Owner: Rude Armchair Theology URL:http://www.rudetheology.com/ Join Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 20:10:01 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Just a personal web journal, usually on theological topics. It's "rude" in three senses: "crude" in that I have little formal theological training; "offensive" in that the things I write unintentionally tick folks off sometimes, and "rough" in the form of Site statistics:Click here
DC Emergent Cohort meeting, Monday 16 October 2006-10-13 16:36:00 Please attend to this important notice, lifted verbatim from my friend Steve's blog:
we finally got word on the location for the october meeting
of the dc emergent cohort. it'll be held at, gulp, wesley tholeogical seminary. You are invited to join them for dinner in their refectory from 5:30 'til 6:30 ($7.50) or just show up at the Kresge Building and follow signs for the 7 PM discussion with Diana Butler Bass on her new book, Christianity for the Rest of Us.
I'd recommend you come, it'll be good even though its at Wesley.
That parting comment is due to Steve's being part of a rival gang, known as Virginia Theological Seminary. Perhaps if you come, you will see Wesley and VTS folks dancing and snapping and wielding jackknives, just like in West Side Story. ;-)
Thanks, Steve, for the words I stole. "Don't shade your eyes - plagiarize!" :-D
UPDATE: A comment from Steve reminded me that urban hoods (and, presumably, rumbling urban seminarians) use switchblades, not jackkn Read more:Emergent
, Cohort
, Monday
, October
Missional 2006-10-10 04:44:00 Sometimes, folks have asked me what "missional" means. Other times (I'm sure), they've heard me use the word and wondered what in blazes I was talking about.
Here's what it means.
Thanks, Bartimaeus. Read more:Missional
Life 2006-10-08 04:36:00 At some point, I really need to blog about what's going on in my life. Much of it is really quite interesting, and I'm sort of in the mood lately to blog about "life" instead of "theology". (Although, to be honest, I'm trying pretty hard to sort out some thorny pseudo-theological issues right now too - like "what does the word 'church' mean to me?") But anyway, although my life is somewhat interesting lately, that same life seems to leave me little time to write about it - especially in light of the fact that so much interesting stuff has been going on, it's hard to know where to start. Hmm. A paradox.
There - aren't you glad you came to my blog today? After all that silence, a post that says nothing. It's positively Seinfeldian. Tina hates Seinfeld. She wouldn't approve.
Missional / Emerging / Emergent 2006-09-29 20:07:00
Hi folks. I'm back, if only for a brief post. Sorry I've been away.
Here's what I wanted to mention: If, when you hear any or all of the terms "missional", "emerging", or "emergent" (in relation to the church), you react in some way (personal identification, curiosity, aversion, whatever) - and especially if your thinking goes like "well, I might be X, but I'm pretty sure I'm not Y, and I'm not sure I like Y very much, to be honest..." then please take a look at what Jamie is saying on this subject here and here.
That's all.
Peace,Mike Read more:Emergent
, Missional
In Loving Memory of William Addison Stavlund 2006-09-16 23:30:00 Details on Sunday and Monday's services in honor and memory of Will and in love of his parents, Mike and Stacy, and his sister Ella, can be found on the Common Table web site.
Among those details is an invitation to offer a poem, a prayer, a piece of visual art or some other offering for the Stavlunds during this time.
May we all be encircled in the love and comfort of God.
Read more:Memory
, Loving
, William
, Addison
Grief 2006-09-13 19:53:00 I've been having trouble writing about this. Schuyler has begun to aggregate what others have shared, so I'll direct you to their words. I'm also having a hard time praying. I keep on falling into prayer - especially prayer for Stacy, Mike, and Ella - but there are no words, and there's no peace in the silence. So, I fall back to faith - faith that the love of God, channelled through a community of people who care deeply and powerfully for them, will in some way comfort a grieving mom, dad, and twin sister. Will, in your short time with us, you taught us so many lessons of courage, strength, tenderness, and love. Mike, Stacy, and Ella, we love you.
