Friday, August 28, 2009

Coming Up Sunday, August 30

The "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" continues this week with "Julie & Julia," the recent film based on the best-selling book about a woman who blogs about her experience cooking every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook in one year. Here's the trailer:


The movie, written and directed by Nora Ephron (perhaps most famous for "Sleepless in Seattle," which she wrote and directed), is an odd film that falls outside of typical Hollywood genres. Ephron is famous for her romantic comedies, but this movie is really a twin biography. There are laughs and some romance, but mostly it is about the kinship between two women who never meet.

It seems logical to pair this movie with the book of Ruth, which falls outside of the typical Biblical genres. While it fits into the history of Israel, it is mostly about the kinship of two women, in-laws, who became the backbone of a family.

Ruth famously leaves her own family to continue to live with her mother-in-law, even after her husband dies (and there is no male sibling for her to marry per the custom of the times). She chooses her family. Julie Powell, in the movie, is dissatisfied with her professional identity, so she creates a new one on the Internet, as someone following in the footsteps of Julia Child.

The sermon Sunday will focus on these women's efforts to define their own identities, which is almost as odd a concept today as it was 3000 years ago.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Friday, August 21, 2009

Coming Up Sunday, August 23

The "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" continues on Sunday with the third summer movie, "The Hangover." The R-rated comedy, now the second highest grossing comedy of all time (not accounting for inflation), is the surprise hit of the summer. It tells the story of a weekend in Las Vegas gone horribly wrong -- the hook is that no one can remember what happened on the fateful night.

Here is one of the trailers:



Where did the live chicken come from? Who knows. The film mines lots of laughs from the completely unexpected, such as the random appearance of Mike Tyson singing along with a Phil Collins song. And there are lots of laughs (many from inappropriate humor) in the film.

How does it relate to the Bible? I could tease you and make up some outlandish tale, though drunkenness plays a role in several Biblical stories, such as the end of the story of Lot. More than this, though, drunkenness is a prominent theme in the prophets, who accuse the Hebrews of being too intoxicated to recognize what's really going on. Jeremiah 23 is just one such passage.

Can the same be said of us? Have we gotten so comfortable with our lives, including our lives of faith, that we've become intoxicated with our blessings, blinded by our wealth, hungover with our relative power? Do we all need a strong cup of coffee (or a whole pot) to wake up to reality?

Friday, August 14, 2009

Coming Up Sunday, August 16

The second film in our "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" is the Pixar/Disney computer animated "Up." This film, which tells the story of an elderly widower who goes on a quest to fulfill his late wife's dream, is an unexpected buddy picture, featuring a relationship between the old man and a young Asian boy scout. Here's the trailer:


On Sunday, we will consider some Biblical "up" stories, including the most famous one, the Transfiguration (found in Luke 9). These stories, like the movie "Up," are a special kind of personal journey stories, in which characters go up mountains in order to receive revelations or learn something about themselves.

In the Luke story, the revelation is for Jesus' disciples, rather than Jesus. Jesus is raised off the ground and joined mid-air by Elijah and Moses. And just in case the disciples misunderstand the meaning, the voice of God speaks to them, identifying Jesus as God's son.

We will talk a little about the opportunities we have to receive these epiphanies from God, about our own trips to the mountaintop.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Some People Will Do Anything Not to Go to Church

Slightly disturbing story about the lengths a 7-year-old boy went to in order to avoid going to church. Let's go to the videotape:


At first, I thought the boy drove the car from church to go home. But it appears that he took the car from home:



Makes you wonder. Or maybe just chuckle.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

DisciplesWorld - July/August 2009

The new issue of DisciplesWorld has arrived, and I'm excited to say that it's a strong issue, filled with interesting articles. It also marks the beginning of a reimagining of the magazine, with a new tagline: "your world, your faith, your life." (Personally, I'm not much into taglines, but evidently they must appeal to some people because they seem to pop up everywhere nowadays.)

The theme is "Celebrating Disciples Diversity," which is timely given that the recent General Assembly was in many ways a blatant attempt to do just that. (Given that it was my first assembly, I'll leave it to others to judge how successful the attempt was -- though I will say that I heard grousing from some who said that only some diversity was celebrated.) The magazine does an excellent job of trying to model this diversity in its coverage -- featuring articles or sidebars with a taste for Disciples racial, gender, age, economic, and social diversity. With limited space, it's impossible to represent such diversity fully, but I think the editors did an excellent job given such limitations.

