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Reflecting on “Controversy” Post 3 – When It Gets Personal

May 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In posting about the nature of controversy, it seemed necessary to discuss on what happens when we find ourselves in some type of “controversy.” To avoid being over-dramatic here, I’m using the term as the idea that there are going to be times when you discover that people are intensely debating a subject for some period of time and the subject is you.

Most of us have no idea what it feels like to be under critical scrutiny like Tim Tebow or other celebrity types. But in our corner of life, many of us have felt watched, judged, and gossiped about. (We should also remember that we have all been guilty of doing this to others.)

In my first post I shared about an awkward moment about a decision I made that some deemed as “controversial”. Though initially it didn’t feel like it deserved the term, I do remember there was a good bit of unexpected discussion. I remember feeling a bit exposed and vulnerable. I also felt judged in some weird sense. I remember how I felt toward these “detractors.” And I remember feeling that it felt more personal than it ought to. Initially, I thought it was so odd that it became something so dramatic and that’s when it dawned on me, “it’s not the decision they don’t like, it’s me.”  While this was certainly not true for all who were conversing, it was true for some and this part of the nature of controversy, criticism and leadership.

I recall another time where I was sharing my heart on something I was willing to take the heat for. It’s like that big wave that you see coming and after it hits, you have two thoughts, “Yeah that’s what I thought it was going to be” and “My shorts are still on right? Thank God.”

In some ways, it was a similar feeling of vulnerability. This time, I had direct conversations in phone calls, emails and some in person. Some parts of it sucked as I thought, “I can’t believe this person doesn’t get it!” I learned a little more about spending more time listening than defending which is not just something that you need to only say but actually do. I learned more about compromise and a little more about clarifying. Some of it still hurt but looking back on it, it felt like I actually added to a larger conversation that needed to be had.

The important thing for me to remember was to keep perspective, keep conversing, try to keep growing in character. For the Christian, prayer, Scripture-reading, fasting and other disciplines are essential in creating and keeping your perspective. Conversing is necessary because we need to be in community, not just to avoid self-isolation, not just so others can understand what we are trying to say but for also encouragement and accountability. And lastly, we ought to never be spiteful but to respond to our critics with mercy and grace, even if they are unfair. I find this to be very difficult. It’s easy to respond in anger, in spite, even sarcasm (well, maybe a little sarcasm is ok) but it depends on what you are seeking.

If we are seeking reconciliation, reacting in anger for the hurt generally only reinforces the statement/action/reaction initially made against you. However, responding with charity, respect and a spirit willing to engage in dialogue can not only be disarming to your critic(s) but may actually lead to good things.

As I said in my second post, controversy can lead to conversation. And though we should not instigate controversy, we should be not afraid of it. It’s not the end of the world, it’s not the end of your career (scandals not withstanding) and we may actually find it to be the beginning of something better.

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I’m a little off schedule with our move and excited to be preaching this Sunday night so pardon the inconsistent postings but thanks for reading.

Filed Under: Reflective

Reflecting on “Controversy” Post 2 – Seeing It As an Opportunity for Conversation

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In my first post, I made the point that there will always be controversy and that we should probably get better at dealing with it.

Controversy is a tricky thing of course. For those caught in the middle of the controversy, it can be a very painful experience. If you are among the grieved, offended, angered party, controversy is an opportunity to be heard. In its best scenario, it’s a chance for progress or even change! Depending on how inside/outside you are of it will generally determine how annoyed you get with the fueling of it and its attention.

For example, most of us would agree that the Tim Tebow thing was much to do about not too much. Ok, the guy likes to kneel and pray a lot. Whether you are a huge admirer or a detractor, let’s move on. Of course whatever chance we had of that disappears now that he is playing for a New York sports team. Had he played for Jacksonville, it would be much different, they simply don’t have that type of media attention there. Still, I wish the Cougars, err, the Jaguars the best of luck this season).

While over-discussed certain people and topics, we certainly under discussed others. As a society, we probably could have discussed the Genocide in Sudan a bit more. We shouldn’t forget about the elections and ongoing unrest in the Middle East and regardless of what we feel about the Occupy Movement, it should remind us of the pain and frustration that it represents in our neighborhoods. None of these conversations are actually over of course.

As a Church, we should be discussing these as well. I would also suggest specifically as a church, we could have discussed Rick Perry’s thoughts on government a bit more (Santorum’s Catholicism limited some of the Evangelical input). Many of us Christian Gen X’ers and Millennials are very concerned with some of this Buster’s idea of Christian nationalism. I for one, am grateful that the Perry campaign ended. That isn’t meant to sound as a personal attack but as soon as a politician attaches “Christianity” to his platform, I get very sensitive because now, the candidate is attempting to represent me in a number of ways. And to put it politely, people like Rick Perry do not best represent me.

