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Taken from Eugene Peterson’s Living The Resurrection, this prayer may serve us well as a partial antidote to George Barna’s Revolution.
Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you with a deep sense of gratitude, care, concern, devotion, love for you, and desire to live responsively to you. We sense that we’re with friends in your company of followers—friends who share the life of resurrection and want others to get in on it, notice it, and begin participating at the center of what you’re doing rather than on the periphery. We pray for strength and discernment to understand the culture we are in—the deadening effects, the seductive lures…We ask your blessing on the church—scattered and dispersed and so much of it in despair. We pray that wherever we are and whatever places we go back into—whether it’s pew or pulpit—we may be part of this resurrection life, knowing that you are present and doing your work. You’re not anxious about what is going to happen or whether this is going to work or not. It’s worked a long, long time and will continue working. Mostly, keep us faithful, attentive, adorational, sacrificial, and personal. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Beautifully and wonderfully alive, Peterson’s prayer and others like it must be at the center of any revolution that is God-breathed.
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First of all, I have to confess that this book bothered me—but not so much that I’m unwilling or unable to recommend it to others. I think Revolution bugged me because at certain points it sounded so sectarian. To give Barna the benefit of the doubt, I think he did this unintentionally, not realizing how strong the “us-and-them†undercurrents would be. However, if he intentionally tried to widen the chasm between “Revolutionaries†and their less passionate counterparts, then he should explain his reasons for doing so and not throw Jesus into the mix as justification for his polarizing prose. Continue reading »
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A couple nights ago I was having a drink with a friend after a small gathering at his house. We were sitting in his backyard, watching the light disappear and talking. These are the conversations that I love, having an opportunity, one-on-one, to get to know one another. This is the same gent I believe I mentioned in a previous post who grew up within the American, Roman Catholic Church. He’s a real person with real questions about life and God.
My friend was sold on the idea of Christ from the time he was a young child. His parents taught him right from wrong and set proper boundaries for him. His recollections from the time are somewhat sketchy, but one thing he remembers clearly are the times he had questions about God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell and the likes. He asked the question that parents hear most often, “Why?â€. I’m not sure how many of you are parents or grandparents yourself, but I’m sure at some point in your life you have heard a child, possibly yourself, as this simple, three letter question. Continue reading »
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Pete Rollins: How (not) to Speak of God
£10.44 – UK
$12.97 – USAAt the start of May in Geneva with Brian McLaren, I got to spend some time with Pete Rollins, including a shared spiritual experience. I’d heard of Pete but never met him. I found him funny, super sharp, and engaging.
Pete had some copies of his new book with him, and some well known bloggers are reviewing it favorably. I’ve finally had the time to sit down and get an overview of it, and it’s one of the most novel, impacting small books I have come across in a long time.
Sometimes you need people to go to places you can’t because of time and ability, and sometimes because they are downright scary. Pete has gone into the depths of french existential phenomenologists, and found God for us.
So what you may ask? Well in europe at a time when God seems remarkably absent, and the modern apologetics of certitude are hard to stomach and offer little comfort, where can we find hope in the wasteland of belief we face.
Pete’s book gave me some hope, and a beautiful sense of God’s presence, around some of the most difficult issues facing faith. If you are dealing with questions of doubt and pain, and wondering where God is, Pete’s book might be the guide that helps you.
You can catch Pete blogging here.
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I got my acceptance letter today, for my next doctorate. I’ll be doing a D.Phil through Christ Church, Oxford, with my first residency there (2 weeks) in July (reasons for pursuing this are here).
I’ll be editing my D.Min dissertation into the D.Phil, with large amounts of new writing. My focus will be on producing a theological sociology of church.
Within that I’ll be suggesting that the church has a sociological focus that is causing it to keep forming church in ways that still do not lead to genuine mission and community engagement, and suggesting that the theological sociology of Deitrich Bonhoffer and theology of Luther, offer us a way to address this problem.
Or in short how does the theological sociology of Bonhoffer help us engage in genuine mission as church communities. If you know any one working in this area, please let me know! Continue reading »
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Western modern Christianity spirituality has had a focus on personal religious decisions, with a main concern for the eternal destiny of others, where to become a Christian is to be saved out of the world, where the goal of salvation is rescue from a fallen world that will be destroyed. Heaven is the Christian’s destination, and there is an emphasize on separation from the world and its vices.
Spiritual formation in this context becomes understood as a search for piety and holiness, of being more like Christ, the divine being. I wonder if postmodern culture views this construction as shallow, self-seeking, and dehumanizing. To become a christian is in essence to escape humanity and this world. Continue reading »
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I’m increasingly convinced that one area of life christians, and the church should be engaging in for transformation, is the issue of Global Warming. Christians in the future will look back, and ask, ‘what did the church do, in the face of the damage done to God’s creation?”I caught most of the wednesday night programme by the BBC, with David Attenborough giving a personal introduction to climate change. It begins a two week series of programmes, with online resources exploring climate change.
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Meeting J K A Smith in Geneva was a wonderful experience, after having read some of his writing. I was reminded that when it comes to books that are helpful for understanding post-modernity, his latest book, is a must read. Continue reading »
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We picked up Brian McLaren from Kent yesterday, and took him to Waverly Abbey, where he and Rowan Williams, talked and took questions together from demoninational leaders from around the uk. Rowan impressed me more than ever, with his wisdom, and gentleness.
Brian has met and spoken and interacted with around 2,500 people on this trip, and we worked him hard. He goes back to the US tonight, after his last day with 100 people at Waverley Abbey and the CWR network.
I’ll get details of MP3s we have available as we get them loaded over the next few weeks.
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Back in April I taught a day on a Post Graduate Course at CWR in Farnham, and used an outline called ‘Message Mediums and Marketplace’. I turned that outline into an article that has just been published in the RUN network magazine.
You can download the article here, or read the full text in the continuation. Continue reading »
