lifeasmission
exploring the mystery of life and mission as one and the same
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Archive of "salvation" Category
Missiological Research: Missio Dei, Salvation & Discipleship in Post-Christendom
A few weeks ago now, I pointed to a couple posts that Tony Jones has offered about the missional church. I mentioned that I was particularly interested because of some intersections those posts had with the research I will be doing over the next few years as part of the DMiss cohort I am a part of.
I am still very much at the early stages of articulating my research project, not to mention working through all the details of what it will entail in terms of field work. But, I thought I’d go ahead and throw what I am working with so far out there and see what sort of feedback others might have.
The DMiss degree is structured around equally important labors of academic and field research. In the joining of these two different kinds of research, the aim is to be both descriptive – what is actually happening in concrete contexts, as well as constructive – how do insights gained from field and academic research combine to help these local contexts change, adapt, or improve.
My ultimate concern has to do with the relationship between soteriology (how we understand salvation) and the structures and practices used for disciple-making in missional churches for a Post-Christendom context.
Given this central interest, I plan to do research in local churches that will help me understand just how this is playing out. In terms of academic research, I plan to focus on the intersection of the missio Dei (as it pertains to soteriology), Anabaptist theology (as a non-Christendom theological framework), and missional ecclesiology (as it pertains to discipleship).
So, descriptively, I hope to be able to give an accurate and insightful portrayal of the soteriological vision of multiple church contexts and how that vision relates to their structures & practices for making disciples in Post-Christendom.
Constructively, I hope to be able to articulate what might be called a missional soteriology (vision of salvation rooted in the missio Dei) and then reflect on the implications of this for disciple-making in Post-Christendom.
At the end of the day, I am hoping that the results of this research will benefit, first and foremost, my own various “missional church” tribes. In my view, if the research that I am to do doesn’t serve these contexts, it is of no real use. Additionally, I have a great concern for how this research might benefit the field of theological education as it continues to grapple with the challenges of equipping leaders for ministry in a context in which the church is increasingly pushed to the margins of society. Bottom line, we do not know how to do this well and if centers of theological education are going to figure out what it means to equip missionaries as opposed to managers, some major shifts are needed.
Would love to hear any thoughts you might have on what I am setting out here.
Oh, by the way, several others have encouraged my to try and find some funding for this research so that I might be able to conduct it on a broader scope. If you have any thoughts along those lines, I’m all ears.
Toward a Thepoetic of the Cross (Book Review)
Every so often I get an invitation to read and review a forthcoming book here at lifeasmission. Ocassionally, I get really excited about the book I’m asked to take a look at. That’s how I felt when I was contacted by Jason Derr (see some of his articles for the Huffington Post here) and asked to review his first book, Towards a Theopoetic of the Cross.
Most of that excitement stemmed from the fact that I had no idea what a theopoetic of the cross was! Jason has helped me with that.
After setting the stage for what he intends in the book, Jason turns his attention to describing theopoetics before he applies them to the cross and discipleship.
I love theology, but I am no poet. Few would find this to be a problem, but as Derr notes,
There is no theology without poetry. (37)
Poetry, like no other kind of writing, has the potential to enliven our imaginations. As the author points out,
The theopoet is never safe to have at dinner parties, he will turn the whole thing into a Eucharist, s/he will remind us of the spiritual possibilities of the 6 o’clock news. (42)
Derr also points out that theopoetry is a realm of discourse for the “differently wisdomed,” a moniker which seems immeasurably more helpful in speaking of the theological contributions which might be offered by those we think of as having “learning disabilities.”
We are reminded by the author that,
The cross announces embarrassment to the church and to the world, that the unholy is holy, that it is revelation and that faith is not wrapped up in our neat moralities, our safe pleasantries. (58)
In a footnote to this text Derr acknowledges that this reality can be pushed too far, but it nevertheless reminds us that the cross, despite its evolution as a symbol and icon, was, and always should be, seen as a scandalous event to regard.
The cross, the author would have us remember, is an affront to our inclinations toward positions of power, be they “Christian” or not. This idea flows into his final section on discipleship.
As only a theopoet might, Derr encourages us to envision a praxiological kind of discipleship through the metaphor of meal:
Te eat a meal, to be in love with its tastes is to enter into discipleship to it, to be transformed by it, to be driven into the school of the kitchen and to learn at its pots and pans, at its dirty dishes, at its spices and seasonings. (93)
This brief overview hardly does justice to the book. Derr engages with the work of theologians such as Jugern Moltmann, Gustavo Gutierrez, Douglas John Hall, Martin Luther, and others. He talks often of the manner of our incarnational engagement with the poor and oppressed and offers his take on how the Church ought to think of the GLBTQ community.
For those interested in sustained theological reflection and argumentation, this book will probably leave you wanting. But, for those, not unlike me, who have to work harder to appreciate the nuances of what poetic language and thinking can do for our vision of God, this book is worth your time.
Evangelism as the Sharing of Ache and Hope
I love it when objects of two different worlds come colliding together. Think “Say Anything,” “Bringing Down the House,” or “The Toy.”
In each instance people who have virtually nothing in common are thrust into one another’s lives creating the opportunity for, to borrow a phrase from my friend Geoff, “generative tension.”
This happened in my life recently.
To the list of ‘socially awkward misfit meets valedictorian,’ ‘lawyer meets convict,’ and ‘poor black adult meets rich white kid,’ I can now add, Dan Allender meets Eminem.
A few days ago I began listening to a series of talks offered by Dan Allender, a Christian counselor, author, speaker, and the President of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, WA.
In one of his talks, he offered this little nugget,
Evangelism is essentially sharing our stories long enough to discover a common ache and a common hope.
