lifeasmission

Toward A Missional Vision of Theological Education: Preliminary Thoughts

November 11, 2009 // 136224 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/11/a-missional-vision-of-theological-education-preliminary-thoughts/Toward+A+Missional+Vision+of+Theological+Education%3A+Preliminary+Thoughts2009-11-11+21%3A49%3A02JR+Rozko

After having given several posts to the consideration of bi-vocational ministry, its relationship to missional ecclesiology, defending it as a spiritually formative leadership model, and then commenting on its relationship to theological education, I have been thinking more and more about how we are equipping leaders to lead truly missional communities.  Though it’s in no way a brand new topic of interest to me (see here & here), I want to unpack, in a more focused manner, some of the shortcomings of our current system of theological education and begin sketching what I find to be a more faithful way forward.

In anticipation of some things I want to say in future posts, I want to offer just a few preliminary thoughts that I think are important to have in mind as I write and as discussion (so badly hoping that some good discussion ensues!) takes place.

1) Seminary is not evil.  Unless it changes and adapts it will be increasingly ineffective and irrelevant, but that’s not to say it has no positive effects.  I am a product of a Seminary education and I’m thankful for it.  In fact, I could hardly have a good grasp on the shortcomings of it had I not gone through it.

2) There is no one, right, “biblical” way to come at this.  I hope to make a case for a missional vision of theological education that is more biblically faithful given our context than what is currently offered, but it’s not because I find it to be the only/universal approach.

3) This is a huge topic.  I have no intention of addressing all the many dimensions of this topic that deserve to be touched on.  I am more interested in fleshing out some general thoughts for the sake of stoking the fires of imagination and creativity.

4) I’m not writing from an ivory tower.  Not only would such a thing fly in the face of all I want to propose, but these reflections are born out of raw pastoral desire to see the church grow and flourish by being led well.  I am writing as one involved in a local church community that’s doing the hard work of making this uphill journey.

That being said, I am looking forward to some hopefully spirited dialogue in the coming weeks as I try too deal with what’s wrong with out current system, what we ought to be aspiring to, how it relates to a missional ecclesiology, and what it might take to move us forward.  Genuinely interested for others to weigh in and fill in gaps.

Posted in church, fuller, leadership, missional, spiritual formation, theological education, theology

Bi-Vocational Ministry & Theological Education

November 6, 2009 // 13354 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/11/bi-vocational-ministry-and-theological-education/Bi-Vocational+Ministry+%26+Theological+Education2009-11-06+16%3A51%3A24JR+Rozko

I think this will be my last post in a series on bi-vocational ministry.  If you’re looking to catch up, feel free to check out the earlier ones:

1) Bi-Vocational Ministry

2) Bi-Vocational Ministry & the Missional Church

3) Bi-Vocational Ministry & Spiritual Formation

4) Bi-Vocational Ministry & Support Raising

Thinking on this topic has stirred up a number of thoughts, ideas, and connections that I think will take shape in a next series of posts, so I won’t say too much here.

What I will say is this…

In 2004 when I began my education at Fuller Theological Seminary, I was on the fence about doing an MDiv.  I wasn’t sure that my future was going to be in professional, paid, church staff ministry.  I also wasn’t so sure that the structure of the degree was all that well equipped to prepare people for that sort of ministry given the trajectory of the Western church anyway.  To my utter shock, I soon discovered that these sentiments were widely shared and many of the people who would have been the best candidates for MDiv’s were opting for less traditional and more flexible routes. (FYI – Fuller has since done some major and commendable course correcting regarding all their programs, including the MDiv!)

My hesitations confirmed by the sentiments and decisions of my peers, I chose to do an MA in theology which gave me the ability to take 1/2 my classes out of Fullers’ School of Intercultural Studies enabling me to craft a degree that explored a missiology of Western culture.

