Recently I drove north to Vancouver, BC, to attend the Laing Lectures, which this year hosted Walter Brueggemann, a noted Old Testament scholar. Something that stood out to me during his lecture was his response to a question asked about the difference between prosperity, as in prosperity gospels, and what he was saying about the Old Testament envisioning abundance. In response to the question, Dr Brueggemann answered that prosperity as it is used in the contemporary context is about the individual; individuals want to have things for themselves, money for themselves, to feel a sense of self-satisfaction in this world. On the other hand, abundance is a term for a community experience.
Dr Brueggemann gave the illustration of parents with the Christmas tree, that if you give just lots of stuff to kids, then they can become spoiled. But if you give a few well-thought-out things, and if you play with your kids with what they receive, thoughtful gifts can actually be quite simple. When we talk about what it means to give our kids things that involve us in their lives, where they feel a sense that “we may not have had much, but we had a family that cared, and I had parents who knew who I was,” we are talking about abundance. So abundance, then, has this communal sense, and Dr Brueggemann suggested that we actually don’t have to have that much in order to feel abundance, whereas with prosperity, it always seems that we need more.
So I think there’s a helpful distinction here as we think about what it means for us, in our contemporary environment, to be people of abundance and create communities of abundance, which doesn’t mean having lots of stuff. It means taking time; it means having conversations; it means finding ways to work together, and maybe to hear the possible small things that each of needs and to find ways to meet those needs, but to recognize it is in community that we will ultimately feel a sense of abundance.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
on Cirque d'Esprit
Last Saturday night I went with my wife and some friends to Cirque du Soleil in Redmond, Washington, for Corteo.
Cirque du Soleil is a circus event, Circus of the Sun -- a very richly layered experience of music, acrobatics, humor, word; the whole thing is a bit of a dreamlike experience, so it allowed everything to be integrated into this whole sense of dying and friends gathering around, and all of the dimensions of angels and friends and other things that are brought in as companions for the experience.
This whole world of Cirque du Soleil has laid a foundation for a title I am giving to the one Sunday a month that Washington Seminary facilitates Sunday5 at Washington Cathedral. Sunday5 is a 1-hour alternative worship service, and we call the one Sunday each month when the seminary runs it “Cirque d'Esprit” – Circus of the Spirit.
The whole nature of Circus of the Spirit is that there’s something about circus that says we’re not playing within the lines. So where you traditionally have a liturgy of song and prayer and spoken word, here we may have spoken word, but it may be in the form of Japanese poetry with flute music playing in the background, and you may experience different scents, from herbs or cinnamon or who knows what, that are integrated into the worship service.
No direct sermon. Stories and exploration of ideas are pieces in the text, but again, wherever possible, to not just have everything be focused on the speaker, but to have other things going on -- whether it’s music or sounds or sights or something -- is what I call a thick experience, a layered experience of multiple things going on that speak to your whole being in different ways than traditional liturgies do, which usually have one person at a time doing their activity. So Cirque d'Esprit is a 1-hour canvas to try and playfully do things that tie in with thoughtful, contemplative ways of being, but in playful and multi-mediumed experiences.
This Sunday is our first Cirque d'Esprit, looking at Acts 8, and I’ll be playing out a piece with crushed herbs being like the early life of the church, the witness of the martyrs, the church growing and being a heavenly scent that will be part of our experience of worship as we inhale those scents and think of those people. The evening will culminate as we take communion with herb bread, that again sees the whole sacrifice that is poured into the bread, which symbolizes the body of Christ.
So I think that the whole sense of circus being laid alongside church helps us to expand in our creativity and to recognize that the Spirit wants to do and say things in new mediums that take us not so much into great acts of physical feats like Cirque du Soleil does, but takes our hearts, minds, and spirits to places that cause us to sit back with wonder and amazement that people can go to these places, that God can take us there by His Spirit, and that we can have what the early church did – a sense of amazement and wonder at the mighty acts of God.
Cirque du Soleil is a circus event, Circus of the Sun -- a very richly layered experience of music, acrobatics, humor, word; the whole thing is a bit of a dreamlike experience, so it allowed everything to be integrated into this whole sense of dying and friends gathering around, and all of the dimensions of angels and friends and other things that are brought in as companions for the experience.
