Happy Birthday, J.K.!

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, was born this day, July 31, 1965.

Rowling is a member of the Church of Scotland. She once said, "I believe in God, not magic." Early on she felt that if readers knew of her Christian beliefs, they would be able to "guess what is coming in the books." ( according to Michael Nelson, February 25, 2002 in "Fantasia: The Gospel According to C.S. Lewis." The American Prospect. )

The best perspective I have ever read on Harry Potter was an article by Alan Jacobs in the January, 2000 issue of First Things, entitled " Harry Potter's Magic." Read it here

Meanwhile, Happy Birthday, Jo. I'm on page 575--eager to see how things finish, and hating to see it end. Thanks for all the fun.

Stability

Jan Bros has pointed us to a wonderful blog describing the Benedictine Way of stability, obedience, and conversion of life. Over the next few days I want to offer some highlights from Fr. Longenecker's blog and my reflections on them. So here goes.

On stability, (Thursday, June 28, 2007)

"The vow of stability means the monk promises to remain in one community for life. He commits himself to one family of monks, one place, one set of buildings, one way of life. The whole point is to stop him doing 'a geographical'. He's not allowed to run away. Stability teaches us that God is not elsewhere. We'll find him here. We'll find him now, or we won't find him anyhow...Stability is serious, quiet, humble and serene. Stability eschews the remarkable, the phantasmagoical, the stupendous and the charismatic. Stability says, 'Stop, Look and Listen.' God is here. Christ is knocking at the door. "

Eugene Peterson must be a closet Benedictine, because this reminds me of him. Peterson pastored Christ Our King Presbyterian church for 29 years. 29 years! According to three different research groups, the average American pastor only lasts five years at a church!

If emergents can overcome their prenatal exposure to a culture of consumption, this statistic may change. What would happen if we looked at churches not as malls catering to spiritual consumers but as Family farms? I'm thinking here of a parallel to Gerald O'Hara's admonition to his daughter:

"Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts."

Replace "land" with Church, understood incarnationally as Christ's Body, and Body of Christ understood concretely as "community... one family...one place, one set of buildings, one way of life."

Of course, the Benedictine way is not the only way to follow the Way. Its success depends upon a community of believers who vow to incarnate or (at least) mutually value stability as a cynosure for Jesus.

I took the Myers-Briggs personality inventory last week, and I am definitely not a person who is enchanted by the "remarkable, the phantasmagoical, the stupendous and the charismatic." No doubt such persons have an important place in the Kingdom; but theirs is a different way from mine. And Peterson's. And St. Benedict's.

Lord, you have made me what You wanted me to be. Help me to acept that and be able to live it out faithfully for You.

At Millenium Park

On Thursday, Jan and I took the train in from her home in Wheaton to Chicago to go to the Art Institute. Before entering, she showed me the new Millenium Park, just outside the museum. It was a hot day, and the crowd around the Crown Fountain was delighted to be able to splash-dance.
Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, the fountain features light, water and video images reflected off glass bricks. Water cascades down, continously, but every so often the faces purse their lips and WHOOSH! Out comes a concentrated spray of water like a firehose. The kids were ecstatic, and watching them made me want to be five again!

Then we moved on to Anish Kapoor's 110 ton, 66 foot long/33 foot high elliptical sculpture, the Cloud Gate.

In comparison to Calder's Flamingo at the Federal Center Plaza and the Daley Center's Picasso sculpture , I think Cloud Gate is something for the city to celebrate. It's much more engaging--wonderfully reflecting the skyline behind you as you face it.

Kudos to Mayor Daley and the people of Chicago for creating an important and inviting public space. It will be even more widely appreciated when you welcome the world for the 2016 Olympic games! (grin)

At the Art Institute of Chicago

Last Thursday Jan and I took the train in to Chicago to go to the Art Institute. What a fabulous time we had! Jan was my personal guide, helping me to see the artwork not only historically, but from an artist's eye "I can only handle one Rembrandt at a time," she said, rapt before The Old Man with a Gold Chain. Or before Chagall's The Praying Jew: "Look, he's painted one eye looking upward, and one eye looking outward." Or her disappointment that there were no Rothkos available: "I love those blockes of color. I wanted to be able to share them with you."

Jan, we may not have been able to share Rothko, but we shared so much more together last week! Thank you, and thank God for you.

Francisco de Zurbarán
The Crucifixion.
1627
Oil on canvas


Sano di Pietro,

Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome, Bernardino of Siena, and Angels
1450/60
Tempera on panel



Rembrandt, Old Man with a Gold Chain.
c.1631
Oil on panel
Claude Monet,

Water Lilies.
1906
Oil on canvas

Marc Chagall,
The Praying Jew.
1923
copy of a 1914 work
Oil on canvas







Marc Chagall
White Crucifixion
1938
Oil on canvas

Dieric Bouts

Mater Dolorosa (Sorrowing Madonna).1470/75
Oil on oak panel


Constantin Brâncusi, Suffering. 1907
Bronze

HUMOR: Emergent-see Motivational Posters

via Brad: "You've got to admit that there is at least some truth in the parodies. And so far the emerging church folk are laughing -- which is a sign of health."

