Theologians Practicing what the Theologize?
We always talk about pastors practicing what they preach, but what about theologians? Halden has one point of view, and it seems that Adam had another (HT: Ben Myers).

The Search for God and Guinness
This book, reviewed by Jonathon, talks about the life of the Guinnesses and the good they did in Ireland for their community and for their workers.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, all the scriptures that confuse me so much, and all the controversy.  I’m just glad when it will all be over.”

“I think I would be bored,” I responded.

“Bored?”

“Yeah. Then there would be on reason to have questions, no reason to keep searching after God, no reason to worship him.”

“Hmm,” he responded.

“I don’t want to worship a God I can understand and figure out.”

The Song of the day comes from a lesser known hip-hop artist Noodle the Innocent Child with his song Celebrate Life. You can hear more of his music here and here.  I am interested to hear more of his music when it comes out. 

Swearing an Oath
I know Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no, but if all those executives responsible for the latest recession had pledged something similar to the link above we may not have had such a recession.

No Room at the Inn (for Palestinians)
This story is one of many that I hear coming off the wire. And we wonder why Israel is so unpopular in the Middle East.

The Death of Progress
This post expertly questions whether progress is really progressive. We need to think long and hard about the idea of “growing” our organizations and more about the nature of the organizations we run.

1.  Human Trafficking:  It’s real and we are complicit if we just let it happen on our watch in this global world.

2.  Should the real recipients of aid and money be women?

3.  Why do we want so much stuff?

4.  Will we really go if God calls us?

5.  Jesus turns the world upside-down.

6.  Is our view of Jesus incomplete?  Perhaps Marcus Borg can tell us why.

2.  Julie Clawson talks about Heirarchy in the Emergent Church.

3.  Here is an excerpt from Father Stephen’s touching story from a porch in Narazeth:

I noticed that this man was looking at me – staring would be more accurate. I looked down a couple of times, but he never broke his gaze. Our eyes met and I walked over to him. I do not speak Polish – only a little (very little) broken Russian. But I took a chance and greeted him. He smiled. I told him in my poor Russian that I was an Orthodox priest from America.

Tears came to his eyes. The smile remained. I was dressed in my cassock wearing my gold cross (which I blessed at every shrine I visited). This kind-eyed man reached over and lifted my cross to his lips. He kissed it, and I gave him a blessing (in Slavonic).

His polite reply, complete with tears was: “Znamie Bog!” (”God is with us”). Indeed He was with us that day on the porch in Nazareth. The Christchild uniting two believers with few words between us. The pilgrim’s smile and tears spoke volumes. I will never know his story or his name – but I will remember that God is with us!

3.  In a time of great economic recession, perhaps you can learn from this comic some fundamental principles of resume writing.

4.  Scot McKnight gives his 2008 books of the year.

5. Peter Rollins talks about convictions in Christianity:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2MK8qlBJZg&hl=en&fs=1]

6.  Chad says that putting Christ back in Xmas is about more than mantra, but it is about our practice vs. what we say we practice.

7.  I want to speak more about Scot McKnight’s discussion at Jesus Creed on conversion.  Some like Chad rightly point out that there is no “magic formula” to conversion.  Nick notes that there is NT Wright’s analogy of the difference between alarm clock salvation that happens suddenly and those that wake up smoothly (you might also read his views on apolgetics, I enjoyed them).  Ted as well sees the importance of “nurture” in the conversion process.  Dan suggests that we need to make room for all types of conversions that Scot talks about.  I also want to share this quote from Matt:

Context is a fundamental part of this discussion. Our Western Christian context is dramatically different than our brothers and sisters in, for instance, the Congo. “The gospel is like a multi-faceted diamond, with different aspects that appeal to a different people in different cultures. It has depths we have not fathomed. It defies every attempt to reduce it to a neat formulation.”

Also interesting is the debate that begins as a result of talking about conversion. While John argues that Jesus is not a product and that we must get to know him (not just through a ‘one-time-prayer’), Joey points out that prayer is a way to get to know God.  So what is the part of prayer in conversion?  Does God listen to prayers of non-Christians who are ‘in process’ of becoming Christian?  Nick Mitchell (in good Baptist fashion) argues that we need to have a better definition of conversion in order to have any sort of conversation about it.  Here is what he says:

There is a moment when a person passes from death to life, from being in adam to being in Christ. It is NOT a process for a person to be in Christ. Yes, there are events that lead up to that moment and events that follow nut there is a moment nevertheless. If a person confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead they will be saved. It is that confession and belief ‘moment’ when a person is saved. Yes a person may read books or they undergo convincing but there comes a decisive time when, whether aware of it or not, they pass from death to life.

What would you add to this conversation?