This whole world of Cirque du Soleil has laid a foundation for a title I am giving to the one Sunday a month that Washington Seminary facilitates Sunday5 at Washington Cathedral. Sunday5 is a 1-hour alternative worship service, and we call the one Sunday each month when the seminary runs it “Cirque d'Esprit” – Circus of the Spirit.
The whole nature of Circus of the Spirit is that there’s something about circus that says we’re not playing within the lines. So where you traditionally have a liturgy of song and prayer and spoken word, here we may have spoken word, but it may be in the form of Japanese poetry with flute music playing in the background, and you may experience different scents, from herbs or cinnamon or who knows what, that are integrated into the worship service.
No direct sermon. Stories and exploration of ideas are pieces in the text, but again, wherever possible, to not just have everything be focused on the speaker, but to have other things going on -- whether it’s music or sounds or sights or something -- is what I call a thick experience, a layered experience of multiple things going on that speak to your whole being in different ways than traditional liturgies do, which usually have one person at a time doing their activity. So Cirque d'Esprit is a 1-hour canvas to try and playfully do things that tie in with thoughtful, contemplative ways of being, but in playful and multi-mediumed experiences.
This Sunday is our first Cirque d'Esprit, looking at Acts 8, and I’ll be playing out a piece with crushed herbs being like the early life of the church, the witness of the martyrs, the church growing and being a heavenly scent that will be part of our experience of worship as we inhale those scents and think of those people. The evening will culminate as we take communion with herb bread, that again sees the whole sacrifice that is poured into the bread, which symbolizes the body of Christ.
So I think that the whole sense of circus being laid alongside church helps us to expand in our creativity and to recognize that the Spirit wants to do and say things in new mediums that take us not so much into great acts of physical feats like Cirque du Soleil does, but takes our hearts, minds, and spirits to places that cause us to sit back with wonder and amazement that people can go to these places, that God can take us there by His Spirit, and that we can have what the early church did – a sense of amazement and wonder at the mighty acts of God.
Monday, April 21, 2008
on visiting Disneyland
My family and I visited Disneyland over spring break a few weeks ago. Disneyland is always an interesting adventure to reflect on as a theologian. One of my favorite books, “Jesus in Disneyland,” points out how much Disneyland represents a postmodern world as defined by giving the image of being in all kinds of places -- one moment in Switzerland, another moment in the deep south, another moment in the frontiers of the wild west -- very much the postmodern world, and yet all run by the modern machinery of electrical gadgetry and sophisticated systems of entertainment.
It stood out to me, though, that Disney mentioned that every ride in Disneyland has a story. Part of the nature of what makes a ride complete is not just that it has moments of thrill but that it starts you somewhere, it works through a story, and takes you through to the end of that story. It struck me how much this is like what we do in the world of theology -- bringing the story of God to meet the story of humanity -- and how maybe we need to tell the stories of our communities, the people and events that have shaped the communities in which we live and hope to have influence.
Also, in counseling, the value of the telling of story is to help people get out what it is that’s going on, that it’s not merely diagnosing diseases, but it’s revealing stories that give us access to what’s going on. In a way, Disney captures the heart of American history and the stories of individual characters to touch the hearts and minds of kids and adults.
It also struck me that Disney began his whole project with a desire to give children and adults a place where they could enjoy life together. There is something here about putting multigenerational and enjoyment together that I think is significant for us in the life of the church to notice as well. I remember the first time I went to a Young Life club I was surprised when my Young Life leader, Ed Berg, came running up to me full of enthusiasm. As I left that night, I thought, “Wow, Christianity can be fun.” It’s not quite the same thing as Disneyland, but it did occur to me that there’s something about bringing a vision of what it really means to live life as Christians that is maybe close to Disney’s dream of the relationships between adults and children being shared.
Another aspect of dreams, too, is that whatever we think is history in looking past, just speaking about the lives of those who have gone before us, is not nearly as significant in changing the world as the dreams that we have as we think about what we might do, what we might want, and then act in ways that live out those dreams, which obviously Walt Disney himself did.
