What is Gospel? Part 3-The Old gives way to the New…

I first blurted out “truth” in a somewhat lame one-word attempt to define “What is Gospel?”But throughout the course of the semester and through the prompting of the Spirit, my thoughts on what Gospel really is have intensified. This has happened through several venues: my Gospel and Global Media class, through the insight of Dr. Steven Paulson in ST 2415, Jesus and the Triune God, and through paying attention to a reimagining, a newness of church: All Things Being Made New.

Enmeshed in celebration, and experiencing the movement of this newness dancing around us, among us, through us, and in us is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is present in the “always being made new” of our great missional church. Problematic though, it appears that most of God’s creatures “do not have ears to hear” and are unable to clearly see just what the Holy Spirit is doing in our midst. Most of us fail to notice that our “big, fat God came down” [1] right here in the mud and the muck, right here in the very midst of us, for us and with us. I pray that eyes be opened to absorb the incarnational newness that abounds from this image…a God that is freely and creatively present, given and ready to be shared.

Another problem, which Professor Gary Simpson addresses in his essay, God in Global Civil Society: Vocational Imagination, Spiritual Presence, and Ecclesial Discernment, and one in which I see within the small city in which I minister, is that “the missional church conversation has not yet engaged its public church—public theology dimension in a full-orbed way.”(14) The ultimate goal should be on how the church in full communion with one-another relates to the world. I would call this all-inclusive.

While a one-word attempt to define What is Gospel? may suffice, Lutheran theology moreso emphasizes a two-word attempt. Important words sieve through the auspicious teachings of Martin Luther, the same words given to us by Christ himself: “For you.” This is my body given for you for all so that sins may be forgiven define Gospel. This is the Good News we are to relay in word and incarnationally with our neighbor as we set about doing God’s work for each other.

We are, as Paul and the other apostles were, also commissioned by Christ (Mt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15) to preach, admonish and say everything for the sake of the Gospel, to be entrusted with spreading the Gospel “to the ends of the earth.”

Let this begin with me. As I wipe away the distortions which prevent me from clearly seeing “Who is my Neighbor? Let me enter into that peoplescape. Mary Hess’ book Engaging Technology in Theological Education (chapter one) points out that “Jesus was often found teaching in the midst of communities of people so hungry for answers, that they often answered one question with many more: “Who are you?” receives “Who do you say that I am?” “Who is my neighbor?” Communities of people who gathered around Jesus were hungry for answers, but they received stories and more questions, and were thereby drawn into new patterns of practice. Let me jump in and join in the collaboration and conversation which is the Gospel.

We find ourselves in the same place we always have been, but where we are today we are also evolving into “new patterns of practice” in which the Gospel can be accomplished in new and innovative ways. Digital media provides new tools which enable us to much more rapidly spread and witness to the Gospel.  Available at our fingertips, these tools enable us “to wallow in the mud in the muck”, as Steven Paulson says, “with a God who sits there beside us,” in prisons, in public, in private, across the street, or across the world. It is in these places we find God in God’s triune-ness, perichoretically dancing in and out around and through us; going with us to share with our neighbors…all inclusively.

God’s story is the same, we entered into it at creation. And as the Old gave way to the New we see the New Testament as a culmination of God’s story, yet it continues to call us to live out the “Good News” of the Gospel story of Jesus Christ. As a community, and as individuals, God calls us to continually connect our lives, to a greater and greater extent, moreso to this great story. How do we do this? The way to life and relationship is nothing more than the assimilation of this gospel story into our own lives and into our communities. “I am the way, the truth and the life…” (John 3:16). God’s Spirit does this through a vital and active faith that grows as we grow in reliance upon it and see it incarnationally in us, and among us as we serve one another. Yes, God’s story is the same, but the Spirit’s dancing has caused the medium through which we tell it to evolve.

Social and digital media are new tools which enable us to witness and to define What is Gospel? with and to others in ways we have never done before. To friends, circles, followers, those closest to us by way of text, tweets or blogs allowing us to live out the great commission (Mt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15). As the spread of the gospel is ever-evolving, the story is still the same.  Digital media has radically taken methods of the way the Gospel message is spread to a whole new level. And I am glad to be a part of it.