I’m sure he’s a great guy, maybe a good guy to have in a church but not a President type. I appeal to a fundamentalist who was no stranger to controversy who said, “I would rather have an atheist who is a neurosurgeon of excellent talents operating on me if I ever need a brain surgery than to have the best Sunday school teacher in the world who doesn’t know a thing about it. I’d much rather have the atheist if that is his specialty. … We’ve got to elect a president who, whether he or she goes to church or which church or whatever, understands the issues. And the top issue today in our culture is survival.” Even Jerry Falwell got it.

So here’s what I’m saying – looking back on it, Perry’s short run for the Presidency allowed for conversation. Without Perry, I would have fewer conversations on nationalism, patriotism and the Kingdom of God, the verbiage of Christian America, Church and State, Mormonism and the popular motto that “everything is weirder in Texas.”

And that’s what’s good about controversy. Controversy gives us an opportunity for conversation. For me, there are only so many times I can talk about the weather, or the traffic, only so many times I can talk about entertainment culture of even sports. Some times, we need to have a serious conversation and controversies allow for that. The media hype gives us a headstart in thinking about the issue. Further, the culture’s emotional response (whether it be in the forms of anger or sympathy) creates urgency. And when we finally stop talking about the weather and the traffic, we might be able to cut through the superficialities, deepen friendships, offer hope to those around us and maybe even contribute to the collective good.

That said, there certainly is a danger in becoming a controversy hunter. Having to make up your mind on every issue does not make you informed, only opinionated. This opens the door for pride and anger to enter the heart. There is also a danger in turning into an information junkie because everything tends to get objectified and even this becomes no more than a hobby. This invites apathy and possible disillusionment.

On better days, my motives for conversation include the following:
An opportunity to reduce the tension. Our culture is so quick to respond and it’s usually in anger. We can speculate on the cultural psychological makeup of why but on the other side of it, we ought to ask, are we contributing to the pain or helping to lessen it in at least some small way? Reducing the cultural tension can help us think more rationally, and hopefully, respond more compassionately. Usually when this happens, the media shuts down reporting on the controversy and looks for another.

Second, such discussion creates an opportunity to listen. There have been numerous times when the conversation began in talking about a particular scandal and then a more personal experience like the pursuit of success and pride became the new center piece of the conversation. Listening in these moments can do wonders.

Third, such discussions, even heated ones, create an opportunity to see the other side. In conversing with those with different presuppositions, we not only gain understanding of “the other”, we not only offer our side to “the other” but we each get to see the complexity of the issue and the complexity of our respective personhood. We realize we have motives and experiences that have shaped us, and sometimes they need to be altered, destroyed or celebrated. It’s best if we can do this together.

Lastly, controversies can allow us to get to the heart of the matter. For example, going back to the Rick Perry example is that I was suspicious that he was using the Christian narrative as a tool for his political agenda. Certainly I would like to see more Christian values in the culture, including in the government, but not at the cost of the message of Jesus. And even more so, I do not want to see the powerful arm-twisting and crafting sound-bytes for hollow agendas. God does not manipulate, nor should we dare to either. And so, when I talk about moments like this, I get to talk about the calling and the potential of the Church as God’s vehicle to bring His kingdom of goodness, love and redemption to this world. I get to talk about how a strong church can reach out to the a increasingly secularized culture and how we are all invited to be part of God’s redemption.

It’s in these ways, controversies create opportunities for conversation, even for goodness, and we ought to be faithful with them.

Filed Under: Christianity, Culture, Reflective, The Church Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Reflecting on “Controversy” – We’ll Always Have Some

May 3, 2012 By 1 Comment

Controversy – the very word itself creates unrest in the heart. I cannot count the number of times that I have seen that word preceded with an attaching name/place and thought “Here we go again.”

There’s a controversy in every corner and when it gets big enough, it becomes cultural.
Lately, it’s the Trayvon Martin case.
Romney has a daily controversy, Obama does too.
In the NFL, it’s the Saints Bounty scandal and soon it will be another “Tim Tebow Controversy.”
A couple weeks ago in my little sub-culture, there was controversy surrounding the movie Blue Like Jazz (which in case you forgot ;) I liked the movie. Here were my posts)
About two months ago, it was the Kony 2012 controversy which started as a sub-culture thing and blew up globally (while I have my concerns, for the most part, I support their work).

Chances are you have started, instigated, fueled a controversy in your corner of life. Likely won’t make Headline News, probably not a Lewinsky life-changer, and hopefully it’s something you laugh about now.

Years ago in a previous church, I changed the Middle School ministry to include 6th Graders. We talked about it for months, it felt like I consulted 500 out of the 300 people in my church, it seemed everyone thought it was a no-brainer. Then it became official and someone told me, “Well, that decision is a little controversial.” I couldn’t believe the word “controversy” was used. “People are actually talking about this?” Then I found out that some didn’t even have sixth graders, some didn’t have kids in the youth ministry! It reminded me of what Paul said, “Does the foot say to the hand, I don’t like the kind of gloves you are wearing?” (I didn’t say which Paul). So much of it didn’t make sense to me.