There’s also something about the dreamers in the Bible. We can also think about the visions of the kingdom of God and live within the kingdom in ways that change the world. Martin Luther King had a dream, and in many ways that dream is still continuing on.
The nature of who I want to be and who I want Washington Seminary to be is finding the best in telling stories across generations and living our dreams in ways that the gospel becomes incarnated in the places that God puts us.
It stood out to me, though, that Disney mentioned that every ride in Disneyland has a story. Part of the nature of what makes a ride complete is not just that it has moments of thrill but that it starts you somewhere, it works through a story, and takes you through to the end of that story. It struck me how much this is like what we do in the world of theology -- bringing the story of God to meet the story of humanity -- and how maybe we need to tell the stories of our communities, the people and events that have shaped the communities in which we live and hope to have influence.
Also, in counseling, the value of the telling of story is to help people get out what it is that’s going on, that it’s not merely diagnosing diseases, but it’s revealing stories that give us access to what’s going on. In a way, Disney captures the heart of American history and the stories of individual characters to touch the hearts and minds of kids and adults.
It also struck me that Disney began his whole project with a desire to give children and adults a place where they could enjoy life together. There is something here about putting multigenerational and enjoyment together that I think is significant for us in the life of the church to notice as well. I remember the first time I went to a Young Life club I was surprised when my Young Life leader, Ed Berg, came running up to me full of enthusiasm. As I left that night, I thought, “Wow, Christianity can be fun.” It’s not quite the same thing as Disneyland, but it did occur to me that there’s something about bringing a vision of what it really means to live life as Christians that is maybe close to Disney’s dream of the relationships between adults and children being shared.
Another aspect of dreams, too, is that whatever we think is history in looking past, just speaking about the lives of those who have gone before us, is not nearly as significant in changing the world as the dreams that we have as we think about what we might do, what we might want, and then act in ways that live out those dreams, which obviously Walt Disney himself did.
There’s also something about the dreamers in the Bible. We can also think about the visions of the kingdom of God and live within the kingdom in ways that change the world. Martin Luther King had a dream, and in many ways that dream is still continuing on.
The nature of who I want to be and who I want Washington Seminary to be is finding the best in telling stories across generations and living our dreams in ways that the gospel becomes incarnated in the places that God puts us.
Monday, April 7, 2008
on being a walking seminary
Tim Dearborn, who is the founder of the Seattle Association for Theological Studies (its name was changed to the Pacific Association for Theological Studies and KOINOS is the name currently used to describe its ministry), one day described me as a walking seminary. What he meant by this is that I have a huge interest in all of the dimensions of what happens in a seminary, from biblical studies to theological studies to pastoral counseling to church history, and I attempt to integrate them at all times.
I love surveys; I love getting the big picture and then being able to drill down deep later. Some people would call that being a generalist.
My father-in-law began the Family Medicine program for the University of Washington in Spokane. In Spokane they needed generalists who would go out to communities and understand all that was going on, and if necessary to send them to Seattle where specialists are trained. Specialists often aren’t as aware of all that is out there, but they’re the best within the area of their focus.
So, I lean towards being a generalist. I lean towards being somebody who wants to see all the different parts of theological training integrated into all the parts of a person’s life, so to be a counselor who is a theologian is just one of the ways that I bring together that whole sense. And when I train people at Washington Seminary, my concern is that they would end up as those who have a general education that integrates all of these pieces together, but preparing every step of the way to minister in a specialty that brings together the generalities to bear on specific questions. So I don’t think it’s an “either – or” type thing. I think we need generalists who are able to specialize and that we will be best served because those people will be able to go anywhere and to draw on all the fields of thought that need to be drawn on to be equipped to minister. And communities of faith, the families of faith if you will, that are part of the world shaped by God that we currently live in needs leaders who are theologically informed and practically able to strategically make a difference.
I love surveys; I love getting the big picture and then being able to drill down deep later. Some people would call that being a generalist.
My father-in-law began the Family Medicine program for the University of Washington in Spokane. In Spokane they needed generalists who would go out to communities and understand all that was going on, and if necessary to send them to Seattle where specialists are trained. Specialists often aren’t as aware of all that is out there, but they’re the best within the area of their focus.
