is a pitiful and fallen Kingdom not worth our allegiance.

The Eagle is fake, the Eagle is dead.

Follow the Lamb!

Labels: Books, Discipleship, Emerging Church, Military, Non-Violence, Politics, Theology

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Last week I picked up a book that I've been looking forward to reading for several months now. I didn't even know that it had been released until I was wondering the isles of my local Barnes & Noble and bumped into the display for Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw's new book Jesus For President. I'm about a third of the way through it now and it's everything I was hoping it would be. Claiborne & Co have taken theologians and biblical scholars close to my own heart and made them scandalously accessible to an general audience. The book (so far) is tackling our own ideas about empire by taking a look at God and the people of God and their relationship to empire. The book is a creative mish-mash of art and prose and Kingdom Propaganda. This book provokes us towards a Christian imagination of politics and calls us to seriously rethink where our hope and allegiance really lay. Go pick it up now!

Labels: Books, Discipleship, Emerging Church, Non-Violence, Politics, Theology

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Labels: Christian Time, Theology

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by wendell berry

What hard travail God does in death!
He strives in sleep, in our despair,
And all flesh shudders underneath
The nightmare of His sepulcher.

The earth shakes, grinding its deep stone;
All night the cold wind heaves and pries;
Creation strains sinew and bone
Against the dark door where He lies.

The stem bent, pent in seed, grows straight
And stands. Pain break in song. Surprising
The merely dead, graves fill with light
Like opened eyes. He rests in rising.

(from A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997, p. 25)

Thanks to Church and PoMo Culture for the Wendell Berry poem.

Labels: Christian Time, Theology

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A few weeks ago we hosted a youth worker training night for the Middle School and High School shepherds at our church. Mike King was gracious enough to come facilitate the training for us. Mike is the President of YouthFront, an interdenominational youth ministry assisting organization. They put on a lot of concerts, community service events, camps, prayer retreats and the like to be a service to youth ministries in the Kansas City area. But another focus of YouthFront is training youth workers and that happens all over North America, primarily through their branch called SonLife. Both Mike and the President of SonLife, Chris Folmsbee, have recently written some amazing books for youth ministry, Presence Centered Youth Ministry and A New Kind of Youth Ministry respectively.

What's funny is that I didn't meet Mike during some big youth event or camp while I was in Kansas City, I met him at Seminary. Mike's in his 50's, he's the President and CEO of an incredibly successful youth ministry organization but he still has a passion for learning and thinking theologically about ministry. If you pick up his book you'll see what I mean. So it was a pleasure to have Mike come and do some training with our youth shepherds. He was very encouraging and affirming about the work that's happening in our church. It's always good to be with friends. Later Mike had breakfast with some of our staff at the Princetonian Diner and after that he and I went to Small World Coffeehouse to hang out until he got picked up on his way to visit Ian Cron and the youth workers at Trinity in Greenwich, CT.

What a great week.

Labels: Discipleship, Emerging Church, Life, Theology, Youth Ministry

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I just reviewed a chapter of John D. Caputo's new book What Would Jesus Deconstruct? over at Church at Postmodern Culture.  If you're into that kind of stuff go check it out here.

Labels: Books, Theology

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Chris Folmsbee presented in one of the "Super Seminars." His was all about a narrative approach to youth ministry. As a youth pastor who has been deeply shaped by narrative theology and is in turn beginning to use narrative theology in youth ministry I was naturally drawn to his seminar. That and Chris brought his ministry SonLife to Kansas City and now works with my friend Mike King at YouthFront.

Chris really hit on a lot of the same ground Lauren Winter did in her chastity seminar on the foundational idea that we have to start with the story of God before we ever get to sexual ethics (or whatever).

In a similar vein Chris helped us to see that the foundation of youth ministry is the Story of God. On that foundation is built the next level, Theology, what we say about God based on His story. Then comes the Identity & Calling, or what we can say about ourselves based on the Story and who God is... and the implications of what that calls us to. Then that calling or implication moves towards a Rule of Life, how do we approach life in light of the Story, in light of who God is, in light of who we understand that calls us to be. Then... and only then, can we talk about behaviors and practices in a way that is truly rooted in the gospel.

Chris's critique of youth ministry is a good one, we have for too long started with the behaviors and practices... what good kids should be like, etc. and then tried to get to the story of God from there. While it's well intentioned, it gives no context to why of all those behaviors and practices might be important. This was the same point I believe that Lauren Winter was making in her seminar on chastity, we have to do the hard work of weaving the gospel in to the lives of kids before we can start talking about concrete practices of the Christian life.

We need to be honest enough to say that Christian living isn't just about "common sense." The stuff we do is weird and odd and while it might seem really wise and good to an older generation the younger generation needs to be brought along to find themselves in the Story of God before we can ask them to live like Christians.