Need something to pray about?

Look here

Authoritative Communities and Kids who are Hard-wired to Connect

"Authoritative community? " That's sure to scare some people! But don't tune out just yet. (Note: we're talking authoritative, not authoritarian!)

In 2003 the Dartmouth Medical school released their Commission on Children at Risk report Dr. Robert Brooks summarizes the report here. I find Brooks's description of "authoritative community" to be helpful, and I pray that as VCC considers the future direction of our youth ministry, we will not be afraid to reflect on how we can provide better "authoritative" community to our youth.

A thought-provoking report was recently released that provides further evidence of the significant role of connections in addressing and preventing an array of childhood problems. The report, “Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities,” was prepared by the Commission on Children at Risk, a group comprised of 33 prominent children’s doctors, research scientists, and mental health and youth service professionals. The Commission details the problems faced by children in the United States, casting the spotlight on the lack of connections in the lives of these youngsters.

The report, which may be purchased by going to http://www.americanvalues.org/
, notes that the crisis in our youth involves the following two areas:

“The first part is the deteriorating mental and behavioral health of U.S. children. We are witnessing high and rising rates of depression, anxiety, attention deficit, conduct disorders, thoughts of suicide, and other serious mental, emotional, and behavioral problems among U.S. children and adolescents.

“The second part is how we as a society are thinking about this deterioration. We are using medications and psychotherapies. We are designing more and more special programs for ‘at risk’ children. These approaches are necessary but they are not enough. Why? Because programs in individual risk-assessment and treatment seldom encourage us, and can even prevent us, from recognizing as a society the broad environmental conditions that are contributing to growing numbers of suffering children.”

The Commission then raises the question, “What’s causing the crisis?” Their answer is direct and specific: “In large measure, what’s causing this crisis of American childhood is a lack of connectedness. We mean two kinds of connectedness—close connections to other people, and deep connections to moral and spiritual meaning.” The members of the Commission contend that while research from the fields of neuroscience and basic biology indicate that children are “hardwired to connect” to other people and for moral meaning in their lives, “in recent decades, the U.S. social institutions that foster these two forms of connectedness for children have gotten significantly weaker.”

To address this lack of connectedness, the Commission advocates the creation of “authoritative communities.” The word “authoritative” is borrowed in part from the work of Dr. Diana Baumrind who more than 30 years ago described different styles of parenting, including authoritative, permissive, authoritarian, and neglectful. Parents who are defined as authoritative are warm, involved, and accepting, and establish clear-cut and reasonable guidelines, consequences, and expectations. Research has consistently demonstrated that children are more likely to experience healthy emotional development when they are reared by parents who practice an authoritative approach.

The Commission explained its choice of the word “authoritative,” noting, “First the word refers to a strong body of scholarly evidence demonstrating the value of that particular combination of warmth and structure in which children in a democratic society appear most likely to thrive. Second, the word comes from the Latin auctor, which can mean ‘one who creates.’ We like that. Authoritative communities just don’t happen. They are created and sustained by dedicated individuals with a shared vision of building a good life for the next generation.”

In order to create an authoritative community, one must understand its features. The Commission lists what it considers to be the 10 main characteristics. They include:

It is a social institution that includes children and youth.
It treats children as ends in themselves.
It is warm and nurturing.
It establishes clear limits and expectations.
The core of its work is performed largely by non-specialists.
It is multi-generational.
It has a long-term focus.
It reflects and transmits a shared understanding of what it means to be a good person.
It encourages spiritual and religious development.
It is philosophically oriented to the equal dignity of all persons and to the principle of love of neighbor.

In light of these 10 characteristics, the Commission states as a primary goal “to deepen our society’s commitment to those values that build and sustain authoritative communities, and to reconsider our commitment to those values that often replace or undermine them. The former include enduring marital relationships and family connectedness, community action and civic engagement, and concern for the moral and spiritual well-being of all children. The latter include ‘me first’ and consumerism as ways of living, materialism, and the notion of the individual person as self-made and owing little to others or to society.”

Knowledge of the 10 characteristics of an authoritative community together with an appreciation of this primary goal can guide our individual behaviors especially in terms of the responsibility each of us assumes to create environments in which children thrive and feel connected. When problems arise in our youth, we must certainly provide services to address these problems. However, if as the Commission contends, children are “hardwired” from birth to connect with others, the more we focus our time, attention, energy, and resources on forming strong bonds with our youth, the more likely we will prevent problems from arising. In past writings, I have referred to studies that indicate that when students feel a positive attachment to at least one adult in their school, they are less likely to engage in acts of violence or drop out. The power of relationships must never be underestimated in preventing the emergence of a wide spectrum of self-defeating, dangerous behaviors in our youth.