So, I lean towards being a generalist. I lean towards being somebody who wants to see all the different parts of theological training integrated into all the parts of a person’s life, so to be a counselor who is a theologian is just one of the ways that I bring together that whole sense. And when I train people at Washington Seminary, my concern is that they would end up as those who have a general education that integrates all of these pieces together, but preparing every step of the way to minister in a specialty that brings together the generalities to bear on specific questions. So I don’t think it’s an “either – or” type thing. I think we need generalists who are able to specialize and that we will be best served because those people will be able to go anywhere and to draw on all the fields of thought that need to be drawn on to be equipped to minister. And communities of faith, the families of faith if you will, that are part of the world shaped by God that we currently live in needs leaders who are theologically informed and practically able to strategically make a difference.
Monday, March 31, 2008
on being a bridge person
I consider myself a bridge person. You may ask, “From what to what?”
One of my primary concerns over the years has been to be a bridge between the church and the academy. I spent almost 20 years in higher education; at the same time I was also working in churches -- on staff at four churches during those years, plus volunteer work, as well as working with Young Life. My concern is that the church needs to get its questions to the academy, and the church needs to help the academy to understand that its ultimate value is in finding answers to how the gospel is lived, incarnated, and comes alongside to help the world that God wants to reach.
Being in the church has helped raise those issues for me. I’ve worked in adult ed, youth ministry, and children’s education, and each one has its own value. I think the academy is hugely valuable in finding answers and digging deeply into things, and that the church desperately needs those resources. I’m reminded that in the world of dentistry, for example, there are people who work on people’s teeth every day, and there are also people in the academy who are constantly researching better materials and procedures and techniques, and that the academy doesn’t operate outside of asking how this is ultimately going to shape the world of dental practice. And I would like to see more of that between the church and the academy. So I attempt to bridge the gulf between those. Washington Seminary, where I am the chancellor, is embedded in a church and is also embedding itself in the world of academic discussion. So we are attempting to have a seminary that embodies both of those worlds as well and serves as a bridge.
I also see myself as a bridge between the conservative side of Christianity and the liberal. I think everyone has a general concern to ask, “What does love look like? And what does it mean to be the body of Christ?” There are varying degrees as to how we achieve that. During several school terms I have taught both at Northwest University, which is an Assemblies of God school and to the conservative side, and at Seattle University, which is more to the liberal side. I teach pretty much the same kinds of things -- largely about the Trinity and the life of relationship, and what it means to know others personally and not merely as objects. And I find that people are very open to the idea of relational thinking as a core to where it is that we’re all going, whether from the right or from the left. Both the liberal and the conservative have seemed to be void of trinitarian thinking, so there is a need for someone to come in and see the possibilities of going back to the affirmations of the early church and how those thoughts shape the way that we do ministry in the modern world, and the way we talk about who God is -- that God is a relational community of Father, Son, Spirit that continues in the world in a relational manner that we are invited to share. So again, to be a bridge in theological thinking by providing trinitarian thinking is another dimension of who I am as a bridge person, the way I want to be involved in bridge activities and to see the divergent components within our current contemporary institutions somehow be brought together by persons who embody being bridges.
One of my primary concerns over the years has been to be a bridge between the church and the academy. I spent almost 20 years in higher education; at the same time I was also working in churches -- on staff at four churches during those years, plus volunteer work, as well as working with Young Life. My concern is that the church needs to get its questions to the academy, and the church needs to help the academy to understand that its ultimate value is in finding answers to how the gospel is lived, incarnated, and comes alongside to help the world that God wants to reach.
Being in the church has helped raise those issues for me. I’ve worked in adult ed, youth ministry, and children’s education, and each one has its own value. I think the academy is hugely valuable in finding answers and digging deeply into things, and that the church desperately needs those resources. I’m reminded that in the world of dentistry, for example, there are people who work on people’s teeth every day, and there are also people in the academy who are constantly researching better materials and procedures and techniques, and that the academy doesn’t operate outside of asking how this is ultimately going to shape the world of dental practice. And I would like to see more of that between the church and the academy. So I attempt to bridge the gulf between those. Washington Seminary, where I am the chancellor, is embedded in a church and is also embedding itself in the world of academic discussion. So we are attempting to have a seminary that embodies both of those worlds as well and serves as a bridge.