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[1] Paulson,Steven Luther for Armchair Theologians

Share and Share Alike

In preparation for my final project I find myself in the midst of pondering the economy of sharing. Immediately after reading the document Love to Share, collaboratively compiled by the World Council of Churches, I felt compelled to google the term “share and share alike.” The search revealed the following CBS News video from the Sunday Morning Show.(worth setting the DVR to record!) The “sharing” video is the first of a series of videos that will automatically play.If you care to stick around, you will see a series of videos that follow which are related to last week’s Boston tragedy, which I suspect you will find pertinent to our current studies, as I did.

I long for a world reminiscent of the first Christians in the Book of Acts, as mentioned in Love To Share. I long to live in a community that can move past the worry, issues and legalities of sharing text and digital media into the sharing of all that has been freely given and entrusted to us here, on this planet, for just a short while as we pass through. Perhaps we are now in the midst of a movement, a transition, requiring us to share all that we have for the common good of all. Perhaps we should have progressed a bit further than we have since 1983 when Love to Share was published? Case in point, I will continue to move forward in developing my final project entitled Share and Share Alike, in which area churches will be invited to dialogue on topics of mutual interest in hopes of fostering more of a connectedness and an enhanced climate of sharing in our community.

Thanks to our professor, Mary Hess and for her contribution to this important document and for the direction it has pointed me in toward the finalization of my project.

Controversy, Crisis and Challenges surrounding the US Criminal Justice System…issues and possible solutions

From his book, More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How It Could Matter More, Byron Johnson Baylor University professor and leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice writes:

Many prison ministries are nothing more than individuals who feel called to reach out to the incarcerated. Many of them operate in complete isolation of other faith-based ministries. By and large these groups do a poor job of communicating with and supporting each other. Their approach lacks the coordination necessary to combat problems that require comprehensive solutions. Faith-based groups may do a good job of preaching the gospel in prison, but they need to do a better job of mentoring prisoners while they are incarcerated and sticking with them once they leave.

The bottom line, Johnson says about church’s function is, “I believe they hold the key to dealing comprehensively with problems like crime and delinquency, and reintegrating prisoners into society. Johnson believes that “spiritual development and prisoner rehabilitation go hand in hand.”[1]

The opening video on Byron Johnson’s website spotlights a video of successful mentor/mentee relationships that recognizably reflect Christ’s relationship with his people. Individually through mentorships as well as Christ’s church collectively are called to boldy declare “ release to the captives.” (Luke 4:18) It is through long-term committed relationships that youth, instead of slipping into the bondage of delinquency, can instead be captives set free. Free to live a productive life, complete an education and begin a successful career. Captives are set free through a mentor’s willingness to accompany them for the long-haul, hand in hand. Erica Dill, Amachi mentor speaks of her relationship with her mentee: “Our relationship, it’s a contract of the heart, it doesn’t end until it ends.”

I know of one church, Our Saviour’s Lutheran, Lincoln, Nebraska, who is successfully making a difference in the lives of the incarcerated and their families. On the IC 2643 Gospel and Global Media Cultures website, my friend Matt Schur, pastoral assistant at Our Saviour’s noted, “The key is a congregation which has reached decided together to welcome, comfort them in a spirit of accompaniment and grace.”

Our goal this week in our Gospel and Global Media Cultures class is to explore the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s proposed Social Statement on criminal justice. Schur’s congregation is already living it out. Matt goes on to note:

“This particular social statement is one that is near and dear to the congregation where I serve. I’ve mentioned the FEAST program before–each week at our 10:45 Sunday morning service, about 40 inmates and their loved ones join us for worship. They stay for lunch, have Bible study, choir, and life skills classes, and then return to the correctional center mid-afternoon. For many of them, showing up on Sunday is the first time in their lives where people are genuinely happy to see them without some sort of ulterior motive, where they are greeted with a smile and a handshake or a hug, and where they hear words of grace. This time is transformational for many of them. After a couple of years of running the FEAST program, more and more of our partners were being released, but had nowhere to go. Most had been convicted of felonies, and when you get out with $100 to your name and the clothes on your back and a felony to your record, it’s tough to find a job or even a place to live, and easy to fall back into familiar, destructive patterns. We’ve begun an organization called Bridges to Hope that helps transition folks from jail back into society–we try to help with housing, we have a warehouse with clothes and furniture to help set up a place to live and have some nice things for interviews, we have contacts with employers who are willing to hire ex-offenders. So many people I talk to just want to lock offenders up and throw away the key, particularly if what they’ve done is something especially bad. But that’s not the cross, and even if you were to set faith completely aside, that’s not good for society in the long run either.”

