Whew! Here are my notes from day 2 of Q:
Q Day 2 (It Rhymes)
We started this morning with a few songs from Sandra
McCracken. She has a pure voice, a sweet spirit and I really enjoyed hearing
from her. Glad Q brought her in.
Prayer from Gabe Lyons.
And now…
Miroslav Volf: Demonstrating a Public Faith
Author and founding director of the Yale Center for
Faith and Culture
Ha ha. Awesome accent. He
started by saying "Vhat a wenue." I know, lame thing to notice with
someone as intelligent and respected as Volf, but welcome to my brain this
morning.
Faith is not going away;
faiths in the world particularly Islam, Christianity ad Buddhism are growing.
The world is becoming more and more religious place. People of faith have found
thmelseves interested in faith that shapes the community and public life of a
nation, partly influenced by the spread of the democratic ideal.
People of different religious
backgrounds all want to shape the same space according to their different ideas
of the world. We are "living under the same roof." We no longer
sequester people into particular nations. Tall fences are gone. Fences are
gone, period, and we live, many of us, under the same roof which introduces
challenges for how we must live our public lives.
Authoritarianism which wants
to dominate the public space. On the opposite side, secular exclusivism (the
thought that the best account of how to live peacefully is to secularize).
Neither religious
totalitarianism/authoritarianism nor secular exclusivism will work. To work
within a single polity will generate conflict.
We must give up on the idea
of "Christian America" or "Muslim Egypt" or "secular
Europe" we need a pluralistic approach giving equal voice to all religious
backgrounds.
We need a Christian
foundation. Is there such a thing as a Christian foundation for a pluralistic
society? Of course Volf thinks yes.
Where does pluralism as a
political project have its origin. Thomas Helmus (?), Baptist on the run to
Amsterdam. Believed all religious people (including atheists) should have
exactly the same freedoms, BECAUSE OF his Christian beliefs. He wasn't
concerned only for his own religious freedom, but for all people. So there is
historical precedent (also mentioned the Mayflower, etc)
John Locke: Christian reasons
for toleration. "There should be freedom in the way in which people come
to faith for it concerns the deepest concerns of our lives" and concerns
our heart/soul and must be allowed to be free in coming to God/faith. Love
should qualify the way in which faith is lived in the world. Love grants to others
what they want granted for themselves.
What is often brought against
pluralism is the fact of distinct groups and beliefs and how can they live
together? "We are Christian on account of our differences from
others." Our identity is wrapped up in our difference from others.
Christianity is not only
about differences, but about things that are in common with others. The jacket
I am wearing is not specifically Christian or not Christian.
Jesus says, "I am the
truth" but it's the same Jesus who says he is the one who enlightens
everyone. Specific Christian beliefs are
reflected in the beliefs of other world systems. All truth is God's truth. (But
we don't have to give up the specificities of our faith)
"We fear each other but
have lost the fear of God." We build mosques not to worship God but to
mark our territory. Like a cross in Croatia put up to cow the Bosnian Muslims
and remind them Croatia has the high ground.
Christ died so that all
people can find God and embrace him.
Interview with Barbara Bradley Haggerty hosted by
Michael Cromartie: Future of Media and Faith
Haggerty is a religion correspondent with NPR
MC: How do you decide which
topics to cover?
News dictates this to a good
degree. Catholicism keeps her busy. J
Other times, on small news days she can drill down on things like the atheist
movement or the rap "Why I love Jesus but hate religion"… how do
young people absorb theology and is there danger in "YouTube
theologians"? Or the "controversy" over Adam and Eve… is it
scientifically impossible to come down to two ancestors?
Her book is
"Fingerprints of God"
MC: How do you handle
controversial issues?
Get all the sides that you
can. Everyone at NPR tries to be fair. I'll literally count up all the sound
bites to make sure there's fair representation. Then I do the
"squirm" test. I listen to the interview and pretend everyone I
interviewed is in the room listening… could I look them in the eye?
NPR has never ever ever
pressured her to slant things a specific way.
MC: What do you do with
"wacky" people in the religion world?
Everyone has a reason to
believe what they believe… inside of finding outsiders to lob insults at the
wacky people she tries to find insiders that will give us compassion and makes
for much more compelling stories
MC: Any stories coming down
the road?