That involves a risk on our part. It means we work harder at weaving the gospel into the lives of our students before we try to instill "Christian ethics" into them, because without the foundation of the Story of God those practices will be rooted in a very shallow soil and inevitably will wash away when they leave "youth ministry" behind.

Labels: Discipleship, Theology, Youth Ministry

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Shane Claiborne was tonight's general session speaker. These speakers are usually the "big guns" and are charismatic, charming, well polished, impressive... you know, the kind of speakers that make you wish you were way better at speaking or preaching. And as we all know Shane Claiborne just wrote a book in the past two years that has just been hugely important for so many of us. It's turned this little-known servant of Jesus from the rough part of Philly and made him somewhat of a Christian rock-star. People are calling him our generation's Mother Teresa, etc, etc. I love Shane's heart, I love his vision, I love what he's about. And Shane is all about Jesus. Tonight he showed us that, while simultaneously begging the question if we are indeed all about Jesus. You see Shane was flown in here to be tonight's "big gun speaker" and after about 30 seconds of intro, playing with fire and a joke, Shane just launched into the Sermon on the Mount... and I mean ALL OF IT. Then he ends with "Wow, that was the greatest sermon ever preached. Jesus give us the courage to live it out."

Done.

Exit stage right.

There was an interesting reaction. On the one hand a lot of people are thinking, what?? he got paid the big bucks and got center stage to just go up and read from the bible? I could have done that. Then immediately following those judgmental thoughts came the reflection on just how hyped up we get on "good speakers" and how distant Jesus' words have become to us when we hear the greatest sermon ever preached and find ourselves thinking we didn't get what we came for. You could feel the awkwardness rise in the air as people began to wonder to themselves "was that really IT?" and then a reverence fall over the crowd as we realized what we had just thought and how pitiful we can be at times.

Labels: Discipleship, Life, Theology, Youth Ministry

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This morning I was flipping through the channels and came across TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). TBN has a special place in my heart, ever since two summers ago when I was living with Brian Schafer in a pre-cable tv apartment and one of the only over-the-air channels we got was TBN. It was so much fun to watch because it was always so incredibly bad. It was like watching The Colbert Report... for Christians. I highly recommend this by the way, watch TBN, but don't get all riled up and take it seriously. Instead, pretend it's religious satire (a la The Door) and you'll have a hoot.

Okay, back to my story. I come across TBN and pause just long enough to see that Ann Coulter is on "Behind the Scenes" talking about her new book. I've posted a section of the interview at the bottom of this post. At one point the interviewer asks about her own background in the church. She talks about growing up in a Presbyterian church in Connecticut and how her mom didn't like the "political" sermons her pastor would preach against Vietnam. They would later leave the church later in favor of one that wasn't "political." Coulter's critique of her "political" pastor was simply, "that's not what most Christians want." The way she talks about it her mother wanted a church that would offer some kind of benign emotional therapy and nice singing, but never denounce a war. Apparently Coulter has been critiqued by some bloggers for not actually going to church, she responded by saying that 1. She does go to church but that 2. liberals are so "biblically ignorant" that they don't realize that Christians don't have to go to church. We don't have to go to church, Coulter contends, because Christ died for our sins.

What I found so surprising was just how mainstream Coulter was for a few seconds there. Coulter's understanding of the Gospel is so shaped by an American Civil Religion (coming out of... liberalism!) that God's concern is just about him and you. God doesn't get involved in politics unless we invoke him for our own cause, and there really is no need for the church since it's all about you and God to begin with. These two theological commitments I think a great deal of American Christians share with Ann Coulter.

For all of Coulter's talk of "being biblically literate" she apparently doesn't pick up on the Missio Dei (Mission of God) to renew all of creation, to redeem the world (not just you). The redemption of the world being an incredibly political kind of thing, especially because God says this redemption will take place in the life, death and resurrection of his Son and not through the war on terrorism, state welfare, the United Nations or even "taking back our Country for God." Secondly, Coulter apparently misses large swaths of scripture where God calls a people (plural) into covenant to follow him, to be a blessing to the world, and to be the vehicle for God to come and dwell among us. As the church we are the body of Christ on earth, we live in continuity with Israel as we live out the mission of God in the world. Just one reason why it is important for Christians to be a part of the church. To be a part of the church means that people like Ann would have to take communion with "liberals." Church is the place where God destroys the walls we put up between each other and since Ann's primary goal in life seems to be building those walls, it's just more convenient for her to take the "just me and God" route.

Labels: Civil Religion, Politics, Theology

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Now that I'm working in a church again I've started to think about this whole "tax exempt status" our churches have. Tax exemption doesn't really sit right with me. Here's why tax exemption makes me raise an eyebrow. I had a conversation with a pastor friend of mine several years ago about why he supported a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. In the end, the constitutional ban on same sex marriage had to do with tax exemption. That was his last straw. "You see," he said, "if they legalize gay marriage, they can force the church to start marrying gay people. And if we say no... they'll take away our tax exempt status!"