I’ll tell you this though – I remember it felt personal.  But I’ll get back to this later.

This series is going to have a couple parts but today, exploring the nature of controversy and our appropriate response to it. But today I want to reinforce the simple point that there will always be controversy. Always. And we should probably get better at dealing with it.

The logical question is why?  Well, in some sense we need them and in another sense, there’s money and power to be made.  Some controversies are legitimate. Some are created to keep you watching. Similarly, some only to get site clicks. Of course, these statements are subjective. But discussing/creating/manipulating controversy creates revenue, popularity and increases platform.  However, at its best moment, it also has the potential to lead to the truth (or a form of it).

We’re always going to have controversy and as Christians, I look forward to discussing how  we can add goodness to them.

What controversies are you following? Have you created any in your corner? Have you ever been in the middle of one, even a small one?  Feel free to add your thoughts and hope you tune in to the next post.

Filed Under: Reflective Tagged With: , , , , ,

Reflecting on Mark Batterson’s 5 Points on Church & Place at Q #qdc

May 1, 2012 By 2 Comments

Been looking at my notes and thinking about Mark Batterson’s Q Talk on Church & Place.
Here were his five main points:

1 – We need to find ways of doing church that no one is doing yet
2 – We need lots of different churches bc there are lots of different people.
3 – Church ought to be most creative place on planet
4 – Be known for what we are for, not what we are against
“Criticize by creating” – Michelangelo
5 – Church belongs in middle of market place.
“Coffee houses are postmodern drinking wells, screens are postmodern stained glass.”

Mark is the pastor at National Community Church, has authored a number of books and is a regular speaker at national events. From the few times I’ve heard/read him, I appreciate his balance of ideas and numbers. Here’s an example from a Q piece he wrote a while back “Postmodern Wells: Creating a Third Place.” Though I’m not really following his work but what he’s saying is what I’ve been thinking about and trying to apply to my ministry. Hmmm, maybe I should start following his work.

Anyway, in general I agree and respect Mark’s points. He said quite a lot in the nine minutes he was given. Certainly resonate with the first one. In some sense, it’s a bit over-stated but I think it’s a great question to begin asking in any ministry context. It’s this mindset that had my friends and I are wondering about concerning alternative worship services, pub church gatherings, small group dynamics, etc.

Completely agree with the second point and I find myself saying something like this all the time. We need churches like Solmon’s Porch and McLean Bible churches. We need churches that meet in pubs and coffee house, I believe there is still a place for the traditional church and I of course believe in the large church structure as well. We need different churches that are always reforming and seeking the Spirit for the sake of the Kingdom.

Point three sounds nice. If by that, we mean the Christian community (as opposed to only the institution) needs to be the most creative place, yeah, I guess so. But I’m not sure I would say it like that. I certainly think we need to aspire to be creative and pioneering. We honor the great Creator when we create. When I think of creativity today, I of course, think of Apple, the Arcade Fire and The Tree of Life (are you reading Bo?). In any case, Mark is right to encourage us here.

I would outright disagree with point four if so many people I respected didn’t keep saying it. I understand that for too many people outside the Church, we are only known for what we are against (gay marriage, abortion, Democrats). Of course these generalizations are not helpful. I do want the Church to be known as a community of love, compassion, open-mindedness. However, I think we should be known also as a people that are against unfair discrimination, injustice and closed-mindedness. When there’s a hate crime, society should say, “People in the Church are going to be angered, there is no room for racism here. We need grace and love.” People are not saying that and I know that sounds idealistic but it’s certainly consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

And regarding point five, I wish he could have had more time to unpack this. I need to take a closer look at what they are doing with the Ebeenzers Coffee House. I have visited, it is cool, great space, and they serve One Village!   It felt that very few communities could use this as a model but again, I would need to learn the story.

As a staff, we’ve talked about things like this a couple of times and I think this is a needed conversation in our churches. Not only because of the economical climate, not only because American culture is steeped in the marketplace, but I see it as stewardship. Even further, should local churches enter the market place, I hope we can do so with a countercultural attitude that confronts the negative aspects of consumerism and celebrates the better things like fair-trade, fair-wage, ethical marketing and a Kingdom-minded mentality.

For more check out:
www.markbatterson.com
the church he serves at, National Community
His new book The Circe Maker

and you can follow him on Twitter.

For related posts on my time at Q, you can read:

Reflecting on Andy Crouch’s Discussion on Power (And How it Relates In the Church Sector) at Q
Reflecting on the Q Conference, Washington DC Post 1 – Back Home & Grateful

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Missional, Reflective, The Church Tagged With: , , ,

My Review of Rumors of God by Darren Whitehead & Jon Tyson

April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Note: I have not been asked to review this book by a publisher or by the authors. Like all reviews, these are my sincere opinions.

