The Slow Church & Spirit Time

RealLivePreacher has written a wonderful post about Slow Church. He opens with the Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery in France who allowed themselves to be filmed for the documentary: Into Great Silence. Of course, it only took them 16 years to get an answer back to the director.

I can remember in seminary that I was frustrated, frustrated beyond belief. The world was changing and the church was dragging its feet to catch up. Everyone knows that the culture, technology, ideology of the church is at least ten years behind if not a few centuries. Change couldn't come soon enough. Shortfalls are the easiest to spot in almost every scenario and belief, thus I wanted to change all things that I didn't like about the church. Certainly some of things were more noble than others. Certainly the church does need to change. But at the same time, I can't help but wonder if there is something right about slow change.

It could be that my frustration grew out of my own postmodern expediencies for instant change and the unsatiable desire for the new. Of course who wouldn't living in a culture full of instant meals, coffee, community (internet), and artificial desires created by marketing geniuses to trick us into simpy wanting the new car, house, phone, book series, shoes, etc)

I wonder if the many friends I have who are in that same place of frustration with the church are there because of the culture we live in. Certainly I believe they, as I did and still do, had good if not the best intentions for the church, the gospel, and engaging the world, but often our best intentions go awry due to the impervious nature of being honest and truthful with ourselves.

We live in a culture of instant change and insatiable desire for the new. It could be best that the church operates on a different timeline. Communities of faith, theology lived and believed, and transformation are all best served over time.

Here are some quotes from RLP that were beautiful in proving the rightness of the Slow Church:

People tell me that the average stay for a pastor in an American church is 18 months. That astounds me. We might have a stack of rocks on our back porch for 18 months while we talk about what we should do with them. Most of our best stories span 5 or 6 years at least. It takes about a decade just to figure out what’s going on at our church.

If you are thinking we don’t get anything done, nothing could be further from the truth. We do things. We just do them slowly. With time as no burden or constraint, we find we can do a lot with our bare hands. Children built our rock-lined path through the woods. Children working with their hands the last Sunday morning of each month. It took 2 years, but why should that matter? I watched a lot of the construction process. The man who guided them was in no hurry and didn’t mind if they lengthened the path only a few feet a month. The children were laughing. They had fun. And they built something our community loves.

Things are settled into the ground and beautiful. These things exist because we’ve chosen to live our lives slowly and deliberately in this community. We’re living on Spirit time, not clock time.

Don't hear me as swinging the pendulum as if the church doesn't need to change some things, certainly it must to survive and to communicate in the 21st Century. What needs to change along with the church though is our expectations for change. The new life so many of my frustrated friends, including myself, occurs within the slowing moving structures of the established and institutionalized, but it seems to me that too often we pull out of the farming business thinking it a failure long before seasons of harvest arise.

Patience is a virtue my momma always told me. Indeed, patience is essential for meaningful life in the church.

Last Day Of Seminary Work Ever!

And what a day it was. I finished putting together my mentoring folder to finish the last of my work and now I'm officially done with everything for my Masters. So to tie up all the loose ends and get ready for graduation, I headed up to Waco to turn in my folder and get ready for graduation.

Not even five minutes on the highway, I get pulled over by a bike cop. Yes, I got a ticket on Interstate 35 for going 71, apparently the highway speed limit is 55 around downtown. Too bad I was going as fast as everyone else.

Then, just south of Belton, this happened:



Well the good news is I'm done with school, I got four new tires and while waiting I got some Jalisco's burrito, and I get to take defensive driving and sharpen my driving skills ;)

Sad Day...

I'm sitting here in my last class ever in seminary. Although I don't graduate until December and still have mentoring for the Fall, this will be my last semester of class. Yes, I'm really excited about continuing on this journey and of course I'm excited that I have a job and a place to live. I have to admit though, that I will miss this place a lot, as well as the academic setting.

This time in seminary has been really good, but also really hard. I 've experienced everyday the deconstruction process, while being pushed toward healthy reconstruction. I had someone ask me today would I do seminary again and I said, "Yes, absolutely!" I'm not certain I'm in the place I wanted to be in leaving school, but maybe that's best. I don't have answers, but lots of questions and I'm okay with that. I'm just not sure how that will pan out in a concrete, church setting where everyone is looking for answers.