There's a big difference between the Christian rite of marriage performed by the church and that legal thing you get at the county courthouse, so I don't care too much about what's in the constitution concerning marriage, because the constitution does not determine the sacred rites of the church. I wouldn't oppose a constitutional amendment against being resurrected from the dead either, because I think God (and not the constitution) gets to determine what will and will not be for his church.

Okay, so back to tax-exemption. Does it make anyone else feel slightly icky that the church is put in this position of "owing" something to the state? I sometimes feel like the tax-exemption thing is like the "favor" that a mafia don has done for a church, and our response naturally is to not make a fuss when the don does something that doesn't sit right with us, out of our gratitude for his favor. And this is exactly how it works, when a church starts getting "to political" there are always threats of taking away the all sacred tax-exempt status. Well so what?! Martin Luther King Jr. had some pretty political things to say once upon a time. The gospel is always reaching out into culture and stirring up trouble. What if we were to scared to follow the gospel into the world because we thought it might mean we have to start paying taxes?

Now, to argue the other side for just a second... I certainly don't want a portion of my tithe money going to build fighter jets and bombs. But is this "innocence" worth the private and non-political box that the nation sticks the church in? There's got to be a better way.

What do you think? Are you for or against the tax-exempt status for churches?

Labels: Civil Religion, Politics, Theology

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Kara and I walked over to our favorite local theatre last night to catch the Invasion. Thanks to Rusty for the heads up on this film several weeks ago. The Invasion was an interesting thriller playing in the schoolyard somewhere between zombie movies and twilight zone episodes about space aliens. This alien invasion/zombie/virus outbreak thriller doesn't wait long to let the cat out of the bag, you know exactly what's going on within the first part of the film but that only serves to unnerve you all the more for the duration of the film. (spoiler alert) The crux of the problem are these microscopic alien spores that attach themselves to your cells, effectively hijacking your DNA and therefore you, without changing anything about your appearance or memory. This process happens during REM sleep after you have come in contact with one of the spores (through a kiss, a handshake, or you know... getting pinned down and having your face puked on!). What becomes one of the creepiest elements of the film is the nonchalant way in which the ever increasing number of aliens calmly "hunt" down people, infect them and then let them loose, knowing that all it will take to bring the prey to "their side" is a little bit of sleep. The infected show no emotion and act like automatons, it feels at times like a massive case of group-think a la 1984, and as we learn later (spoiler alert) that's exactly what's happening. The infected are still human, although mentally in some kind of sleep like state, and the aliens have a very real kind of mental connectedness to one another. As one of them says towards the end describing his own existence,

"I am still Ben, but I am also so much more. I am connected to everyone else. There is no more "other."

What gave depth to this otherwise great zombie/sci-fi thriller flick was the commentary on human nature and it's relationship to theodicy (the problem of evil). As we begin to see in the film, rather than the infection causing worldwide chaos and war to break out it actually leads to worldwide peace. At one point we see George W. Bush and Hugo Chávez shaking hands as they sign a treaty together. However, the cost of this kind of peace and eradication of poverty is something like joining the Borg. The cost of being truly human - the presence of evil in the world. A doctor at the end of the film is asked if the infection was eradicated and he replies with the last lines of the film,

"Just take a look at a newspaper. For better or worse, we're human again."

This understanding of human nature, that evil is essential to our nature, is common in our culture. We often hear the phrase "I'm only human," used to justify terrible wrongs we commit against one another. But what does our understanding of Christ's incarnation tell us about human nature? It seems as though in Christ we can begin to understand that our bent towards evil is less-than human, it is indeed a betrayal of our humanity, and the way in which Jesus lived is what it looks like to be truly human.

So I'll end with some questions for us to discuss. How might that understanding (re)narrate the underlying assumptions of the Invasion? How does this understanding still resist the automaton alternative of a complete loss of individuality as the way towards living in peace?

Labels: Film, Theology

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Last night CNN and YouTube hosted an interesting debate between the democratic candidates for president. It was an interesting format. Rather than having the moderator, or audience members ask pre-screened and predictable questions CNN pre-screened 38 YouTube questions that were just slightly less predictable than usual. At least it was creative.

I blog today not to swoon over some candidate or talk about how "well" one candidate did in the debate but rather to examine a very powerful American myth we saw last night and what happened when one man challenged that myth. The myth is this, American soldiers never die in vain. To suggest that soldiers die (or have died) for no good reason cuts across many other strongly held American myths and calls into question the legitimacy of violence as a means of solving conflict. To suggest that American soldiers die in vain is to suggest that war is a mistake, or worse, sinful. And yet war, more than most things, is the glue that holds these American myths together.