Rumors of God by Darren Whitehead & Jon Tyson has been sitting on my To-Read shelf for too long and I was glad to read it. Darren is a teaching pastor at Willow Creek and Jon is a church planter in New York. Now Trinity Grace now has six campuses in the City and I’ve always appreciated my interactions with those in their ministry. Having spent the last 5 years in north Jersey, I’ve bumped into Jon a couple of times at various gatherings. I find him to be a good soul in a city that we all know can be grueling.

I appreciated the message and content of the book, really liked the concept, although I was a little thrown off by the subtitle “Discover the Kind of Faith You’ve Only Heard About.” Many have not heard anything good about faith or the Church, and for some, their view of God is rooted in an absent, angry being that roams around the galaxy. From what I know of Jon (and the little that I know of Darren), they know this to be very true. Still, the point is taken, there are a significant number of people who have heard glimpses of the redeeming message of Christianity. So much of what many grace-preaching, sharp and caring pastors are saying is being overpowered by the scandal-rich, crazy, hate-filled verbiage out there. The true gospel is almost coming out like a rumor.

Rumors of God covers a lot of ground. We learn a good bit about these two men who knew each other as teenagers in Australia. We read of their Christian conversions, we see their passion, hustle and glimpses into their personal lives (like Jon’s 2 year old daughter wiping the contents of her diaper on her bedroom walls).

I resonated with much of how they spoke of themes like love, the need for community, social justice and appreciated how they spoke of the Christian Triune God. The book is a great introduction to the Christian faith but it’s also a welcomed re-introduction. I could see this being helpful to the countless who leave the church in college and are now seeking to find something deeper than the materialism and humanism that they traded for. In fairness to them, many churches are not doing an adequate job in preparing their young hearts to leave their homes and churches. I don’t just mean the institutional church, I also mean it in terms of church as a community of families, friends, etc. Each of the mentioned needs to dramatically improve, not just with effort but in perspective as well. Though it would be nice to go further with this line of thought, this is intended to be a book review and I only mention it to say that Rumors of God is especially helpful to this audience.

Chapter Seven “The Radical Individual” was my probably favorite chapter as I find this to be an extremely important message for our culture. Especially for our twenty and thirty somethings who have been groomed by American individualism and promised the world. Which brings up another distinction, “the world” that many of us as X’ers and Millennials are promised isn’t the same one that the Boomers and Builders were talking about. But that also doesn’t really fit in with this book review.

Chapter Four, “Getting the Gospel In Order” threw me a little bit (but I still liked it). It had an excellent central point, it’s orthodox and so forth, I’m not throwing any heresy flags out there. I just thought it was a little too old-school in comparison with the rest of the book. It even had the classic “The officer pulls you over, pays our fine” (gives you his car) illustration. Glad to see the illustration of the railroad engineer who takes his son to work and got his little foot stuck … didn’t make the cut. I loathe that story on so many levels. But I’m just being critical because this a blog post. I do want to reiterate that the central point of this chapter is solid; I do like the “Jesus trades identities with us and gives the believer His inheritance” and it is certainly true that the church needs to be known as a place for grace. But I am hardly original in pointing out the church may need some better metaphors in discussing substituionary atonement.

After that, I did find the dichotomy of old-school evangelical versus new school. Which in some ways, works for certain parts of my ministry. While I certainly do not want to dismiss the richness of the last 50 years of evangelicalism, I’m not sure these are the parts worth preserving. And when I say, I’m not sure, I’m not trying to be polite here, I am honestly unsure. This has been on my radar the last 10 years of ministry and while I loved the content of Rumors of God, I’m not exactly the target demographic for it. I found myself thinking about their approach in reaching out to fellow X’ers/Millennials. To be fair, some of this was odd to me because of what I think I know of Jon. (He uses a lot of NT Wright material in his messages and frankly, he uses it really well.) It does make me wonder about the behind the scenes of Christian publishing though.

That’s about as critical as I can be – it’s a great read, especially for a significant number of people who are looking for a better articulation of the Christian faith and hoping for a better church. This may be a book we read together in a future Reading Circle, we’ll see …

If you’re interested, I suggest you follow Darren and Jon on Twitter, check out their book promo video and you can order the book at Amazon.


 

 

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Reflective

Reflecting on Andy Crouch’s Discussion on Power (And How it Relates In the Church Sector) at Q

April 25, 2012 By 4 Comments

As I mentioned at the end of my last post and in one last week, I want to blog a little on the Q Conference in Washington DC that I was able to attend. I do find myself thinking about a number of the presentations and a few that I force myself to think again about. I’m not sure I’ll admit to which is which, nor am I sure how many of these I am going to actually blog about but I am intentionally trying to take the time to do so for a number of reasons and they include:
1. I found many of them to be really important for me.
2. Grateful for the sacrifices and blessings to be able to get there.
3. I really believe in the work.
4. By taking time and reflecting on the content and what it means to me in context and application, it allows me to move beyond “conference junkie” and consumer of content (at least I hope to move from this).

