Amicus Dei

As 2007 comes to a close, here are The Top 10 Posts on Amicus Dei for 2007 —

1. Why I Preach From The Lectionary — This post recently was picked up by the Religious Herald and quoted by Baptists Today.  More of us Baptists are realizing the wisdom of following the Christian Year, and preaching from the revised common lectionary. 
2. A Baptist Using Prayer Beads — Another odd thing for a Baptist preacher to do, use prayer beads.  But there they are.  Sadly, the beads in the photo broke this year and some went missing.  My other set  is hanging here at my desk now. 
3. The Church as Abbey — This is the first post I did on the-church-as-abbey concept.  Several more followed with lots of comments and interest over the year. 
4. Prayer for the Wandering Heart — This is one of my favorites because I was living the poem’s story. 
5. Doing Justice:  Don Imus Has To Go — Remember the Imus affair?  Off the airwaves in disgrace.  Less than a year later, he’s back.  With the same guests.  But hopefully not the same tired routine.
6. Where Is God?  — Portion of a sermon I preached after the killings at Virginia Tech.  ChristianityToday.com picked it up on their site.
7. Groundbreaking for The Community Center — Two years of work came together as 40-kids donned "hardhats" and kid-size shovels to break ground for our new community center here in Chatham.  We’ll move in April, 2008.  I’ll keep you posted.
8. Why Are We Putting Children in Prison? — I was stunned by this story of the incarceration of young children and their mothers who came to the US seeking asylum.  Thankfully the ACLU won a lawsuit, and now these same children who are still in prison can have teddy bears and crayons.  What happened to give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free? 
9. Mother Teresa and the dark night of the soul — my take on the controversy surrounding the publication of Mother Teresa’s memoirs, and her confession that Christ seemed far from her.
10. Nothing Personal — a true story of friends of ours and their encounter with anti-Semitism now and as history. 

So there they are — the top 10 from 2007.  I hope this year has been good for you.  See you next year!   — Amicus Dei 

Watch this video of Daniel Goleman’s TED talk about why we are sometimes compassionate and sometimes not.  This is a great follow-up to my post "I Can’t Care About Everything."  Goleman is the author of Emotional Intelligence, and this is worth your time.  Good stories illustrate his point that we are compassionate when we notice those in need.  — Amicus Dei

It could have been on a picture postcard, this little country church with the old church bell.  Perched on a hill overlooking the little village, across the valley from the old town cemetery, the church looked like a painting by Currier and Ives.  I had been appointed the pastor of this small congregation just a few weeks before Thanksgiving.   A couple of weeks later, one of the ladies announced at the Sunday School assembly, "It’s time to start rehearsing for the Christmas play." 

I thought it was well past time, but they seemed unconcerned.  And so it began like a thousand other small churches in a thousand other small villages.  Shepherds in bathrobes, wisemen with gold-painted gifts, a homemade manger, a babydoll Jesus, and a young couple playing Mary and Joseph. 

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Thanks to Steve Collins at small ritual for this great set of slides on flickr titled urban church set.  I had posted some of Steve’s work earlier here — his design for a meeting space for new expressions of church.  That was on the micro level, urban church set is the macro level. 

Steve sees the whole community as a potential set — venue, stage, space — for the church.  This is a wonderfully reimagined version of the Celtic church-as-abbey as a multi-structure village.  Only in Steve’s version, which I really like, he takes public and private spaces and repurposes them for "church" — which gets loosely, but relevantly defined depending on the experience going on in a space.  You have to see the slide show to get the idea, but this is the first really good undestanding I’ve seen of this concept.  Thanks, Steve! 

Oh, check out Steve’s other stuff, too.  Creative guy.  – Amicus Dei

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare?  Well, it’s back and reimagined just in time for the 21st century.  Thanks to Kevin Kelly for the link to the slow movement. Slow is the new fast — as in slow food, slow travel, slow cities, slow schools, slow books, slow living, and slow everything else.  But before you quickly shout, "I don’t have time for slow" — here’s the bottom line:

Slow is about connecting again to people, places, food, and life.  The trend is to simplify your life, focusing on real (hence, slow) experiences.

Here’s help for navigating the world of slow:

• downshifting — "Downshifters are people who adopt long-term voluntary simplicity in their life. They accept less money through fewer hours worked in order to have time for the important things in life."
• connection — "We are searching for connection. We want connection to people – ourselves, our family, ourcommunity, our friends, – to food, to place (where we live), and to life. We want connection to all that it means to live – we want to live a connected life."
• natural rhythms — Slow living means finding the natural rhythms of our lives based on nature’s rhythms.  In other times and cultures, these natural rhythms were celebrated by the community, and slow living seeks to reconnect with the rhythm of life.
• the manual — There’s even a book, In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore, which is the bible of the slow movement.

