I am attending this conference for the next few days in Claremont.

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Why “theology after Google”?

Progressive Christian theologians have some vitally important things to say, things that both the church and society desperately need to hear. The trouble is, we tend to deliver our message using technologies that date back to Gutenberg: books, academic articles, sermons, and so forth. We aren’t making effective use of the new technologies, social media, and social networking. When it comes to effective communication of message, the Religious Right is running circles around us.

Hence the urgent need for a conference to empower pastors, laypeople, and the up-and-coming theologians of the next generation to do “theology after Google,” theology for a Google-shaped world. Thanks to the Ford funding, we’ve been able to assemble a stellar team of cultural creatives and experts in the new modes of communication. We are also inviting a selection of senior theologians, and well as some of the younger theologians (call them “theobloggers”) whose use of the new media (blogging, podcasts, YouTube posts) is already earning them large followings and high levels of influence. For two and a half days, in workshops and in hands-on sessions, in lectures and over drinks, these leading figures will be at your disposal to teach you everything they know.

Excited to be with like-minded people and exercise my thinking a bit.  Must also admit I’m wondering how this conversation can stretch beyond academics and the “haves” of this world.  Will the playing field really be leveled by our postmodern reality, or further stratified by technology and wealth?  My presupposition coming in is that people WANT to be more active and include the whole body of Christ in formation and theology,  but will probably attempt to do so using new means that are not any more effective than the old ones.

They are streaming the conference

Stay tuned for posts from the conference…

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Melissa and I have never been one of those couples who consistently spend time praying together each evening.  Don’t panic!  Yes, we pray – together and alone… often.  But it’s never been a scheduled every day practice for us.  Anyone else out there in this category??

It’s been one of those areas that both of us have wanted to change.  And for years we’ve talked about it, tried all sorts of different ideas, and remained frustrated with ourselves that we couldn’t do what we actually wanted.  However, like a lot of other areas in our lives and relationship, we’re taking advantage of our sabbatical to make a change.  Change takes time to sink in, but it requires us to make consistent decisions one day at a time.

During Lent (the Church season leading up to Easter), we are committing to doing a short meditation together each evening.  We are using a resource produced by Church Resource Ministries (our missions organization).  We think this will help us establish a new rhythm, a new habit, that we want to be part of our lives.

If you are like me, it’s easy to over-plan, over-commit, and give up too soon.  That’s why I like having something we are both excited about that is do-able.  Wondering if you have things you would like to be [more] part of your life?  Doesn’t have to be something spiritual.  Can you start with something small like we are?  Would love to encourage you any way we can, so feel free to send us a message and let us know!

btw, if you are interested in CRM’s Lent devotional, you can signup online to receive the daily reflections via email here – http://www.crmleaders.org/lent/

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A while back, Arthur Paul and I came up with a creative assignment for him. He chose songs for each person in our family, then wrote about why he chose the song and how it connects to them. Sort of a creative way to express love and affirmation. I did not help him except to suggest they types of things he might want to consider in choosing a song – a highly abstract yet personal task. After long hours spread over a few months, he got it all finished and shared with the family. It blew us away. Lots of laughter and tears. Here’s what he came up with (video of the song + what he wrote to each of us):

Mairin

Mairin, I chose this song for you because you are a pretty carefree person and not many people get to experience what is listed in the song, but you’re experiencing things as adventurous as this like: chasing butterflies, sliding on ice, living in a house that we got smoke out of, and lots of other things.
The tempo makes you feel like you’re in a flowery garden or a rain swept forest, a perfect place for a girl like you to explore!

Love your older bro. A.P.S. III

Iain

http://www.theparlotones.net/

The meaning/words mainly affected my choice for your song because the words/meaning is about people’s imagination in many different ways from Dragonflies to Astronauts. The tempo and feeling just reminds me of you in sooooooooooooooooo many different ways. Like the times you pretend to be a puffle, my dog, even my cat. It connects with you because you just have such a colossal imagination and it feels like the singer is talking about you.
Love, your older bro.
A.P.S. III

Melissa

http://www.aradhnamusic.com
(this is a beautiful sanskrit worship song about Jesus)

The line “Full of delightful qualities, yet beyond comprehension.” Reminded me of you because you have the great qualities such as: patience, love, compassion, focus, never ending energy, and of course you being a great cook!
The tempo is slow, but speeds up like the events happening in your/our lives.
I think it connects with you because these are all adjectives describing the person you help people to know.