Although it makes more sense to begin at the beginning, let’s start at the second presentation with Andy Crouch. His discussion on power continues to evolve so well. Having been privileged (can I use that word in this context?) to hear Andy speak on this a few times, it’s really great and helpful material. And it continues to get even better – looking forward to the book. I am also grateful that Biblical Seminary kept trying to find ways to bring him in to speak to us because I am truly hungry for this conversation.

I would love to give you all the sound-bytes but I wouldn’t be able to do them justice but here are a few:

Andy’s big question was, “Who is flourishing through your power? That is the test of power.”

“God has entrusted power to His Image bearers.
Vulnerable image-makers (even realize their own nakedness)
To deal with our vulnerability, we misuse our creativity.
Deepest use of power is not force but creation.
Deepest corruption of power is misplaced creativity – this is idolatry.”
Idols promise everything, demand nothing … but they extract everything
Idols work cheap and fast and they work … at first. (don’t keep working)”*

For one, I’m a sucker for the whole Imago Dei-idol conversation. So what he says at the end, I find myself yelling Amen at.

Andy is one of those speakers that make it sound so clear, yet when you find yourself explaining it to someone later, you say things like, “Well you know, he was talking about power … and stuff. Oh and I really liked what he said about idols – it was good.”

But here’s where I am two weeks later since listening to the presentation.
I have been contextualizing this in my sector (The Church) and asking the obvious questions like, “Who in the Church has the power?”
To some, it may seem obvious to say that the Sr. Pastor has the power but that’s not completely true, at least not in the evangelical tradition (can’t and won’t speak of any others). I’ve seen churches where the Sr. Pastor seems to run the show and others where they clearly didn’t.

Well, if not the Pastor (and the staff) then the elder board! Yes and no. Then, perhaps it’s the members, the community (power to the people!) and the answer again is yes and no.

What I’m learning in the Evangelical Church is that the “power” is scattered, limited, temporary and contingent on so many factors.

That church where the senior pastor micromanages every decision will never grow past 400 because he can only manage/control 400 people. It’s scattered and limited for a number of reasons. Among them is the pastor will only have their limited attention, generally Sunday mornings, funerals, weddings, etc. Half of them will change churches within a few years, a new crowd will take their place; this makes it temporary and it’s contingent on an endless number of factors like the preaching, the music, family ministries, the elder board, the budget, the parking, who and what was said in the last congregational meeting, factors contributing to the building and losing of momentum and various other wildcards. Or at least that’s what it feels and looks like from the inside and from the outside. It turns out the micromanaging senior pastor is not really that powerful.

The small congregational church with the revolving door right next to the pulpit seems to have given the power to the people but it hasn’t. Some of the congregants may have been there for fifty years, but the power is limited and certainly scattered. It seems to me that some of the “flatter” churches have similar struggles and being new in a large church environment, indeed there are hinderances at work here. To test it, we could ask “Who is really in charge?” to different groups and representatives. Pastors all tell you that the leadership has been granted authority but the attendees affirm this. But they’ll also say if/when people stop coming/serving/giving/connecting, their power is revealed and “The elder board has no legs!”

In all of these instances, idols are created. Idols are created out of man-made dreams, attendance, the budget, the ministry model, the customer satisfaction huh, I mean … well, whatever you want to call it.

I love the idea in theory that the power needs to be shared and given. I really do. Though I am a pastor, though I see myself as a leader, my prayers won’t be genuine if I know that people are responding to my control rather than their response to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We won’t share the power unless we trust each other.

I also love the idea that power needs to be unifying. It’s an amazing and scary thought of what could be if we truly trusted each other.

Further, I am thinking about what it means for the exercising of power to be a true act of worship. In some sense, this is what Andy is already saying about using power to create and in the Church sector, I see that happening in moments like, during our praise of God (whether it be Sunday morning, small groups or personally and privately throughout our week) and especially outside the institution of the Evangelical Church.

But lastly, I am returning to Andy’s original question in the church context “Who is flourishing through your power? That is the test of power.”

I’ve been thinking about this for almost two weeks and here’s where I am today. There are a number of people who are actually “flourishing” because of the influence and ministry of the church. The frustration is that it’s not nearly enough in terms of the number of people that are hurting around us and the depth of the “flourishing.” It was great to think of people, to know names and stories but again, it’s sobering to see how many more are in need of redemption from the hurt, pain and evil.

Plenty to think about, plenty to act upon and so may we be faithful with the creativity and the power/influence/calling we’ve been given in the Church sector as congregants, pastors, elders, as followers of God’s Kingdom.

Andy said so much more, maybe I’ll post again on it but if you are interested, check out his incredible book Culture Making and this presentation at Q Austin called “Power, Privilege and Risk.”