Science's challenge to
religion, especially regarding free will… scientists leading toward thought
that you don't have choice. If you have the "warrior" gene are you
less culpable? Is it actually sinful for instance for homosexuals to act on
their homosexuality if it's hard wired into their brains?
Rise of atheism, the fastest
growing religion in the USA
Jenny Hwang-Yang: Welcome the Stranger
Author and director of
advocacy and policy for the refugee and immigration for world relief
Started in DC in 2006. The
tone toward immigration was so negative and demeaning that it made me question
my Christianity, because believers and non-believers would use the precise same
rhetoric without speaking to Scripture
Many of the characters in the
Biblical narrative were immigrants
*Abraham
*Jacob
*Joseph
* Jesus as refugee fleeing into Egypt;
"celestial immigrant"… downwardly mobile immigrant from heaven he
"pitched his tent among us"
God has a special concern for
the immigrant
God recognizes the immigrant
God not only loves
immigrants, he legislated rules to ensure that their needs are met (Ex 12:49;
Deut 24:19-21
Good Samaritan
If we apply theology to
misapplied facts we'll come to wrong conclusions.
Who are undocumented
immigrants?
· around 11 million in the US today
· about 50% came legally but overstayed their visa
· 1 in 5 koreans
· 1 in 6 filipino
· 1 in 8 Indian immigrants
· millions of undocumented Asian, Europeans, Canadians
"My ancestors came the
legal way why don't they?"
· Ben Franklin in 1751 down on Germans because they
wouldn't connect into mainstream society
· We can glorify immigrants of the past
· Prior to 1882 there was NO ILLEGAL WAY TO ENTER THE
USA because there was no federal immigration law
· Now lawfyl immigration is tightly limited by law and
usually possible only for
o
Close relatives
of US citizens
o
Limited number of
highly-educated, employer sponsored
o
Only 5,000 visas
available for low skill workers A YEAR
o
Brother or sister
of an immigrant… ELEVEN YEARS to get in
Christians should submit to
government authorities
· but there is no conflict between welcoming immigrants
and following the law
comprehensive Immigration
reform:
Invest in border security
Make it easier to come
legally
Create a pathway to earn the
right to stay in the country
Toms: shared
about their one-for-one program where if you buy sunglasses from them, they
give sight to someone through cataract surgery, etc
Arthur Brooks: The Moral Case for Capitalism
President, the American
Enterprise Institue
Welfare didn't start to be
reformed until someone made a moral argument that it was bad for the poor,
leading to legislation that led 5 million people out of poverty.
We need to make the MORAL
case for Capitalism, not the material case.
The material case for free
enterprise doesn’t stand up against a moral argument (i.e. free enterprise
doesn't help a woman living in a car with her little girl)
"executive
judgment" and moral judgments both processed in the same part of the
brain. If you're confronted with both an executive and moral judgment (read the
book by Jonathan height(?) "The Righteous Mind"), the moral judgment
wipes out anything else.
Now he's telling a story that
will influence us through moral judgment. Normal family, the kids want a dog eventually
convince the parents, get a puppy named Muffin. They love Muffin, great dog,
youngest child leaves front door open and dog accidentally killed in traffic in
front of whole family. Dad brings the dog inside and they decide to cook and
eat her.
Was that the right thing to
do? NO!
Why not? "I don't
know."
You made an immediate moral
judgement and you can't explain it immediately.
If you want to persuade an
audience you must make a moral argument
"You may or may not know
that world poverty has been decreased by 80% since 1970. You don't hear about
that but it's true. Why has it decreased so much? Because of the UN or foreign
aid? No. It's because of free enterprise and trade. If you love the poor, then
you are commanded to put into place a system that can lift up people by the
billions." ß- you may not agree with this, but if I want to
persuade you I have to try to convince you using morality, not
practicality/material arguments
Environmental Health; interview with Mitch Hescox and
Lyndsay Moseley
My own personal environmental
issues caused me to need to run to the bathroom during this presentation,
because I didn't use my break wisely.