Love, your oldest son
A.P.S. III

Arthur (dad)

http://www.itsmorrisseysworld.com/index.php

The tempo makes me feel like if you had a guitar solo it would be like this
I think this song connects with you because like in the song you have parts of you from different cultures.
Your oldest son,
A.P.S. III

Great job Arthur Paul.  We all felt love and valued by the time and heart you put into this on our behalf.

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I have a number of things I have half-written recently.  These include insightful cultural observations, humorous anecdotes, heart-warming family moments, what I’m learning, what we’ve been up to, and updates on what’s next for us.  I really want to get a bunch of these posts/articles/emails finished because they are important to me (and I think to many of you).  But…

• I usually have my best ideas either in the shower or at the gym – both places where I can’t write anything down as it crosses heart or mind
• I have talked about aspects of all of these with enough people that I don’t want to sit down and recap for everyone else
• I can be a bit of an idealist/perfectionist, so I want to consider every angle and put in every thought related to what I am writing about
• I’ve been struggling to sit and write – too many other things to do!
• I only have self-imposed deadlines, so it is easy to keep putting them off

BUT, I  want to get some of these off my to-do list AND really do need to get some of this on paper – for my sake and yours!  So, you can help me, dear reader, by sending me a message/email/comment along the lines of, “I would really like to hear about…” or “what was that thing you mentioned related to…”  Yes, I am asking for a bit of external motivation

thank you!

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I’m learning to live better in the time/space between… aka “now.”  This is a strange place for me.  I tend to clarify and plan for what is ahead, then move toward that.  “Without a vision, the people perish.”  Generally, this is an acceptable practice.  However, I find that I can be too focused on what lies ahead, ignoring or minimizing the present (especially when it doesn’t fit with the future I see).  Further, it is easy for people to become secondary to plans.  Never my intention, but too common when I get so focused on the future that  achieving it becomes my only aim.

Part of what makes my sabbatical so good for me is the necessity to live in the now.  Yes, this time will end and we will move into the next season soon enough.  And yes, we will have to do certain things – even make a few plans – to begin the next adventure.  But for now, I am living where I am.  Spending lots of times with my wife and kids.  Seeing friends.  Reading.  Resting.  Getting caught up.  I believe all this and more will indeed prepare me for what’s next.  But I’m not doing all this SIMPLY TO GET READY, as if this is only a means to an end.  It is all good for what it is.

Hear me – I’m not just biding my time or waiting until something better comes along.  I am enjoying each day for what it is.  True, it’s not my dream place or situation.  But there is so much I CAN enjoy.  I am reminded of when Jesus ascended to heaven in Acts 1 and his disciples were looking into the sky where he had disappeared.  Two men in white (angels?) appeared to them and said, “men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?”  In other words, get on with life.  Not because Jesus isn’t coming back.  He is.  But there’s a lot of life to be had in the meantime.  Don’t just wait around for the future to arrive.

Every day matters:

• a habit can change
• a word can lift someone’s spirits
• an accident can be prevented
• something big can be accomplished
• decisions can be made that affect everything else
• a million moments take place that will never come again

God wants us to live now.  Yes, there’s forever too.  But it doesn’t start when we die.  It’s starts now.

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Doing anything new with the start of 2010?  On one level, I am looking at this year as an opportunity to start everything new…. moving to a new city, loving my wife and children as if for the first time, new ministry.  But on the very specific level, I am committing to read the Bible through again during the year.

I am severely restricting the making of new plans for my life because I generally do that too much.  I make plans.  I have sets of plans, often overlapping.  I have so many plans that I take a stab at several and succeed at few.  And they are all good plans!  Then I feel bad that I am not following through with all my good plans…

Furthermore, I am realizing how much I lean toward always adding new things, never stopping negative things.  I have a friend who says that all of life is starting some things while stopping others.  The Bible describes this as putting off and putting on (Ephesians 4).  I like the putting on part – fits with planning.  Problem is, you can’t keep adding and adding without making room AND getting rid of the stuff you don’t want.  It’s like having a bucket with some sediment in the bottom, and thinking that if you keep adding more and more of what you want, it will push the bad stuff out.  It doesn’t work that way though!  You have to get that crap out – my mechanic calls this a system flush.  You can’t just keep adding radiator fluid.  At some point, you have to clean out the whole system to eliminate the dregs.