O God, whose beloved Son took children into his arms and blessed them: Give us grace to entrust Will to your never- failing care and love, and bring us all to your heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Most merciful God, whose wisdom Read more:Grief
The Archbishop of Canterbury and "the gay issue" 2006-09-09 17:26:00
I'm not quite sure what to make of this:
Gays must change, says archbishop - from Telegraph.co.uk
Everyone - the reporter, and interviewed folks on both sides of the issue
- seem to be assuming that the Archbishop's remarks represent a fairly radical reversal of his previous views on the more progressive side of these issues. More of Dr. Williams' comments can be found here (HT: Will). I felt like I was searching in vain for a quote that made that supposed reversal crystal clear. He was making several nuanced distinctions, and to be honest, I was frustrated: is this theological sophistication, or political double-speak? What's the difference?
I guess, in the end, I came away thinking that, the "higher up" you get in a large church institution, the more impossible it is to distinguish between spiritual discernment and political reality. I have a very high degree of respect for Rowan Williams, and I am definitely not accusing him of being a cynical political animal. In fact
Upcoming events 2006-09-01 16:56:00 I wanted to remind y'all about a couple of upcoming events
, to which everyone who reads this blog is most assuredly invited. (Though I recognize that if you live in Boston or Pretoria, you're unlikely to justify the plane ticket. Especially with the threat of poisonous snakes, and all.)
Thursday, 7 September (evening): The first meeting of "mesh
, a new, inclusive, faith discussion community". Please check out the mesh blog for more info, and send an e-mail to meshcoordinators@yahoogroups.com to join the e-mail group and get directions.
Monday, 18 September, 7 PM: The Washington, DC Emergent Cohort will welcome both Don Dayton, author of
Discovering an Evangelical Heritage
, and Tony Jones, national coordinator for Emergent Village. Wow! It'll be at Guapos restaurant in Tenleytown; check out the DC Cohort blog for more info.
If you miss these, you'll be kicking yourself. Again and again. It will hurt. And where's the fun in that? :-) Read more:Upcoming
Sacramental vs. missional? 2006-08-29 14:18:00 Scot McKnight has a very thought-provoking post this morning which, among other things, highlights a difference he has with the sacramental traditions within the Body of Christ (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, etc.):
I have one big beef with all of the major, high church liturgical traditions. That is, they tend to make "church" about going to church on Sunday morning in order to let the "magic" (as one of my Roman Catholic friends calls it) happen. That is, because they are sacramental (and I'm not), they tend to see the major thing the church does is provide mass, communion, whatever you want to call it. This is a mistake — and my sacramental friends will disagree with me. I see the functional model at work in such churches to be "attractional" People come to church, not solely, but primarily for the communion service. I believe "church" is about gathering in fellowship and worship and instruction but the focus of church is about being e
Changing minds, changing hearts, changing the world 2006-08-24 04:23:00 Yes! The presence of the invincible Danger Mouse over there can mean only one thing: this, at long last, is the post about DANGER. :-)OK, all right, let me get one thing perfectly clear: what I'm not doing. I'm not trying to sound the alarm of "heresy!" or "revisionism!" or "satanic influence!" or anything like that. What I want to talk about is a question of emphasis - of the relative importance of various things that are all fundamentally good. Please keep that in mind.Another disclaimer: I'm going to be making a lot of gross generalizations and oversimplifications for rhetorical purposes. I know I'm doing it. I think I need to do it to say what I want to say with anything approaching an economy of words. Despite that, please rest assured that I know reality is far more complex than I make it out to be.Right: That'll do for the preliminaries. Here begins the post proper.It seems an odd thing to say about the world's most notoriously conservative institutions, but I Read more:minds
RSS reader reviews 2006-08-23 20:24:00 Sorry Stavlund - one more post that's not about - ooooh - church DANGER! ;-)
So my first RSS reader
was the one that came in Google's Desktop Sidebar, which calls RSS feeds "web clips" and, sadly, doesn't work very well. (Or at least didn't at the time, and it was bad enough that I'm not inclined to try it again.) It was one of those products with lots of ambition but poor execution - it tried to add feeds automagically for you based on your browsing habits (which was neat, if perhaps a bit Google-standard-creepy), but it made it absolutely impossible to manage a list of feeds across multiple computers. Also, it missed updates - alot.