I also see myself as a bridge between the conservative side of Christianity and the liberal. I think everyone has a general concern to ask, “What does love look like? And what does it mean to be the body of Christ?” There are varying degrees as to how we achieve that. During several school terms I have taught both at Northwest University, which is an Assemblies of God school and to the conservative side, and at Seattle University, which is more to the liberal side. I teach pretty much the same kinds of things -- largely about the Trinity and the life of relationship, and what it means to know others personally and not merely as objects. And I find that people are very open to the idea of relational thinking as a core to where it is that we’re all going, whether from the right or from the left. Both the liberal and the conservative have seemed to be void of trinitarian thinking, so there is a need for someone to come in and see the possibilities of going back to the affirmations of the early church and how those thoughts shape the way that we do ministry in the modern world, and the way we talk about who God is -- that God is a relational community of Father, Son, Spirit that continues in the world in a relational manner that we are invited to share. So again, to be a bridge in theological thinking by providing trinitarian thinking is another dimension of who I am as a bridge person, the way I want to be involved in bridge activities and to see the divergent components within our current contemporary institutions somehow be brought together by persons who embody being bridges.
Monday, March 24, 2008
reflections on the new conspirators conference
The New Conspirators Conference, hosted earlier this month by Tom and Christine Sine of Mustard Seed Associates, was a great success in asking questions about whether or not the future has a church and if so, what some of its distinctive missions might be. Reflecting on who I am and what Washington Seminary is about, I think the word missional is a significant word with which we connect. We are not merely attractional, hoping that people come to us, but are preparing students to go out into the world. I still have a sense that there is value in offering options like Under the Green Roof that attract people to come, but the whole idea of raising up students to go out and serve the community is a significant opportunity that I think expresses what we are about. I believe that God is missional, and so my theology is missional -- that God always goes where people are -- and so should the seminary, which is partly why we’re connected with the church.
Secondly, the idea of mosaic, the idea that we have multi cultures within our church, is certainly true at Washington Cathedral, which has an Esperanza service. Washington Seminary is hoping in the future to offer Spanish-speaking students the opportunity to complete a Spanish only degree. More and more Spanish language resources are becoming available, including books, but also other resources (Logos Bible software is now available in a Spanish edition), so we are hoping to be a place that increasingly embraces other cultures and other language streams, and so that is part of the future, and is very much a part of the mosaic of who we want Washington Seminary to be.
The monastic component, intentionally practicing prayer and spirituality while living in a busy world, is also something we are about in that at some level, the learning mode, where people spend time listening and reading, and then come for a conversation as the mentored part of what it is we do I think lives somewhat within the monastic tradition, and one could say that the mentors, in a sense, are the abbots, those who are the overseers, the spiritual companions along the way, so I have a great interest in the monastic tradition as something that nurtures the life of Washington Seminary.
And emerging, which is of course a broad term, has something to do with the church not holding to traditional modes, but asking authentic questions about how we engage culture in significant ways that are postmodern. Dwight Friesen, my good friend, spoke to what it was that we are doing at Washington Seminary as innovative, which is one of the words that I think is significant about who we are: we are trying to innovate and do things differently. Another word I heard at the conference about our seminary was from Mark Scandrette, who introduced Washington Seminary as alternative, which I think is also a helpful adjective, to say we’re not just trying to do it the same as we’ve always done it, but we’re trying to think how we can be more person-centered, how we can have more diversity within the programs, by allowing each person to have a sense that they are important rather than the program being of primary importance, so we want to be person-centered rather than program-centered.
And so, the conference I think as a whole for me was an enriching conversation in examining Washington Seminary in the light of those things that were the three clear goals of the conference. We want to communicate creative models of what New Conspirators are trying to address. We are certainly trying to engage in new modes of communication, and even when we look at biblical hermeneutics, it’s about learning how that affects our communication in all parts of life. We want to connect leaders from all four streams; connection is certainly something that Washington Seminary is about as a network organization which connects through personal conversations, through connecting with books and programs, all of those different ways that our students might be out and connected to others, we want to be about all of those things. And lastly, we want to create new ways to advance God’s new order in our world. Creative is one of those other adjectives that I really want to embrace, that we are attempting to be creative in new ways, new modes, new personal connections that really honor and respect the dignity of each person within God’s broader mission.