I know this, but I don’t do it enough.  I need to.  In a way, this is one of the things God is doing in my life during this sabbatical – helping me clean out all the junk.  Not just adding new good stuff, but doing the hard work of rooting/tearing out what needs to go.  Sometimes painful – yes.  But cleansing and good.  I think this is one aspect of “working out your salvation” as the Apostle Paul calls it (Philippians 2).  There is work to be done – work of making ourselves available to our loving God to change us.  And often this change means getting rid of the things that get between us, Him, and our destiny.

I see it with my children more easily than myself.  I can see what they need to stop doing in order to start doing the better thing.  I am learning to better identify this in myself, and respond to others who help me to do the same.  I am sad that this doesn’t come more naturally for me, or that I don’t more readily embrace the input of others.  God has put so many people into my life that can aid in the process, and I still seem to resist at times.  But I am growing.

I am also facing the disconcerting (frightening?) truth that the great joy in life I have always craved doesn’t come through my schemes, but through a much more simple, humble, unassuming life.  This would seem to require cleaning house, wouldn’t it?  So for now, this is what I am committed to.  Yes, God has put a few pictures into my mind, and I am excited about what is ahead.  But I am holding these loosely and avoiding working out all the specifics…. at least for now

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Due to my self-imposed ban on new book purchases and my family’s voracious reading appetite and therefore constant trips to the library, I decided to look up some books from my Amazon wish list on the Fresno County Public Library’s website.  I scored on this one – It’s Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian by Samir Selmanovic.  This book was published in September 2009 and I just got to read it for free from the library!  I have to tell you, I liked it so much I am going to buy it.

I will spare you a book-report-style summary except to say the book relates the author’s journey of faith, focusing especially on family, culture (he is originally from Croatia), and religion.  Each of these are significant and Selmanovic weaves these throughout his book so well that I can only ask that you read the book to hear his heart for and in each.  We also find the postmodern pillars of the call to embrace God and honestly face our uncertainty at the same time, not making our own religion an idol in place of the God our religion follows, and the value each religion can bring when we enter into meaningful dialogue.  While these are no longer revolutionary ideas to me, the author does a good job of providing relevant story and insight to these fundamental concepts.  You’ll have to read the book for all this good stuff.

The 2 parts that I DO want to talk more about are areas that have challenged my own heart.

The first is a fundamental question to my faith (and I suppose all others), but one that we spend too little time attending to, or answer too quickly.  Q: What was Jesus promising to his followers?  If you’ve been involved in this Christianity thing for a while, you recognize that your answer to this question might differ from what you first believed (or were taught.  When you read Jesus, he talks about being without a home, seeing disruption in the state of our relationships, being persecuted…The author says it this way of Jesus… “Follow me and you might be happy – or you might not.  Follow me and you might be empowered – or you might not.  Follow me and you might have the answers – or you might not.  Follow me and you might be better off – or you might not.  If you follow me you might be worse off in every way you use to measure life.  Follow me nevertheless.  Because I have an offer that is worth giving up everything you have” (p. 210).  My experience would agree with Selmonovic’s reading of Jesus’ call.  What does Jesus say we will get from following him?  Learning to love well.

Would you trade everything in exchange for learning to love?  I am haunted by this question for several reasons.  First, I do not love as well as I would like.  If that is the point, what have I been doing instead?  Not that doing it perfectly is the validation, but it should at least be a main focus.  Loving God, loving my wife, my kids, those I am responsible for, those I work with, the needy right in front of me.  There is no shortage of opportunity!  Do I see each person as an opportunity to learn to love? AND, am I helping others in the same pursuit?  Are my means of discipleship, training, mentoring, or simply relating actually helping others learn to love well????

I want this to be true – more true of my life.  I feel like I am on this path, especially right now during our time of Sabbatical.  What does it mean to remain on this path regardless of place, job, or other responsibilities?  What I love about this call is that it deals with life now.  My focus is not on a reward that comes later.  Rather, it has affect on my life, and the lives of others, now.  I need this.

The second part of the book that relates quite a bit to some of what God is teaching me concerns how we go about “doing.”  This is very significant to me as I learn to separate my sense of value, being loved, and identity from what I accomplish.  In a sense, it’s basic and I would espouse and teach that.  But I am only BEGINNING to truly believe and live by this truth.  The author, also a vocational minister, relates that ever since becoming a Christian, he has been taught to give, love, minister, care.  This is what we are supposed to do, right?  So, he asks, why isn’t this working?  “Since we have been teaching and acting in our Christian churches to love others and to organize others and to organize our lives to love others, how curious, I thought, that polls report that non-Christians perceive Christians as not loving!  How can that possibly be?” (p. 240).  His answer speaks right to me.  We don’t really love because we don’t know how to receive.  In other words, we are not willing to let others affect us, especially in areas (like about God) that matter.  We like to give because givers are in control.  We bless because blessers are in control.  “To receive, on the other hand, means to lose something.  Everyone wants to teach and no one wants to learn.”