In my last class today, we read a story that almost providentially tells my story: the Blind Men and the Elephant. I thought this story was the perfect way to end my seminary experience and begin the next chapter in life. As I'm preparing to leave and enter the "real" world, I'm still struggling how to structure and talk about what I believe and have experienced. How do I talk about being a Christian in Austin?

Onward to Austin

We're heading this morning to meet with a Realtor from our new church home to help find us a place to live. What we will probably do, since everything is happening so fast, is just rent for the summer in a place near the church then decide what to do after that. Although everyone says that the best time to buy is now, we're not sure if that's best for us right now. So, out of the hundreds of choices in Austin, pray that we'll find a place to call home.

On another note, last night I met with my group of India travelers for our orientation meeting. We leave on May 17. I've realized that I need to take some time to reflect on the trip, expectations, conversations, attitude, relationships, sights, food, and the opening of myself to a completely new and strange place.

I'm so excited, but have to make it through the next two weeks of papers and finals as well as moving to Austin.

So I got a J-O-B!

It seems that after seminary I won't have to Barista or work for nothing, oh wait, that's called volunteering. That's right, I found a job, sure it's only a two year commitment, but we're really excited. Next weekend I will be announced at FBC Austin as the CBF Resident and upon my return from this India this June I'll start my first full time work.

My wife and I are incredibly excited about this opportunity. Some of you that know me may be wondering why I would choose another FBC/big church. First, we wanted to move to Austin and finding work in any field much less ministry is very difficult, because, c'mon who doesn't want to live in Austin?

Second, the CBF residency program is a really good opportunity to network, learn, and get paid to basically get a good mentoring experience. Not only will the residency program fulfill my requirement to graduate from Truett Seminary, but this will be my vocation. The program is unique, so that it's a little hard to explain, I mean, it's not like saying I'm a youth pastor, or associate pastor even. The CBF Residency affords me the opportunity to work in all the areas of the church even the one's I'm not interested in all that much.

Third, the church is a really cool faith community. Not only is there deep history, but as a self-described "cathedral church- a gathering place for all the people in the heart of the city," FBC is rich in diversity. My emphasis while at FBC will be in the youth (the youth minister and his wife are about to have twins), yet I'll get to preach, do children's ministry, college, administration, etc...everything. Also, I'm excited about being at a place where I'll fit in (more so) theologically and get an opportunity to explore my passion. It's only a two year commitment, which I good for my fourth reason.

Fourth, I'm still praying about and trying to figure out getting a terminal degree. If I do pursue something in academia I want it to be relevant for the church so that's another reason I'm excited about doing ministry in a healthy church focusing on many facets.

Fourth (and a half) reason, because as I'm thinking about long term future plans, which are exactly stable anyways we're also praying about the possibility of church planting. This has been one of my interests for while and I think instead of randomly choosing a city like Austin, we want to see if we fall in love with the city and this is where God wants us. I would like to be planted if I do church planting, if that's God's way anyways.

Fifth, living in Austin, being a part of FBC, and being given the freedom to pursue something that I would like within or for the church will give me the opportunity to figure out to move a church like this toward solidarity and social justice or community development.

As you can tell, we are pumped about this next move. We can't wait to move to Austin and get connected and sharing our lives. With the many possibilities ahead, as much as the future is open to us we are open to the future, the future hope of God's renewing Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Bitter Protest Against Embitterment

So one of my friends is going through some crap right now with his church and he shared it in class. In the end it could be very easy for him to get bitter about the whole situation, hell, with church in general. Then on of my professor's offered some words of advise, I'm not so sure they were encouragement, but he said that life is basically full of disappointments. This principle is especially true in ministry and churches, because there exists different expectations for "God's" people, right?

Well, this got me thinking about my experience in seminary. Sometimes I feel like the three to four years we devote to theological study and training is in preparation for ministry by way of learning to deal with being jaded, burned, and embittered. One of the things I've come to realize is that when we take something we love and place it in a microscope all the time, all of its faults, and deformations come to bear. We're allowed to vocalize all that we think is wrong with the church, ministries, hermeneutics, homiletics, etc. In this setting of constantly and almost overwhelmingly studying God, ministry, and the church it is very easy to get a sense that everything is not "alright."