So I dumped it in favor of a Firefox plugin called Wizz RSS Reader. This was better - the feature set was all I could ask for - but since it did all its work within Firefox on the local computer, it tended to make both the browser and the slow computers I run it on v-e-r-y v-e-r-y s-l-o-w. It might be OK if you watch fewer feeds than I do (7 Read more:reviews
The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am 2006-08-21 03:05:00 OK, one more silly post before I get all serious. Here's a motivational (or is it demotivational?) poster I made on this cool site:
I feel inspired now. Do you feel inspired? :-D Read more:Emperor
Do what I say, and you'll live 2006-08-20 03:32:00 Well, I know I said my next post would be pointing out what I perceive as a danger zone for the liberal mainline and emerging churches. I said that, but, well, it didn't work out that way. Sorry. S#!+ happens. Or, to put it a different way,SNAKES ON A PLANE!Saw it this afternoon! OK, if you were looking forward to this movie based on the buzz, and this wasn't at least 187% the movie you were expecting, then dude, you just weren't paying attention. It was every slithering inch the collossally, spectacularly, self-consciously awful flick I hoped it would be. It rocked. I loved it.What's that? You were looking forward to it based on the buzz, but you haven't seen it yet? Get thee to a theater! This movie needs your box office mojo.What's that? You weren't looking forward to it? Well then, for the love of all things holy, don't even think about seeing this movie! Did you miss the part about it being utterly terrible? If the very idea of Samuel L. Jackson in a movie c
Myth Conceptions 2006-08-19 06:28:00 I was working on my spiritual autobiography for EFM Year 3 this evening, and I realized something interesting. Presently, I know (and count among my friends) a good many folks who are botha) people of Christian faith who are serious about that faith, and for whom being a disciple of Jesus is a central, defining part of their identity that makes a big difference in their everyday life, andb) people who are, generally speaking, at least as politically and theologically liberal/progressive as I am, and frequently more so.So what? So this: for the vast majority of my life, I was utterly convinced that such critters did not exist. I would have told you that it's pretty much a logical impossibility, and that folks like that were a myth. If you were the kind of Christian for whom the faith really mattered and really changed your life, you were a fundamental evangelical, or at least a conservative one. If you were a "liberal Christian", the emphasis was on the "liberal," and the "Christi
Crazy Zeke's Book of X-treme Prophecy 2006-08-15 15:30:00 My daily Bible study guide is taking me through the Book of Ezekiel. I've read it before, but never both a) straight through and b) somewhat carefully. Man, that dude was hard core. And, in all likelihood, mentally ill. It gives a certified crazy like me (bipolar disorder, treated by daily Lithium pills) hope that God can use us not just in spite of our weakness, but through it. Read more:Crazy
, Prophecy
What does "HT" mean? 2006-08-14 18:04:00 I actually know what it means, and use it, but I just had a conversation with a friend which echoed my own experience when I started seeing "HT: SoAndSo" on blogs. While I could tell it was an acknowledgement of a source, I couldn't figure out what the H and the T stood for, and Google, at the time, was little help. It's a little better now, but I'm making this post for this reason: maybe next time somebody Googles "What does HT mean?", they'll get this post and their question will be answered.
So, for the record, HT stands for "Hat Tip", as in "A tip of the hat to Susan for pointing me in the direction of...."
Now you know.
This has been a public service announcement on RudeTheology.com.
Three difficult things 2006-08-14 04:58:00
There was a time when I actually wrote things
for this blog - original things that, while perhaps not often insightful, were at least creative - and to be honest I miss that time. This is not going to be a return to those halcyon days. I need sleep more than I need to be creative right now.
Anyway, my thought for the day is this: I think there are three difficult things that a disciple of Jesus is called to do. I am of the opinion that these are things that all of Jesus's followers are called to do, but in saying that I'm aware that I'm making a universal statement and, lacking omniscience, am on shaky ground. Therefore, I invite your disagreement. Here are the three things:
1) Recognize that every baptized Christian is called to participate in the mission of the loving God in the world - the upshot of which is: "Oh, crap - that means me!" This is difficult because it goes against the grain of much of mainstream Christian culture. Isn't the point of faith to a) make sure Read more:Three
Scot McKnight on Emerging Evangelism 2006-08-10 16:54:00 Scot McKnight has a post about another book I may need to add to my "to read" queue. An interesting quote:
"Our teachers and mentors in the evangelism adventure are now African and Asian and Latin American peoples."