I believe that we as evangelical Christians must have a clear intellectual grasp of what social justice entails. My prayers are for individual believers within the church at large to come together to closely address the issues before them, putting to the vote a document that will essentially impact many lives. All social action must be motivated and implemented in a spirit of true Christian justice, grace and love always pointing toward the Gospel of Jesus Christ. An increased awareness of church sponsored social action is necessary to ensure that the disadvantaged (both in the church and society) through true love of the neighbor will in turn “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2, 10).

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[1] Carter, Joe, Interview with Byron R. Johnson “Prison Partnership: Byron R. Johnson on Christian Criminal Justice: Church and State Can Join Hands to Prevent Crime And Reform Criminals.” Christianity Today, (June 7,2011), http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/june/prisonpartnership.html (accessed April 17, 2013)

The Digital Divide: The Haves and the Have Nots

How can communities of faith draw on denominational/theological statements to advocate for easing or even erasing digital divides?

Digital Divide” thoughts and observations: As a public school teacher I experienced the plight of young public school students who due to limited economic resources had no technology in the home. This was a growing concern of mine the last few years I taught. Without a doubt, my students who did not have access to technology outside of the school, were at a distinct disadvantage in excelling academically in comparison to those who did. This “lack” also created an invisible wall preventing parents from being able to access pertinent online information, such as grades, tutorials and homework assignments. Sometimes we concerned teachers would pool our resources, purchase cheap computers that had been phased out of the campus technology plan and gift them anonymously to the neediest of families. It was exasperating to know that due to the “digital divide” Susan Crawford, author of Captive Image and Watkins & Schor speak of, that some of those computers would lie in a dormant state due to exorbitant pricing of our town’s internet service.

Just Yesterday…My friend, in a simple attempt to transfer her recently deceased mother’s AT&T account (which she plans to keep) to her name, had to go through 8 phone transfers with the big bundle monopolizer before reaching a supervisor (#9)  who could finally get the job done with only a simple verbal verification of identity over the phone. In addition to the exorbitant price-gouging we all are victims of, seems like we are also being robbed of precious time.

Church: I am one of the connected Americans fortunate enough to own a computer, iPad and cell phone…so I am connected wherever I go. I am spoiled thinking I can traipse into any church and ask for the wireless passcode to get online. The availability varies greatly from parish to parish. In two of the churches I have done contextual work in I have given workshops on how to use Facebook…per request of the eighty-somethings! Many of the small rural churches in my area have no internet at all…a huge setback for a minister who is called there to effectively serve. 

What is Gospel? Part 2

Yet another challenge from our professors. To investigate how our group-mates attempted to answer what at first appears to be a very broad question. Then, secondly go back and review our own initial response, then reframe all of that in a new light…here’s my attempt:

Although we each may lean slightly in different directions with our theological viewpoints, each of us possesses our own defining stories. A common thread that we all shared, however, is our Lutheran heritage. We agree on value of The Lutheran Confessions as Erin shared, “we have words for our beliefs, a structure to our theology…to have a language that sufficiently describes our faith.”

The stories that define us are so important that it can be argued that we use them to make sense of our lives and world. These stories are so foundational that they define how we think, how we behave, and how we feel about others and about ourselves. However, they are by no means static, but instead dynamically change throughout our lives. Our stories should continuously evolve and therefore be expected to undergo significant revision and transformation throughout the process.

God’s story has evolved. We entered into it at creation. We cling to God’s promises as the Old gave way to the New and recognize the New Testament as a culmination, yet continuation of God’s story that still calls us to live out the “good news.” As a community and as individuals, God calls us to continually connect our lives, to a greater and greater extent, to this great story. How do we do this? The way to life and relationship happens with our neighbor and is nothing more than the assimilation of this gospel story shared from deep within our own lives. God’s Spirit does this through our vital and active faith lives that grow as we grow upon our reliance on Jesus.

Although the way the Gospel has been assimilated over time has changed in many radical ways, the message is the same. I recall one new way mentioned in Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. Shirky calls this “shared awareness.” Shirky describes awareness as, “when everybody knows that everybody knows, and when everybody knows that everybody knows that everybody knows.” Knowing that others around you know the same thing is liken to the spread of the gospel message. The spread of the gospel message is ever-evolving, and now is even surpassing group-dynamics into possibilities of an even greater  connectedness through social networks. The internet has brought traditional methods of the way the gospel message has been spread to a whole new level.