So this was a great conference to reflect on all those things and to discover that Washington Seminary is not mostly stuck in just one of these models, but that we are really caught up in some way in furthering all of them. All of these speak to us, and hopefully we will speak for them and to them and with them in the future.
Secondly, the idea of mosaic, the idea that we have multi cultures within our church, is certainly true at Washington Cathedral, which has an Esperanza service. Washington Seminary is hoping in the future to offer Spanish-speaking students the opportunity to complete a Spanish only degree. More and more Spanish language resources are becoming available, including books, but also other resources (Logos Bible software is now available in a Spanish edition), so we are hoping to be a place that increasingly embraces other cultures and other language streams, and so that is part of the future, and is very much a part of the mosaic of who we want Washington Seminary to be.
The monastic component, intentionally practicing prayer and spirituality while living in a busy world, is also something we are about in that at some level, the learning mode, where people spend time listening and reading, and then come for a conversation as the mentored part of what it is we do I think lives somewhat within the monastic tradition, and one could say that the mentors, in a sense, are the abbots, those who are the overseers, the spiritual companions along the way, so I have a great interest in the monastic tradition as something that nurtures the life of Washington Seminary.
And emerging, which is of course a broad term, has something to do with the church not holding to traditional modes, but asking authentic questions about how we engage culture in significant ways that are postmodern. Dwight Friesen, my good friend, spoke to what it was that we are doing at Washington Seminary as innovative, which is one of the words that I think is significant about who we are: we are trying to innovate and do things differently. Another word I heard at the conference about our seminary was from Mark Scandrette, who introduced Washington Seminary as alternative, which I think is also a helpful adjective, to say we’re not just trying to do it the same as we’ve always done it, but we’re trying to think how we can be more person-centered, how we can have more diversity within the programs, by allowing each person to have a sense that they are important rather than the program being of primary importance, so we want to be person-centered rather than program-centered.
And so, the conference I think as a whole for me was an enriching conversation in examining Washington Seminary in the light of those things that were the three clear goals of the conference. We want to communicate creative models of what New Conspirators are trying to address. We are certainly trying to engage in new modes of communication, and even when we look at biblical hermeneutics, it’s about learning how that affects our communication in all parts of life. We want to connect leaders from all four streams; connection is certainly something that Washington Seminary is about as a network organization which connects through personal conversations, through connecting with books and programs, all of those different ways that our students might be out and connected to others, we want to be about all of those things. And lastly, we want to create new ways to advance God’s new order in our world. Creative is one of those other adjectives that I really want to embrace, that we are attempting to be creative in new ways, new modes, new personal connections that really honor and respect the dignity of each person within God’s broader mission.
So this was a great conference to reflect on all those things and to discover that Washington Seminary is not mostly stuck in just one of these models, but that we are really caught up in some way in furthering all of them. All of these speak to us, and hopefully we will speak for them and to them and with them in the future.
Monday, March 3, 2008
about washington seminary
I am excited to be the Chancellor of a seminary in Redmond, WA, called Washington Seminary. This is a seminary that’s attempting to think and function differently from traditional forms of education because of a couple of things. One is we live in a very busy world where it’s difficult for people to fit theological education into their busy lives, and so we offer flexible education. Students listen to recorded lectures from Regent College and to short tutorials that I record, and they read several books and articles to give a broad perspective of reading around the subjects of the course.
We offer four masters degrees: Master of Theological Arts, Master of Ministry, Master of Marketplace Ministry, and Master of Christian Counseling. These really play out some of my delights in life, to think about how the arts play out theology in ways that mere books and mere words cannot. The nature of ministry – I’ve been involved on staff in four churches in my life, and so I’m very concerned with the life of the church as it goes forth to live out the missional life of God in the world.
