CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

Julie Clawson's blog

In my last post on experience and words an interesting conversation arose in the comments on what it means to welcome others. The question centered on whether or not emergent is welcoming of all if disagreements exist or if “us verses them” divisions exist.

On one level the discussion asks the question if a person can feel welcome in a non-homogeneous group or if they are the minority. I’ve personally talked about how hard that can be for me when I feel like I am not even allowed to be myself in groups. I don’t like being the odd one out, and I know there are some that would rather not make concessions to welcome the other either. I recall a very awkward interracial experience I had a number of years ago in this regard. It was Christmastime, and this good Texas girl wanted her traditional tamales for Christmas Eve. So I headed over to a Mexican market in West Chicago to buy some. I was walking out of the store with my tamales when an elderly Hispanic woman stopped me at the door, gestured emphatically at me, and asked “what’s a gringo doing in my store? What do you want with us?” I replied something lame about the tamales and made a quick exit, but I had impressed on me the difficulty of crossing boundaries - especially the ones you barely knew existed. It is hard to feel welcome or to welcome the other when you really don’t know how to interact with each other.... READ MORE.

Wayne Stacy's blog

I’ve been grading papers in my masters degree program classes, and I constantly run up against a recurring problem: students don’t know when and how to document their sources. The academic world insists on honesty and integrity in writing and, therefore, has come up with a system for vouchsafing it. It’s called the footnote. The footnote tells the reader that what follows is not his own, that he’s borrowed an idea from someone else, but in the interest of honesty and fairness, he’s acknowledging that fact.

With the move toward casualness (and irresponsibility) ubiquitous in our society, footnoting has become a lost art. Students now think that if they lift a line from someone else’s work without appropriate attribution, it’s quite all right. But in the academic world, it’s not “quite all right.” It’s plagiarism, which is "education speak" for stealing.

But move that same dishonesty into the pulpit, and it’s no longer deemed plagiarism; it’s just preaching. I’ve actually heard preachers say: “When a better sermon is preached, I’ll steal it!”

I know; it happened to me. It happened when a story I told in a sermon at First Baptist Church in Raleigh got lifted and used by someone else as though it had happened to them.

Years ago, when I was pastor of First Baptist Church of Raleigh, an incident happened to me that shook me to my soles. I came home and told Cheryl about it, it bothered me so. Some weeks later, looking for an illustration for a sermon that drove home the point that everything we do matters, I remembered the incident and told it in a sermon. The incident was this... READ MORE.

We have some new bloggers in the CCblogs network. Drop by and check them out.

Religious Rhetorics - K.M. Camper is a rhetorician and a doctoral student in the English Language and Literature program at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. His blog is a collaboration with Kari Lundgren. They offer rigourous rhetorical analysis of American religious language.

Disciple's Diary - Wayne Stacy has taught at Southern Seminary, Midwestern Seminary, and Palm Beach Atlantic University. He now resides in western North Carolina with Cheryl, his wife of 39 years, where he teaches in the Distance Learning Program for Liberty Theological Seminary, writes for various publications, and serves as an intentional interim pastor.

Notes from Off Center - Andrew Tatusko is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and is currently the program activity director for a Title III grant to integrate technology into teaching, learning, retention and advising at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, PA.

Exploring Ecumenism - Chris Sissons is a National Ecuminical Officer for the Methodist Church.

Discernland - Josh Bowron is a seminary student.

The Rev's Rumbles - From Fred Anderson's blog: "I am a follower of Jesus, a progressive Presbyterian, a Freemason and an unapologetic left-wing Democrat. I am also honorably retired, aged to perfection, deeply in love with my life's partner, contentedly doing what I want to do when I want to do it in Arizona's beautiful Valley of the Sun."

Nachfolge - Scott Johnson is a Lutheran pastor.

CyberSpiritCafe - Doug Kings describes himself as a "liberal pastor in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Christian Conversations - Kevin Baker is the pastor of Reconciliation United Methodist Church in Durham. He posts at Theolog and has written for Christian Century's "Living by the Word."

Rev Abi's Long and Winding Road - Abi Carlisle-Wilke is I am a United Methodist Minister serving in Huntsville, AL.

Pentecost - the Sunday of the Holy Spirit. While evangelicals are used to emphasizing the Holy Spirit in their language and theology, mainline churches are often more reticent. What is being said about the Holy Spirit around Pentecost Sunday among CCbloggers?

When Love Comes to Town - "Pentecost, Peace, and Grace."

Theolog - Donna Schaper writes about a double miracle.

I-YOUniverse - John Hamilton confesses that the Holy Spirit resides in his heart but not in his mouth.

Reflectionary - Martha Hoverson is asked to do a funeral the week before Pentecost .