Regardless, we are still called as followers to continue the message of Christ and spread the gospel message “to the ends of the earth,” and as we do, we continue to define our respective stories. And as we do (as some of my group-mates mentioned) the beauty of the gospel is that “God comes for us and meets us where we are.”  We have, as I quoted from the Book of Concord in my initial What is Gospel? post:

The content of the Gospel is this, that the Son of God, Christ our Lord,      himself assumed and bore the curse of the law and expiated and paid for all our sins, and through him alone we reenter the good graces of God, obtain the forgiveness of sin through faith, are freed from death and all punishment of sin, and are saved eternally (FC, SD, V, 20).

 

 

Solidarity, collegiality, collaboration

I have been thinking about “set theory” in regard to human cooperation, or lack of it, in regards to church. I recall the instance about 15 years ago when I decided to return to the Lutheran church of my childhood. It was a gradual transition as I began on the boundary and slowly, over a period over a few years, worked my way toward the inner circle (historically controlled by a few families). Today it is still relatively difficult for newcomers to develop a sense of belonging. I carry that example with me (as what not to do) as I now ‘sail the seas’ church-wide and beyond.

A centered set allows boundaries to be more porous and moveable, but is hard to get there, particularly in a church community. According to Wikipedia, “a bounded set describes a group with clear in and out definitions of membership in reference to the Christian church…The centered set does not limit membership to pre-conceived boundaries. Instead a centered set is conditioned on a centered point. Membership is contingent on those who are moving toward that point. Elements moving toward a particular point are part of the set, but elements moving away from that point are not. As a centered-set Christian membership would be dependent on moving toward the central point of Jesus. A Christian is then defined by their focus and movement toward Christ rather than a limited set of shared beliefs and values.”

Some explanations I have heard regarding set theory place “belonging” (the goal of seekers) at the center of the “circle.” Unfortunately in some churches, perspective members looking for a place to belong never successfully break through to the center where the notion of belonging exists. Sometimes such bones of contention such as whether to commune or baptize first (verified through the amount of interest and conversation generated on the ELCA clergy Facebook page), serves only to alienate. It appears to be a “who’s on first, what’s on third” controversy. Did we already forget the freedom we received through the life of a fleshly God who cast out law for in favor of inclusivity for all to the wind?

The information this week (prayers, Benkler’s book-especially c. 4 and 5,  clergy discussion), struck a chord deep within my soul. The success of the “community policing” Benkler  writes about in The Penguin and the Leviathan, Chapter 4, provides a viable option which could serve as a solution to the ‘dilemma-of-the-two-ELCA-churches’ in my hometown (which I prayed for in color this week—please help). Benkler lays out what I believe is an obtainable goal for the problem. Then acting on the advice in Chapter 5, “the ability to communicate and coordinate with others is enough to get people to act together for a common goal (107)…that’s solidarity. I plan to share the book. It will be a bold venture either to be heeded…or perhaps ignored in light of the self-interest Benkler speaks of. That’s the boldness of the Gospel I will continue to flesh out in part two of my What is Gospel? essay. Prayers requested!

It’s All About the Other…more thoughts on praying publicly…

And, regarding prayer, Dr. Simpson’s words resonated with me, “Coming from a more centered set, one’s first step on the question of how to participate in public prayer should be to first ask: “On whose behalf should I be praying?” Look for a way to pray on everybody’s behalf. “If I remember on whose behalf I am praying, then I can pray for people in their particularities and in the integrity of their own particularity without excluding, and without including or excluding being the primary thing but on whose behalf am I called here to pray …am I able to pray for whoever might be there, and if not then perhaps I shouldn’t accept this invitation.

Representing prayer in public

In my Gospel and Global Media Cultures class we have been exploring some of the ways in which prayer is represented in digital media, and the implications such representation has for pastoral leadership. My task was to view and report on Joe Nelms’ highly publicized public prayer:

Joe Nelms
Joe Nelms’ NASCAR prayer has been acclaimed as well as criticized. Its authenticity and purpose has been questioned, but I think Nelms accomplished exactly what he set out to do.

My bone of contention is that he thanks God first for things (top auto brand names), then his children, whom he refers to as the two “E’s” and for his wife, whom he refers to as “smokin’ hot.” In public prayer, where thousands are gathered, how focused on ‘me’ and ‘mine’ should I be? At a mass gathering I would tend to be more ‘other’ focused.

