Posts Tagged ‘compassion’

It is humorous and interesting how a blog post on Pat Robertson’s response to the earthquake in Haiti spikes my blog traffic. What is the cause? Is it that people agree or disagree with Pat Robertson? What has this man done to generate the type of attention that he has? Does anyone actually care about Robertson? Do you actually care more about the people in the country of Haiti? And if you do, what are you doing about it?

A comment on my previous post addressing Robertson’s hateful comments asked, “Can God forgive us for sitting on our a**es passing judgement on people who are actually doing something besides sitting around talking about it.”

Currently, I am, indeed, sitting. I usually do sit when I type. As I’ve been typing, I have been clicking on a button that says “send.” The button processes a message that I am sending to various orphanages and organizations in Haiti in hopes to adopt a child or even two from Haiti who have possibly been orphaned as a result of the earthquake. An update on our ADOPTION page will be posted later today. If you would like to donate to our adoption fund, please click the button in the far left column.

Another “send” button upon which I clicked processed a donation to UNICEF (who is currently providing aid in Haiti) and earned me frequent flyer points in order that I may fly to Haiti to assist with rebuilding efforts. Organizations with whom I have communicated (some through my employer/university/MVNU) are suggesting that additional people are not currently needed. So I don’t think I need forgiveness for sitting on my backside and “doing nothing.” Must I justify my giving and my doing? In the midst of what I hope to be loving acts, I am not stating ridiculous and asinine judgments on people based on their geographic location and a natural disaster. Bad things happen. Evil is present. It is our human dilemma.

What else can we do about the dilemma?

Thank you for your comments.

Unfortunatly, I don’t think Pat Robertson will ask for forgiveness or even admit any wrong-doing/speaking. He has a history of saying unloving and unkind things that highly misrepresent Christianity. I hope that anyone exposed to Robertson does not impose his words onto others who are genuinely trying to be formed into the image of God as defined in the person of Jesus.

Robertson commented that the people of Haiti “swore a pact with the devil” and that “since then they have been cursed.” He suggests that “we pray for a great turning to God” for the people of Haiti. I do hope that people of Haiti will turn to God as I’m sure many have been even prior to the earthquake of 2010. In his comment, Robertson is suggesting that the destruction in Haiti is due to a curse from some time ago. So, Pat, I have a few questions for you because that’s what we here at subversiveREFORMATION.com do – we ask questions:

Did God cause this earthquake in Haiti because of some type of pact that Haiti supposedly made with the devil?
Were the 45,000 Americans in Haiti at the time somehow in on this pact?
Is the earthquake God’s form of punishment for Haitian people?
If so, why are we all not being punished?
Have you ever been punished?
Have you ever been extended grace or have you ever offered grace to someone?
Are you more concerned about placing blame or about a compassionate response?

And a question for myself and my friends:

Can we forgive Pat Robertson?

“All I Want for Christmas.” It’s an interesting title isn’t it? As if Christmas is about me. As if Christmas should be about what I want. Well, I suppose it depends on what one wants for Christmas. I have a hard time accepting things for Christmas that either specifically benefit me and not those around me or perpetuate a cycle of entitlement, greed, and the desire to consume. So… all I want for Christmas is for our celebration of God coming to earth to reflect the love for all people that is demonstrated in God’s self-disclosure as an act of giving. As the popular saying goes, “‘Tis better to give than to receive.”

“If anyone is looking for any last minute gift ideas” (for me or for anyone else) here is what I recommend giving. The idea is that the reception of a gift is actually centered on giving to another.

Scarf
Purchase of a hand-crafted/crocheted scarf from Kelly Smith to help our friends James and Kelly bring home the newest member of their family. Every dollar raised will be used toward adoption expenses to give one Ethiopian orphan a home. Customize your scarf by choosing your color (most colors available) and style (skinny, wide, fringe, no fringe). Skinny scarves are $15 and wide are $20. To place an order today email Kelly at: ophelia2377@hotmail.com. Sarah and I both would not only each like one but also hope that you will enter into the Smith’s story and consider supporting them financially and in prayer. Visit their blog.

Beads for Life
90% of the cost of a Beads for Life product go directly to the females in Africa who create the necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

Books from Amazon
If you are purchasing anything from Amazon.com then please link to Amazon through any of the Amazon widgets or lists located here at subversiveREFORMATION.com. Each purchase referred from subversiveREFORMATION.com earns Travis, Sarah, and Kyla a percentage of the cost which will be deposited into their adoption fund. Additionally, what better gift might there be than a book which is used for the learning and teaching about the church and the way of Jesus? You may also search Travis Keller’s Wish List using the “TEXT” tab on ssubversiveREFORMATION.com.

Manure
This green gift transforms waste into power—agricultural power. Organic manure increases crop yields and is cheaper, greener, and safer than chemical fertilizers. So, show your loved ones that you really “give a $%@#” for our planet. The gift goes directly to improve the lives of people living in poverty through OxFam America Unwrapped.

