Archive for January 2007
Hospitality and worship
"In the church, showing hospitality to a stranger is less a matter of making the stranger feel at home and more a matter of opening one’s private world to the stranger. In fact, it is a matter of opening one’s private world to a public one, of gaining the competence to participate in the customs of public life, of learning to enjoy life among strangers."
— Welcoming the Stranger: A Public Theology of Worship and Evangelism by Patrick R. Keifert, page 8.
With this quote, Patrick Keifert, associate professor at Luther Northwestern Seminary, reminds us that real hospitality is not the sentimental, "you’re my new best friend," focusing on the experience of the guest in our midst. Rather real hospitality is about us opening ourselves and our private lives to the stranger. The stranger may not become our best friend, but she will find a sincere welcome that leaves space for her own comfort.
Worship and the community of friends of God
"Ulitmately, the goal of Christian worship is to create and sustain a community of friends of God who precisely because they are friends of God commit themselves to embodying and proclaiming and practicing the ways of God’s reign in the world. Such a life is not without risk — the faith of the martyrs attests this — but it is the vocation of the friends of God, a vocation into which we are initiated as we learn and practice the ways of Jesus, the perfect embodiment and exemplar of friendship with God."
– Paul J. Wadell, Becoming Friends: Worship, Justice, and the Practice of Christian Friendship , page 17.
Three converging streams
Remember the scene in Ghostbusters where Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis point their proton gun nozzles toward the flying green ectoplasm running amok in the library? Before pulling the triggers on their phantasm-frying devices, they warn each other, "Don’t cross the streams!" Of course, they cross the streams and some exciting special effects result. Which reminds me of what is happening in the reimagining church world right now. Three streams of thought and praxis are seeking the new vision for the church in the 21st century — emerging, missional, and ancient-future. And if that is not enough, CT just ran an article on Five Streams of the Emerging Church, so the big streams have little streams.
A Baptist using prayer beads
To people who are not Roman Catholic, one of the mysteries of Catholicism is the rosary. The rosary in the Catholic tradition has a whole theology behind it, but the simplest definition of a rosary is "prayer beads." A couple of years ago I was exploring the whole ancient/future thing and became intrigued by prayer beads. I discovered Anglican prayer beads, developed by an Anglican priest as an aid to prayer, and offering the same guidance and focus that the rosary offers for Catholics. I also discovered that prayer beads, prayer ropes, and other aids to prayer are ancient practices with origins in Egypt and Ethiopia.
Prayers for everything
Celtic Christianity fascinates me. Part of my interest is my own Scots-Irish heritage, but I just like the whole Celtic thing. I like the story of Patrick, taken as a slave to Ireland where he tended sheep like David, praying and singing under the night sky. One night God gave him a dream and he walked his way to freedom and found his way home. Then, in that strange twist of providence understood only by Providence, Patrick had a "Macedonian" vision of an Irishman calling for "the shepherd boy" to come and save them. Patrick devoted the rest of his life to bringing the Gospel to the Irish, and there are extraordinary stories of his courage and compassion. In addition to the stories, I like the folksiness of Celtic Christianity, too.
Why I preach from the lectionary
I am a Baptist. Each Sunday I preach from the texts of the revised common lectionary. What’s wrong with this picture?
These are not contradictory statements, believe it or not. Although I come from a free church, and not a liturgical tradition, I choose my preaching text each Sunday from the revised common lectionary. Here’s why:
iPhone and the future of church
I watched Steve Jobs introduce the new iPhone last night. Of course, Jobs had already introduced it live a couple of days ago, but thru the miracle of the "internets," as the President says, I watched the video. Jobs was "preaching to the choir" — 4,000 Apple-geeks who hung on his every word, interrupted with applause, and sat mesmerized by his presentation. Jobs said, "Today Apple is reinventing the phone."
Which got me to thinking about the future of the church, so I’ve created a new category, FutureChurchNow. I’ll be speculating in this category about what the church of tomorrow might look like based on trends of today. Here are some first thoughts:
The pursuit of God in the company of friends
"I have described house church as the pursuit of God in the company of friends, and so it is. At the end of the day, house church isn’t about evangelism or any other activity. House church is the pursuit of God in the company of other "children of the burning heart" whose greatest desire is intimacy and fellowship with God and with one another."
– Maurice Smith, Parousia Newsletter
Nerd Theology
Kevin Kelly may be the smartest man in the world. At least one of its most creative thinkers. I just discovered Kevin a few days ago and am blown-away by his site, the stuff he is doing, and the way he thinks. In addition, Kevin is a Christian — converted on a trip to Israel and he has an audio clip on his site with that story. Here is Kevin Kelly’s short bio, off his own website, www.kk.org –
The democratization of everything
Yesterday, Gregg, our Boys and Girls club director, came into my office. "Do we have any software to block access to websites?" he asked. Our Boys and Girls Club members were apparently surfing sites they shouldn’t be.
"Yeah, Scott put that on each computer a couple of months ago," I replied.
"Well, it’s gone now," Gregg said.