In contrast to the average School of Theology student, many of the students doing degrees in the School of Intercultural Studies had widely marketable skills and trades.  Whereas the average SOT student was there to get an academic credential in order to get a job, the average SIS student was in school to learn how to be better a better missionary or to do more study regarding a particular area of interest.  Unlike their SOT counterparts, they weren’t looking for a degree to get a job.

Now, Fuller as a school didn’t create this reality per se, they were merely filling two different needs, augmenting on the one hand, and preparing on the other.

If, as I have tried to say, churches being led by a team of bi-vocational leaders is more sustainable, healthier for leaders and congregations alike, and all-around positively spiritually formative, then theological schools would do well to intentionally structure themselves for the sort of education that Fuller’s SIS was offering de facto.

There is a lesson to be learned here from Christian Liberal Arts schools (yeah Malone!) which prepare men and women of God for service in all areas of life… AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.  That people would “graduate” from this sort of education to one of specialized, professional theological training is a regrettable reality.  I say this as one with the highest of value for theological rigor and advanced training.  But, I also say it as one who thinks these things should never come at the expense of extending to Christian leaders the opportunity to lose touch with “the world.”

A missional ecclesiology calls for a missional approach to theological education that would be best described in terms of formational training.  This is what I hope to explore further in my next series of posts.

Posted in bi-vocational, church, fuller, leadership, malone, spiritual formation, sustainability, theology, western culture

Some Struggles with John Piper

August 28, 2009 // 118012 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/08/some-struggles-with-john-piper/Some+Struggles+with+John+Piper2009-08-28+16%3A49%3A34JR+Rozko

When I was a sophomore in college, I helped to lead a high school mission trip to Russia.  On the plane, I was reading a book someone had recommended, “Desiring God,” by John Piper.  Through the first 1/2 of the book, I was looking for a way to throw it off the plane – I thought it was crap.  By the end of it, I was transformed.  I had a completely different take on the nature of Christian faith and discipleship that has stood the test of time.

Once I started to get into Podcasts, Piper’s was one of the first ones I subscribed (iTunes link) to.  I still listen to it with some regularity and commend it to you.

When I was contemplating resigning my role as a student pastor in 2004 to pursue more theological education, I decided to take some time off to think, pray, reflect, and ask questions.  I traveled to Minneapolis, visited Bethlehem Baptist Church where John Piper preaches, and had the chance to talk with him for a while after one of the services.  An alum of Fuller Theological Seminary, I expected him to be encouraged that this was one of my options.  He wasn’t.  He said that they had gone down a dangerous to path toward Christian liberalism.

I went to Fuller anyway and discovered that John was wrong.

My idolatry of Piper broken, I began to notice some other aspects of his theology that I had a really hard time with.

I think he gets the issue of God’ sovereignty wrong – not because I believe the opposite, but because I think the whole Calvinist/Armenian debate is flawed at its core.  Both positions assume that salvation is something one can have and therefore argue about who secures our having it – God or man.  With good intention, some will attempt a middle road and say it’s a both/and issue.  It’s not.  It’s a neither/nor issue.  When you begin to understand that “salvation belongs to God” (Rev. 7:10) and is therefore something we can only participate in, never have, the whole debate changes.

I also lament Piper’s view on women. Again, he will argue the “conservative” side of the complimentarian/egalitarian debate, which I think begins with flawed premises.  Do men and women compliment each other or are they equal?  That question isn’t nearly biblical enough to be of any real value.  A more important question, at least as the Bible is concerned, is, how do men and women, who only together image God, as couples and singles, function together in doing and equipping others for ministry.  And the plain answer is that they serve as co-laborers – that each and every aspect of ministry, from preaching and teaching, to caring for children, suffers when not practiced by both capable and gifted women and men.

There was much bally-who in the blog-o-sphere last week when Piper connected a tornado in Minneapolis to a meeting the ELCA was having regarding the issue of homosexuality (here’s the original article and a follow up one).  I have listened to Piper enough that I think what he meant to say was that whenever natural disaster strikes it is an opportunity for us to remember and turn to God, but he seemed to be saying quite a bit more than that and it calls for some accounting.