Which brings me to church.  Church, that classically slowest-of-slow institutions has finally caught up to the world of fast, only to find that people really want slow.  Slow meaning real, face-to-face, high quality, made-by-us, where-everybody-knows-your-name kind of thing.   

Here’s the slow making manifesto, an example of how craftspersons and artisans might become slow:

1.To strive for appropriate excellence in the making process

2. To make objects that enhance the life of the user

3. To know the origins of our materials, ensuring that they respect country; the communities who produced or harvested them and are from sustainable sources

4. To make objects that will last, can be easily repaired when necessary and are made using materials and processes that do not harm the makers, the community or the environment

5. To deal with our co-workers, clients, suppliers and sellers in an ethical and fair manner

6. To foster, utilise and pass on skills that enhance the making process

7. To enjoy and relish the way of slow making

This might be a good approach for a church to adopt.  Especially Number 7: To enjoy and relish the way of slow making.  – Amicus Dei

Item 1:  Fox News reports that a church in Austin, Texas withdrew as host to a community Thanksgiving service because non-Christians would be participating.  The church said, according to Fox –

"The event was cancelled when Hyde Park Baptist Church became aware via a postcard on Monday afternoon, November 12th, that the event was not a Christian oriented event," the statement said. "The postcard promised space for Muslim Maghrib prayer and revealed that the event was co-hosted by the Central Texas Muslimaat, the Forum of Muslims for Unity, and the Institute of Interfaith Dialog … The church cannot provide space for the practice of these non-Christian religions on church property." — Fox News report

Interestingly, the church touts its International Ministry on its website. 

Item 2:  The Evangelical Theological Society is considering a rewrite of its doctrinal statement after the embarassing reversion of its former president, Francis Beckwith, to the faith of his childhood, Roman Catholicism.  ABP reported the story this way –

…two of the society’s members have put forth a proposal to tighten the document into a more specifically evangelical declaration of theology — something a Catholic, say, couldn’t sign in good conscience. But other society members worry it may signal the beginning of an inquisition at an already-turbulent period in the society’s life. — ABP, Hannah Elliott

Item 3:  TED Talks just announced its new winners for this year.  A scientist, Neil Turok, who thinks that the Big Bang was a violent event in an already existing universe; Dave Eggers who, among many other things, teaches children to write; and Karen Armstrong, author of 20 books including A History of God.  Smart people, all three, with great implications for the future of church.

So, what is my point here?  While lots of evangelicals are circling the wagons, popular culture (TED.com) is celebrating people who are exploring creation, art, and faith in ways that bring respect and openness to the conversation.  What are we afraid of?  If we are afraid that someone, somewhere will discover something that calls our faith into question, maybe our faith is misplaced.  Fear is not the stuff of faith. 

After 9/11, NYFD firefighters were hailed as those who ran toward the World Trade Center while others were running away.  Christians, it seems to me, must run toward God’s diverse world in love, not away from it in fear.  – Amicus Dei 

Forget everything you know about church.  Specifically that you plant a church, gather a crowd, buy property, build buildings, and plan to stay in business until Jesus comes — or in the case of those whose theology does not include the rapture — longer. 

Enter some reallly innovative retailers who forgot everything they knew about the concept of store.  Everything, as in store always means a permanent building, and a plan to stay in business until Jesus comes so they can sell the T-shirts. 

According to PSFK, trend consultants, stores are now being dropped into New York City in shipping containers.  These pop-up stores are the brainchild of Uniqlo, a very hip retailer, who will drop these shipping container stores into the very trendy NYC… 

"…according to Women’s Wear Daily. As a precursor to the October opening of Uniqlo’s 36,000-sq.-ft. flagship in SoHo, the container stores will operate every weekend until the flagship opens."

Kind of like those banks that have the cheesy trailer location until the real bank is built.  But only cooler.  But wait, there’s more!  illy, the Italian coffee people, created a pop-up store in a park.  The sides drop down to reveal a very nice little coffee bistro kind of thing.  I wish we had one here in Chatham. 

And finally, Comme de Garcons opens guerilla stores…

"Each shop stays open for one year only, and advertising is limited to posters and word-of-mouth. The locations for these CDG hit-and-runs are always in gentrified neighborhoods – the new Williamsburgs or Hoxtons of the world’s emerging cities."