And several "big points":
1. Evangelism
is collaboration with what God is doing by listening to God, praying to God, and working with the Spirit. 2. God is raising up witnessing communities more than witnessing individuals. Belonging comes before believing — yep, he uses that old line because it is true. 3. Developing friendship through conversation is what it is all about instead of downloading information and content about the gospel. The current generation, we've been told over and over because it is true, does not trust the church; it will trust credible people. Become a friend. Do what you love with nonchurched folks. 4. Tell a story of God's power and gospel realities. Stories are containers big enough to tell truth. Logic isn't as effective as it once
Eddie Izzard - Religion 2006-08-09 18:11:00 Eddie Izzard does a comic rant about Christian (especially Anglican) religion. It's pretty funny, especially if you're an Anglican with a sense of humor (or know any Anglicans and enjoy laughing at them). :-)HT: Gallycat Read more:Eddie
, Religion
mesh: a new, inclusive, faith discussion community 2006-08-02 02:51:00 So, stop me if you've heard this one:A priest, a deacon, and a lay person walk into a coffee house....Actually, it's no joke. :-) Last week, the Rev. Will Scott, the Rev. Susan Daughtry Fawcett, and yours truly got together at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA to have lunch and hatch a plot. Here's what came out of it: mesh: a new, inclusive
, faith discussion community
We are Christians in our 20s and 30s scattered around Northern Virginia eager for discussions on matters of faith. The word "mesh" means to mix, entangle, share, harmonize --- we hope to do all those things in conversation with peers from in and outside the church, across faith traditions, with different views, insights, beliefs and practices. Join us for the first "mesh" discussion on September 7. We will be discussing Christopher Moore's novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal a funny and inspiring imaginative look at the life of Jesus. On Oc
Items of interest 2006-10-27 16:41:00 I haven't managed to find the time or creativity to blog lately, even though there's been a lot going on in my head and heart that I would normally work through by spewing some words into the blogosphere. This remains the status quo, so instead of posting my own thoughts, I'll direct you to a couple of guys I admire who are thinking and blogging about some of the same things that have been rattling around in my skull lately.
I'm a big fan of Bob Carlton. Never met him, but his blog is chock full of really good stuff, both theological and mundane. I've been reading him for several months, but I don't think I've ever seen Bob quite this cynical before. I've had some cynical days over the past couple of months, but I think Bob beats me hands down. That being the case, I'm not saying Bob speaks for me - more that the fact that someone as cool as Bob has been driven to such deep, dark feelings about our Anglican tribe is itself a cause for something like mourning.
I'm also a Read more:Items
The tragedy of divorce and the protection of marriage 2006-11-09 15:25:00
Just a quick note regarding the sad passing of the anti-marriage
amendment to the VA constitution this week.
"Marriage," in my opinion, has become an unfortunate casualty of our society's state of denial regarding the death of Christendom in North America. Church and state (or church and civil society) have gone through a divorce
. There were irreconcilable differences. Like any divorce, it's had tragic consequences, but it's probably for the best. But we don't want to admit it.
We need to decide who gets custody of the term "marriage" - religion, or secular government - and stop pretending that the faith community's blessing of a union and the government's legal recognition of a union have anything to do with each other any more. In my opinion, faith communities should be able to bless any union they choose (and refrain from blessing any union they choose), and we should call that "marriage" (because in truth, God had the concept first). Government should cease and desist
Community (Part 1?) 2006-11-06 03:37:00
OK, I'm going to try to ease back into this "regular blogging" thing. I think a key to doing it successfully right now might be for me to attempt something of which I'm seldom capable: brevity. :-)
So, this may or may not be the first of a series of brief - yet original - posts on something on which I've been reflecting a great deal: community. Specifically, Christian community - like "early chapters of Acts"-style Christian community. Note: one aspect of "brevity" is that although I've been reading some great blogs and books (especially the Good Book) on this subject, I'm probably not going to take the time to reference them. Sorry. Busy. Maybe later.
So here's my first brief thought: I think for that kind of community to form, you've got to spend some significant amount of time with the fellow disciples in your community. An hour or two on Sunday mornings doesn't cut it. That plus a committee meeting - to conduct business alone - once every several weeks do
Let me tell you about my fall... 2006-11-23 03:13:00
That's a slightly ambiguous blog post title. Fall from grace? Well...maybe there was an aspect of that. Fall from innocence? Yeah, definitely some of that too. But mostly I felt like maybe it was time to fill you in - if you are one of the handful of readers of my blog who don't know me personally - about what's been going on with me this autumn. You may have noticed that I haven't been blogging much. You might have wondered why. Here's where I try to tell a really abbreviated version of that story, for those who might be interested. If you want more detail, you can e-mail me to ask for it, but there's some sensitive stuff involved, so I make no promises. But here are the facts of the story.
