I Have Moved!

I've moved from this e-location to reimaginebeing.blogspot.com.

Come check it out. This page will stay up for a while, but not too long!

Adam

Finally, Finally, Finally!

WOOOHOOO! Amanda and I have finally gotten married! Two Saturdays ago, on April 5, Amanda and I exchanged our vows in front of our families and friends and in the presence of God. It was amazing. Amanda was beautiful! The wedding was fantastic. The reception was a lot of fun (although it was kind of a blur). And the honeymoon in Puerto Rico was great. I thought that I'd share some of the photos that we've got. So here you go

New Blog Coming!

Change is inevitable. I'm relocating in 28 days (that's April 20th)! I'll keep posting here until then...and you'll be redirected to my new e-home...

ooooOOOOoooo....I'm giddy with excitement!

5 Years and Counting: Doesn't Look Much Like a "Victory" to Me

"How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted." (Habakkuk 1:1-4)

Looking at the Whole Sha-bang: A Rude Look at Systems Theory and Ecclesial Life

Okay, so we're talking about systems theory in class today. Now I'm not claiming in ANY way to be an expert on systems theories or how they work. But, in light of our current conversation in class, I have a question. But first, here's what we've covered so far...

Systems Theory:

• Takes the contemporary paradigm of the organic interrelationship, and applies it to families – provoked out of bio-sciences (not social sciences)


• Sees the family as a living organism – the family is an entity in and of itself – if one thing changes, one thing changes.
  
• You cannot understand the whole unit without looking at the entire unit


• In family-systems theory it’s the relationships that matter


• Characteristics


• 1. All elements of the universe are interconnected – nothing is separately autonomous
  2. Reality is not only interrelated, but it is organized and patternized (very similar to Process Theology) – how does this fit in relationship to Chaos Theories?
  3. Systems are dynamic – they are constantly changing
  4. Two forces:
  a.Movement towards balance, staying the same, self-maintenance...HOMEOSTASIS
  b.Movement towards growth, change, creativity
  1.Emphases:
  a.How the family is being creative while, at the same time, they are staying in it together – flexible enough to change and promote growth while maintaining constancy
  b.Moves out of the organic relationship...circular reasoning (as opposed to linear reasoning)
  c.We don’t look for cause – we look for the pattern (of relationship)
  d.Cause is a very linear thing


• The question is: Do I nag because you’re late, or are you late because I nag? IT DOESN’T MATTER – what matters is there is a pattern of “late” and “nag.” We don’t blame and we don’t label (i.e., functional vs. dysfunctional) – to label a family as “dysfunctional” it ceases to be an action of family systems .We must understand our (pastoral) role within the entire system itself

So my question is, "How does all of this stuff play out in our churches (both in the local congregation and in the larger connexion)?"

I ask this because of a post over at Brad's corner of the e-world (go ahead, go and click on over...I'll wait...) that speaks to the week's news events of legalizing marijuana, figuring out which ways "the Jews" will vote, and the reality of gross amounts of slavery in the United States today.

We (United Methodist ministers...and I would guess other Christians, too) function in a larger system which, in turn, functions in a larger system than that. I wonder how much, if any, power/control do we have within the larger system within a larger system to change the dynamics of the way that we function. How do we achieve a healthy balance between maintaining the status quo and positive growth? How do we determine what a healthy balance is?

I want to say that the key is to step back and function within the largest system and change the flow from there. But I struggle with saying that because of how I've seen the larger/est system fail. So what's our role as Christians and as ministers in a broken system? What patterns have we been living into?

Being independent from our faith systems is not the answer. Rather, we must differentiate ourselves from the larger/est system while participating from within. This comes from the realization that the ecclesial life is both personal and corporate. By being able to function within the larger/est system as an individual and as a member of the larger body I think that we may be able to find where the balance exists - this is where we find our patterns of healthy, organized ecclesial life.

This is obviously a developing idea for me...hopefully, I'll be able to flesh it out some more.