In our roles as parents, teachers, coaches, and other caregivers, we should ask whether our actions support an authoritative community in which we believe each child is our “own” child, that each child is part of “our” community. There are many ways we can nurture the qualities of an authoritative community. In next month’s article, I plan to share some suggestions. However, during the next month you might wish to reflect upon the following interrelated questions:

What are one or two things I’ve done this month to strengthen my connections with my family?

What are one or two things I’ve done this month to strengthen my connections with my community?

What activities have I engaged in this month that have contributed to the well-being of others?

What programs exist in my community that strengthen connections between adults and youth and adults with other adults and do I participate in these programs?


Do I treat others with respect and dignity, as I myself would like to be treated?

Do I teach children, by example, a set of moral values that are in accord with principles of honesty, decency, and compassion?

As you consider these questions, it may be helpful to think of the following observation expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” Authoritative communities as defined by the Commission on Children at Risk are environments in which all of its members are likely to experience this “beautiful compensation of life.”

What happens when you wonder after midnight, Part II

In Leonard Sweet's The Gospel According to Starbucks, the futurist calls the church to master the "EPIC" living that Starbucks has mastered. EPIC stands for Experience, Participation, "Images that throb with meaning," and Connection."The culture helps the church become more of an epic community," he said.

And here I thought the church was to become more like Christ. Silly me! Guess we'll need to revise Revelation 2-3 to read "To him who lives EPICally, I will give a Venti Zebra Mocha-Coca Breve (with 1 extra pump of each dark and white chocolate) with caramel syrup drizzled in the cup, pumps of vanilla and peppermint, topped with WC, M, WM, and CR drizzle."

Beheading Christ

Back in 2005 Keith Drury wrote a column entitled Beheading Christ. It makes a good bookend to the current postmodern mantra, "Friendly to Jesus, hostile to the church."

Keith Drury, professor of Religion at Indiana Wesleyan University is an engaging but thoughtful writer. I love his line, "I was unable to behead Christ and leave His body behind." And this section bears quoting:

"The theoretical construct of “the invisible church” is of little use to me.

Now I know many will try to “correct” my (theologically accurate) view of the church to tell me that the “invisible church” is the real beauty and the real church—and the organized actual-peopled-building down the street has nothing to do with the real invisible church. I understand that construct assigning all the “real Christians” to some theoretical worldwide invisible church. But the notion has little practical use any more than saying I have an invisible marriage. Where is this invisible church of “real” Christians? Can I worship with them? Study the Bible with them? Go on a ski trip with their youth? Organize relief for hurricane victims with them? See? It may be a clever mental gymnastic for categorizing thought but all I’ve got in the real world is a real assembly of real people who worship, pray, serve, study, grow, and reach out together—in the building down the street. Sure, there are some folk in this visible church who are not in the theoretical invisible one. So what? When next Sunday rolls around I can’t attend the invisible church so I’m left with the one Christ established and Paul extended 2000 years ago—the visible assembly of God’s people in a real place down the street from me."

How addicted to blogging are you?

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YouTube Must-Sees

The Day the Internet Crashed (via Brad)

Godfather IV: Fredo's Revenge
(matches James Comey's testimony to scenes from Godfather I)

A. Continues the fight: July 17

A. is continuing to have a difficult time. Her enzyme count is progressively increasing, and she is panicking. What if Jesus doesn't heal her? What will happen to her son, M. and her husband, H.? What will happen to her mother and brothers, who assured her that if Jesus healed her, they would believe in Him? She is beginning to worry that she is losing her faith.

When we are stressed we often revert to what is automatic, and what is automatic for A. is to see God as Divine Despot. For 37 years she has only known Allah, and he was a god of testing and punishment. Recently, conversing with her about our God is like talking with a hyper-calvinist. She has a wonderfully complete understanding of God's sovereignty; but just introductory experience of His compassion. "I am not human; I am an animal," she said to me Sunday, crying from a pit of depression. "God does not love me."

Her life story has been a harsh one. Every time things seemed to ease up something horrible would follow. When her beloved father died, she had to support the family. That meant she had no time for friends or fun, muchless marriage. People began to call her nasty things, because she had no husband. Her own cousins made fun of her, and her aunt never tired of pointing out her own daughters' accomplishments and social standing to A. and her mother.

Once she married H. and left her native country, she had a little over a year of absolute joy. There followed nine months of rough pregnancy; and four months after M. was born, the news that she had stage IV stomach cancer. Then chemo, which gave her several months of remission that she took for healing. But the raised enzyme levels signaled otherwise. It was at that point that her dreams began, of a man in white beckoning her to come to him. It wasn't long after that that she learned about Jesus, began reading the NT and decided to become a Christian.