I won't describe much about the articles, except to recommend them for their thoughtfulness. They will stimulate thinking and discussion, especially editor Verity Jones' excellent cover article. Jones both applauds our diversity and raises an inconsistency it points to -- what does it mean for a church that talks so centrally about unity among the church, but whose churches often fall into racial/national categories? Is it enough to be a big umbrella? Or as Verity puts it: "How can this crazy, hodgepodge of a denomination hold together when core faith beliefs are at stake?" (This is, by no means, an idle question.)

Also of note in the issue, Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President, has an article talking about the Mission Alignment Coordinating Council I blogged about a few days ago. It covers much the same ground -- even has the same scripture -- as the letter she sent to congregations.

Ron Allen, a Disciples seminary professor at Christian Theological Seminary, has an article on theological diversity among congregations. It is a laudable attempt to approach the issue with a fair and equal hand. He attempts to draw a spectrum of theological interpretation apart from the usual conservative/liberal dichotomy, which is helpful, suggesting a difference between "the multi-authority approach" and "the single-authority model." While I appreciate the effort, Allen's analysis is incorrect because "the single-authority model" (which is obviously not Allen's personal preference) is just as reliant on multiple forms of authority as "the multi-authority approach" -- adherents usually protest (much too loudly) that they don't, but it is obvious that they too rely on extra-Biblical traditions and experiences; they're just different from the extra-Biblical traditions and experiences given credence by others.

If I had to take a stab at what Allen is trying to get at, I would suggest that the dichotomy he is pointing to are between people who believe the Bible is the Word of God and those who believe the Bible is the Words of God. More aptly, and Allen might appreciate this given his academic focus, the difference is between those who believe the Bible is the logos of God versus those who believe it is the logoi of God. The former, the logos of God, suggests that people believe the scriptures are part of God's revealed reason; the latter, the logoi of God, suggests that people believe the scriptures are literally God's specific revealed words.

If all of this has your head spinning, then let me just suggest you skip the article or read it with a great big shaker of salt.

Later in the magazine, there is an excellent reflection on coping with the death of a child. My instinct is that it is also somewhat applicable to dealing with other forms of grief, so I recommend it. And if you know someone who is grieving, you might pass it along to them.

The closing piece, by Lillian Daniel, is an excellent source of "food for thought." She raises the intriguing question of how we approach our faith -- are we tourists, or are we adventurers? Tourists, she writes, sightsee, take pictures, and then go home. Adventurers have experiences that are much less controlled or predictable. I highly recommend you all read it.

DisciplesWorld is also sponsoring a couple of new online endeavors. The editors have begun a blog about the magazine, "Between the Lines." They have also created a social network for interested people, "The Intersection." Who knows what will become of these things, but no one can accuse them of sitting still or being behind the times.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Church of the Future

I came across this intriguing article when another religion blog, Church Marketing Sucks, mentioned it. (Interesting site about church outreach, though not for the uninitiated I don't think.) The writer considers the shape of the church in 25 years, 2034, at least as relates to the use of technology (the focus of the magazine, Collide, it appeared in).

I find the discussion of church sizes particularly intriguing, though probably premature for 2034. Congregational size will likely change over the next few decades, mostly due to the fact that it will become more challenging to financially support what many believe to be the basic neighborhood church: a building and a full-time pastor. Churches wanting to do this will need to be a certain size, which means that smaller congregations will feel more and more squeezed financially, maybe to the point that they either need to become very small or larger.

However, the author's comments about multiple church campuses may not only be prescient (I do think that it is a trend we will see much more of, because of so-called branding, in the next 20 years), but the solution to the squeezed churches. What if several small congregations pooled resources for one pastor who preached to them simultaneously using video communication? This pastor could visit each congregation over a period of Sundays, yet be present in all of them every Sunday. Intriguing, to say the least.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Coming Up Sunday, August 9

The "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" begins this Sunday, relating recent films to faith. First up, the mega-hit sequel "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which has earned almost $400 million at the domestic box office since its release in June.

The action movie pits earth in the cross-hairs of a cosmic war between good and bad robots, the Autobots and the Decepticons. This is another form of the age-old "Good vs. Evil" story, many of which appear in the Bible.

In fact, religiously speaking, we have a particular kind of "Good vs. Evil" story related to the end of the world: an apocalypse. At the end of time (or at least at the end of a period of time), there will be a cosmic struggle between good and evil; in this war, evil will be permanently defeated. After this, in the words of Revelation (or The Apocalypse according to John), there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

But the peaceable kingdom, where there will be no more war or death, does not come without a fight. And this worldview permeates a significant part of how we view life. We believe that no lasting good change (ie. transformation) can come without significant struggle. This is often how we view national history (stories of noble sacrifice), personal improvement (no pain, no gain), relationships (I asked her four times to marry me), and sports (win one for the Gipper).