Regarding marketplace ministry, I have worked as the manager of a bakery espresso, and I’ve worked as a custodian and, well, quite a number of jobs out there in the “real world,” meaning not the world that is just Christian, and I have a great desire to discover how to help people to think about working in those areas as ministry, not merely as the support for what one does with ministry in the church, but that our jobs are our ministry. I am a Christian counselor as well, and I think I have some different ways of thinking about Christian counseling than what most of the literature that I read in Christian counseling is working from, so that is another area of great interest to me. So these four degrees shape the masters programs.
On Wednesday evenings we also offer Under the Green Roof, where I get to play out art and scripture. We’ve gone through the book of Genesis and are now going through the book of John. Every week we discuss a different kind of art form as it plays out a different chapter or two from the Bible and then have conversations with those who come as a way of really learning to live, and shaping the culture of Washington Seminary as something that is both deeply rooted in the biblical traditions but also has wings to fly in what it means to speak artistically in a world where the artist seems to have become the truth bearer of the day. Musicians, movie makers -- all those are where people are looking for their truth statements, I think, and so believing we need to be involved in that, we are studying art, talking about art, as a way of living the missional life of God. It’s amazing. People can even talk about the art when they go back to work the next day in a way that they might have a hard time talking about scripture or principles or anything like that. And we offer weekend seminaries where we bring in people like Tom and Christine Sine for extended periods of time, and quarterly Conversations, which are idea jam sessions based on the idea of a jam session in jazz where a variety of people come together and don’t preplan, but begin by setting a theme and playing out of that theme.
We are developing other ideas as well, but that just gives you a little bit of insight that my concerns as a relational theologian are not merely academic, but that they are really concerned about bridging between the life of the academy and the church, believing that the questions of the church really need to inform the questions of the academy, and that the vast amounts of information that the academy has need to be translated and brought into the life of the church to enrich its future and to live within the purposes of God and to see the people of God equipped to articulate and act out of the very life of God.
We offer four masters degrees: Master of Theological Arts, Master of Ministry, Master of Marketplace Ministry, and Master of Christian Counseling. These really play out some of my delights in life, to think about how the arts play out theology in ways that mere books and mere words cannot. The nature of ministry – I’ve been involved on staff in four churches in my life, and so I’m very concerned with the life of the church as it goes forth to live out the missional life of God in the world.
Regarding marketplace ministry, I have worked as the manager of a bakery espresso, and I’ve worked as a custodian and, well, quite a number of jobs out there in the “real world,” meaning not the world that is just Christian, and I have a great desire to discover how to help people to think about working in those areas as ministry, not merely as the support for what one does with ministry in the church, but that our jobs are our ministry. I am a Christian counselor as well, and I think I have some different ways of thinking about Christian counseling than what most of the literature that I read in Christian counseling is working from, so that is another area of great interest to me. So these four degrees shape the masters programs.
On Wednesday evenings we also offer Under the Green Roof, where I get to play out art and scripture. We’ve gone through the book of Genesis and are now going through the book of John. Every week we discuss a different kind of art form as it plays out a different chapter or two from the Bible and then have conversations with those who come as a way of really learning to live, and shaping the culture of Washington Seminary as something that is both deeply rooted in the biblical traditions but also has wings to fly in what it means to speak artistically in a world where the artist seems to have become the truth bearer of the day. Musicians, movie makers -- all those are where people are looking for their truth statements, I think, and so believing we need to be involved in that, we are studying art, talking about art, as a way of living the missional life of God. It’s amazing. People can even talk about the art when they go back to work the next day in a way that they might have a hard time talking about scripture or principles or anything like that. And we offer weekend seminaries where we bring in people like Tom and Christine Sine for extended periods of time, and quarterly Conversations, which are idea jam sessions based on the idea of a jam session in jazz where a variety of people come together and don’t preplan, but begin by setting a theme and playing out of that theme.
We are developing other ideas as well, but that just gives you a little bit of insight that my concerns as a relational theologian are not merely academic, but that they are really concerned about bridging between the life of the academy and the church, believing that the questions of the church really need to inform the questions of the academy, and that the vast amounts of information that the academy has need to be translated and brought into the life of the church to enrich its future and to live within the purposes of God and to see the people of God equipped to articulate and act out of the very life of God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
