Hey, I'm JR - welcome to the blog.
I'm just an average guy trying to shape his identity around God's dream for the world and his place in it. This blog is a place for me (and you!) to reflect and hopefully discuss all that might mean. Have fun, look at pictures, and share whatever you'd like. Peace.
In being here at CCDA I have had a personal insight, not really directly related to any of the topics that have been addressed, but emerging in the midst of the presentations and workshops. The insight is this, I listen to different people for different reasons now than I did 5 years ago.
5 years ago I tended to listen to people based on their beliefs — tell me what you believe, then I’ll listen to what you have to say. Today I tend to listen to people based on their character — show me how you live, what kind of person you are, then I’ll listen to you.
We’re about 1/2 way through CCDA on Friday morning. I feel like I have gleaned some great nuggetts of thoughts and ideas through the main sessions and workshops.
Wayne Gordon spoke in the morning yesterday. Quipped that
charisma w/o character is catastrophic and
success w/o spiritual depth is superficial.
He also held up those in the conference who were willing to “go to places that others aren’t willing to go to.” Of course this made me think about my own (quite cooshy) situation - one plenty of others would flock to. And I was compelled to add to his thought in my notes… “some go to places that others are unwilling to go. Others go to places that are easy for others to go, but refuse to be there in the same manner.” I hope this is true of me.
Yesterday I attended a networking event that centered around a discussion of the centrality of the church in God’s mission. As this topic is near and dear to my heart, I was disappointed that we didn’t have a lot of time, given the nuber of folks that showed up, to really dig into it, but it was valuable to hear perspectives nonetheless. If the 20 or so people in the room were any sort of adequate representation of CCDA, it would seem that CCDA would do well to but a spotlight on this conversation.
The first worshop I attended was on the relationship of justice and shalom (shalom being the main theme of the conference). The presentation centered mainly around the movement of the people of God (in terms of issues of justice) from Acknowledgment, to Awareness, to Addressing, to Betterment, to Empowerment, to System Changing. There was good disscussion from the people who atteded the workshop about how they or their church communities were at these various stages. Again, not enough time, but I would love to have gotten more into the way in which the Kingdom of God goes about “System Changing,” not by fixing what is broken, but by being something different altogether.
The 2nd workshop I attended was entitled “Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers,” and was led by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. It was a packed house as one might expect. Shane did a great job of sharing illustrative stories and Jonathan spoke about the centrality of prayer in seeking to change the world - not in a disembodied sense, but in the sense that when we diligently commune with God in prayer, we become the sorts of people capable of living and acting out God’s dream. 2 quotes from this workshop, the first from Shane and the 2nd from Jonathan…
Jesus wants to give us a new economy of sharing and distribution… where the world calls us poor, but we experience having more than enough.
It is dehumanizing to always be on the receiving end of things.
Though he only spoke for a short time, Pete Scazzero was brilliant in the evening session. One of his central points was, “It is not possible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.” He also talked about the ways in which most people live off of the spirituality of others - which begs us to consider an entirely different dimension of consumer christianity besides mere marketing and advertising.
For a conference filled with people acute social awareness, there has been a lot of great talk about the need to remember our first love and being mindful of being so socially engaged that we burn ourselves out. Superb topics to be sure, but my hope is that people would be able to escape the dichotomy of “either I focus on loving God (a personal matter) or I focus on loving others (a public matter)” and embrace a more holistic spirituality - one in which we learn to love both God and others well by living in rhythms of contemplation and action.
The conference so far has been great - unlike any I have ever been to before. Everyone has great stories of major stuff they are a part of and what they see God doing. There are an insane number of great workshops - tough to choose from.
This is a great venue to connect with others and have your perspectives broadened. There is a great mix of races, cultures, and of course perspectives and view points.
OK, off to hear about the place of prayer in Kingdom living.
See this page for twitter updates and links to some pictures I snapped quick.
Leaving this afternoon for Miami along with some other friends for the CCDA conference. I have been looking forward to this conference for quite some time and plan on blogging and twittering some of my thoughts and experiences through the week as I am able.