Filed Under: Christianity, Conferences/Events, Missional, Reflective, The Church Tagged With: , , ,

Life Update – Nathan turns 4, We Closed on a House & Coming Soon on the Blog

April 24, 2012 By 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I blogged.

A couple months ago, someone said to me that they missed the Monday Morning Briefs I used to do. It was an idea that I took from Marko from whyismarko (and a handful of other bloggers) but I stopped doing them for a couple of reasons. Among them was that my life isn’t that interesting from week to week (like most people ;) Second was I got tired of talking about what books/music/movies/media I was consuming. Some of it came naturally because I was in seminary and was required to read so many different types of things. Add to that, I had a two hour commute (each way!) so I was going through a lot music/podcasts. I liked a lot of that but life is a little different these days and hardly sustainable the previous way. I look back at it now as quite sampling of a diverse range of things.

Still, my friend told me he missed the life update part and I felt honored by that. Blogs my nature are supposed to include your life and your voice and perhaps I have been hesitant in doing that as much lately.

So here’s a life update and likely a few random thoughts I’m processing and hope to blog about … one day.

This past weekend we celebrated our first child’s FOURTH birthday. I confess, I was a little moved when I buckled Nathan and his little brother, Dylan in the van so we could go to his birthday party at “Imajination” in Lawrence. It was such a great party with a lot of fun people as it was shared with our dear friend Chloe who turned two. Chloe’s parents and Susan and I are very close friends and sharing our kids’ birthday parties was a cool experience – we’re really grateful for that.

Our little Nathan is such a special kid. I know every parent says this but it’s true – that first kid is a turning point – everything changes. You know that going into it but Nathan was a little different for us because we adopted him with only 3 weeks notice. We got to be there for his birth, got to name him and bring him home. He may be adopted but I tell you, if you want to experience the genetics versus environment debate, adopt a baby. I swear he gets his sarcasm from me and his sweetness from Susan.

Speaking of adoption, we are so grateful to have been adopted into Bassim and Miret’s family. We were a bit overwhelmed (and embarrassed) by how many presents we left with. Grateful to be brought in to the fold up here.

Speaking of home, our other big news is that we closed on a house last week and we are really excited about. It has plenty of space which is great because of our young and growing family but Susan and I keep talking about how we need to limit our consumption and shed some stuff.

Coming soon on the blog -
Been thinking a lot about the Q Conference I got to go to. Some really great content to process through.
Really enjoyed Rumors Of God by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson – review coming.
Excited about teaching at the Senior High group this upcoming Sunday. I love my new position but miss the students (well many of them anyway ;)
Working on a post about dealing with controversy.

None of these posts are related to the other … or are they?

Thanks for reading, your comments are always welcome and feel free to let me know (publicly or privately) if these life updates are worth doing.

Filed Under: Reflective

Some More Thoughts on Blue Like Jazz

April 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Yep, still thinking about Blue Like Jazz. Difficult for me not to in some ways. I loved the book, supported the Kickstarter campaign, participated in several book studies with it and currently leading a Reading Circle on a Million Miles in a Thousand Years. If you are around Lexington, MA, we’ll be discussing Part 5 and the movie this Sunday night after GC@Night in the cafe – All are welcome.

It occurred to me halfway through my second viewing of BLJ, that I was enjoying the movie more this time around. Perhaps my expectations were tempered, maybe I was responding to all the negative reviews of the movie/project, or maybe I was a in a better frame of mind – I don’t know.

The negativity does crack me up. Though it’s not as bad as the Tebow deal, it’s become humorous how people are so quick to hate on this movie and on Don Miller and crew. A while back I saw someone commenting on Don’s body language during an interview. Come on dude, Don and his friends are out out promoting this movie city to city for the past 3 months, cut him/them some slack. The guy sold his house to help finance the project!

In some ways, Blue Like Jazz can’t be the movie to do what many of us want it to be. Primarily because it had become too big in the Christian subculture and Don is too popular of a writer to not have expectations for.   the “first-responders of this movie” are going to be those fans  (It will be interesting to see  more from those who haven’t heard of the book).  Many of us want this to be a conversation piece about God, spirituality, Christianity in general, many others want this to be a traditional tool of evangelism, others seem to want it to be an obscure piece of art floating like an astronaut in space.

Don’t get me wrong, there were a couple of things I didn’t like but I am glad it was made, glad it’s out there and I think Don, Steve and Ben did an amazing job, especially with what they had to work with.

My concerns are as follows: I was never really sold on the “inciting incidents” (thanks Don and Friends for giving us the language to critique your work) that led to Don’s collapse of faith and then the “bottoming out” scene that soon led to his repentance.  If the movie was a true comedy, maybe the “youth pastor sleeping with mom thing” and later “waking up in a porta potty and realizing that your life stinks and the priest rescuing you” works but I thought they could have come up with something better.