In mid-September, my dear friends lost their son.
Some events surrounding little Will's funeral crystallized for me a realization that I had been coming to for a while: there seem to be some deep-level conflicts between the reality of ministry in an Episcopal Church setting on th
Next DC Cohort meeting: 11 December 2006-11-24 15:43:00
I've been a little distracted of late (see below), so I failed to advertise the November meeting
of the DC Emergent Cohort
(which was a big event with big names and a whole lot of people - and an opportunity for some great conversations). Anyway, this is from Sara on the official DC Cohort blog:
Hi all! Our next gathering will be at the Harp and Fiddle in Bethesda on December
11 at 7 pm. They have a sweet little back room that has served us well and may become our regular space. Come on out for a little Advent cheer and conversation. I am working on a speaker, but if anyone has a burning topic they would like to discuss drop me an e-mail.
Other tentative dates to put on your calenders are January 15, February 12 and March 12. We will meet from 7 pm - 9 pm each time.
Blessings!!
Sara
Wisdom from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man 2006-11-26 20:47:00
I guess if there's anything I could say...anything that would mean anything...it would be...
Use sunscreen. Don't smoke. Eat your vegetables. Protect your friends.
And savor it. Savor it all. The good times and the bad. Because even with the bad times, people love you, and you're alive.
And being alive...is amazing.
- Peter Parker (actually former Jesus People leader and current sci-fi/comics writer J. Michael Straczynski), giving advice to his 16-year-old former self, in The Amazing Spider
-Man #536
I kind of liked that. My friend John Bozeman and I have discussed JMS's former faith and how his journey has affected his fiction. As a big fan of his work (Babylon 5 is his most well-known TV project), I find those topics fascinating. There's definitely a wise and true and spiritual message in much of his fiction, but is it missing something? Who am I to judge? Interesting to ponder, though. Read more:Wisdom
Laziness 2006-11-29 07:23:00 Hey folks, remember that series I was doing, where I attempted to summarize the book The Continuing Conversion of the Church? No? I suspected as much. I don't think I'm going to bother finishing that series, because I'm not convinced that I'm rendering anyone a service that outweighs the work involved. I suspect one or two of you were interested in that series, but I think I was managing to do a poor enough job of making those summaries readable that it wasn't really of benefit. However, if even one person comments on this post that they'd like me to finish that series, I'll happily do so. (Really! I remain a big fan of the book.) I'm just not of a mood to spend time on anything that doesn't serve someone, that's all.
Peace! Read more:Laziness
Community (Part 2) 2006-12-04 03:54:00 I have a feeling that this is going to be a long series, because I'm literally learning more about authentic Christian community every day lately. But for now, I'm not going to blog about recent stuff I'm learning, because first I need to chew on it some.
Instead, for now, I'm taking it an another direction - but one I didn't anticipate when I began writing the first post. It's also not a line of reflection with which I'm entirely comfortable, because it may make others uncomfortable, or even angry. But that's not until the next post. :-) For now, I'm just going to answer the question I ended with last time:
[I]s it an Acts-like Christian community if you just spend all your time with your fellow disciples? What about inviting, welcoming, and making room for the stranger, the unknown neighbor, the person in need? Is that important too?
Um...yes. It's pretty much the essence of the gospel, in my opinion. There's nothing more important for a Christian community than to
Just read this 2006-12-09 22:48:00 This story is from Webb Kline, via Rick "Bartimaeus" Meigs. Do me a favor - read it, and, if you feel like it, tell me what you think. I don't want to prejudice you by commenting on it at all myself.
A waitress, who was really moved by both the concert and our mission presentation at the bar, spent a long time talking with my wife and me. She is in her mid 20's, I'd say, and she knows she has made some bad decisions with her life. Looking for help from God to get her act together, she began attending her mother's church until the pastor told her that she wasn't welcome unless she left her live-in boyfriend and stopped living in sin. She told me that she really didn't want to live with him, knew it was wrong and that it was also a bad example for her son. But, she said that she saw no way that she could make ends meet for the two of them without his help. She is trying to better herself and is taking classes at the local university in addition to waitressing. She thought
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