And last night Mike Gravel said that soldiers (both Vietnamese and American) had died in vain during Vietnam. He continued to say that soldiers dying in Iraq today are dying for no good reason. (click for the Video here) Mike Gravel challenged the pervasive American myth that it is impossible for an American soldier to die in vain. It took only seconds for many of the other candidates to rush to the defense of this myth, Barak Obama said "I never think that troops like those coming out of the Citadel who do their mission for country are dying in vain." John Edwards said, "I don't think any of our troops die in vain when they go and do the duty that has been given to them by the Commander in Chief." After the debates Chris Dodd attacked the premise again, saying he was offended by such a statement.

As a Christian I don't hold the same assumptions that American soldiers can never die in vain. Some are saying that today we are living in the Pax Americana, or "American Peace," a notion that America's military and economic dominance is creating world peace, an idea borrowed from ancient Rome and the Pax Romana. But ancient Christians rejected the Pax Romana as a sad and twisted parody of the peace of Jesus Christ. In the same way, "American Peace" is based upon military violence, war and economic manipulation of the poor. This is a far cry from the peace of Jesus Christ, and so when American soldiers die for the Pax Americana... what in the end are they dying for? When America sends men and women to kill and die for a false "peace" that will be exposed by God and replaced by the real and lasting nonviolent peace of Jesus Christ how can we understand anything other than cooperating with God in the peace of his Kingdom today as anything other than working in vain?

We as Christians must not get caught up in these American myths, we must be people of the truth. We must tell the truth. And the truth is, God invaded this world through the quiet and humble birth of a Jewish boy named Jesus. From that day forth a Kingdom of peace has been breaking into this world. That Kingdom of God is the way of the future, but it is also happening today. We Christians are called to live today the way God would have us all live in his Kingdom. We are witnesses to the world that peace is possible now, and we are people who can say such bold things and act on them because we believe in resurrection.

There is no lasting peace other than the Kingdom of God. So when people die or kill for a false peace what can it be other than to kill or die in vain?

Labels: Politics, Theology

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I know it's been a few days since I've posted on EP but I felt as though I should really give Sharon Huey's sermon (click for the mp3) some time to digest and work on me before posting a sentence or two of summary and then moving on.

Sharon's sermon spoke deeply to many of us. As clumsy as it may be, I'll try to sum up a bit of what she had to say that's been at work in me of late. Those of us who meet at EP every summer tend to lean towards the "radical" and the "revolutionary" streams within this family called church. Our heroes are people like the Berrigan Brothers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, MLK Jr., Oscar Romero, etc. We tell stories of revolutionary saints, people of God who would not bow to the patriotism of their day but sought to be radically obedient to God and work for justice and mercy in their communities. When we think of Jesus we don't think of a "nice" guy who spoke in sound bytes easily turned into daily calendars by Hallmark. We think of the wild-eyed Son of God, on a mission, ready to overturn tables and smash the status quo.

But the beatitude passage from Matthew 5 that Sharon shared with us reveals the kind of people who showed up for Jesus' revolution. To be blunt, nobodies. Jesus' revolution wasn't made up of the steely and hardened Kingdom fighting crew we sometimes wish the church was made from these days. It was the awkward disciples, who didn't always "get" Jesus, the people on the margins of society, the poor, the sick.

And yet how often do we as pastors, or laity groan because our churches are filled with people who just don't "get" Jesus, people with problems, people with crap in their lives. We sometimes wish for the "lean, mean revolutionary force" for the Kingdom of God and are stuck with these embarrassingly human people. Sharon reminds us that the Kingdom being made of these people is the revolution.

Some of us have been a part of churches that really embodied a revolutionary Kingdom of God kind of life. But then we move on and run into these "embarrassingly human" churches that just don't "get" Jesus like we think we do. And this is what I've been mulling over. Because I feel this frustration deeply for both good and bad reasons. I feel this frustration because I long, like many of us, to see the church shed its allegiances to poisonous civil religion, rampant materialism, and the suburbification of the Gospel. But all too often I allow this frustration to be a form of self-righteousness rather than about a longing for God's spirit to take hold of the church. I forget that if the church wasn't made up of losers who don't come close to being the kind of Kingdom revolutionaries like MLK or the Berrigan bros that I wouldn't be a part of this family either. I forget that discipleship is a long road and not a status of those who "get" it.

Labels: Discipleship, Life, Theology

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Today was day one of the 2007 Ekklesia Project gathering. This is my third year attending the annual conference and it really has come to resemble something of an extended family of sorts. I've often been asked to describe what EP is or what EP does and it has been difficult to sum up in a short mission statement what we really are all about... but we know it when we see it. As Phil Kenneson said tonight, we're not quite an academic conference and we're not entirely a "church" conference although those both seem to characterize a lot of what we do. Perhaps, as Phil suggested, we're more like a family reunion. These EP conferences are about friendships between pastors, theologians and laity who share convictions about a few core things. Among these are the conviction that as disciples we are first and foremost a people defined by Jesus (not America, not the Denver Broncos, not our Alma Matter, etc), also that real discipleship must take place within community and we share the conviction that we are a people formed and shaped by many things, so the church must be active in faithfully forming disciples in the way of Jesus. This was just a little bit of an introduction to tonight's talk by Phil.