Those were exciting times. Who knew what God would do next? H's relative who had converted quite a while ago sent her tapes and reading material in Farsi from her church in California. Steve and I were careful to counter some of what we suspected she was getting from those tapes, so that intellectually A. knew that trusting Christ was no guarantee for healing. But her heart must have been convinced otherwise: Jesus is God! God is love! Surely He will have mercy on me, show His power and remove all traces of cancer from my body!

Now it seems like God is not going to heal her, and Satan is exploiting the situation: "See, God is not love. This is the will of Allah. He desires that you suffer. He wants you to die. He wants your son to be without a mother. He wants H. to marry again, and M. will not ever be a Christian if that happens."

This is not the time to reason with A. "This kind can only come out with much prayer." May the Lord give me His mind so that I can pray well , and may I be able to embody Jesus' love so that A. will see Him, and not me.

And if you are still reading this, ora pro nobis.

Buzzwords

I am taking this thesis as given:

"Like all Americans, evangelicals are big on buzzwords."

Certainly this can be challenged, but right now I am more interested in exploring some questions surrounding the phenomenon.


Why do we use them so much?
Some possibilities:

We are in a hurry for the kingdom, and buzzwords speed communication.

We are market-driven/entrepreneureal. Advertising depends on grabbing consumers' attention, and a strong buzzword can do that.

We are lazy, intellectually; or we are anti-intellectual, and don't want our listeners to spend time thinking about what we are saying. We'd rather have them react.

What's good about them?

They are shorthand ways of communicating; don't require a lot of time and attention.

They help unite an otherwise disparate audience in focusing on a particular issue or idea

They are familiar, putting some people at ease and so enabling them to receive the rest of the message.

They are too familiar, causing other people to criticize them, and thus further the dialectic.

What's dangerous about them?

They don't communicate with much depth, if any.

They can be impediments to reflection.

They can be misunderstood, because they often function without a context or with an assumed context.

What are some great spiritual buzzwords of the past and present?

gloriously saved
born-again Christian
carnal Christian
spiritual laws
koinonia
shepherding
substitutionary
"Lord and Savior"
inerrant
evangelical
emergent
ecumenical
seeker, seeker-friendly
vibrant
relevant
WWJD
transparency
authenticity
tolerance
meaning
community
relational
spiritual
purpose-driven
postmodern
mystical/mystery
self-aware
timeless values
culture of death
Godself
Full Gospel
Whole Gospel

Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN

bible-believing (Thanks, Dan!)

What words would you add? Change?

What's the latest buzzword?

I think "mission" is becoming a real contender. What do you think?

Are there any alternatives to using buzzwords?

Perhaps not, in this culture.

Congratulations, Springfield VT!

The people have spoken, and it looks like Springfield VT has won the honor of rolling out the yellow carpet for the opening night of the Simpsons Movie. But our own native Springfield, Oregonian, U.S. Representative Peter deFazio, has appealed to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to investigate for voting irregularities.

Here is the full text of his letter:

Alberto R. Gonzalez
Attorney General
Office of Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy Building
950 Pennsylvania, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20530-2000

Heidely Ho Attorney General Gonzales:

I write to you to express the outrage that I, and all Oregonians, feel regarding a recent event. I know there is a strong possibility that you may come back and say that you "don't recall" to what I am referring, so let me refresh your memory. Recently, 20th Century Fox launched The Simpson's Movie Springfield Challenge where people could vote on the real-life location of the home of The Simpsons. Naturally, most Oregonians felt confident that we would win, since it is obvious to everyone that Simpson's creator Matt Groening, who was raised in Oregon, modeled Springfield after his childhood home. Oregon has over 363 miles of the most beautiful coastline in America, the Cascade Mountains, and is the grass seed capital of the world. What does Vermont have? Maple syrup.

This travesty must not stand. Springfield, Vermont is a town of only nine thousand people; yet this community received over fifteen thousand votes. Unless they passed a law giving cows the right to vote, this smacks of election fraud. It also once again highlights the need for electronic voting with a valid paper trail. Was Diebold in any way involved in tabulating the results?

Additionally, it's my understanding that Springfield, Vermont entered the competition after the deadline. That's clearly an election violation since they should not have been listed on the ballot in the first place.

Some people will say that we were rolled by the giant pink doughnut, but I believe there were significant voting irregularities. Knowing how passionately the Bush Administration feels about counting every vote, I'm sure you will want to investigate this matter. Additionally, I urge you to petition the Supreme Court to review the facts and consider whether or not this election should be set aside. Given the Court's recent rulings on election proceedings, I'm sure they will be eager to review the case. I demand that you investigate this miscarriage of justice and restore Oregon as the definitive home of The Simpsons.

Okiliydokily,

PETER DeFAZIO

Member of Congress

P.S. Also, to see proof beyond a shadow of a doubt where the real Simpsons are live, go to http://www.defazio.house.gov/images/zoom/LGKSWV/simpsonspad.jpg
and see for yourself. Photos don't lie.