In any case, I truly liked the characters of BLJ. I’ll admit my first impression of Marshall Allman playing a young Don Miller threw me off. He looked like a cross between a goofy-looking Sufjan Stevens and a hooded Portlandian version of Eminem from 8 Mile (the movie poster has him in this pose staring down Penny and I’m worried that he’s hiding a black eye about to try to battle her on the bridge). But I have to say Marshall did a fantastic job.

I liked pretty much all the characters and truly hated the cheating youth pastor (played so well by Jason Marsden. While I know this is part is not autobiographical of Don and his mother, I am seriously suspicious of Jason, know what I mean “bro?”). Penny is charming and sweet, thought the Pope character had the best lines and Yuri (the Russian) was great in his small role.

But then there was Lauryn. I liked her immediately because she’s Alex from LOST. She had such a great character until the end – why was there no resolve to her? She’s a key figure in the first half of the movie, Don’s first real friend if you will, then not only does Quinn break her heart but she seems to get dumped by the script as well. She bears her broken-hearted soul to Don and then gets regulated to picking up drunk kids at the Ren Fayre and laundry duty. I know it’s a little complicated that her character is a lesbian but I was expecting a bit more resolve to her.

I’m sure Don, Steve and Ben left a lot on the cutting room floor but if there any plans for a director’s cut, I’d like to see a scene that gives her some dignity and closure (if one exists).

What I was really let down by and I think this will always bug me is that legitimate money was not put into this. Itt should have received the Eat Pray Love treatment (wait they spent $6o million on that??  Ok, how about a tenth of it?). Had it been financed and distributed consistent with standards of modern movie making, I think it could have been a significant cultural moment. I know that sounds naive but if you just go and see what’s out on Fandango, I think I have a killer point.

I hear stories but I don’t really know how these things get funded. I don’t really picture local churches taking their missions budgets and giving them to Kickstarter but I do think the Church as a whole missed an opportunity. If history is any gauge, the next Kirk Cameron film or Fireproof 2 (More Inferno, More Evidence) will get a $10 million backing.  Not sure what a real solution looks like, but we need one, we actually need a quite a few, multifaceted ones.

Limited runs in theaters are tricky, you can read Don’s figures and thoughts here. I anticipate that the DVD Sales will be pretty solid. It will be used in countless sermon illustrations, youth group lessons, college Bible studies and various other places. We’ll see this DVD in every CBD catalog for years to come and will likely end up in Best Buy $4.99 bin, which isn’t bad, it just how consumer culture robs the remaining essence of something.  I’m confident that they’ll make their money back and then some but wish it had a better theater run.

Again, ultimately, I do think Don, Steve and Ben did an amazing job with what they had. And I wish them the best as BLJ rides out and hope this experience ushers in many good things.

For more check out:
www.donmilleris.com
Don’s BLJ brief “What Critics Are Saying…” List (one-liners from from NY Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, etc.)

Go see it, here’s the theater list –  http://www.bluelikejazzthemovie.com
Here’s a link to my first post, “Why I Hope Blue Like Jazz the Movie Does (Really) Well”

Filed Under: Christianity, Culture, Reflective Tagged With: , , ,

Reflecting on the Q Conference, Washington DC Post 1 – Back Home & Grateful

April 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Q Conference. It’s a gathering of Christian leaders from different sectors of culture focusing on four themes Culture, Future, Faith and Gospel. The 7 that Q identified are: Media, Business, Arts & Entertainment, Education, Government, Social Sector and the Church. You can read more about Q here.

Given their interest in culture, each year the gathering moves to a different city which has included Atlanta, New York, Austin, Chicago, Portland and this year Washington DC. It’s always in a downtown venue, intentionally not in a church but generally a third place chosen for historical/cultural significance, aesthetics, and functionality. This year’s site was the beautiful Andrew Melon Auditorium on Constitution Ave. (which is just across from the National Museum of American History).

It’s a pretty intense schedule with two days of over 40 presenters each given either 18 minutes, 9 minutes or 3 minutes to share their central message. As an audience member, it’s great, you know when the person is going to finish.  As a presenter, it must be difficult but we do get quite a number of excellent presentations. There are also talkbacks with the presentations and table discussions with fellow attendees. But even still, it’s a lot to take in. On Day 3, each attendee participated in a briefing. Mine was on human trafficking at the Old Exec. Bldg of the White House. Obviously it was cool to be there but the data is heart-breaking. You quickly forget the aesthetics when you hear the plight of those being trafficked. However, it is great to see our government involved in this global crisis.

I’ve been looking over my notes and as of now, I really can’t sit here and list my favorite presentations and offer an adequate summary of what was said for each. Frankly, I’m not sure I can even tell you my favorite moments yet but as I’ve been unpacking from the trip and talking about it, I’m sure I’ll have a bit to say soon.