The Time Has Arrived...Finally

About a week ago I posted about my commissioning interviews. Last night I received THE phone call that has kept me sleepless since February 22nd. And...(drumroll)...I PASSED! What this means is that I will be commissioned as a probationary elder in The United Methodist Church this summer.

For those of you don't know what happens or what it means to be commissioned, here's what the Book of Discipline says about it:

"Commissioning is the act of the church that publicly acknowledges God's call and the response, talents, gifts and training of the candidate. The church invokes the Holy Spirit as the candidate is commissioned to be a faithful servant leader among the people, to lead the church in service, to proclaim the Word of God and to equip others for ministry. Through commissioning, the church sends persons in leadership and service in the name of Jesus Christ and marks their entrance into a time of probation as they prepare for ordination," and, "Probationary members are on trial in preparation for membership in full connection in the annual conference as deacons or elders. They are on probation as to character, servant leadership, and effectiveness in ministry." (para. 325 & 327)

So needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway), I am so relieved that this moment has come (or will come this June). Now to wait for the phonecall about my first appointment...

WOOHOO!

Mike Huckabee: The Successor to the Falwell-Dobson Throne?

+ = ?

As I was driving around today I was listening to NPR's, "Talk of the Nation." And in the first part of the show, the folks were discussing politics (obviously) - specifically addressing the question, "Why the heck is Mike Huckabee still running for President?" Their answer: He's not so much worried about the presidency anymore, especially since John McCain has pretty much run away with the thing; rather, Huckabee is focusing his sights on becoming the new leader of the religious right.

Based on my post-evangelical/post-having-to-put-a-label-on-everything-that-we-do-so-that-people-can-pick-sides/Christian heart (and most of the time, mind), I wonder...

1. Is Huckabee really as religiously conservative as Jerry Falwell and James Dobson? Or has he been putting on a political "mask" (up to this point) to gain presidential votes? I mean, I know the guy's a (former) Southern Baptist pastor, but he seems different to me - more relaxed than his contemporaries.


2. How is Huckabee different from his conservative, evangelical predecessors?
   
3. What does "the new face" of the evangelical/religious right look like? Is it as theologically rigid and hard as it has been known to be? Or is it shifting to address more social-justice, Jesus-oriented attitudes? And if this shift is happening, is there really a "right" or "left" anymore - or do we still have to boil everything down to issues of immigrants, black vs. white vs. brown, abortion, and homo vs. hetero (because those are the only issues that plague our country and the world - please note the extreme sarcasm in this parenthetical sidebar)?


4. How is this going to change how we understand what it means to be church and being the here-and-now incarnation of God's love made real through Christ?

To be quite honest, all of this picking theological sides stuff so that we can be "the real church" (as some parishioners and colleagues have articulated in conversations past) is getting old and tired. While, as Christians, we do follow in the footsteps of different theological traditions, it shouldn't mean that those differences in traditions should splinter us into they-said/we-said Jesus camps. In my perfect world (world peace, lower gas prices and rock & roll churches aside - that last one was for you, Brad) I envision a church that pulls on its rich traditional diversity while realizing that the center core of our existence is Christ - welcoming all the varying denominational faith interpretations of Jesus. (Does this mean that we need to have another church council?)

I'm not saying that one Christian tradition is better or worse than another, or that one political party is better or worse than another, or that conflicts won't arise. I'm saying that there are more (and bigger) problems in our country and in our world than worrying about whose team we play for or even how we define whose team is the winning team - in fact, it's not about winning at all - it's about love. I believe that part of our splintered religious and theological mind's remedy can be found in the practices of Christian unity through holistic and communal-faith living.

To pull from Scot McKnight's metaphor on atonement theories: we must understand that one cannot play golf with just one club; rather, in order to play the best golf that one can play, one must use all of the clubs (denominations/Christian traditions) in a well-constructed, durable bag (Christianity) all through the course (the world).