I'll post more about Sharon Huey's sermon from earlier in the afternoon. I'm posting a link to all three audio recordings from today here as well.


Brent's Opening Comments.mp3

Afternoon Worship.mp3

What Are We Doing Here.mp3

Labels: Discipleship, Life, Theology

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Kara and I walked down the street to the theater last night to see Evan Almighty the sequel to Bruce Almighty starring Steve Carell. Okay, so being a Christian makes watching "God movies" a complicated experience. On the one hand there is this instinct to hold the film at arm's length and critique every frame that doesn't match up with my own theology. Being a seminary grad makes this all the more appealing. Then there's this other side of me that really wants to see something good, something of real value in a film like this. So I've usually come to movies with the bar set very very low for theological orthodoxy. Doing so means that I've been surprised a time or two by how many things a "God film" got right. Case in point, Bruce Almighty's theme of God's non-coercive love for us.

So before I get into what I thought Evan Almighty did right I'll just lay out a few of my beefs lest anyone think I'm an uneducated heretic. Okay, God in Evan is only vaguely the Trinitarian God of Jesus. God here is pictured as more or less the kind of nice dude we Americans tend to think of... kinda (I'll take issue with this later). God's "mission" for humanity is incredibly easy for Americans to swallow: ARK (Acts of Random Kindness). Loving one's enemies and sacrificing creature comforts to be better stewards of creation are hardly "random" acts of "kindness" but are disciplines lived out in community. But you know what, Stanley Hauerwas didn't write the screenplay for Evan Almighty so I approached it like he didn't.

Whew. Now that I've sufficiently "distanced" myself from the theology of the film and hopefully convinced you that I am not dropping out of Orthodox Christianity and enlisting in Evan-anity let me tell you what I think this film got right. By the way, thanks to Scott for writing a similar post.

1. God loves his creation. Creation meaning ALL of creation, not just us humans. God is concerned with the lack of stewardship of plants and animals at the expense of human consumption.

2. God is funny. God is a God of laughter.

3. God is amused by what we seem to think are really important "plans" we have for this life. God is more concerned with our obedience to his will and joining in the Missio Dei (Mission of God) than with our image, our job, etc. God is content that we makes ourselves foolish by joining his mission. For more on this check out Scot McKnight's post about Missional Jesus.

4. God loves everybody and is about the business of redeeming relationships, corrupt political systems, and even urban sprawl. God acts to redeem.

5. God interprets the scriptures. God actually reads Genesis allegorically rather than scientifically.

6. God does not "zap us with fuzzy feelings" but gives us opportunity to practice love/patience/etc.

7. God is the main actor in the events that transpire but does so through people (like Evan) who forsake themselves to follow God's lead. God works through broken, fallen people.

8. God smiles when fathers put their family before their careers.

Those are just a few of the surprising theological themes in Evan Almighty that I thought were profoundly true. So go check it out. Realize that there are going to be some shallow or cheesy moments that don't live up to our theology and that the Missio Dei can't be summed up by "Acts of Random Kindness." But go with an open mind, this film might just surprise you with how much it does get right.

Labels: Film, Theology

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This weekend I flew out to Doylestown, PA to interview at a Methodist church for a youth ministry position. It was a really encouraging experience. I met with several passionate adult leaders and students over the course of two days and had some very exciting conversations about youth ministry and how God is leading youth ministry in some very exciting and creative directions.

On my flights to and from the east-coast I was finally able to read Mike King's book, Presence-Centered Youth Ministry. I met Mike two years ago here in Kansas City and immediately felt a kinship with his vision for youth ministry. He began telling me about his book back then so I've been looking forward to reading it for a few years now. In the mean time I've gotten a big chunk of what was in the book through conversations with Mike at school (we both are attending NTS), church or around town in any of the many places I keep running into Mike. I was surprised that Mike's candid words all made it through the editing process! By that I don't mean that Mike is a loose cannon or offensive, but he is an important prophetic voice in youth ministry and it was just refreshing to know that what is on the page is what comes out of Mike's heart, not a watered-down "easily digestible" youth ministry package.

Mike challenges us youth ministers look past the short-vision goals of increased attendance and into our own souls. Page after page Mike is leading us into a vision of youth ministry that is first and foremost about seeking the face of God. Much of what Mike offers as practical advice in the book he deliberately asks the youth pastor not to try to teach to the youth group next week. This is not a book full of hip postmodern techniques that will wow teens, it is a book about doing ministry out of the abundant overflow of a life lived in intense communion with Christ. What important advice for us to hear! We often are so caught up in "consuming" spiritual practices or techniques so that we can pass them along to youth without ever really letting those practices sink anchors in our own lives. Mike's book will call you to slow down, listen to God and practice youth ministry out of the overflow of love of God.