Stephen Grabill: Common Grace
Loves motorcycles but also
was a pastor's kid. He was taught that the spiritual things are the most
important and that motorcycles pass away. Realized years later that redemption
is an important part of spirituality but ultimately a small part. Common grace
is God's "yes" to creation and it's our responsibility to help shape
creation and make it a place for humanity. The church should bind all culture
and hold it together instead of being cut off and severed from the world. We're
polishing brass on the Titanic. But if the church is called to do what is good
in the world, then we realize that we need the guys at JiffyLube as much as
pastors… we need entrepeneurs and teachers, etc. That's what common grace is
all about. Putting a motorcycle together can be a spiritual activity that God
sanctions and encourages. It's a mirror of God's craftsmanship, an image of the
creator in us… he deems all sorts of non-saving work as good and valuable.
There's more to life than soul maintenance. God hasn't given the world over to
evil or indifference and neither can we.
Anthony Bradley – Kuyper Revisited
Author and associate
professor at the King's College of NY
"My task as a black man
today is to tell you why a dead white man matters." Ha ha ha
Kuyper was a pastor,
theologian, journalist and prime minister.
"Industrial revolution
was at full steam (that's a pun!)." Ha ha ha. This guy is funny.
What does God want in my
world in the midst of all this change?
Kuyper takes us to the
doctrine of creation
The means that God has
brought about to bring reconciliation is cultural shaping
"sphere sovereignty"
every arena of culture, every sphere of human study has it's own calling and
place in God's design (i.e. state, art, church, economics, family, science).
These spheres do not receive their calling from government but by God directly.
Government should maintain the infrastructure that allows the spheres to do the
things that God has called them to do. It's NOT church-controlled culture. It's
not secularize culture. These things are "Coram Deo" they make up the
common good.
The black church has been
practicing this for centuries. The civil rights movement… harry Belafonte and
MLKjr worked together. Belafonte brought in Hollywood people, MLK pastors,
garbage workers brought in garbage workers. Everyone followed their own calling
to bring the blessings of Christ into their spheres.
"America's third and
often unrecognized Great Awakening… the civil rights movement."
There is not a square inch in
all of creation that God does not cry MINE! ßwhoa.
Bradley slammed the podium and snatched his notes up with this. Pretty
powerful, the way he said it.
Gabe:
evangelism; there's two moments in a western context when people want to hear
the gospel, where they ask where is God? Two times/moments: personal
crisis/trauma and global crisis moment. ß
Oh, I think it's more often than that, Gabe. Interesting point.
Diane Langberg: Trauma as a Place of Service
Clinical Psychologist, author
and faculty member at Westminster Seminary
Shared a story about how in
fort in Ghana (Cape Coast Castle) she toured, the dungeons were beneath the
ship's chapel. People suffering and dying beneath the worship service….
There are traumas today as
well:
1 in 4 soldiers today is a
child
1 in 3 females is coerced
into sex at some point in her lifetime
child sexual abuse, child
marriage, female sexual mutilation
girls have acid thrown in
their faces for going to school; stoned to death for being raped
sex trafficking – the
dungeons are here, in our cities
people who have been
traumatized often need help for a very long time
We are quite like the chapel
goers in the fort in Ghana… we too easily fold our hands and sit above the
dungeon. We stand on the back of those created in the image of God.
Christianity is not about calling others "them."
What does Heaven do? Heaven
leaves Heaven and comes down. If the people of that chapel worshiped God of the
scirptures, they would have entered into the dungeon so that the dungeon
becomes the church. He became like us so we could become like Him. He came into
the dungeon and touched us and loved us and transformed us. He didn't treat us
like "them" but became one of US. There is not "them" there
is only "us."
The body of Christ has often
missed that trauma can be the best place for service. If we as the body look
out on suffering humanity we could see the traumatized as the greatest missions
field.
Christ left glory and came
among us and literally got "in our skin."
We must turn the world upside
down (as the disciples did) which we all actually know means to turn the world
right side up.
Jeremy Courtney: Restoring Hearts in Iraq
Executive Director,
Preemptive Love Coalition
It wasn’t an easy morning
when I woke up and realized a fatwa had been put forth for my death.
A theology of pre-emptive
love. Here are some stories that
elucidate when the convictions of preemptive love are put forth in a war torn
place.