Now, as my friend Annie pointed out in a conversation about this sentiment, it doesn’t capture the full scope of what might qualify as evangelism (and I don’t think that was Dan’s intention anyway). However, I do think it pushes us to a place of realization that, inasmuch as Jesus was God’s way of entering into the story of humanity’s deep aches and fulfilling its greatest hopes, we are called to do the same for others.
Somewhere in the course of listening to these talks, I came across a new music video by Eminem featuring Rihanna entitled, “Love the Way You Lie.” (ht: Jonathan Brink)
I’ll embed it below, but let me offer 2 things first, a disclaimer and a reflection.
Disclaimer: The video contains language and imagery that some might find objectionable. If you can’t get past that, please do us both a favor and skip it. I’ll say this though, the language and imagery is far from gratuitous. I think it is used appropriately and poignantly to convey the weight of the issue.
Reflection: The song and video tell the story of a couple who quite transparently have deep aches and deep hopes. The tragic irony of the situation is that they are trying to come to terms with both through a violent and endless cycle of love and hate, truth and lies.
I think the reason that I like this quote from Allender so much is that it asks us to be come alongside people as guides as opposed to stand at a distance and offer directions. There is this great tendency we have to get so focused on telling people that they need to arrive at a particular destination that we completely neglect the more important matter of identifying the “You are here” spot at which they stand. Directions, after all, are of little use unless you know where you’re starting from.
The last observation I’ll make as a result of the generative tension between Allender’s quote and Eminem’s video is that without the right direction, we create our own personal hells – something that is visually captured at the end of this clip. As people of ache and hope, when we try to alleviate our aches and fulfill our hopes in ways that God never intended, we suffer. All the more reason for those of us who have been met by God at the point of our ache and who place our hope in God’s salvific work in the world through Christ to listen to the stories of others as we share ours and allow God to do that same work all over again.
San Francisco, Strangers, and Stories: Part 2
I ended my previous post about Amy’s and my trip to San Francisco by saying that one of the highlights for me was seeing Wicked for the first time on account of its similarity to my favorite recent TV series, LOST.
The connection I want to make is well articulated in the quote,
Strangers and enemies are merely people whose stories we haven’t heard yet.
We saw this at play in LOST inasmuch as our assumptions and assessments about the nature of the main characters were subverted over the course of getting to know their history and background. Let’s face it, it’s just way harder to be so critical of Sawyer once you learn that someone was responsible for conning his mother out of money resulting in his father killing her and then himself right in front of him.
Similarly, in Wicked, we are given a story behind the relationship between the “good” witch and the “bad” witch from the Wizard of Oz. We learn that the “good” witch was actually a fairly empty-headed, spoiled brat who always got her way and was extremely judgmental. At the same time, we learn that the “bad” witch was a product of years of scorn and ridicule from her father and peers. Not only did she blame herself for her mother’s death, but she was extremely mindful and caring toward her invalid sister.
Let’s be honest, life is easier when we pretend that we can engage it in black and white. Truth be told, our need to control life in this way is probably directly related to our own fears and inadequacies.
It is when we lack contentment in who we are in Christ, that we default to judging others so that we can feel better about who we are.
… I am more valuable than him because I work hard and he’s a lazy bum.
… I am nicer than her because I saw how rude she was to the bank teller.
… We are a more devoted family than them because they are constantly missing church services.
Little do we know that…
… he was born addicted to crack and never had the sort of love and support it takes to help someone to recover from that sort of disability.
… she just found out that her 2 year old son was diagnosed with Lukemia and their family is uninsured.
… as a family, they are trying to spend time with their neighbors who think Jesus is a joke.
Stories change everything.
Identifying with others by entering into their stories is risky because we almost always discover that we have more in common with the people that we would just assume distance ourselves from as strangers and enemies that we’d like to admit.
So here’s the challenge before you you and I today (and for the rest of our lives!) – to risk entering into the pain and uncertainly of the stories of the people we consider strangers and enemies that we might identify with them as Christ entered into the story of humanity and identified with it – such is the nature and meaning of incarnational ministry and witness.
I will never be able to watch The Wizard of Oz with as much innocence as I once did. And regardless of what you and I thought about the conclusion of LOST as a television series, there is something profound about this notion of our salvation being bound up with our willingness to truly know and be known by others, especially those we are most unlike us.
Stories change everything.
An Interview with N.T. Wright
The guys over at Homebrewed Christianity recently posted an interview they did with N.T. Wright. The interview was full of some really great sound bytes that I went ahead and divvied up to make your life easier
You can listen to or download the interview in its entirety here.
On being a bishop.
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On the unfortunate split between church and academy.
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On returning to fulltime academic work.
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On Bart Ehrman.
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On Marcus Borg & John Dominic Crossan.
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On Jurgen Moltmann.
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On E.P. Sanders.
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On Karl Barth.
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On Stanley Hauerwas.
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On his most recent book, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters and why he chose to write about eschatology before ethics.
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On the difference between Aristotelian virtue and Christian virtue.
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On the role of character and virtue in other religions.
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On cultural virtue.
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On the renewing of our minds when they have become largely detached from the rest of who we are.
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On Christianity Post-Postmodernity.
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On the after-after life.
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What NT Wright is reading, thinking, and planning for his “big book on Paul” as the next in his Christian Origins series.
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What we can expect from NT Wright in his new role.
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Mr. Deity and the Skeptic
If you haven’t come across Mr. Deity yet, you ought to check it out and subscribe via iTunes. If nothing else, it’s a fascinating window into the social standing of the Christian faith.
Thought it was interesting that shortly after posting previously, I made it around to watching the most recent episode. Anxious for your thoughts.
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