P.P.S. Vote Quimby!

Boundaries: Blockades, Hurdles, Stockades or Frames?

"Good Fences make good neighbors" --Robert Frost

Psalm 16:5-7

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Boundaries are a necessary part of being a creature, and living in a created world. Without them there would be metaphysical chaos...or metaphysical monotony!

Boundaries and Balance

If the goal of modernism was to impose boundaries (most perfectly realized by Kant), then one of the thrusts of postmodernism is to abolish all boundaries. (Witness the latest step in this direction: the Wikiklesia Project ). But all that is a matter for another post. Here I wish to focus on boundaries as gifts, as a necessary feature of beings whose existence is totally dependent upon their Creator.

Christians--like all humans-- have a difficult time with boundaries, and our Enemy is delighted to have a chance to get us off the mark. Sometimes we err on the side of excess, and turn boundaries into blockades. Sometimes we err on the side of deficiency, and try to circumvent or eliminate them. Then boundaries turn into hurdles or blockades. But Jesus' life shows us how boundaries are to be necessary without being sufficient. He periodically removes himself from people and work to retreat for prayer and communion with His Father. In a pressing crowd, He asks, "who touched Me?" He honors the Sabbath without legalism.

Indeed, the very nature of the Trinity gives us a model of how to begin to understand boundaries. In substance there is unity: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. But in persons, there is difference: The Father is not the Son or the Spirit; the Son is not the Father or the Spirit; the Spirit is not the Son or the Father.



Various heresies about the nature of God have been the result of ignoring the distinctions or magnifing them, while Orthodox Christianity maintains them without exaggerating them. If we are made in God's image, we should, too. The tragedy of sin is that we don't.

Boundaries as Blockades:

Those of us who are blockade-builders have a keen sense of difference, and need to emphasize distinctions. This is fine until those distinctions are idolized, and instead of functioning as fences, they become blockades.

We do this for various reasons. Some of us have an extreme need for order or control. Others fear the unfamiliar and new. We may also have been victims of behaviors or lifestyles that were undisciplined and/or unfair to us, or which threatened our natural sense of justice and self . In response, we swing too far the other direction, and use boundaries in a negative way, to identify what belongs to us or what is due to us, so that others might not interfere and take it away.

An ideal blockade is completely impermeable. Like the Great Wall of China, it is built for defense, to keep out invaders and protect those within from attack. But if we follow this model, relationships become impossible, as we stiffen into solipsistic monads.

Boundaries as Hurdles


Others of us hate to be limited in any way, and so find boundaries confining. They restrict us, and so treat them as obstacles to be overcome or hurdles to be jumped over. We do this for a variety of reasons. We may believe that absolute freedom is the ultimate value, and that anything that inhibits it is to be rejected. We may have been victims of behaviors or lifestyles that made unreasonable demands upon us, and narrowed us spiritually or physically, so that whenever possible, we rebel against them, until rebellion becomes the only way we can function. We are perpetual adolescents. Whatever the reason, if we only understand boundaries as hurdles, relationships will become chaotic as we rush to pursue our own wills, and fail to respect the wills of others, until finally we will agree with Sartre: "Hell is other people."

Boundaries as Stockades

On the other hand, we may have been raised so that boundaries were scant or missing completely. We may have been so ignored or indulged that we have never developed any self-discipline or respect for other people. Then when we are expected to live according to certain boundaries, we resist them, and feel that those who are expecting them of us are scolding us or persecuting us. Again, if this is our situation, mature relationships become impossible, because we will never have progressed beyond the state of a child, and others will be forced to treat us as children.

Boundaries as Frames

Typically, a painting is incomplete without a frame or a mat. My friend Jan is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. She tells stories about how she would get her husband, Jay, to cut mats for her work. Her instructors expected this, and not without reason. A good mat or frame doesn't draw attention to itself, but helps focus our attention on the artwork, asking us to appreciate it for itself, in its integrity and uniqueness.

But a good frame also functions to unite the artwork with its environment. A frame which is dissonant with its surroundings prevents us from seeing the artwork it contains. Finally, though several interior decorators have thought it clever, a frame without artwork is a sad thing, calling for completion. A frame without its artwork ifails to fulfill its potential.

I wonder if the idea of boundaries as frames might help us out. Frames are boundaries which preserve the balance between artwork and environment. They promote, rather than frustrate, relationship. Personhood "frames" the Trinity. It is how God is able to be all Who He is. Personhood also allows us to relate fully to all Who God is, without falsely relating to Him as three separate beings. The persons of the Trinity do not relate to one another as blockades, hurdles or stockades; so neither should we. Frames are boundaries. God has them. We do too. Let us not be afraid of them. Let us not dismiss them. Let us not idolize them. Let us, like the Psalmist, rejoice in them.