Preemptive love: to serve
others before they do anything for us, because that's how God has loved us
As a result of chemical
weapons there are higher rates of cancer in Iraq than in Hiroshima
1 in 7 babies born in Iraq
with birth defects
"violence unmakes the
world" but preemptive love unmakes violence and remakes the world
Mulla Abdullah issued a fatwa
against us. "We must stop these treatments lest it lead our children to
love our enemies." BE CAREFUL! PREEMPTIVE LOVE WORKS!
I called Sheik Mohammed. One
of the most amazing men I've ever known, well connected, his children call me
"Uncle Jeremy." Asked him to set up a meeting with Mulla Abdullah.
Tried to tell his Abdullah's people that we were not enemies.
What is the greater sin in
the eyes of God? To do nothing while your children die? Or to befriend your
enemy who tries to help your children?
But they refused and the
enemy won out.
People have tried to blow up
the office, bugged our house, arrested our people on trumped up charges.
We've made friends out of
many enemies and given more life saving surgeries. But every day 30 new
children are born with heart-based birth defects.
Sheik Mohammad called me back
to his house and we talked about the fatwa for the first time. Abdullah was
sending fatwas from outside Iraq, in his safety. Sh. Mohammed said, "I
don't care what Abdullah says, I will help you to save the children of my
mosque."
Christ is the one who died
for his enemies to transform us so that we will be people who die for our
enemies. We can celebrate the God who works through evil, though it slay us.
We've so romantasized our relationship with God that we can't imagine him
allowing us to suffer, even to serve him.
Violence unmakes the world.
Preemptive love unmakes violence, remakes the world and restores right worship.
Nancy Sleeth: Almost Amish
Author of Almost Amish
A pastor told her that the
single greatest issue preventing spiritual growth for his flock was busyness.
No praise bands, no mega
churches, no ppt presentation, they are seeker unfriendly and yet their numbers
double every 20 years.
Cancer rates 40-50% lower
Obesity rates 5-7 times lower
Suicide rate half the natl
average
Divorce rate less than 1%
(compared to more than 40% for xian homes in the US)
85% of Amish youth join the
church in the late teens or early 20s
This book is not about
putting a hand crank on your car, but about the qualities the Amish embrace
Nancy grew up Jewish, husband
not Jewish, no one happy they married… they abandoned religion as a result;
husband picked up Bible at emergency room of hospital where he was chief of
staff (he stole it); he read the gospels and encountered Jesus and had their
lives turned upside down and one by one the whole family came to Christ. We knew we had to make major changes.
They decided to quit their
jobs and move into a smaller home (the size of their former garage).
Simplicity service
sustainability community connectedness compassion faith
Three practical "almost
Amish" actions to consider taking:
1.
keep the Sabbath.
Figure out what work is for you, and don't do it one day a week.
2.
Unplug. Is there
any form of technology that is distracting you from family, self or God?
3.
Take a walk. It
slows you down, helps you to see the world differently, it gives you
uninterrupted time to have conversation with a friend or spouse
Now if someone says
"What are you, Amish or something?" No, few of us are Amish but all
of us can become almost Amish.
Interview with Sami Awad (Gabe Lyons): Refuse to be
Enemies
What are the concerns and what is happening in
Palestine right now?
Situation is very difficult,
with us living under occupation. There is a peace process with highs and lows
with both sides to be blamed for the lows. The Palestinian Christian community
has been there for hundreds if not thousands of years. It shocks people in the
US to hear there is a Christian community in Palenstine. When people say my
family has converted I say, yes, about 2,000 years ago at a place called
Pentecost.
Bethlehem has a 35%
unemployment rate.
Gabe: I
stayed with a family in the shepherd's fields, it was amazing to see a place
that the family there had been there for centuries. But for many in the US the
idea is that when we think of the Palestinians we think of terrorists, what
would you say to that?
Just look at me, am I a
terrorist? There are people who have done terrible things but they are a very few, a minority, the great majority
are people who want to live in freedom and prosperity and have hope for the
future and their children to be educated well.
Gabe: many
American Christians feel ownership in the security of Israel should be
important, tell us what you do in your work.