For me, I can only be in a position to receive when I don’t equate my value with what I do.  How could I?  If what I know, accomplish, and teach is what gives me my identity, how could I possibly take myself out of the driver’s seat?  And so, as I am learning (again) who I am (and am not), I can be with you and just be.  I can hear.  I can learn.  I can change.  Heck, I can RELATE without trying to fix you.  I want that, and am pretty sure that you do too.  So, when I am with you, I give you permission to check that.  Am I with you, or just trying to “help” you?  I feel like God is really teaching/changing me.  I hope you experience me more this way and invite you to let me know how I am doing.

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A little something for Christmas Eve/Day.  You can use this simple reflection by yourself or with friends.

What you need

• 4 candles that are the same color (for the four weeks of Advent’s expectation of Jesus), 1 candle that is a different color (representing Christ, the fulfillment)

Light all of the candles.  Our focus this time is on the center candle, differently colored to represent that Christ (the one we have been anticipating) has come. Keep them lit throughout your time, and you may re-light them throughout the week if you set aside special time for prayer.
Bonus points if you can keep them in the same space over the next weeks, preferably somewhere you can see them and be reminded of your commitment to focus on Jesus this season.

• Some paper and writing/drawing things

Begin

Say a prayer to focus your attention on Jesus and asking Him to meet you during this time.

Read

the story of Jesus’ birth (either Matthew 1: 18-2:18 or Luke 1:26-2:40)
Pause to reflect on the significance of this story for you.

Read

One of Jesus’ descriptions of why he came in Luke 4:16-21.  He is reading from the Isaiah passage we have been looking at during this Advent season.

Draw

a picture of something you are still hoping for, something that is yet unfulfilled this Christmas.
Let this picture serve as symbol of your heart’s cry to God.

Pray

the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9-13/Luke 11:2-4)

Our Father in the heavens,
Holy is your name!
May your Kingdom come into being,
and your will be done,
on earth as it is in the heavens.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts,
as we are forgiving those with debts against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom, and power, and glory forever.
Amen!

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Sunday marks the 4th and final Sunday of Advent.  A reading and some thoughts for you.  Enjoy!
(btw, there will be one further meditation for Christmas Eve/Day coming in the next few days…)

Intro

Our last look at Isaiah 61 as we prepare for Jesus’ coming.  We have heard who he will be, what he will do, and how it will affect our lives.  Now, our response: worship.

This week: Sunday, December 20

What you need

• 4 candles that are the same color (for the four weeks of Advent’s expectation of Jesus), 1 candle that is a different color (representing Christ, the fulfillment)

Light all four of the similar candles as you begin.  Three represent the previous weeks.  The other is for this week – week 4.  Keep them lit throughout your time, and you may re-light them throughout the week if you set aside special time for prayer.
Bonus points if you can keep them in the same space over the next weeks, preferably somewhere you can see them and be reminded of your commitment to focus on Jesus this season.

• A few favorite Christmas songs (the Jesus kind, not the jingle bells sort…at least for our purposes here)

Begin

Say a prayer to focus your attention on Jesus and asking Him to meet you during this time.

Sing a favorite Christmas song (even if you aren’t a star singer.  It’s ok, make it

Read Isaiah 61:10-11

Reflect

What a beautiful picture.  Our Messiah did not come to act out some abstract concept of healing.

• Take a moment and picture yourself clothed with salvation.
• Feel God wrapping you in a robe of righteousness.
• You are his beloved!

Look again at verse 11.
I think we are the soil in which God grows this sprout.
Every one of us who lets Jesus be born into our lives are gardens for the Lord’s work.
In us, righteousness and praise spring up among the nations.

Do

Sing another favorite Christmas song (or two) in response.  Worship Jesus and prepare yourself again for his coming.

Pray

• Pray that Jesus would grow in you.
• Pray for those who need Jesus’ salvation.

In the upcoming week

Sing!  Sing all week.  Invite Jesus more and more into your heart.

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