There is a Facebook group if you are intereted in joining.
Tomorrow I’ll be in a workshop that has to do with creating urban/suburban partnerships and here’s a list of the speakers for the week.
I was able to get away this past week to connect with some friends and family, first in the Outer banks of NC and then in Chicago.
Babs (Adam) and Carrie were celebrating their 4 year anniversary and invited some friends along. So, I joined them and my friends Sean and Julie - and their 6-month old little girl Lucy, for a few days. One night we went out to the beach at night and chased down crabs with buckets, plastic shovels, and a swimming pool net. We tried to boil one of the little guys, but it turns out that there’s a reason that people don’t spend their time eating these particular crabs.
Then, it was off to Chicago where I got to spend some time with my cousin and her fiance whose wedding I am honored to be performing next month. Also got to see my friend Josh and his baby girl Norah. Rachel, Josh’s wife, was working so I missed out on seeing her, but man Norah was a trip.
Check out the video!
Thursday night I got to hang out briefly with my buddy Branden who, after living in So Cal while I was also there, has been living the high life in Chicago for just over a year now. Branden is always good for a story.
To top it all off, I got to hang out with a friend from Fuller, Amy, who just moved to Chicago. We toured Millennium Park and took an architectural boat tour of downtown on the Chicago river which was awesome.
Everyone of us adopts the Bible and (at the same time) adapts the Bible to our culture… Everyone picks and chooses. I know this sounds out of the box and off the wall for many, but no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves otherwise, it’s true. We pick and choose [what to adopt and how to adapt].
He then goes on to suggest that we do well to…
1. Approach the Bible as a story - “Until we learn to read the Bible as Story, we will not know how to get anything out of the Bible for daily living.” (Sidenote, Scot could have said this better. How it comes across is out of harmony with the larger scope of what he is trying to communicate. This sentence by itself perpetuates approaching Scripture as a commodity - what can I get out of it for my daily life? - but this isn’t really what he means I don’t think.
2. (Re)Learn how to listen as we dwell in Scripture - “Our relationship to the God of the Bible is to listen to God so we can love him more deeply and love others more completely. If God’s ultimate design for us is to love God and to love others, we can only acquire that love by learning to listen to God.”
3. Practice discernment - “The pattern of discernment is simply this: as we read the Bible and locate each item in its place in the Story, as we listen to God speak to us in our world through God’s ancient Word, we discern - through God’s Spirit and in the context of our community of faith - a pattern of how to live in our world.”
The final part of the book is an exercise in trying to follow this 3-pronged approach to Scripture by wresting with the issue of women in ministry.
Kudos to Scot for writing a book that makes much of the excellent work being done in biblical hermeneutics accessible and for providing a resource to those of us trying to help others embrace a missional paradigm of the church that pertains specifically to the place of Scripture within that paradigm.
As all college professors should be, Scot is clearly more concerned with the formation of people than the conveyance of information. This aspect of his character bleeds through the pages of his book and, all by itself, should merit an audience for what he has to say about how we approach and use Scripture.
Perhaps my favorite line in the book, “… God designs all biblical study to be a ‘useful’ process that leads us to the Bible in such a way that it creates a person who loves God and loves others.” I would want to tweak this only slightly to read, “… God designs all biblical study to be a ‘useful’ process that leads us to Jesus in such a way that it creates a people who love God and love others.” But again, I think in the larger scope of what Scot is saying, this sentiment comes through.
It is just this sort of sentiment that I think holds great promise to help correct both those who elevate the Bible to an almost idolatrous level as well as those who would merely cast it off as impossibly relative or irrelevant. More than this, Scot’s book can be helpful in freeing the Bible from the grip of Western individualism by helping readers to understand the primary role of Scripture as a centering text for a community.
If you value the Bible, and perhaps especially if you think you’re got a pretty good handle on the Bible, I’d highly recommend picking this book up when it comes out.
I have a hundred things in my head to write about, but no time, it would seem, to get them down. So, in the midst of my own blogging silence, please enjoy a penetrating parable from a favorite theologian/pastor/author of mine, Peter Rollins.