From an early age I've been
influenced by my grandmother. My grandfather was killed in the war and we lost
everything, became refugees from Jerusalem and moved to Bethlehem. Our faith
says no revenge, no retaliation, but seek peace. The means to do this is non
violence. Through non violence you stand for your rights and for justice
without undermining the rights and justice of others.
Peace activism is about
exposing the other, making the world see the evils of the Israeli interactions
through non-violence. But I realized my life should be more than just peace
activism. I started reading the gospels and had to come back and deal with
three words, three words that Jesus said, Jesus, my king, telling me,
"Love your enemy." My first thought was why? Why? I'm suffering under
the injustices of my enemy, but he says it as a command. He doesn't say think
about it, consider it or "if I were you I would" love your enemy, but
commands us to do it.
Second is love, when you love
someone a new creation is made in grace.
Does that mean I go to Israeli sodiers and say, Come on, you know you
love it, give me a hug? Maybe that would be too quick.
Gabe: What would you say to
us as your borthers and sisters in Christ, how can we pray for you?
It's time for the church to
reclaim its stake in the Holy Land? Christians should stop treating the Holy
Land like Disney Land. This is your land, this is where our faith was born. How
do we reclaim the Christian voice in the Holy Land? We're not just bridge
builders between Jews and the Muslims, let's get a seat at the table. What is
the peace we want? Grace, peace, forgiveness, reconciliation, and le the Holy
Land become a light to all nations.
Settling
Jerusalem
Danny Seidemann
My father fled Germany
(Jewish). His father eventually came home to Germany in the uniform of the US
army.
Some say that Sami's family
isn't refugee. Nonsense. His history goes back to a Christian community at the
tiem of Christ. Mine go back to the time of King David.
In the 1 sq km of Jerusalem
--
Israeli army is an occupying
army.
The Holy Land is being
violated. We can end this by giving Israel legitimacy and security, and making
Political agreement is in
danger, within the next year and a half it might not be possible. The
idolatrous abuse of religious faith is polarizing the holy land. The Christian
discourse has been largely coopted by
Israeli escapism, sipping
drinks on the edge of a volcano
Palestinian despair, "Oh
nothing good will ever come"
American disengagement and
disinterest
BRING YOUR FAITH TO OUR
CONFLICT, and if you will, you will do what you do so well… help fix a broken
world to the extent that it can be fixed.
What I'm telling you is known ot all the politicians, but it's
politically inexpedient.
I'm a skeptical Jew. There
were 3800 Christians in Jerusalem, it's turning into a museum. Christians are
disappearing. Christianity is being crushed not by Zionists or Muslims. Peace
can save Christianity. Christianity in Jerusalem is the canary in the mine.
Biblical crises require
Biblical solution, from Isaiah: "Jerusalem will be redeemed with justice,
and those who redeem it will do it with righteousness."
Food, Famine and Aid
With David Beckmann, Stephen Bauman, Paul Weisenfeld
Beckmann: There are half as
many people in extreme poverty now than there were 30 years ago.
When we make a sustained
effort we can make real change in the question of human hunger. The church can
make a real difference.
Bauman: I used to live in
Africa, and there I heard their stories of hunger. I think about them choosing
which of their two sons to feed. Chronic hunger.
Weisenfeld: president of
something involved with Pres Obama; a lot of progress has been made on this.
The US gvt and faith-based people have a strong desire to respond to these
things. "Feed the future" is about preventing famine with planning
ahead
Bauman: do not do for others
what they can do for themselves. We've been moving from relief toward long time
sustainable solutions
One half of one percent of
the federal budget goes toward helping world poverty relief
Pres Obama put on the stage
the idea of food security. He pledge 3.5 billion and that brought in 25
billion. If the US backs down, everyone backs down, we lose this… it's really
in our grasp, the idea of removing world hunger
Beckman: Distressed that our
country doesn't seem serious about removing world hunger and poverty in our
midst or around the world. No president since LBJ has made it one of their top
5 priorities to reduce poverty in the US. We're not going to change that unless
we get many churchgoers who desire to make a difference in this area. Check out
http://Bread.org
Bauman: what if our grandkids
sat on our lap and asked what did you do about those billion who were hungry
every day?