Lastly, he’s got a bad take on the woman at the well (John 4).  Like perhaps the majority of preachers, he is quick to assume the moral degradation of the woman Jesus encounters, frequently noting that “she’s sleeping with her boyfriend.”  As I take into account the cultural factors at play in this passage as well as the fuller scope of Jesus’ ministry, I find this interpretation to be maddening.

Women had not rights in Jesus’ day; they had not power to divorce a husband; they were property.  Unless they were from a royal or extremely well off family, they had almost no hope of being able to provide for themselves.  As the Bible makes clear, the ability to produce children more often than not determined a woman’s worth.

While we might trip over some of the translated language, I think it’s much more faithful to the text to understand this Samaritan woman, not as a whore (essentially what Piper and others tend to d0), but as a shamed and broken victim of injustice.  When Jesus notes that this woman had had five husbands, he’s not digging her for her sin – when did Jesus ever do that except for the religious leaders?!  And when he says that the man she now has is not her husband, he’s not some *&$%^&# calling her out for “sleeping with her boyfriend”  – again, just doesn’t fit the Jesus of the gospels.  He is calling out the source of her shame and injustice so that he can heal it – something he did all the time.

I love John Piper as a brother in Christ.  His passion and zeal for the supremacy of God captivates and inspires me.  But here’s the final thing about John and this gets me more than anything else.  I have never heard him say (and he’s really public!), “I might be wrong.  There are other followers of Jesus who believe differently than me and they just might be on to something.”  Even if he has said something like this at some point – it is quite definitely not a theme in his teaching the way I wish it was.  I’m not talking about being wishy-washy.  I am taking about some good ol fashioned humility and firm trust in God’s work over his theology.

I am not writing this to disparage.  Beginning with myself, I would ask anyone who has some theological issues with another brother or sister in Christ, to think first and foremost about who they really are and what they have done for the sake of the gospel.  I am no anti-Piperian. I consider John a true partner in the gospel and would run to his defense on most occasions.  But this is just some stuff that I really struggle with enough to hope that others would as well.

Posted in Jesus, bible, fuller, gender, preaching/teaching

You Should Go to Fuller Theological Seminary

August 7, 2009 // 11635 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/08/you-should-go-to-fuller-theological-seminary/You+Should+Go+to+Fuller+Theological+Seminary2009-08-07+19%3A39%3A39JR+Rozko

If you are considering working on a masters degree in the areas of theology, missiology, or psychology I’d like to encourage you to consider Fuller Theological Seminary.  I graduated back in 2006 and have been an avid evangelist for the school ever since.

Aside from having a world class faculty, Fuller is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse seminaries in the world which adds a ton to the processes of learning and formation.  And let’s face it, you can’t beat the weather in So. Cal!

More than all this, the alumni of Fuller just received an email from the admissions department letting us know that they have received a hefty donation and are offering more scholarships than usual to incoming students.  So the timing is perfect.

If you are interested in going to seminary, but love the idea of a more integrated approach to education where you are studying while you’re engaged in a specific area of Christian leadership, you really need to check out the Master of Arts in Global Leadership program.  In my opinion, this is one of the best programs being offered in the entire landscape of graduate theology/missiology.

If you are looking for any more guidance, have any questions, or would like me to help connect you with some people who might be valuable to the ends you have in mind for seminary, just let me know.

Oh, make sure you take something with Mark Lau Branson

Posted in fuller

Good News for Your City

April 15, 2009 // 1078No Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/04/good-news-for-your-city/Good+News+for+Your+City2009-04-15+14%3A14%3A22JR+Rozko

My friend JR Woordward has put together a fun line up of people to submit brief blog posts answering the question…

If you local city newspaper asked you to describe the Good News – what would you write?