What I was thinking about on my drive and have been thinking since returning is how important these conferences and conversations are. I know there is a lot of joking and negativity surrounding conferencing and I’m sure some of it is warranted bit there’s a good bit that is extremely helpful. This being my fourth Q, I have found that many of these presentations fuel my ideation, inform my weak spots, and some of them frankly, are similar to “breaking news” for me.

Q is probably so personally helpful because it makes so many conversations accessible to me. I simply don’t know of any other gathering for ministry types that bring in such an array of theologians, practitioners, scientists, corporate employees, artists, government workers and various thinkers and personalities from the different sectors of society. Now I want to be careful that I do not overstate its effectiveness, after all, the longest presentation is only 18 minutes and some similar presentations have been made in years past. Which is a good thing, because it reintroduces the conversation to newer attendees and reinforces the conversation to returners. I cannot help but feel that some of what was said are things that I have either have wanted to hear more of or words I needed to finally hear.

I’ll be thinking about that, especially as I meditate on how the Church can serve the common good of the culture.

Lastly, I’ve also been thinking about how fortunate and grateful I am for those that have made it possible for me to attend Q. Over the years I have been the recipient of scholarships either from Q or kind and generous people around me. Also grateful for my friend Ryan for letting me crash in his DC apartment – enjoyed our late night conversations. I’ve been fortunate that the Churches I’ve served in have been supportive (thanks GC). And certainly, I’m grateful for my wife’s support – three little kids for three days, I owe you another one honey. I’m not kidding, when I think of the sacrifices that allow me to attend these events, I think I better not only pay attention to the material but use this material. And so may the Lord bless these words and efforts and all who/what is involved.

Filed Under: Christianity, Conferences/Events, Culture, Missional, Reflective, The Church Tagged With: , ,

“What Does the Easter Bunny Have to Do With Jesus?”

April 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last week I got to speak at the ESOL Easter Banquet that meets in one of the buildings at our Lexington campus. Those taking the class have their own unique story of how they got there. Some came to the States for a job transfer, some for love, some for the classic “hoping for better opportunities here.” As a son of immigrant parents, I get that.

When I was first asked to do this, it was an easy decision for me. English was the second language for my parents so I’ll think I’ll always have a soft spot for broken-English. I was told that some coming were not believers of Christianity and the purpose of the banquet was to celebrate semester milestones and observe American holidays. The banquets are optional and the speaker’s message is to communicate the meaning of the holiday without proselytizing. As one who loathes the “bait and switch” mentality, I settled on entitling the message “What Does the Easter Bunny Have to Do With Jesus?”

My goal was to offer why Christians celebrate this holiday.  I did my best to avoid preaching at it but I make no promises in this reflection.

There’s so much I love about the Easter story. Among my favorite aspects is how this story serves all of our other stories. If the story of the Resurrection of Jesus is true, it changes all the other stories, including the tragic ones.

Jesus’ promise for redemption, forgiveness and the invitation to the life he offers only works if the resurrection account is true. If it’s true, then indeed everything changes.

Including the symbols – symbols like the cross. As many have pointed out, the cross being the central symbol of the Christian faith is an odd one to some extent because at the time of Jesus, the cross was a violent instrument of capital punishment. It was the Roman version of the electric chair or the lethal injection but much more inhumane. Its purpose was to create the most torturous death possible. Its symbol was to instill fear and serve as a grave warning for all who dared to rebel against the state.

The resurrection changed that. Instead of being a symbol to be dreaded, it because a symbol of hope, of love, of victory!

So how did the Easter bunny get dragged into all of this? First, a confession, I like the Easter Bunny. Just like I’m a fan of Santa.

I get that some of us are tired of church bulletin covers of Easter Lillie’s (and Christmas poinsettias), tired of angels, baffled women and disciples standing outside of glowing empty tombs, tired of cartoon characters and colored eggs. Not me though. I’ve seemed to have rebounded quite strongly from begin jaded by all the Christian cliches.

This is perhaps because we have children now. And while my near four year old may actually come close to understanding the idea of Jesus enduring a horrible death by affixation by crucifixion, the poor kid has trouble sleeping as it s.

I’ve been telling our children that Easter is about the life that Jesus offers us. I tell them that Jesus died but became alive again and it’s never happened before (or since). And that’s what makes Easter special. I ask our near 4 and 2 year old, “What’s Easter about?” The short answer is “Life.”

For centuries, parents were telling their children of the greatest story ever and using their cultural symbols to illustrate. They used rabbits and eggs because they were signs of life. They created “entry points” for their children so they could being grasping the Easter narrative at a young age. And it’s important that we do this without traumatizing our young children with screenings of  ”The Passion of Christ” or worse, poorly acted Easter dramas ;)

This year, I’ve enjoyed sharing with my children the Easter story. I love that Easter story redeems all things, I love that it redefines the symbols and I love that our children are slowly grasping it … with the help of eggs, baskets, chocolate and the bunny.

Filed Under: Christianity, Reflective, The Church Tagged With: , , ,
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