Weisenfeld:
1.
we can't be
complacent. Declining poverty as a result of Green Initiative (Green something,
missed the name). Stay the course, stay focused.
2.
The reason we do
it is the moral reason, the avoidance of crisis (food stability leads to
stability politically), it builds American prosperity (good for the world, good
for America)… our aid to S Korea has led to a country that is now the 3rd
largest recipient of US imports
Brian Stevenson: Restoring
the Justice System
Founder of Equal Justice
Institution (?)
There are collatal
consequences of massive incarceration
For instance: if you have ben
incaracerated on a drug charge you are not permitted to get food stamps or
other public benefits. We've created an untouchable population
Many states permanently
remove the right to vote from those with a criminal record.
We put more people in prison
and punish more harshly, less fairly and less reliably. Our system treats you
better if you're rich and guilty than poor and innocent. If you don't have the
resources to make the case for yourself it won't go well.
44 million people are living
below the federal poverty line.
We like to talk about the
fairness of the system but the right to counsel doesn't extend to collateral
cases… people on death row dying unjustly because they can't afford a lawyer.
We don't understand how to
deal with mental health… treat it as a justice issue rather than a mental
health issue.
The only country in the world
that condemn children 13 and 14 year olds to life in prison.
Have seen 9 and 10 year olds
sent into the adult criminal system where they are often the victims of
violence.
Four institutions that have
shaped the african American experience:
1.
slavery.
2.
Terror. "We
grew up with terror. Had to worried about being bombed, had to worry about
being lynched. Terror sent us to the other side of the tracks."
3.
Jim
Crow/apartheid. (you cannot move forward until you talk honestly about these
injustices… south Africa had a process to talk about the pain of apartheid and
after that we can reconcile ourselves to our future). We just moved on. Didn't
take the time to talk about Jim Crow.
4.
Death penalty. 22
more times to get the death penalty if defendant is black. "German scholar
said we can never have the death penalty again. Our history obligates us to
never be able to institutionalize executions of human beings again."
Sometimes you have to believe
things you haven't seen. Sometimes you have to replace the hatred with
hopefulness. I believe the church should be a big part of this process. I went
to the segregated school as a child. I'm burdened by this in many ways. We have
in my state Confederate Day is celebrated, and our constitution has Jim Crow
language in it.
Racist car with confederate
flags and Bumper sticker: "If I'd known it was going to be like this, I
would have picked my own cotton."
Guard wouldn't let me into
the jail without a strip search (even though it's not legally necessary). Gave
me trouble about signing in.
That guard brought my client
to the courthouse and he heard the client's story and after that it all
changed… treated lawyer with respect and prisoner with compassion.
The message of Jesus says
don't be afraid, don't give in to anger. When we give in to fear and anger we
perpetuate the problems. Step closer to these communities, there will be
anguish.
I couldn't keep typing this
man's story in because I was crying too hard. He shared a story about death
row, and a broken man who was being executed, who had a speech impediment and
spent 20 minutes just trying to say "Thank you for standing up for me. I
love ya'll and appreciate you trying." He said he hung up the phone and
said I can't do this any more, why do we insist on killing broken people? I
realized that the reason this bothered me so much is that I am a broken person
as well…
I don't believe that someone
who steals something is only a thief. I don't believe that someone who lies is
only a liar. I don't believe that someone who kills is only a killer.
Grace is greater than pride.
Love is greater than hate. Jesus is clear. He's told us this. We won't be
judged by the beauty of our cathedrals, the power of our ministry or our music,
we're going to be judged by how we treat the poor, feed the hungry, visit the
people in jail.
Love is our motivation, and
justice is our measurement. Love justice, do mercy, walk humbly with our God.
Beyond Incarceration:
interview w Catherine Rohr and Bryan Stevenson
Rohr: Defy Ventures.
Use life transforming tools to impact every urban
place. We seek out the most accomplished former gang leaders and drug dealers
we can find, put them through an admissions process then training program: hard
skills to help them learn a living legally. There's a business plan
competition; raised 1.3 million dollars, recruited 120 executives, graduated in
the pilot program 31 guys in the last 6 months. Half have already launched
their companies. The other half start next month.