Here’s my submission and I encourage you to check out the other posts offered between now and Pentecost.  Feel free to offer your comments here if you like, but there are already several good ones over at JR Woodward’s site that you can add to as well.  I will be checking and responding over there too.

The Commercial Appeal is the place where countless Memphians turn for news – some of it good, much of it, not so good.  We are a city divided by race, stricken by generational poverty, plagued by crime, and disadvantaged by socio-economic stratification.  Good news for us usually comes in the form of an absence of bad as opposed to the presence of beautiful surprises.  For those with eyes to see, these problems are far more than the result of individual human errors and failings; they also stem from firmly entrenched systems, paradigms, and powers, which create a broken culture that produces broken people.  There is a cycle at work here more insidious than we realize or could hope to finally defeat on our own.  But there’s good news.

I’m a Christian and Christians are good news people.  In fact, a central manta of the Christian faith is, “Repent and believe the good news.”  This isn’t about saying you’re sorry to God so you can go to Heaven when you die. It’s Jesus’ invitation to, by grace and through faith, escape the consequences of our capitulation to a world gone wrong by joining him in the ways he sees and engages the world.

See, God plans to recreate all that has been tainted and lost by evil and darkness.  The sphere in which this happens is known as the Kingdom of God.  Jesus embodied this Kingdom in his life and sealed it in his death and resurrection. That’s news, but it’s not quite good yet; cause news is only really good when it’s experienced.  This news becomes truly good for us when God’s plan for the future intersects with our present.  Ours is not good news that God will do, but good news that God is doing.

Jesus was the bearer of good news par excellence and those of us who bear his name but fail to similarly bear good news to the world around us have a share in the guilt and misery of the city and people we are called to lovingly serve.  This is where the Church comes in.  God means for the Church to be a unique body though whom Jesus actually continues freeing people from harmful things and reconnecting them with God and others. The Christian God is one of relationship.  Therefore, God’s Good News to the people and city of Memphis is purposefully intertwined with communities of people gripped by it.

Fellow Memphians, if you’re like me, grieved over the many sad circumstances of our city, if you are desperate for a new start, for healing and wholeness, I hope you will consider the news of God’s desire and plan for the world including the tiny metroplex of Memphis.  The news might not be the sort you’d expect, maybe not even the sort you’d prefer, but it’s good in the truest meaning of the word.

Posted in Jesus, fuller, gospel, kingdom, memphis, questions

A Tribute to Mark Lau Branson

January 29, 2009 // 9474 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/01/a-tribute-to-mark-lau-branson/A+Tribute+to+Mark+Lau+Branson2009-01-30+02%3A48%3A36JR+Rozko

By way of one of Fuller Theological Seminary’s podcasts through iTunesU, I was reminded of Mark Lau Branson the other day.  Mark was an incredibly influential professor for me while I was at Fuller.  He was one of a few professors that, with great humility and patience, gave me a new vision and vocabulary regarding the Church.  He is not a huge name in the missional church discussion (at least in popular circles), but his influence (through Allelon and the Gospel and Our Culture Network) is broad and unmistakable.

Whereas most of my education and training related to missional ecclesiology stems from Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies, Mark is perhaps the central figure imparting this to Fuller students who study exclusively in the School of Theology.

One of his most frequent refrains is,

“God’s missional imagination is among the people of God”

and he wrote a book built on this premise, “Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change.”

Not only did Mark expose me to some helpful ideas and authors, he shared out of his own deep experience of living in intentional community, his commitment to truly incarnational models of Christian witness, and a radical commitment to the formation of the people of God.

I find that in life and work I have all these ideas about church and ministry and when I stop to think about it, the vast majority of those ideas stem from or have been shaped by what Mark passed on.

If you’re Mark… thanks.  If you’re a student at Fuller, don’t you dare leave without taking one of his classes.  If you’re not Mark and you’re not a student at Fuller, move to Pasadena, enroll at the school, and take Mark’s class.  For starters, enjoy the podcast below.

Posted in books, church, fuller, intentional community, missional, spiritual formation