All of this is very much like my post on Opawa Baptist Church in New Zealand where Steve Taylor, author of The Out of Bounds Church, is the pastor.  Opawa and their arts partners dropped shipping containers of Christmas art around their community for a new expression of the Christmas story.  Steve Taylor’s article, When Art Comes To Town:  Reflection on Art As Public Mission is a great resource for reimaging the impact a church can have.    Church doesn’t have to be permanent, or even built.  Any thoughts on other ways to do guerilla church?  – Amicus Dei

I just discovered reallivepreacher.com and Covenant Baptist Church.  Which is a lot like Columbus saying, "I just discovered America" while about a zillion native Americans look on.  So, to answer the questions on your lips — "I do not know where I’ve been" and "Yes, I’m sure everyone else in the universe knows about rlp except me." 

Having said that, I really like this guy.  Thanks to Paul Soupiset for sharing Gordon’s writing on his blog.  And I like this church, of which Gordon is the pastor.  Here’s the practical side of me — I like their website/blog because it gives you a real, unapologetic sense of who they are.  Like looking in a window, or over their shoulders while they go about doing church. 

I love their space and their "this-is-what-we-do" approach.  So for all of you who already know these folks and reallivepreacher.com, I’m joining your ranks.  And, I’m changing my philosophy of what our website should be — more like a journal than an brochure.  A window into our communal life.  Stay tuned. – Amicus Dei

Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, wrote in his book Being Peace –

"There is a lot of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding in the peace movement.  The peace movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet able to write a love letter."

"Can the peace movement talk in loving speech, showing the way for peace?  I think that will depend on whether the people in the peace movement can be peace.  Because withoug being peace, we cannot do anything for peace."  Being Peace, pgs81-82 [emphasis mine]

Thich Nhat Hanh’s point is that until we can incarnate peace — be peace — to the world around us, even those with whom we disagree, we cannot bring peace.   Hannh suggests that we write love letters instead of protest letters "to the Congress or to the president of the United States that they will want to read, and not just throw away." 

Not long after I read Nhat Hanh’s book, I bought Mohandas Ghandi:  Essential Writings.  Included in  this book of excerpts from Ghandi’s writing is a letter Ghandi wrote to Adolf Hitler in 1939.  It reads in part –

"It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state.  Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be?  Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success? Any way, I anticipate your forgiveness, if I have erred in writing to you."  — pg 179

Although Ghandi preceded Nhat Hanh, he understood the idea that Nhat Hanh would later put forth — that writing love letters, not protest letters — is a part of being peace.  Suppose each of us decided to be peace in each sphere of our lives — to write our own love letters of peace to our families, friends, denominational leaders, church members, and our community.  To be peace, rather than just work for peace. 

Incarnational is a big buzzword in the missional conversation.  Why can’t we start incarnating peace, by being peace?  By writing love letters to those from whom we are estranged or with whom we disagree.  Isn’t that what God did by sending Jesus and giving us scripture? – Amicus Dei

The New York Times reports today that the federal prison system is purging its chapel libraries of selected books on faith, allowing only 150 approved titles per religious group to remain.  Chaplains have been ordered to remove all but the approved texts in this project called, Standardized Chapel Library Project. 

The "board of censors" remains anonymous, and no criteria for how the approved titles were selected has been forthcoming.  The NY Times obtained a list of approved titles from a person opposed to the project.  The graphic, courtesy of nytimes.com, shows 5 well-respected authors whose names have not been included on the list of approved volumes — Robert Schuller, Reinhold Niebhur, Karl Barth, Avery Dulles, and Yves Congar. 

Freedom of Religion

Baptists have long held that freedom of religion — freedom from government interference in religion — is critical to the unfettered practice of faith.  We believe that freedom should extend to all persons of all faiths, even persons in prison.  While the government does have an interest in screening out books and resources that incite to violence or terrorism, our government seems to have gone much further in prescribing an exclusive list of books and prohibiting all others.

Missional communities proclaim freedom 

How this impacts prison ministries, chaplains’ freedom to reference unapproved materials, and prisoners’ access to texts that did not make the list remains to be seen.  Prisoners have filed a class-action suit to block this government interference in religious practice.  The question for missional communities is — do we care if prisoners have access to books on faith?  Granted, reasonable precautions must be taken, but this is an extreme intrusion of government into the realm of faith.

Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
      because he has anointed me
      to preach good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
      and recovery of sight for the blind,
   to release the oppressed,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."  — Luke 4:18-19 NIV

Freedom is a precious gift.  Will those of us who claim to be friends of God on the mission of God seek to proclaim freedom for the prisoners? — Amicus Dei