I wouldn’t call it pride or arrogance, but I certainly have a strong belief that I am doing good. Our church has a partnership with the local neighborhood community public school. It serves a largely inner-city population: high poverty, high needs and a predominantly minority population. It’s a Title 1 school, which means that over 90 percent of the children live at or below the poverty level. So, I am trying to do my part. I’m trying to make a difference and do some good in the world. It’s not rocket science, but it does require time, energy, patience and a willingness to read with third graders. And in spite of my own personal limitations in those categories, I pretty much have the hang of it. I am the good guy, on the side of the righteous, coming in to help. And that is pretty much how our relationship has functioned this year. I was helping, they were receiving, and that was the way it flowed. I could see some gains and improvement. We get along well. Everything you could ask … [Read more...]
My long obedience: Remembering Eugene Peterson
Eugene Peterson was not a personal friend, but he was my companion. And he continues to be. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to know him personally. In the wake of his death, I have enjoyed reading many personal tributes from friends and family and those close to him. I can’t express such personal intimations here, yet I cannot conceive of the work of ministry or my own ministry apart from Eugene Peterson. Like Zuzu’s teacher in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” every time a bell rings, I feel like Eugene Peterson has saved another person’s ministry from being reduced to managerial technique, consumerist whims or the quixotic quest for cultural relevance. Several weeks ago, I read a lamentation from a sister church (The Church of England), voiced through the Dean of Southwark, that his church was prioritizing leadership skills over theology. In many circles today such news is not met with alarm, but thanksgiving. “Let’s usher in a new age of leadership, governance, and deft managerial … [Read more...]
The Church: Presbyterian Perspectives
Donald K. McKim Cascade Books, 108 pages For better or worse, part of the experience of Christianity in America has “assumed” church. In the age of Christendom, one could assume the reality of the church with relative ease. If the larger society and culture is assumed to be Christian, then the particular ethos, identity and activity of the Christian community are not all that noteworthy or special or unique. “Assuming” church has led us into some strange forms of self-understanding: thinking one can be a Christian without the church and thinking that the Christian project has more to do with Christianizing our society or our country than it does with the mission of the church. As Christianity becomes more of an optional way of life in an increasingly secular and post-Christian society, the identity, purpose and significance of what we mean by “church” becomes increasingly necessary and important. In his book, “The Church: Presbyterian Perspectives,” Donald McKim offers a … [Read more...]
A March (Madness) love letter
Following a sports team is an avocation filled with irrational exuberance and irrational gloom. It offers us no logical explanation about why we care so much, and leads us to bouts of euphoria and bonhomie after special victories. But, it also leads to bouts of doom, gloom and self-hatred for caring so much after bitter defeats. As one who learned to love playing sports as a child and had the opportunity to play through college, being on a team taught me discipline, hard work, friendship and how to live in community with people from various racial backgrounds, socioeconomic zip codes and parts of the country. Strangely, one thing I did not learn from playing was how stressful and challenging it is to be a fan and spectator. I say all this to preface the fact that I am an avid Davidson College basketball fan. It was 10 years ago on a Good Friday that Stephen Curry led the Wildcats on a run for the ages. I went directly into a Good Friday Tenebrae service after having watched this … [Read more...]
Theological osmosis
“You are not going to pass that test by osmosis!” I have rarely used the term “osmosis” in its proper scientific form, but have usually equated it with the all-nighter “hail Mary” that if I slept on top of my book or with my book under my pillow, the movement of solvent molecules from the information inside might migrate into my semi-permeable brain. But recently I have come to believe that osmosis works not just scientifically, as the permeable cells in our bodies rehydrate or as a less concentrated substance moves to a more concentrated substance, but that osmosis also works theologically. We tend to view reading theology as an unnecessary practice after leaving the seminary classroom, or as an eccentric field reserved for a few academic specialists. Ministry is practical and pragmatic and sitting around reading Calvin or Augustine or Kathryn Tanner clothes us in doctrinal straightjackets and causes us to get hung up on minutiae like infra- and supralapsarianism or the … [Read more...]
The Reformation @ 500: Crossing Jordan
Directly across Jordan Street (the address for the church I serve) sits the Roman Catholic Cathedral. In the Presbyterian churches I have served, Reformation Sunday at the end of October has primarily been a parochial affair: some years with bagpipes and others with organs belting out Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress.” We might use a portion of the Scots Confession if we are feeling adventurous or affirm our faith using the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism: What is your only comfort in life and in death? Our usual practice has been to acknowledge the particularity of the day and celebrate the particularity of our tradition; we might preach on Romans 5:1-11 or Ephesians 1:3-14, and then move on to stewardship season, Thanksgiving and Advent. So, what about this year? It is the 500th anniversary of the date when Luther, a monk in the university town of Wittenberg, Germany, sought to have public debate about his 95 theses and tacked them to the church door, … [Read more...]
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