Is this a good way to view faith? Do we have a choice?

Birdies, Birdies Everywhere -- Tweet, Tweet

A funny little story about the frequency of people posting to Twitter from the General Assembly, including Sharon Watkins, the General Minister and President.

I don't tweet. I have no interest in tweeting. I also have no interest in downloading an application so that you can track my location (via GPS on my cell phone) at all hours. But some people are using such things in their ministry. Makes you think.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Mission (Re)Alignment

Over the past several months, a committee of the general church has been meeting to discuss ways in which our shared mission and ministry could be better and more clearly organized. This group, officially called the Mission Alignment Coordinating Council, submitted recommendations to the General Board in April. This past week, Central Christian received a letter from General Minister and President Sharon Watkins updating the process.

The letter, displayed on the bulletin board at church, highlights nine proposals from the committee, most centering around increased communication between different ministries and offices. Notably absent is any of the earlier proposals to radically reorganize the structure of the church's general ministries.

So it may appear that the entire effort, still ongoing, is a bit of a failure. It may seem that the outcome is typical of so many church meetings -- an agreement to have more meetings.

Underneath this process, though, is a very encouraging sign. One of the main goals is to empower broader mission in every congregation. Initially, I believed that this was empty rhetoric, but over the past months I've come to believe that it is the primary motivation behind many of these discussions. More than this, I believe that this discussion, to imagine individual congregations being empowered for such ministry, is an exciting prospect for our congregations in the future. If we can find ways to share our collective knowledge, such as what we've learned about reaching out to political refugees or sending medical aid to Central America, then we don't just have to rely on Global Missions to do things -- members in individual congregations can reach out in service themselves.

More information about the Mission Alignment Coordinating Council is available on Disciples.org.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

General Assembly Wrap-Up

Owing to some Internet connection issues and some long days, I was unable to post entries the final days of the Assembly. Still, I'd like to make a few more observations.

Overall, the Assembly was a great gathering. Others suggested that it was very different from previous Assemblies, with a very different (and shorter) schedule, and a much different feel. On one of the Disciples email list-servs to which I belong, there has been quite a bit of discussion about the style of preaching over the four evening worship services -- evidently it too was different.

From my perspective, I thought there was a huge effort to be inclusive of the broad diversity of Disciples, including (but not limited to) our theological diversity, our racial diversity, our age diversity, our aesthetic diversity (particularly in music), and our cultural diversity. The music was surprisingly varied, although it frequently sounded the same because it was performed by the same musicians (which meant that older hymns felt a bit like more recent praise music).

On the other hand, the schedule was very busy, and the business sessions were far too long (and often unnecessarily so -- if you've submitted a written report, maybe highlight a couple of things and then just take questions, but report after report featured extensive comments). Mostly, this was because each session was filled with things other than business -- lengthy Bible study/reflections, 30 minute lectures on Disciples history (I'm not making that up). These could be nice touches to remind people of the reason for the business, but they took FAR too long. Much more successful were the small touches by Rev. Ayanna Johnson, outgoing 1st Vice Moderator, who offered a pastoral and human presence in the business meetings, particularly in her prayers. (I went to school with Ayanna, and I was thrilled to see her brilliantly fill a tough position -- and thrilled to see someone under 30 serving in a major and visible leadership role in the church.)

The business sessions achieved very little, from my perspective, as far as our congregation is concerned. The new ministry guidelines were passed, despite objections from many (including a region that said they would be virtually impossible for them to implement). Certain procedural things were worked out, including plans for the 2013 Assembly. Perhaps the resolution on transparency will allow more visibility of the General Board and its activities -- time will tell. Perhaps the resolution declaring that we are a Global Mission Church will have positive effects felt throughout the church -- right now, I see most of the tangible effects in the regional churches. The other resolutions, offering solidarity with one group or another, will likely affect nothing. But I'm sure people felt good about themselves when they voted for them.

The preaching at the Assembly was an interesting mix of things. I enjoyed the opportunity to hear all of the preachers, though the best sermons I heard during the week were not in evening worship. I had the opportunity to hear Fred Craddock preach at a downtown Indianapolis church Sunday morning; despite his age, he still had a message to share in his inimitable gentle way. And while I did not appreciate all of the add-on stuff in the business sessions, the Bible Study (really sermon) on Saturday morning from Jose Morales was phenomenal; I purchased a DVD to share with the congregation sometime this fall.

I got to catch up with friends from around our church, to hear about their current ministries and activities and to share ours. I met some new people and learned a few things. I spent some time (whenever I could catch a few minutes) in prayerful contemplation of our future -- why I had to go to Indianapolis to hear God speaking about some things I don't know, but God spoke there just the same.