While viewing one of my friend's winter pictures I stumbled upon a picture she took of the "Belief Meter" outside of Macy's in New York City.

The lowest point on the "Belief Meter" is Imagination, followed by Wish, Dream, then the highest level: Belief.  The relegation of Imagination to the lowest form of hopeful thinking is disappointing and flat out wrong.  I think that, rather than allowing the marketing whims of Macy's to dictate us into the blind belief of buying junky trinkets and beard trimmers from their kiosks, that Imagination is beyond ordinary belief.

Ordinary belief is establishing an unproven fact in our minds.  We believe it will snow today, but until the first flake falls it is just a belief.  Imagination goes beyond belief by painting the large canvas of belief with vivid imagery, metaphor, simile, juxtaposition, memory---imagination turns belief into art. When we imagine it will snow today, we are believing it will snow, but we are also seeing how the flakes will first fall as little confetti on the tops of cars and mailboxes, then turn into a sea of white flakes, like a school of fish, dancing to the whim of the wind. ... more

Four Thoughts About the Possibilities of Liturgy and Locality

Introduction

The Foundation of Your Tradition

In the last Liturgy In the Local Community post I discussed why an ancient-future perspective on theology and an ecumenical outlook are important for the local church to consider.  The local church should not only bring an ecumenical ancient-future outlook to their worship but also reflection on the positives, negatives, and realities of their tradition.

It would be misleading to think that an ancient-future church can happen in a vacuum, and even more naïve to ever think a non-denominational church is tradition-less or foundation-less.  All churches have traditions and foundations---some wear it as a badge of honor, others live with it, and still others pretend they don’t.  But all churches come out of a tradition, even if it is a tradition of having no traditions (i.e., the free church tradition share many common distinctives and traits that form a core of what they identify with as “free churches”).  

We should not be scared of the far reaching totality and diversity of church history.  In the same way, we should not be scared of our own denominational and sectarian traditions.  We need to respect the traditions we come out of and how they have shaped the theology and practice of the local church.  These traditions took shape for a reason, and recovering the identity of your own tradition will enable the local faith community to find their identity in the great river of Tradition. ... more

On Friday night my wife was away so I taught myself how to make a podcast.  Easy enough.

Topics covered in this podcast are:

-Christendom and Christianity in America
-Early thoughts on the book The Lord's Supper: Five Views
-The Prayer of St. Francis

Thanks for listening. ... more

The subtitle to John Franke's "acceptance speech" is "The unity of the Church and Missional Theology."  He's had become an official professor of missional theology, so we should expect no less.

The Mission of God is what matters.  The Gospel threatens the rich and powerful because it challenges wealth and power.  The unity of the disciples should be like the unity of the Father and the Son.  This unity is missional.

We are sent out as disciples in the pattern of God's sending of his Son: by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The phrase "body of Christ" is inherently missional---we are Christ's presence.  Our unity is not knowledge and agreement, but found in a plurality and diversity of love.  Scripture gives wisdom to all who ask for it.  We must learn to live with the Christian "other," and the world's "other," this being fitting because of the Trinity's distinction: living and loving the Other.  The Trinity is united in their interdependence.  The unity called for is not about assimiliation or homogonization, it is about a diverse body working together in mission. 

This participation is found in three groups: Evangelicals, Mainline, and Emergent.  All three, through missional theology, are committed to one mission, this is the bringing together of the church.  We need to walk together in the mission of God and defend one another against each other, because at the end of the day we are part of one mission, and we need each other.  We couldn't do mission without one another.  Those who aren't against us are for us. ... more

Darrell Guder, a professor in missional and ecumenical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, delivered this well thought out vision for missional theology.

Missional theology is not an academic exercise or word play.  It is a project.
Missional: mission as definition of church.
This is a time of profound change, a paradigm shift, where Christendom is eroding.  Missional theology is a project for working in a post-Christendom world. 
Westen theology is rooted in a tradition that neglects mission.  There is no mention of mission in the Reformed tradition until 1903, and this is a colonizing mention.  Missional ecclesiology is needed to do theology with the understanding that the church is mission.  It is from the Trinitarian God's mission that our mission is defined.  The church is the instrument for God's mission.  This is the fundamental calling of the church.  Missional theology is required to keep the church attentive to its calling.
Today we stand closer to the pre-Constantine church since the 4th century.  We can re-engage with the pre-Constantine Christian movement.  We are exiled from our kingdom (Christendom).  This is helping us find out what was going on in the pre-Constantine church and peel off the layers of lenses added to the church during Christendom.
The apostles did not go out to save souls, they went out to start saving communities.The New Testament is the voice of the Spirit to saving communities.  We may find ourselves energized by the "cosmic" implications of the gospel.  It is God's desire that all should be healed.  It is time to reclaim our vocation under God's Lordship.   We do not take Christ with us, we go to where he already is. ... more

Hat Tip to Dave Opderbeck at Through A Glass Darkly for finding this quote from one of Pope Benedict's latest speeches:

We may put it even more simply:  Scripture requires exegesis, and it requires the context of the community in which it came to birth and in which it is lived.  This is where its unity is to be found, and here too its unifying meaning is opened up.  To put it yet another way: there are dimensions of meaning in the word and in words which only come to light within the living community of this history-generating word.  Through the growing realization of the different layers of meaning, the word is not devalued, but in fact appears in its full grandeur and dignity.  Therefore the Catechism of the Catholic Church can rightly say that Christianity does not simply represent a religion of the book in the classical sense (cf. par. 108).  It perceives in the words the Word, the Logos itself, which spreads its mystery through this multiplicity and the reality of a human history.  This particular structure of the Bible issues a constantly new challenge to every generation.  It excludes by its nature everything that today is known as fundamentalism.  In effect, the word of God can never simply be equated with the letter of the text.  To attain to it involves a transcending and a process of understanding, led by the inner movement of the whole and hence it also has to become a process of living.  Only within the dynamic unity of the whole are the many books one book.  The Word of God and his action in the world are revealed only in the word and history of human beings. ... more

I am attending the John Franke installation at Biblical Seminary today with Tim Ghali from Black Coffee Reflections and David Opderbeck from Through A Glass Darkly.  I am not lugging my computer down there, yet I will be live blogging it.  Just the old fashioned way, with copious notes on what Scot McKnight, Brian McLaren, Tim Keel, Darrell Guder, and John Franke have to say.  Have a great weekened! ... more

Peter Rollins shares a sneak peak at a parable from his forthcoming book The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales.  The parable is called "No Conviction" and starts like this:

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.

To read the rest of the parable, click here. ... more