World Food Programme Feed Bag
The FEED 1 bag is a stylish, well-designed and reversible burlap and 100% organic cotton ladies’ carrying tote bag sold to help raise awareness and funds for child hunger. When you purchase a FEED 1 bag, you will guarantee that ONE child is fed in school for ONE full year through the United Nations World Food Program. To date, FEED Projects various partnerships have led to over $4 million for WFP school feeding.

ONE.org Africa Shirt
The tees are made of 100% organic African cotton and were made in Uganda. Shirts are available in both men’s and women’s sizes. ONE is a grassroots campaign and advocacy organization backed by more than 2 million people who are committed to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African policy makers and activists.

What other creative gift ideas do you have?

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“Don’t go to start a church… go to serve a city.”  -Steve Sjogren

I read this line on a twitter update from Chris Bean. I’m just going to leave it at this: What are your thoughts?

Click below on comments to add your perspective.

>> This post reminds me: After accepting a new position at MVNU in August and not having time to update subversiveREFORMATION.com I was unable to post the series “On Church.” Now is the time. Be checking back for posts from Chris Heuertz of Word Made Flesh, Adam Walker-Cleaveland of Pomomusings, and more “On Church.”

“Teaching Little Kyla…”
A series on Travis and Sarah’s journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune.

The Invisible Children and Remember Nhu Clubs at MVNU are hosting an Art and Poetry awareness and fundraising event tonight (Wednesday) in the student union. Kyla will be presenting her piece of art that she and I composed this weekend. Her piece is called “Red and Yellow, Black and White” in reference to the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” As we talked about “all the children of the world” and our need to show and express love to all, Kyla used her hands and fingers to paint red, yellow, and black around a cut-out of Africa that I drew, cut out, and taped to the canvas board making a white silhouette of the country where the dehumanization of children continues through militarization and exploitation. Though I cannot talk with Kyla yet about child soldiers and sexual trafficking, she can begin to understand that love and kindness for all of humanity. Eventually, she’ll hear their stories.

We are incapable to loving absent from relationship. We are incapable of relationship absent from the context of story. We have to learn about each other. We have to be aware of the formative life experiences that make us who we are both individually and as a collective group of people in a global community.

The world is our canvas. May we cover it with strokes of love.

^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

The Silent Historical Framework of the Emerging Church

Recovery of Genuine Wesleyan Theology in Postmodern Context

Travis Keller

02.29.08

A Condensed Book Review from a Wesleyan Theological Perspective on

�Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures�

by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K Bolger

�Common needs often create strange alliances.� Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger begin the preface of their book entitled �Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures� by addressing their seemingly implausible ability to write a book together. Strange alliances, indeed. Many hear the words �Christian community� and �postmodern cultures� used in conjunction with each other and immediately assume that the two are being juxtaposed one against the other. The same may be true for the terms �Wesleyan theology� and �emerging church.� While the connection between the two may never be verbally stated, Wesleyan theology may very well be the silent historical framework of the emerging church.

It is noted in the book that the process of dismantling the modern (referring to a historical era and philosophy) practices of Christianity �is a fragile movement that can be marginalized by denominational leaders and killed with criticism by theological power brokers.� Churches that are �emerging� in their practice are faced with great degrees of resistance. To associate with any certain theological tradition would be suicidal to a hopeful movement. The labeling system within the Emerging Church has caused immense confusion so a further label would arouse criticism growing from its current level of existence into a destructive force from both opponents to the noted tradition and adherents to that tradition. Opponents would continue to oppose that which they already oppose and adherents would defend their tradition in an attempt to preserve it from a supposed threat and distortion. The reality of the shift in church practice, however, is ultimately going to reflect certain roots in the history of the church. The ideas for ecclesiological method offered by Emerging Churches closely align with the thought of John Wesley.

The emerging church is difficult to define. Moderns may desire a clear, definitive statement but as noted by Doug Pagitt, the church is �not necessarily the center of God�s intentions. God is working in the world and the church has the option to join God or not.� By avoiding a precise definition of emerging churches, Gibbs, Bolger, and company allow the church to function as a moving organism whose missional direction is dependent on its own choice. What may be criticized then as a low view of the church is actually the highest view imaginable. The church is dependent on grace when it chooses to follow its own way rather than the way of Jesus. Wesley, an advocate of the free will of humanity trusts in means of grace gifted by God when the church moves in a manner that reveals the imperfect people that it is.