Stevenson: when you look
someone in the eye you can't help but see their humanity. They are in the life
of "Saul"… need to be directed toward becoming Paul.
Structural things that will
help: don't make the offender question your first question, make it the last
question… 70% of the time they will still hire if it's disclosed at the end
instead of the front end.
Gabe Lyon Interviews Os
Guiness: The Future of Freedom
Is the unpopular minority
protected? Is the tiniest group proteceted. That's the test of religious
freedom.
Too often when evangelicals
say "Justice" they mean "just us"
Always respond with love and
never with demonizing
What is the unum that
balances our pluribus? What is the basic definitional reality of what it means
to be American? We need civil education.
We all have to think
globally. When we "act locally" that's about calling.
This is the moment when
America should be most relevant to the world as countries are moving into
democracy, etc, but we're "screwing it up royally" because of our
culture wars
We are always people of hope. We are never people of
fear.
James K.A. Smith: Imagining the Kingdom
To be a restorer is more than
to be an analyst or critic. It means to be a doer. God is not looking for
people to stand by an comment on the world, but to be agents of renewal in
God's world, pulling our labor toward the kingdom.
The problem is when the
church resources us as thinkers rather than doers.
The church needs to think
about the nature of action. What generates action? Much of our action, work and
labor is not the fruit of conscious deliberation. What we do is driven by who
we are, by our passions. We act toward what we love.
Our character is shaped so
that our action bubbles up out of that passional orientation, which is
fundamentally shaped by stories. Stories captivate us, picture what life is
about, they narrate what we think is the good life.
A lot of Christians have
absorbed an inaccurate picture of action that is based on an intellectualistic
account. I assume that I think my way through everything. "You are what
you think." You assume that to transform action you change how a person
thinks.
The problem is that thought
does not generate action. The sciences say that vast amounts of what you do
comes not from rational interaction but from character-primed orientation to
the world that you don't realize or think through.
A long quote from David
Brooks' The Social Animal about being formed to perceive things in a certain
way and thus to act/respond to that without thinking about it.
How do we generate Christian
action to restore the world and move it toward the kingdom?
We don't need to acquire more
knowledge but a feel for the world.
Stories train our affect.
NOTE: Have you ever noticed
how all the people who talk about the primacy of Story never tell any stories?
It's not enough to be
convinced intellectually, you need to be captured imaginatively. How do we do
that?
The church has over-valued
logic and under-valued the aesthetic.
We live at the nexus of body
and story. We are narrative animals. Liturgies are tactile stories, embodied
poems that capture our imagination.
The gospel is a design
project and Christian worship is a design studio.
"everyone designs who
devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred
ones." Herbert Simon
The un-hip thesis: we will
not recreate the world if we are constantly reinventing church. If we think we
need to reinventing the church we will move ourselves out of the story. The
most important thing we can do to source and resource the restorer
We don't need to figure out
the next cool way to do church, we need to look at historic practices of
Christian worship. When you say the Creed you are pledging allegiance to a
coming King and you are a resident alien no matter where you are. We are
citizens of a different country. Now here's a comment about infant baptism and
the importance of it for telling the story. Communion conscripts us into a
story in which no one is hungry in God's world.
Thomas Hinson: Preserving Our
Hearts
There can be no social
restoration unless there is personal restoration.
The context of leadership is
like being in the thin air at the top of a moment… you can begin to be stunted,
to die without ever realizing it.
Leadership in a nutshell: The
people wanted to worship Paul as a god and a verse later they stone him and
leave him for dead.
How do you handle the fact
that you aren't able to do the things you're called to? How do you deal with
success?
People begin to slowly die
without realizing it. Like King David. Seemingly out of the blue he has an
affair with his "best friend's wife." Eventually having to murder his
best friend. But it wasn’t out of the blue, there was a slow decline. The
demands of leadership have taken its toll. He's completely out of touch with
himself and with God.
He needed shelter and food
and God sent Nathan to bring spiritual breakthrough, to bring shelter.
Do you have shelter in your
life? In the Christian life, shelter is those deep spiritual friendships.
V13 he gives David food.
"The Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die."
Wow!! Thanks for posting these!
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