School’s Out for the Summer

Now that school is out for the summer, it’s time to pull out the dissertation and get back to the world of phenomenology, spiritual formation, and seminary training. As I work on my dissertation, it becomes more and more apparent that targeted spiritual formation is not an option in seminary formation. In fact, after listening to my students and reading countless books and articles on the subject, it seems that a holistic approach to formation that addresses both academic rigor and spiritual depth is vital to the future of theological formation. And while balancing cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of seminary education is difficult and frequently elusive, balancing academic and spiritual formation is possibly a greater challenge.

With our history of focusing heavily on the intellectual development of our students, how can we provide a balanced curriculum that addresses students not just minds, but as Children of God and at the same time retain the intellectual rigor necessary for theologians? So while school is out for the summer, I find it difficult to take a mental vacation from the pressing topic of seminary formation and its impact on our students.

What do you think? If you have thoughts, ideas, or reflections on seminary formation, feel free to share them in the comments below.

College Faculty Go Postal

During the past week, there have been hundreds of articles written about the tragic faculty shooting in Alabama. One of the themes that is beginning to emerge is the mental stability of higher education faculty. Thomas Bartlett and Robin Wilson in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education opened by stating that the “Academe is often home to oddballs” and that “choosing to spend your life in a library or laboratory is, by definition, out of the ordinary.”

Jennifer Ruark in another article in the Chronicle states that “people have seized on the killings as evidence that academic life today is a petri dish for madness: The high stress of the tenure process, the pressures to be brilliant at research and teaching, the cloistered environment, the extent to which internal politics affects people’s careers—it’s a combination that could damage even psychologically healthy people.” As faculty, are our eccentricities part of the faculty persona, signs of too few social interactions, or are some of us simply nuts? Have we become the new Postal Service? Will the phrase, “Don’t make me mad or I’ll go postal” become “Don’t make me mad or I’ll go academic”?

Jennifer Ruark’s article concludes with: “The danger of insisting that the Huntsville killings had nothing to do with academic culture, says Mr. Yamada, of the New Workplace Institute, is that colleges and universities will miss an opportunity to take faculty members’ mental health more seriously.” With the growing stress of the higher ed. academic environment and the tendency to overlook anti-social behavior as being a sign of intelligence or professorial quirkiness, maybe it’s time to pay more attention to the impact of academic life not only on the students, but also on those who teach. What do you think?

Nine ‘Practices’ of the Emerging Church

The library just received a copy of “Remembering Our Future: Explorations in Deep Church” edited by Walker and Bretherton. If you are not familiar with the term “Deep Church,” it was a term apparently coined by C.S. Lewis. There is even a “Deep Church” movement that originated in the UK and is still growing. In a future post, I will explore the concept of “Deep Church” more deeply, but for know, I wanted to share a helpful summary of the nine “practices” of the emerging church as presented in “Remembering Our Future: Explorations in Deep Church.”

The nine “practices” are self-identified marks discovered by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger during their qualitative research of emerging churches. If you are unclear about what an emerging church is, Gibbs and Bolger define emerging churches as “missional communities arising from within postmodern culture and consisting of followers of Jesus who are seeking to be faithful to their place and time.” The nine “practices” are:

1. identifying with the life of Jesus and emphasizing, the kingdom of God as opposed to church or denomination
2. engagement with contemporary ’secular’ culture both at a popular and local level so that it is reflected in and transformed through worship
3. emphasizing personal relationship and community over and above institutions, structure and bureaucratic forms of organization
4. welcoming the stranger primarily in the form of humble openness to other faiths and culture at large
5. holistic service to the wider society with an emphasis on such embodied action as a gift as distinct from a consumer service or evangelistic technique
6. participating in and taking responsibility for worship as producers rather than passive consumers
7. an emphasis on art and creativity as a central part of Christian witness
8. encouraging all-member ministry and collective or team forms of leadership
9. an emphasis on spiritual disciplines and liturgical practice both individually and corporately.

I wonder what we could glean from the above nine “practices” that could be helpful for our work as confessional Lutheran pastors and layity? If one of the points jumps out, leave a comment below.

The Decline of Denominations

I thought it was interesting that the decline of denominations is attributed to the loss of denominational distinctives. The idea that denominational decline is a direct result of the failure to maintain and teach the distinctives that were the impetus for their creation is an interesting observation.