Lord, thank you for the gift of boundaries. May the boundaries we live by be Yours. Forgive us when we misunderstand or misuse them, and enable us to flourish in the pleasant places you have given us.

What happens when you wonder after midnight...

(It's late, and I always turn into a curmudgeonly kumquat after midnight. Proceed at your own risk!)

Dan Kimball,has authored the following works:

I Like Jesus but Not the Church (Softcover)
They Like Jesus but Not the Church Curriculum Kit (Curriculum Kit)
They Like Jesus but Not the Church DVD (DVD)
They Like Jesus but Not the Church Participant's Guide (Softcover)
They Like Jesus but Not the Church (Softcover)

I wonder when we'll see the following titles:

I Like my Daughter but not Motherhood
I Like Medicine, but Not Medical Schools.
They Like Fire Departments, but Not Government.
I Like Sex, but Not Marriage.
They like Football, but Not Football Teams.
I Like Health, but not Exercise
They like Princess Diana, but not Women
I like Apples, but not Fruit
I like Martin Luther King, but Not Blacks
They like Music, but not Ears

Stability, Transformation, Obedience

Have you heard of Abbey Way Covenant Church?

If this is what the emergent church will eventually look like, then I am intrigued.

I am particularly drawn to the way its members' lives are ordered, through prayer, word and sacrament. Their lives are shaped by the principles of stability, transformation, and obedience: willingness to be still, willingness to change, and willingness to listen. In so doing, Abbey Way does not seek to conform to the world, but to Christ, so mission flows naturally from their life together, rather than the reverse.

When I first heard that they do not open their doors to visitors, except once a month on Guesthouse Sundays, I was scandalized. What about evangelism? What about hospitality? What about FREEDOM OF CHOICE? Ah, that is where Abbey Way is simultaneously culturally astute and counter-cultural. They must know full well that in a market economy, consumer interest and demand rises with the scarcity of product. Postmoderns are nothing if not consumers used to having a plethora of product choices, so this reverse psychology is a brilliant move which should pique interest. But even more brilliant is that it teaches even as it captivates: following Christ is not all about you. God's love is wide, but

"small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matt.7:14)

Unlike many other emergents, Abbey Way doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. They manage to be contemporary without being ahistorical, probably because they do not take their own experience to be spiritually formative, but allow their experience to be formed spiritually.

I doubt that church shopping or church-hopping is much of a problem here:

Stability creates an environment to grow and mature, rooting us deeply within and without, through endurance and perseverance, with a particular community and location.

Stability calls us to a committed way of life with a certain group of people for the long haul. Stability in monastic tradition would also add the willingness to be grounded in a geographic location from which mission and ministry is birthed. From a place of deep listening to God and connection to the people around them, the community's charism and calling is discovered.

In particular, stability requires a interior stay with-it-ness when external or internal forces toss us about, making us want to flee.

The principle of stability is deeply rooted in God's faithfulness to us. It is promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." It is in this promise of God with us through His constant abiding presence we are able to commit ourselves to each other in God.

Abbey Way claims this principle of stability as its own. Antidotal to non-committal and individualistic forms of church attendance, stability names the real work of creating a community which is able to reflect the glory of Christ. As Abbey Way embraces stability as one of our core principals, we hope to create a consistent and accessible embodiment of the Gospel, enabling others to find Jesus and experience new life in Christ.

God bless Abbey Way, and God bless the Covenant for befriending them.

Church Hopping

Brad has an interesting link to this article from Scripps Howard News service:

~ CHURCH HOPPING -- the ultimate "me" experience.

Yet more evidence of how a consumer culture is forming our character and practice as Christians. How to reconcile this with John 17 ? Or is that passage about the Church, and not the church? Ah, the joys of living in the Already but Not Yet!

St. Augustine on Loving God and Loving the Church - Quotes

Unflaggingly, let us love the Lord our God and let us love his Church. Let us love Him as the Lord and the Church as his handmaid.

No one can offend the one and still be pleasing to the other. What does it avail you if you do not directly offend the Father but do offend the mother?

-- Commentary on Psalm 88, 14

Love your father, but not more than you love your God. Love your mother, but not more than the mother that gave you birth to eternal life.

Furthermore, from this same love of your parents see how much you ought to love God and the Church. For if so much love is owed to those who begot you to a life that must end with your death, how much more grateful love is owed to those who begot you for an eternal destiny!

-- Sermon 344.2

(From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Augustine Day by Day: Minute Meditations for Every Day Taken from the Writings of Saint Augustine. Catholic Book Publishing Co. New York, 1986.)

http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/augustine/days/0625.html

http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/augustine/days/0706.html

Augustine was definitely not Protestant, and definitely not Postmodern.

I recently put the phrase "Hostile to the church, friendly to Jesus" up for discussion on our youth blogsite, and every last kid who responded agreed that there was nothing wrong with the idea. Most thought it indicated genuine faith. Even some adults responding had no reservations.