Life, especially in the ministry, is full of broken relationships that can easily lead to bitterness and mistrust. I think sometimes seminary trains us deal with those feelings, because the real question is how are you going to stop from getting so bitter, frustrated, and jaded that you lose sight of what is really important. Failure is inevitable. The possibility for bitterness is inevitable, no, bitterness is inevitable.

So, the real question is what are you going to do with it?

I ask myself this everyday as I think about theology and my life. I ask myself this every Sunday I drive to our church. I ask this daily in the seminary classroom. What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do when the people you love fail you? When it feels like God is failing you? When you are failing you?

Sometimes it's best to remember that where bitterness may justify our feelings, mistrust can mark our lives, and we can become so jaded to lose touch with our faith, we should always count on love.

In the end, love wins...and sometimes grace pokes its ugly head in the most peculiar of situations.

Spring Semester Starts

The spring semester has started. I know, I know, I haven't been on this thing for months, well basically since last semester. I'm hoping to get back into writing on here more about life, ministry, faith, and theology.

Above are basically the books I'll be using for this semester minus a few. I'm really look forward to this semester and the oncoming summer in which I'll be going to India for 4 weeks. Once I return I'll be finishing my semester with my mentorship at a local ministry.

My class schedule looks to be challenging but really good. I'm taking "The Missional Church" where we're studying the missional nature of the church. Each person in class is reading one person or movement and bringing that perspective to class on the nature, structure, and theology of the church. As you can see from the above pic, I'm Jurgen Moltmann.

I'm also taking "Religion & Worldviews," "Social Justice," and "The Story of Christian Mission."

Fall '07 Semester in Swing

The fall semester is full throttle right now, so I thought I would take some time to share what I'm taking and reading.

Principles, Methods, and Strategies: I think that anyone desiring to be involved in local ministry here in the states should be in the mission concentration at Truett. It's only here that we read books that really get you to think, and our discussion usually take place outside of the box, teetering on revolution every day. I'm enjoying this class much more than I originally thought I would. Outside of some articles on missionary roles, we are reading:

John Nevius- The Planting and Developing of Missionary Churches
Jonathan Bonk- Missions and Money
Thomas Kuhn- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Roland Allen- The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church

Biblical Themes and Theology: in this class we are picking up a new hermeneutic for reading the Bible- primarily missional. I'm preparing a paper on "Reconciling Economics," a biblical look at reconciliation and economics.

Jonathan Wright- The Mission of God
David Smith- Mission After Christendom
Harry Boer- Pentecost and Missions

TnT 3 (Texts and Traditions): This class is one of the reasons I came to Truett. Although, I must admit that Truett teaches theology historically by reading the primary sources, I am disappointed that my teacher this semester is a systematic theologian. Therefore, we are reading the primary sources, but these sources are structured around the Apostles Creed.

Karl Barth- Dogmatics in Outline
Wolfhart Pannenberg- The Apostles' Creed in Light of Todays Questions
Joseph Ratzinger- Introduction to Christianity
Hans Kung- Credo
Roger Can Harn- Exploring & Proclaiming the Apostles' Creed
we are also reading some Moltmann, Schleiermacher, Achetemeier, and Zannoni

Scriptures 4- Somehow in one semester we are going to cover the New Testament from Romans to Revelation. This class is reading intensive to say the least. I am doing my research paper on Paul and his relationship to Israel in Rom. 9-11.

Raymond Brown- An Intro to the New Testament
Meeks and Fitzgerald- Norton's The Writings of St. Paul
David Horrell- An Intro to the Study of Paul
Jouette Bassler- Navigating Paul
Richard Bauckham- The Theology of the Book of Revelation


As you can tell, this semester is quite reading intensive. With that said, I do have a few other reads I am trying to get through for myself that may or may not happen.

Levitt & Dubner- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Either Thomas Friedman' The World is Flat or The Lexus and The Olive Tree
Since are not reading much of Multmann, I plan on working through one of these on my book shelf: The Crucified God, Theology of Hope, or The Trinity and the Kingdom
And lastly, maybe to pick up for our Bible Study- Walsh & Keesmatt- Colossians Remixed