The following parable will be included in my forthcoming book The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales (March 2009). A compilation of 33 parables and commentaries. This parable is called, ‘No conviction’,
In a world where following Christ is decreed to be a subversive and illegal activity you have been accused of being a believer, arrested and dragged before a court.
You have been under clandestine surveillance for some time now and so the prosecution has been able to build up quite a case against you. They begin the trial by offering the judge dozens of photographs which show you attending church meetings, speaking at religious events, and participating in various prayer and worship services. After this they present a selection of items that have been confiscated from your home: religious books that you own, worship CDs and other Christian artefacts. Then they step up the pace by displaying many of the poems, pieces of prose, and journal entries that you had lovingly written concerning your faith. Finally, in closing, the prosecution offers your Bible to the judge. This is a well-worn book with scribbles, notes, drawings, and underlings throughout, evidence, if it were needed, that you had read and re-read this sacred text many times.
Throughout the case you have been sitting silently in fear and trembling. You know deep in your heart that with the large body of evidence that has been amassed by the prosecution you face the possibility of a long imprisonment or even execution. At various times throughout the proceedings you have lost all confidence and have been on the verge of standing up and denying Christ. But while this thought has plagued your mind throughout the trial, you resist the temptation and remain focused.
Once the prosecution has finished presenting their case the judge proceeds to ask if you have anything to add, but you remain silent and resolute, terrified that if you open your mouth, even for a moment, you might deny the charges made against you. Like Christ, you remain silent before your accusers. In response you are led outside to wait as the judge ponders your case.
The hours pass slowly as you sit under guard in the foyer waiting to be summoned back. Eventually a young man in uniform appears and leads you into the courtroom so that you may hear the verdict and receive word of your punishment. Once seated in the dock the judge, a harsh and unyielding man, enters the room, stands before you, looks deep into your eyes and begins to speak,
“Of the charges that have been brought forward I find the accused not guilty.”
“Not guilty?” your heart freezes. Then, in a split second, the fear and terror that had moments before threatened to strip your resolve are swallowed up by confusion and rage.
Despite the surroundings, you stand defiantly before the judge and demand that he give an account concerning why you are innocent of the charges in light of the evidence.
“What evidence?” he replies in shock.
“What about the poems and prose that I wrote?” you reply.
“They simply show that you think of yourself as a poet, nothing more.”
“But what about the services I spoke at, the times I wept in church and the long, sleepless nights of prayer?”
“Evidence that you are a good speaker and actor, nothing more.” replied the judge, “It is obvious that you deluded those around you, and perhaps at times you even deluded yourself, but this foolishness is not enough to convict you in a court of law.”
“But this is madness!” you shout. “It would seem that no evidence would convince you!”
“Not so,” replies the judge as if informing you of a great, long forgotten secret.
“The court is indifferent toward your Bible reading and church attendance; it has no concern for worship with words and a pen. Continue to develop your theology, and use it to paint pictures of love. We have no interest in such armchair artists who spend their time creating images of a better world. We exist only for those who would lay down that brush, and their life, in a Christ-like endeavor to create it. So, until you live as Christ and his followers, until you challenge this system and become a thorn in our side, until you die to yourself and offer your body to the flames, until then my friend, you are no enemy of ours.”
At long last, all the major painting I wanted to accomplish since moving into my new home not quite 2 months ago is finished. Two living spaces, a hallway, a bathroom, the kitchen, and the master bedroom are all looking fresh and clean. Check out the before and after shots.
This was originally the “dining room,” but by pushing the table into the corner, raising up the light fixture, and adding a couch, I have opted to just use the kitchen for eating space and made this the “sitting room,” since it has a nice fireplace. It is the room you walk into from the front door.
The room directly behind this room is the living room. Mmmmmm armoire.
Bathroom. From pink to brown… still doesn’t make the tile look all that great though. I love this perfectly fitted shelf I found.
The kitchen is what took the longest. Ugh.
And my bedroom.
There are a few more pics here, some of which have little notes attached to them.
I had the good fortune of receiving an advance copy of Scot McKnight’s newest book, 