Sigh. Such are the fruits of modernism, which has gotten me to wondering: if the church must always and only be understood in terms of process and progress--"reformed and always reforming"-- what does this mean for the church ultimately? Can we never hope for a day when the Bride appears spotless before her Bridegroom?

No wonder we don't sing this hymn anymore:

"Mid toil and tribulation,and tumult of her war

she waits the consummation of peace for evermore;

till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed,

and the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest."

We hold an incommensurable view and lifestyle:

When all that matters is amusement and novelty, we cannot understand consummation and rest.

When we cohabit instead of marry, we cannot practice faithfulness and stability.

When we can reproduce without begetting, we cannot expect mothers and fathers to be honored.

When we think that we cannot be friendly to Jesus without being hostile to the church, we cannot understand Augustine. But that is a minor matter compared to the risk of not being able to enjoy heaven.

Boundaries:Blockades, Hurdles, Stockades or Frames?

"Good Fences make good neighbors" --Robert Frost

Psalm 16:5-7

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Boundaries are a necessary part of being a creature, and living in a created world. Without them there would be metaphysical chaos...or metaphysical monotony!

Boundaries and Balance

If the goal of modernism was to impose boundaries (most perfectly realized by Kant), then one of the thrusts of postmodernism is to abolish all boundaries. (Witness the latest step in this direction: the Wikiklesia Project ). But all that is a matter for another post. Here I wish to focus on boundaries as gifts, as a necessary feature of beings whose existence is totally dependent upon their Creator.

Christians--like all humans-- have a difficult time with boundaries, and our Enemy is delighted to have a chance to get us off the mark. Sometimes we err on the side of excess, and turn boundaries into blockades. Sometimes we err on the side of deficiency, and try to circumvent or eliminate them. Then boundaries turn into hurdles or blockades. But Jesus' life shows us how boundaries are to be necessary without being sufficient. He periodically removes himself from people and work to retreat for prayer and communion with His Father. In a pressing crowd, He asks, "who touched Me?" He honors the Sabbath without legalism.

Indeed, the very nature of the Trinity gives us a model of how to begin to understand boundaries. In substance there is unity: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. But in persons, there is difference: The Father is not the Son or the Spirit; the Son is not the Father or the Spirit; the Spirit is not the Son or the Father.



Various heresies about the nature of God have been the result of ignoring the distinctions or magnifing them, while Orthodox Christianity maintains them without exaggerating them. If we are made in God's image, we should, too. The tragedy of sin is that we don't.

Boundaries as Blockades:

Those of us who are blockade-builders have a keen sense of difference, and need to emphasize distinctions. This is fine until those distinctions are idolized, and instead of functioning as fences, they become blockades.

We do this for various reasons. Some of us have an extreme need for order or control. Others fear the unfamiliar and new. We may also have been victims of behaviors or lifestyles that were undisciplined and/or unfair to us, or which threatened our natural sense of justice and self . In response, we swing too far the other direction, and use boundaries in a negative way, to identify what belongs to us or what is due to us, so that others might not interfere and take it away.

An ideal blockade is completely impermeable. Like the Great Wall of China, it is built for defense, to keep out invaders and protect those within from attack. But if we follow this model, relationships become impossible, as we stiffen into solipsistic monads.

Boundaries as Hurdles

Others of us hate to be limited in any way, and so find boundaries confining. They restrict us, and so treat them as obstacles to be overcome or hurdles to be jumped over. We do this for a variety of reasons. We may believe that absolute freedom is the ultimate value, and that anything that inhibits it is to be rejected. We may have been victims of behaviors or lifestyles that made unreasonable demands upon us, and narrowed us spiritually or physically, so that whenever possible, we rebel against them, until rebellion becomes the only way we can function. We are perpetual adolescents. Whatever the reason, if we only understand boundaries as hurdles, relationships will become chaotic as we rush to pursue our own wills, and fail to respect the wills of others, until finally we will agree with Sartre: "Hell is other people."

Boundaries as Stockades

On the other hand, we may have been raised so that boundaries were scant or missing completely. We may have been so ignored or indulged that we have never developed any self-discipline or respect for other people. Then when we are expected to live according to certain boundaries, we resist them, and feel that those who are expecting them of us are scolding us or persecuting us. Again, if this is our situation, mature relationships become impossible, because we will never have progressed beyond the state of a child, and others will be forced to treat us as children.

Boundaries as Frames

Typically, a painting is incomplete without a frame or a mat. My friend Jan is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. She tells stories about how she would get her husband, Jay, to cut mats for her work. Her instructors expected this, and not without reason. A good mat or frame doesn't draw attention to itself, but helps focus our attention on the artwork, asking us to appreciate it for itself, in its integrity and uniqueness.

But a good frame also functions to unite the artwork with its environment. A frame which is dissonant with its surroundings prevents us from seeing the artwork it contains. Finally, though several interior decorators have thought it clever, a frame without artwork is a sad thing, calling for completion. A frame without its artwork ifails to fulfill its potential.