James once said “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself form being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).  This doesn’t seem like such a radical point of view until one considers the way that the Romans viewed religion.  Borrowing from Richard Horsley’s Jesus and Empire, we can see just as much Romans viewed religion as an extension of the state:

“The most divine Caesar…we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things…; for when everything was falling [into disorder] and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave it to the whole world a new aura; Caesar…the common good fortune of all…the beginning of life and vitality…All the cities unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the beginning of the year…who was being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and [whereas] having becoming [god] manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all hopes of earlier times…the birthday of the God [Augustus] has been for the whole world the beginning of good news (gr: evangelion) concerning him [therefore let a new era beginning from his birth).” –OGIS 2.#458

When James says the word “religion” and does not include the word “Caesar,” he is subverting empire and committing a crime against the crown.  Not only that, but it is a commentary on the whole power structure of Rome.  How did Rome perpetuate the infamous Pax Romana?  The ‘peace of Rome’ was sustained by taking money from conquered people’s in the form of tribute to the capital and Rome redistributing that money to Roman legions who would, in turn, protect the crown.  While Rome takes from others to protect themselves, the church, as a vital and life-sustaining force for the world, gives to others who cannot protect themselves.

But this is the way that church has always been.  We have always been called to give ourselves away and to show God’s grace by helping the helpless.  We have always been called to share the gospel to all, even if this means great personal loss for ourselves.  We have always been called to carry our cross.  We have always been called, even if it is dangerous…

We look to the holy father, in whom all creation depends by the infusion of the spirit and the particular and powerful world of the son: we worship the holy trinity in spirit and in truth.  We see the elections coming soon, and pray for the candidates.  We pray that you would fill their mind and anoint the winner to do as you would have them do.  Please help them to see that all their power comes from you.

We ask for the healing of Jenna, whose intestines are being eaten out in Bolivian country.  Heal her.

We pray that the sick would be healed.

That the lame would walk.

That the street lights would dance in the kingdom of heaven tonight.

That the heavy laden would sleep.

That the busy would slow down.

That you would be in the midst of all.

Amen.

1. Reduce and decentralize by getting rid of the national coordinator position (this means Tony will be moving on).
2. Re-emphasize the importance of the website as a central hub.
3. To decentralize by depending on grassroot organizations to plan events rather than emergent village to plan events themselves.
4. To Reconfigure the board

I do not consider myself an expert on emergent (I have not read enough of the author’s who call themselves ‘emergent,’ nor do I have the time to do so), but I have been watching the conversation for some years and have been greatly interested by the sociological trends.  All of their goals for the “new” emergent-village seem to be about less national presence and more presence as network node (perhapas the anti-federalists were right all along).  There is a term recently introduced to me by my blogging friend Nate called subsidiarity.  I am so excited by this word because it brings to term some of the ideas that have been boiling in my brain.  This concept suggests that matters ought to be handled by the smallest group possible.  It would probably have been the view of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy and probably embodies many of the grassroots organizations throughout United States history.  There is a good conversation going on about this idea at catholicanarchy (read the comments).  I want to quote one of the comments here:

I think (and I cant take credit for this) that locality is such a wonderful answer to capitalism & globalization. Wendell berry is the best critiquer of this system that I can think of. Why can’t people be happy with solving the problems and providing for the needs of their own communities? Everything is always mass produced and shipped all over whether or not its wanted/needed elsewhere. This is where advertising and the creation of perceived needs come in. What is really troubling is when we think about how this has come into Christianity in the form of evangelism.

Why join a subsidarity movement?  Well, as Christians we hopefully realize that the best way to work is through the local church as an expression of the catholic church (universal, not necessarily Roman Catholic).  Could we argue that God uses subsidarity?  He chose a particular people group in a particular place to be the expression of his love to the world.  The particularity of God in ‘choosing’ one group to, in turn, bless the wold holistically, seem to show subsidarity, or the idea that working through one group as a kind of tree that spreads its root deep, as his guiding principle.  As Christians, we need to remember that bigger is not always better.

2.  Cut things out of your schedule instead of trying to tag more “God” things in yoru schedule.  I am a big fan here that less is more.  If you are planning on meeting four people throughout the day today, try to meet only with two people for a longer and deeper amount of time.

3. Stop thinking of certain things as spiritual.  If you think of Bible and prayer as spiritual, you are, in a sense, making your job, your car, your house, your family, and your friends inherently unspiritual.  Write down ways that your relationship with God can be furthered through everything you do.  For instance, your relationship with God can be furthered with people as you talk about God with them (even if you are not “evangelizing” in the classic sense of the word).

4. Take an inventory of items in your house and decide what you do and do not need.  Get rid of the things you do not need by giving them to the poor and selling them (if they are valuable).  My suggestion is to get rid of 50 percent of things in your house.  Why do you need two TVs?  Why do you need so many dishes?  Do all households really NEED to cars?  More stuff often inhibits our relationship with God because we tend to want to play with it all rather than play with God.

5. Read less of the Bible, but read the parts that you do read more closely searching for a conceptual understanding of what you are reading.  I am not a huge fan of trying to go through the Bible in a year.  Scripture is an instrument for mediation, not a medal to be awarded once we have read it all.

6. Move slower in everything that you do.  The other day when work was really busy and everyone was moving at lightning pace, one of the girls said we all looked stressed out and that we should just be patient.  At the time it was annoying to me, but looking back on it, there is no reason to rush.  Sure, customers wanted their food, but the humanity gets lost in the rush of it all sometimes. God can get lost in this rush too.

7. Honor God by worshipping him with your body through the way one eats and exercises.  Our mental and physical health is not ever seperated from our spiritual health.  One will invariably affect the other.