Don't Eat Alone - Milton Brasher-Cunningham offers us a Pentecost poem .

Welcoming Spirit - Paula Jenkins struggles to understand the nature of the Holy Spirit.

Just Words - Ed Sunday-Winters reflects on the age of the Church. Almost 2000 years old, and yet Pentecost reminds us that the present experience of the Spirit is the locus of our power.

Unorthodoxology - David Henson: "I wonder if they still continue to speak in the tongues of men and of angels, because that is the only language they now understand."

Life and Faith - Ernesto Tinajero remembers a seminary professor who called the Holy Spirit, "Holy Breath."

Everyday Liturgy - Thomas Turner: "The Holy Spirit is more than a placeholder to complete the Trinity."

Where the Wind - Fiction by Adam Thomas: Davies writes a paper on the Holy Spirit.

Grounded and Rooted in Love - A Pentecost sermon.

Seeking Authentic Voice - Terri Pilarski reflects on Pentecost having grown up in a non-liturgical tradition.

Eclectic Faith - Christopher Keel reflects on Pentecost having been raised a Pentecostal.

Faith in Community - Diane Roth: Remembering Azusa Street.

I Thirst - Mark Hogg remembers Pentecost 2001.

Dancing on Saturday - Chad Holtz: Pentecost and the Ethiopian gospel choir."

John Shuck's blog

Nothing is more devastating to revealed religion than the historical-critical study of its texts. This study brings the texts down to earth. We discover that the Bible is a collection of documents written and revised by human beings.

This hit home when I took the Old Testament survey course in seminary. This collection of texts theologically understood as Word of God were, in actuality, the words of human beings. I searched for "God" in them and the most I could find was what the various authors wrote about their ideas of what they called "God."

This changes things dramatically at least in principle. However, this takes a long time at the personal level for this realization to roost. At the institutional level, it takes much, much longer. The effects of the historical-method on religious texts are far-reaching. Is it even meaningful to speak of "God" with any sense of realism when "God" becomes a literary character in a human drama?
... READ MORE.

James McGrath's blog

Today marked the second (and final, although I'm not sure anything in my class is really "final") of my Sunday school classes on Islam. We also touched on a number of key points about Baptist identity, which will make for a nice segue into what happens next: I'm going to take a break from teaching my class for the summer, while our pastor offers a summer Sunday school class on "Being Baptist". I'll be attending his class for its duration, along with as many of the other regular attendees in my own class as wish to.

In today's class, I went over the five pillars of Islam, but also emphasized that doing so no more gives a real sense of what Islam means to its followers, than learning some creeds or even reading the Bible would give an impression of what Christianity is.... READ MORE.

James Lumsden's blog

Three fascinating comments came my way during worship today after sharing my reflections on "not getting sin and salvation" anymore. (See my sermon notes below...) First, there was a deep resonance among some people who said that they, too, were interested in the nuanced and multi-layered sense of the human experience that the "new paradigm" church is exploring. "All of our sin-talk seems like a hamster on a wheel in a cage going round and round and never getting off!" Some saw the traditional words of sin as a way of letting some into the community while keeping others out; and some told me that our usual sin words are too narrow and don't help us consider things like poverty, race hatred and war. (I love the way Peter Rollins talks about this wrestling together in community...)

Second, there was a sense of "liberation and freedom" among others who said that they felt a little discomfort, too, in letting go of such an historic resting place. They grasped that the time had probably come to speak more creatively about the human condition but they also wanted to make sure that I wasn't claiming the whole idea of sin and salvation were over. And, of course, that was not my point..... READ MORE.

Chad Holtz's blog

Ordination along with denominations have received quite a beating in the blogosphere over the last week. If you don’t know what I am talking about visit Pomomusings or Greg Bolt’s blog for a good overview with links to sites where this discussion is ongoing.

As I peruse the comments this topic has generated it struck me that no one is really talking about the real casualty in all of this: the local church. If we maintain that denominations are “sinful” (the position Tony Jones has taken) and should be done away with and the process of ordination should be made easier and more grass-roots, the church will die.

When I was baptized I was immersed into a story far bigger than me. All of us who call ourselves Christians are connected by a stream that runs through all of time. I am not an island unto myself. I am connected to the saints that have come before me, live with me and will live after me. Because you are, I am.

In our post-modern theological pow-wows it is trendy to talk of narratives. The story into which our baptism initiates us we call a grand meta-narrative, or a means by which we define our existence as well as make educated guesses about where creation is headed (or more precisely, where God is taking it). Evangelism, in this motif, is defined by Stanley Hauerwas as “an invitation to switch stories.” Christians believe we have a pretty good story, one we aptly call Good News, that is worth even our very lives.... READ MORE.