Wesley contends that the church is not to be separatist or divisive. The emerging church is distinctively Wesleyan then in that it does not merely get caught up in argument or exchanging critique with its opponents but rather focuses on the person of Jesus and the love for others that he offers. Gibbs and Bolger note three core church practices from which other practices are created. They are �(1) identifying with the life of Jesus, (2) transforming secular space, and (3) living as community.�

The message of Jesus was not a message about going to heaven. His was a message and demonstration of enacting the Kingdom of God on earth. To live in a manner that reflects the life of Jesus is to truly embrace what Wesley termed �entire sanctification.� The Church is the people who are called out and set apart to enact the Kingdom of God on earth. To do so requires a confrontation with the risk and cost of following Jesus and thereby necessitates a grace that precedes (preveniant) the Church, enabling it to embrace the fullness of the mission of God by entering into that which may be considered �secular� and living in a �sacred� manner. Such living entails relinquishing one�s �unlimited sovereignty over his or her individual person� in order to �create missional communities� that may only exist within the context of love. Wesley states, �By this let all men know whose disciples ye are, because you �love one another.��

Gibbs and Bolger proceed with more practical examples of Emerging Churches that very distinctively reflect Wesleyan theology. Wesley continually references the need for the Church to care for the poor and marginalized. Contrary to the quite exclusive appearance of many church gatherings, Emerging Churches are to be accepting and inclusive. Not only does inclusivity include people from other traditions, cultures, and even faiths but it also extends to the poor who are otherwise considered strangers. Central to the gospel message is that those who �don�t have� are invited to share in the �having.� The stranger is to be invited into the community. He/She is to receive that which is given generously. Hospitality remains a key component of helping others to honestly accept themselves as true members of a community for a generous gift is much more useful, according to Wesley, when it is personally delivered. Giving accompanied by shared relationship is invaluable to the message of Jesus. It removes the thought of needing to receive in return.

Emerging Churches concludes with sections devoted to the concept of the body of Christ producing and creating. There is reference to the same passage in Ephesians that Wesley uses in his address �Of the Church.� In order for a community to function in full health each member must use his/her talents and giftings as he/she has been granted. �Full participation is an alternative to [modern] consumer church� which is founded ultimately on fulfilling a selfish desire. Emerging churches seem to pursue the concept of the priesthood of all believers where all members of the community are contributing. No one is being served any more than he/she is serving.

�Emerging churches are communities that follow Jesus into the kingdom and the far reaches of culture. [They] destroy the Christendom idea that church is a place, a meeting, or a time. Church is a way of life, a rhythm, a community, a movement. Emerging churches dismantle all ideas of church that interfere with the work of the kingdom.� With Gibbs� and Bolger�s representation of Emerging Churches, Wesley cannot argue. The way of living taught by Wesley and the way of the Emerging Church is the way of Jesus.

One of my more recent posts entitled, "Teaching Little Kyla… Languages (and about Tattoos) " received over 150 hits in the first hour of its publication. 25 comments have been posted in addition to a barrage of comments in response to my posted Facebook link. Adam Walker-Cleaveland published a similar post on pomomusings.com (a blog worth a daily read).

Are tattoos really that big of a deal? Maybe I’m just surrounded by enough people who don’t think its an issue for discussion or who maintain a place of conforming with society and recognizing trends as legitimizing for any behavior. Maybe the historical and religious context of the levitical writing needs studied and taught.

Are people (including myself) so self-absorbed that we prefer to talk about inking ourselves rather than loving our enemies, living missionally, ministering with the marginalized, practicing discipline, and thwarting our individualism for the sake of community and friendship loyalty? Why is there so little interest in the violence of apathy and the elusiveness of sabbath? Why are we not as concerned with the movement of the Church? Are we distracted? Are we addicted consumers of brain-dead "conversation?" Why is a tattoo so much more of a fascinating topic?

Many�MVNU students have been attending the Sunday morning gathering of Christians who call themselves "Journey Church." Here is the fourth (4th) of six (6) reasons why MVN(azarene)U students have been so highly attracted to the non-Nazarene gathering place that is Journey.

From post #2 of 6�
[Les is not the only person who leads the church in worship. Students gravitate toward�]

4.�The teacher who is present in the lives of students.

Tim Barensc heer is a graduate of MVNU (03) and Fuller Theological Seminary (M.Th.). He left southern California and returned to the middle of a not-as-luxurious central, rural Ohio to serve with the Journey community. Tim has focussed much of his ministry toward college students. He and his wife Brittany frequently have students into their home for conversations about faith and life [if the two are distinct and separable (I would suggest that they are not)]. They join students in the cafeteria as well in coffee shops and at other campus events.

I find it interesting that I have heard comments that Tim and "Journey Church" are "stealing students from the Nazarene churches" and/or "recruiting" student to attend. I can very confidently�attest�to the fact that there is no such "recruiting" occurring. Tim simply cares. He is present for the sake of being present. I cannot think of many people who do not appreciate another’s genuine love toward them – love that extends beyond teaching a biblical idea – love that desires to engage life enough to suffer through the pain and brokenness of others.

There is also…

TO BE CONTINUED.

I present to you, "Nouns and Verbs that are Good."

11. Confession.
10. Coffee Beans.
9. Sunlight.
8. Life.
7. Drinking tea through a black straw next to the sea.
6. Compassion.
5. Instrumental strings with deep, mellow clarinets.
4. Adoption.
3. Friends.
2. Creating art.
1. My wife and child.

Am I right or wrong? Is anything above not good? What is left out? Please comment with your list of 10 Nouns and Verbs that are Good.