But, perhaps Pastor Nelms was being other focused and had carefully considered the needs of the hearers gathered that day. Hearing him justify his prayer in the days after, it appears that in forethought he had hoped that God would grasp the attention of the “nones” who most likely dominated the audience that day.  The Nelms’  prayer will forever be available for discussion…the proof is in that we are doing it two years later. Maybe the “cool” seed of prayer which was sown that day has already taken root? Perhaps even some have been led to church?

“Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41, NIV).

Jesus’ Healing Balm…

 

How does one go about empowering communities of care within digital media? How do we engage pastoral boundaries appropiately, and think missionally about our presence in such sites?

This week, after synthesizing Deanna Thompson’s article “Virtually There” (and becoming acquainted with the CaringBridge website) with Professor Gary Simpson’s Overhearing Resonances here are my thoughts:

Professor Simpson speaks of how “Jesus’ love springs forth as liberation from oppression,” in a non-violent manner through the vehicle of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches on behalf of the people who sought liberation from oppression in the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The speeches were delivered in “social” places allowing many people to receive the message. There were about 250,000 people present at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, when he gave the speech. The speech was also shown live on all three major networks; CBS covered the whole event live all day, and NBC and CBS interrupted regular programming to broadcast the speech.

In very much the same way I belive that Jesus’ healing balm shows up also for those seeking liberation from the oppression of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. KIng’s audiences gathered to hear his healing words of liberation and of hope in much the same way as the more than 45 million users of the CaringBridge website, which is  a personalized social network for chronicling one’s personal health event. CaringBridge is a nonprofit offering many ways for people to care for each other during any type of health event. Its mission is to amplify the love, hope and compassion in the world, making each health journey easier. 

Looks as if King’s audiences gathered to hear “Jesus love come home to roost as healing balm” much in the same way as CaringBridge’s more than 45 million followers do. Don’t we all seek that “healing balm of Gilead to cure our sin-sick and oppressed  souls in much the same way chemotherapy and radiation treatment is sought to abolish cancer cells?? Or perhaps we opt to get another message out in a non-violent manner such as marching peacefully  in an attempt to right major social wrongs?

In Overhearing Resonances Dr. Simpson has done a good job of laying out suffering that is addressed in surprising social places. It was a surprise  on August 28, 1963, when an estimated quarter of a million people—about a quarter of whom were white—marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, in what turned out to be both a protest and a communal celebration. The heavy police presence turned out to be unnecessary, as the march was noted for its civility and peacefulness. The march was extensively covered by the media, with live international television coverage.

Jesus has a knack for leading us into new, surprising social places via the World Wide Web. It is uncharted territory but nevertheless we are equipped with the necessary tools to continue his ministry. Perhaps all that is needed is solidarity and perhaps a computer or digital mobile device. 

Sources: Gary Simpson, Overhearing Resonances, Deanna Thompson, Virtually There, CaringBridge.org, Read more: Civil Rights March on Washington (History, Facts, Martin Luther King Jr.) | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/marchonwashington.html#ixzz2OKO4KD20

What is Testimony?

What is Testimony?

My gut response to the question, “What is Gospel?” Is “truth,” the truth being the Good News of the Gospel. I agree with Thomas Hoyt Jr. the author of Practicing Our Faith (Chapter 7, Testimony, p. 9), that: “Testimony occurs in particular settings–a courtroom or church–where a community expects to hear the truth spoken,” and where “Witnesses–those making the testimony–must speak the truth as they have seen, heard, and experienced it. The practice of testimony requires that there be witnesses to receive and evaluate their testimony. It is a deeply shared practice–one that is possible only in a community that recognizes that falsehood is strong, but that yearns nonetheless to know what is true and good.”

To witness to Christ, to testify truthfully can occur in the midst of digital cultures, as well as in a physical setting. One of the comments posted on Jeff Bethge’s video “Why I hate religion and love Jesus” suggested that perhaps there are “too many listeners and not enough talkers.”

 

Howard Reingold’s Net Smart is a great help in educating us to critically examine our media use habits. He defines media literacy as a “skill,” and challenges us to redefine literacy as more than just a skill. He stresses that “solitary skills are not enough today.” And that, “Literacy now means skill plus social competency in using that skill collaboratively…What matters the most with present-day new literacies are not just the encoding or decoding skills an individual needs to know to join the community of literates but also the ability to use those skills socially, in concert with others, in an effective way.” (Reingold, 4)