I wonder if the idea of boundaries as frames might help us out. Frames are boundaries which preserve the balance between artwork and environment. They promote, rather than frustrate, relationship. Personhood "frames" the Trinity. It is how God is able to be all Who He is. Personhood also allows us to relate fully to all Who God is, without falsely relating to Him as three separate beings. The persons of the Trinity do not relate to one another as blockades, hurdles or stockades; so neither should we. Frames are boundaries. God has them. We do too. Let us not be afraid of them. Let us not dismiss them. Let us not idolize them. Let us, like the Psalmist, rejoice in them.

Lord, thank you for the gift of boundaries. May the boundaries we live by be Yours. Forgive us when we misunderstand or misuse them, and enable us to flourish in the pleasant places you have given us.

Beverly Sills - A Memorial and Some Quotes

“A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down.”--Beverly Sills

Her daughter was profoundly deaf.
Her son was severely mentally disabled.
Her husband had Alzheimer's Disease.
She smiled and sang.
Now she is a legend.

I got my very first opera record in 1966, when I was in sixth grade: selections from Bellini's Norma, sung by Joan Sutherland. That led to a Sutherland Greatest Hits, including the mad scene from Lucia di Lamermoor. And from there, it was inevitable: to Beverly Sills. Although she was famous for her bel canto roles and for singing Handel, the aria I most cherish is her "Marietta's Leid" from Die Todt Stadt. Today Kiri Te Kanawa and Renee Fleming are more associated with that aria, but for me it will always belong to Beverly Sills and her conductor, Julius Rudel.

Not only was she a great soprano, she was a wise woman. Witness:

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”

“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.”

“Art is the signature of civilizations.”

“I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.”

“In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv7zBzObsH8 Sills sings "Vilja" from The Merry Widow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT0yWpdG_fs Sills sings the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor (poor quality recording, but her voice shines despite its shortcomings)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef9Wrl1i3eI Sills discusses her children and her career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoXHfNGtccc Sill's final farewell--a Portuguese folksong.

Now it is the angels' turn to listen to her, and rejoice.

The True Springfield is in Oregon

Yes,
O-R-E-G-O-N!

Please watch the video and vote for us!

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Formation: spiritual, or materialistic?

Is this the basis for spiritual formation in contemporary American culture?

producing
purchasing
pampering
and
pitching

Suffering

God uses suffering to carve our character into Christ’s.

This is what makes me different from a Buddhist.

This is what Americans find scandalous about orthodox Christianity.

This is what enables me to perservere.

True or False: The Major Religions are Essentially Alike

At least somebody besides J.A. Di Noia gets it.

In his July 2/9, 2007 Newsweek article, "True or False: The Major Religions Are Essentially Alike," Stephen Prothero, chair of Boston University's Department of Religion writes:

At least since the first petals of the counterculture bloomed across the United States in the 1960s, it has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful—and all are true. The proof text for this happy affirmation comes, appropriately enough, from the Hindu Vedas rather than the Christian Bible: "Truth is one, the sages call it by many names."

According to this multicultural form of wisdom, the world's religions are merely different paths up the same mountain. But are they? Religious people do agree that there is something wrong with this world. But they disagree as soon as they start to diagnose the problem, and diverge even more when it comes to prescriptions for the cure. Christians see sin as the human problem and salvation from sin as the religious goal. Buddhists see suffering (which, in this tradition, is not ennobling) as the problem and liberation from suffering (nirvana) as the goal. If practitioners of the world's religions are all climbing a mountain, then they are ascending very different peaks and using very different tools... continued here

The Oregon Bach Festival: Rilling and Brahms

Helmuth Rilling, (right) the world's leading expert on the music of Joahann Sebastian Bach, is co founder and artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival.

What a wonderful 28th wedding anniversary we have had!

Last night, the girls made us a dinner of souvlaki and wild rice and then Susan gave us tickets to the opening night ceremonies of the Oregon Bach Festival. Oh, the joys of grown children!

We heard a performance of Brahm's Requiem, but in truth it was not a performance, it was worship. This work is often called "Ein Deutsches Requiem," or "A German Requiem," because instead of using the Latin of the traditional Catholic liturgy, Brahms chose his texts himself from Luther's German translation of the Bible.

My favorite parts were "Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras" and "Wie Lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth." The latter is everything I have ever imagined when I have read Psalm 27 (my favorite psalm).

The program notes pointed out,

"Brahm's requiem is for the the consolation of the living, in addition to expressing the hope of resurrection."

I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our anniversary this year.

Thank you, Susan! Thank you, Joanna. Thank you, Herr Brahms und Herr Rilling, and the Festival Chorus and Orchestra. But most of all, thank you, Lord, for my husband, and over a quarter-century of life together in You.