Highly highly recommended for those involved in any kind of ministry, youth ministry especially.

Labels: Discipleship, Theology, Youth Ministry

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A while back I was riding in the car listening to NPR when they re-aired a peabody award winning broadcast of "This American Life" a favorite show of mine produced by Chicago Public Radio. The broadcast was titled Habeas Schmabeas. Here is a description of the topic "Habeas Schmabeas" tackles...

The right of habeas corpus has been a part of our country's legal tradition longer than we've actually been a country. It means that our government has to explain why it's holding a person in custody. But now, the War on Terror has nixed many of the rules we used to think of as fundamental. At Guantanamo Bay, our government initially claimed that prisoners should not be covered by habeas—or even by the Geneva Conventions—because they're the most fearsome enemies we have. But is that true? Is it a camp full of terrorists, or a camp full of our mistakes?

What followed was one of those gripping stories that makes you sit in your car outside your apartment for 45 minutes because you don't want to miss anything by running inside. You can download the entire episode for free here. What I learned offended the American side of me, to hear about how the constitution is simply ignored or put on hold when it is deemed inconvenient to those in power. Don't we write these rules specifically for hard times when we'd be tempted to abuse power?

From a Christian standpoint what distressed me even more was the de-humanizing abuse many of these prisoners are forced to undergo. Far from buying into the excuses that "this is a different kind of war calling for different kinds of tactics," I am compelled to reflect on Jesus' parable of the indebted prisoner who is freed only to turn around and put those who owed him money into prison. What does forgiveness look like in the midst of a world racked by terrorism? Would Jesus put a "temporary hold" on forgiveness in the face of terrorism declaring that new more modern tactics were needed to fight "extremism?" Or is forgiveness a form of religious extremism in itself? I certainly think so. If prisoners do indeed need to be held captive can it be done while still honoring their God-given dignity? Can their captors be committed to truthfulness and honesty instead of secrecy and deception?

We are often told that the world changed on Sept. 11th, that we now must operate in a "post-9/11" mentality. Does that apply to being a disciple of Jesus Christ? Did being a Christian change on 9/11? Do we get to temporarily set aside things like forgiveness and loving our enemies in the midst of a world filled with terrorism?

OR are forgiveness and love the very ways Jesus taught us to fight such evils?

Labels: Military, Politics, Theology

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Derek Webb has put to music what John the revelator put to papyrus so many years ago. Listen to the eschatalogical hope...

This Too Shall Be Made Right
by Derek Webb

People love you the most for the things you hate
And hate you for loving the things you can't keep straight.
People judge you on a curve
And tell you you're getting what you deserve
and this too shall be made right.

Children cannot learn when children cannot eat.
Stack them like lumber and children cannot sleep.
Children dream of wishing wells
Whose waters quench all the fires of hell.
and this too shall be made right

The earth and sky and the sea are all holding their breath.
Wars and abuses have nature goraning with death.
We say we're just trying to stay alive,
It looks so much more like a way to die.
and this too shall be made right

Yes there's a time for peace, there is a time for war.
There's a time to forgive and a time to settle the score.
A time for babies to loose their lives.
A time for hunger and genocide.
and this too shall be made right

Oh, I don't know the suffering of people outside my front door.
I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore.
I'm trading comfort for human life,
And that's not just murder, it's suicide.
and this too shall be made right

Oh, this too shall be made right.

Labels: Music, Theology

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Labels: Film, Funny, Theology

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Having heard some high praise for the recent Frank Miller adaptation, 300, I trekked off to the theatre a few weekends ago to catch it myself. What followed was an interesting mix of emotions for me. I am usually easily able to suspend disbelief and enter into the world of a film, and it is indeed almost always my goal to do so when watching a film. But some films make that really really hard to do. Or maybe to put it more accurately; sometimes John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas make that really hard to do.

300 lacks nothing in stylistic cinematography or art direction. Every single frame lives in a creative land somewhere between Miller's original comic book and modern day Photoshop art. The texture and style of the film exude a larger-than-life mythical quality that enhance the tale of 300 Spartans fighting off Xerxes' vast armies. It is a story that can only be told in paintings and campfire tales, and in that regard 300 does exceedingly well.

Some have called 300 one-part Art Film one-part Action-Adventure war movie. I would agree, and the first part is done masterfully. But it's that nagging issue of content that kept irking me about the second part of 300. While I was continually drawn into this Spartan world by the artistic beauty I was constantly ejected from it as I heard Yoder, Hauerwas and especially Jesus ringing in my ears.