If Driscoll is right, once a denomination stops maintaining its distinctives, its congregations will seek other types of trans-congregational alliances and networks to further their mission and provide unity. It might just be the lack of coffee talking, but that sounds very familiar. Any thoughts?

It’s Good to Have Options

While I was doing my morning devotions, I was reflecting on Christian freedom and what it means for my daily life and vocation. There are those who would say that emphasizing Christian freedom will lead to an abuse of the Gospel or an attempt to eliminate the Law from the life of the Christian. As history has shown, this is a valid concern, but this morning I was less concerned about the abuse of freedom and more interested in the gift it provides - multiple options. In many ways, we are born without options for when Adam made his choice, he made it for us all.

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— ¹³for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:12-19

While this is nothing new, it struck me in a way that it I had never considered. As a Christian, I now have the option of choosing to fulfill the will of God. No longer is disobedience my only option. Because of the new life I have been given in Christ, I can choose obedience. Now I guess the struggle really begins. It’s always easier to choose when you only have one choice and the option of obedience is one that requires the strength and motivation that only the Holy Spirit can provide, but none-the-less I do have options. With all this talk about sanctification, the two kinds of righteousness, and the third use of the Law, I now realize that my new life in Christ “simply” means that I have an option that I didn’t have before - the option of saying “yes” to God’s will. The Second Adam through His obedience has given back what the First Adam through his disobedience took away. Maybe I’ve made the Christian life more complex than it needs to be. So when I am tempted to speak or act as if I don’t have any other choice, maybe I should stop and consider my options. What options do I have as a forgiven child of God that I didn’t have before? What are my options for obedience?

ELCA Council Reduces Churchwide Staff, Budgets for 2009

The ELCA has announced that it is cutting $5.6 million dollars from its budget in reaction to declining funds. While there is considerable debate about reality of a post-denominational age, it does appear that the big box denominations are suffering. The reductions will impact ministry efforts such as: campus ministry, communications, outreach, social ministry, vocational efforts, rural ministry, and new church starts. Approximately 24 positions have been eliminated as well. There was even one cutback that seemed very familiar …

“ELCA Communication Services eliminated Grace Matters, a radio ministry which has aired each week since 1947.  The action eliminated three full-time staff and two contract staff. The program’s final broadcast will be Easter, April 12.  The broadcast aired each week on nearly 180 radio stations in the United States, several European countries, plus Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.  Programs could also be heard online, and will continue to be available on the Web.”

From my perspective, I don’t mind a little denominational downsizing. I believe that corporate-based denominational structures have been too readily embraced and that the Church as the Body of Christ has become little more than a Christian corporation, but that’s just me. In many ways, I see the financial downturn as a blessing. It forces denominations to reconsider what the mission of the Church is really about. Cutting the fat, while painful for the ones who are displaced, might be what we need to remember who and whose we are before we become another corporate skeleton. I once preached a sermon in which I lamented that the Church looks more like the bride of Frankenstein than the Bride of Christ. Maybe the economic downturn is our opportunity to reclaim our God given identity and repent of our man-made corporate one.

Use Music to Develop Kids’ Skills and Character | Edutopia

There has been some discussion on the Lutheran blogs regarding the use of music as a tool of the Holy Spirit. While I am not sure about the Holy Spirit’s use of music as a tool, I do know that educators are interested in its use as a pedagogical tool. Wonder what educators are saying about the use of music in education to develop children’s skills and character. Take a look at the following article from Edutopia. Use Music to Develop Kids’ Skills and Character | Edutopia

If you are wondering what Luther thought about the importance of music, here’s a tasty little quote  …

“I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ!

I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God.

The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them…. In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits…

Our dear fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music be always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms.

This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God.

However, when man’s natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace.

A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.”

- Martin Luther

Standards-based Report Cards for Seminarians?

A New York school has traded the traditional letter grade report card system for a standards-based one: Read more

January Poll Results

January’s over and our January Featured Poll is closed. This month’s questions asked which “ship” you felt was sinking the fastest in the Lutheran church. And the winner is … Discipleship. Second place was a tie between membership and witnesship. Thanks for taking the time to vote!

Educating Caliban

What’s wrong with the American college student? Compared to their European counterparts, they have been described as “natural savages” lacking a cultural and literary heritage. If you are interested in Allan Bloom, perennialism, or simply want to see me use the word “Gesamtkunstwerk”, I offer this short critique of Allan Bloom and the American college student. Click Here to Read

Next Page »