The overtones of what Walter Wink calls "redemptive violence" are nowhere more pronounced than in 300. The Spartan culture while shown as a somewhat barbaric solider society is nonetheless glorified in perhaps every barbaric trait other than their systematic killing of "less than ideal" babies. While this is shown in a horrific light, the rest of their violent ways are glorified as essential parts of a "rational" and "democratic" society. The overtones connecting American culture and military (especially American Marines) to the Spartan warriors are obvious. King Leonidas' wife, Gorgo lectures the politicians about the necessity for violence using today's popular phrase "freedom isn't free." All these themes kept me from truly entering the movie. Instead I held it at arms length, thinking to myself, this is exactly what Jesus subverts in the Roman empire. This society built on violence, the culture that disciples its people in warfare no matter the personal cost to children and wives. The Roman empire Jesus lived under and was crucified by was heavily influenced by the Spartan legends and ethos. This is the same warrior-culture that the Gospel has a harsh judgment for, and while we have tended to privatize our war-making, we Americans buy into many of the same illusions that the Spartans did.

I kept trying to see where Christians would fit into this whole story (had they been around back then). I think that the Jesus people wouldn't be caught dead on the side of Xerxes, the Persian emperor who called himself a God. The followers of Jesus wouldn't march with the Persian army in it's goal to conquer the world. But neither would the Jesus people devote their lives to being discipled as killing machines in the city of Sparta. The Spartan story of redemptive violence would be in direct conflict with the followers of Jesus who practiced redemptive suffering.

Labels: Film, Military, Non-Violence, Theology

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Purg and I caught Black Snake Moan a few weekends ago. This is the story of Lazarus (a man who's wife has left him for his younger brother), Rae (a young girl who was abused as a child and now is literally an nymphomaniac) and ??? (Rae's boyfriend who is eventually kicked out of boot camp for an anxiety disorder). If you haven't seen the poster or TV spots, then you don't know about one of the most interesting oddities of this film. Lazarus takes it upon himself to redeem Rae from her wicked and sad state, but his methods are not taken from any pastoral care and counseling class. No, Lazarus chains Rae to his radiator to keep her from running off on him and avoiding the "desert" she must travel in order to be transformed.

I really appreciated that Black Snake didn't fall into a number of tired cliches about judgmental clergy or protagonist-redeemers who are misunderstood. Ben Witherington gives us some very good thoughts on the film here.

Just a word of warning, the film is pretty raw and gritty and earns it's R rating. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone in high school or younger.

Labels: Film, Theology

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Kara and I saw Bridge to Terabitha a few weekends ago, thanks to Mike's recommendation. What a surprisingly wonderful film! If your kids aren't old enough to sit through Pan's Labyrinth, Terabithia may well be a great alternative. I was particularly drawn into the story of a young boy named Jesse who lives in the country and have a love for drawing. Reminds me of someone I know...

Jesse deals with what most kids do, bullies and the like. But this school year Jesse meets an interesting new girl named Leslie who just happens to live next door to him. Leslie is a poet. Together the artist and the poet learn to use their imaginations to build a whole new kingdom in the forest where bullies can be bested in battle. The imaginary kingdom of Terabitha begins to inform the real life world at school that Jesse and Leslie encounter everyday. They are able to draw on their imaginations to change things at school in some really redemptive ways.

One day Leslie invites herself to Church with Jesse's family and during the service she is enthralled by the stories and the stained glass. In the truckride home she says "that whole Jesus thing is very interesting isn't it?" The conversation that ensues between Leslie, Jesse and his younger sister May Belle is priceless. Leslie says these insightful words after May Belle and Jesse proclaim that you have to go to church and believe the bible or you'll burn in hell... "You have to believe it and you hate it. I don't have to believe it and I think its beautiful."

Amen.

Labels: Film, Theology

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What is required for salvation? We often answer this differently than Jesus did...

Check out this article at Christianity Today.
"Jesus and the Sinner's Prayer"

via Mike King

Labels: Theology

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Oh wait... actually Ben Witherington offers a genuine and generous critique of Velvet Elvis while completely affirming Rob Bell's theology, direction and ministry. Oh that we would all learn to be this generous in our "sharpening" of each other.

Check out Witherington's post here.

Labels: Emerging Church, Theology

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There's a great discussion going on over at KC Armstrong's blog Easily A Muse. What started out as a book review has become a conversation about the emerging church and the character of postmodernism and modernism from a Christian point of view.

Labels: Emerging Church, Theology

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I've been meaning to blog about Pan's Labyrinth for a while now. I first saw it back in January when Kara was in town. I was expecting it to be great, I'd heard so much good stuff about it before going, and I wasn't disappointed. Pan's Labyrinth was everything that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe wasn't... frighteningly dark, sinister, subtler in its allegory and definitely not for kids. Pan's Labyrinth is brutally violent early on in order to convince us of the ruthlessness of the antagonist. Later in the film more scenes could have shown even more violence but mercifully don't.

For those of you who were confused like me, Pan is the name of a Faun. Not this particular faun, but a faun. In Spain where the film was made it was named Faun's Labyrinth. Okay, now that aside... Pan's Labyrinth begins with an "incarnation" of sorts. The king of the underworld's daughter escapes to go live among us land-dwelling people, but as a consequence she dies a mortal's death like us. But the King waits for her soul to return one day in another body. The rest of the story takes place in WWII Spain where fascists are fighting off guerrillas in the forest. Ofelia, a young girl is the stepdaughter of a fascist general (Yet another movie about children living in a broken world). She encounters a faun at the bottom of a spiral staircase in the center of a giant labyrinth behind the fascist stronghold.


The faun gives Ofelia several tasks to complete before the moon is full. The first, Rusty pointed out (perhaps soon in blog form), could be an allegory of capitalism. The second is retrieving something from behind a tiny door with a key from her first mission. She retrieves a knife from the door and gets into some trouble on the way back. The last mission requires that she get her newborn baby brother and meet the faun at the labyrinth. When shes does so he tells her that the knife is to draw blood from her brother. Well if the faun wasn't sketchy enough the entire film now it's obvious... he, like almost everyone else in Ofelia's life is rotten. She refuses and just as she does her fascist stepfather stumbles upon her, snatches his son back and promptly kills Ofelia. She lies at the mouth of the staircase in the center of the labyrinth, blood running out of her nose. This is the scene that opened the film. Just as it seems like this movie is going to end one long train wreck of violence and cruelty Ofelia opens her eyes in paradise. Her father, the king of the underworld welcomes her home and the faun tells her that she passed the final test. She chose to shed her own blood rather than that of an innocent.

Obvious Christ-figure metaphor aside, what I find even more fascinating is Ofelia's resurrection and how it completely (re)narrates the tone of the film. What was once macabre is now a celebration. What was once a tragedy is now a comedy (in the Greek sense). Her resurrection bears witness to a deeper reality. Her fascist stepfather has no real power, his violence is in vain a mere illusion of power.

Labels: Film, Theology

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I have recently been hearing a LOT about Tony Dungy's faith. When I say a LOT, I don't mean in content but in frequency. This usually happens when anyone on a Super Bowl winning team goes to church or prays or if they've just read "Wild at Heart."
(Seriously. Jon Kitna read "Wild at Heart" during his "comeback" with the Bengals a few years ago and Christians went nuts over him)

We Christians go batty when celebrities turn out to be Christians... or if Celebrities have even read a Christian book. Why? Does this mean for instance that the Colts are a Christian team? Does this mean that good Christians can't root for their own godless football teams because Tony Dungy prays? Woe to me and my heathen Broncos! No, I don't think its about that. We hear about these celebrity Christians because like most Americans, Christians are obsessed with celebrity. We bow at the cult of celebrity with the rest of our VH1 viewing countrymen.

What is it about Christians going batty for Celebrities becoming (or turning out to be) Christians? Evangelicals spend a lot of time and energy maligning Hollywood and celebrities but as soon as one of them turns out to be "one of us," then all criticism is laid aside and we get them a book deal and tv time as soon as evangelically possible. It seems to me that the reasons throngs of people are obsessed with celebrities are the same reasons that Christians are also obsessed with Christian-celebrities. Celebrities are people used to live out vicarious fantasy lives. Why do so many people care about who Paris Hilton is dating? Because in some way or another her dating life is either a vicarious way for them to be in a relationship or is a false promise that they can one day also be that famous, that adored and that rich. We fawn over celebrities not so much based on their merit as much as the hope that one day we too can be like them.

This is a problem for Christians because our Lord did not come to show us 7 highly-effective habits for our best life now! He revealed the upside-down Kingdom of God where the poor and marginalized are first class citizens and the rich and famous are last. While the "saints" of popular culture tell us that we can be anything we want to if we just work hard enough, or are shocking enough or have the right body, Jesus tells us that we can be his disciples if we are willing to give all that up. Jesus' message is in direct competition with the celebrity-message.

The problem is that we are a people so shaped by celebrity we tend to buy into the unspoken assumptions that come along with it. We start to think that "successful" people are famous, rich and beautiful. We define success by how high one can climb on the social ladder. Celebrities obviously fit this model of success. So when a Christian becomes a celebrity or better yet, when an already-Celebrity becomes a Christian, in some kind of round-about way it legitimizes our own faith. "See, Christians can be successful too! We're also cool and famous!"

One of the many problems with holding up the image of a celebrity Christian is that we rarely examine the content of their faith and certainly don't hold them to much of any standard. It is not their theology or lived out practice that makes them a good example, it is their status as a celebrity. We Evangelicals particularly fall into this trap because we think that celebrity Christians are automatically great evangelists based on their fame alone. Walk into any Christia... I mean Family Christian Bookstore and see how many celebrity Christian books you find on the shelves. Chuck Norris, Kurt Warner, Stephen Baldwin,