When Methodology Gets Confused With Theology

I think my denomination may believe in a right methodology more than they believe in a right theology. I was surprised to discover language in some our denominational documents that seemed to support this uniformity. My guess is that they wanted people to be able to find a familiar church no matter where they went.

Of course this accusation of mine would be vigorously denied. But talk is cheap, as they say, and in practice we have a hard time with this. I understand though. We all have a tendency to believe that we have the only answer.

The problem starts with a uniform evaluation. Once you determine how you are going to measure a church you have also pretty much determined the agenda. Sure, churches will use different programs, and thsoe programs may look very diverse, but the method is still the same despite all the cliches proclaiming the contrary.

I suppose that there are many who would make long lists to prove me wrong. Afterall I am making a strong statement with regard to the definition of methodology. But I am convinced that I can break down every item listed to a similar core. In other words, in the end, they will all fit within a specific set of rules, postulates, and values designed to attain whatever will be measured.

Perhaps that is a good thing for a denomination. The denomination I want to try is one that is more unified around Jesus than methods and is willing to let others be truly different in their expression of church. I believe that is the direction denominations must evolve but perhaps they don't want to evolve at all.

Forced to Pastor

I have the second floor of Lutheran Hospital nearly surrounded with parishoners staying in three of the four corners of the building. All three are serious life and death issues with a lot of family involved. I've spent a lot of time there.

A pastor usually has some degree of latitude when it comes to doing his work. He usually has time to prepare for facing tough issues, sometimes even days or weeks. Much of pastor work can be scheduled and often there is a sense of routine involved. Usually there is space to retreat and regroup before rejoining the fray.

But health issues turn this upside down. I don't have the time or space to think things through like I normally do. I have to be a pastor by the seat of my pants so to speak. It is frightening and I become very aware of my shortcomings in these situations. Thankfully I usually find the people I minister to in these situations very gracious towards me. It is very humbling.

The Finer Things In Life

My wife and I went to a hockey game last night. We were invited by some friends and had the pleasure of watching the game from one of the luxury suites. It was pretty cool with food, a tv, comfortable seats and people to wait on you. I didn't know the few other people who shared the suite but they were not snobbish and it was a very enjoyable environment, very civilized.

The same cannot be said for the game which the home team won by a score of 9-2. To those familiar with hockey you know that this is a proper beating by hockey standards and one can usually expect fights when the score gets out of hand like this. Actually these teams didn't need a reason to fight as the first one took place just 4 seconds into the game. There was apparently a lot of history involved that I was not up on and there were several fights during the course of the game.

I admit to enjoying hockey along with its fights. I suppose that this is due to a sick part of my nature that relates to a coliseum mindset. But I also like hockey because the referee is limited in his ability to impact the game and there is a lot of justice being served by the players themselves. The fights rarely hurt anyone and there is a certain code of conduct for fights that is usually observed. For the most part the players themselves hold each other accountable for what is within acceptable limits in a game. A player may be sneaky enough to avoid punsihment by the referee but he will rarely avoid punishment from the other team.

I suppose there are many who are offended by my being entertained by such violence and I have probably lost your respect. But I've noticed the same principle sometimes works with my kids. Sometimes the more my wife and I get involved the more frustrated everyone becomes. Somehow when they are left to work it out by themselves they seem to come to an acceptable resolution. Funny how that works. Maybe Kim and I need to spend more time watching them from the luxury suite and let them settle their differences on their own.

Handling Grace with Grace

Grace is something Christianity is well acquainted with. It is a foundational principle in our salvation experience after all. But I don't think we handle grace too well. Instead we tend to handle grace in two ways that are not healthy as Christians.

One way to handle grace is to underestimate its power in relation to good deeds. People who do this tend to put an emphasis on works even though they intellectually believe that they are saved by grace instead of works. Their lives are based on following the rules as if they are not quite sure if grace will really do it. A good way to identify these folks is by observing how they interact with children. They over balance rule enforcement and rarely show them examples of grace. Right living is important but we must live rightly for the right reasons.

The other way to underestimate the power of grace is to try to hide one's faults in an effort to conceal things we really need grace for. In our society image is everything. We have come to believe that it doesn't matter what we really are as long as we project the right image. Therefore, if I look like a good Christian I must be one. The fact here is that grace can, and must, overcome all of our faults. Hiding our secrets from other men does us no good. God sees through all of that.

But why is it important to accept grace properly? Accepting grace is foundational to our relationship with God. A person who accepts grace lives a life of thankfulness. It becomes the focus of their life. Someone who accepts God's grace realizes that they are nothing before him in regards to their own achievement. Instead they can truly live as sons and daughters.

Expeditionary Force

Our church makes chocolate, peanut butter filled, eggs to sell as a fund raiser around easter time. It takes a lot of work and we have a lot of people show up to help every night for a couple of weeks. There was a conversation last week as to what was the best part of making the eggs. The consensus was that the time spent together was cherished. I would have thought getting a crack at the "rejects" might have won but I am glad our church values spending time together.

I see church as an expeditionary force. (I've spent a lot of time thinking about this and I've written a lot of notes on it.) This is opposed to a spiritual journey. I really have no problem with a spiritual journey but it is often thought of in solitary terms. I enjoyed reading WIlkinson's "The Dream Giver" but it is primarily a solo journey. I liked Bunyon's "Pilgrim's Progress" but it too is very much a solo journey. I like the idea of expeditions because they are usually thought of in terms of more than one person. I think that is how it should be.

As pastor I have been graciously invited to be the leader of this expedition. Our expedition is made up of all sorts of people who each bring something to the expedition. We have experts as well as porters. Some know a lot more about expeditions than I do but they are gracious to me and a great benefit to us. Some wear all the latest gear and look professional but they are really novices. It shows when times are tough. Some don't really want to be on this expedition and I'm not sure how long they are going to last. In the past I've seen these kind go both ways. Some leave and never come back. Others eventually find their niche and become fully committed to the expedition. All of our members, including myself, work to improve our technique. Some take this more seriously than others. We pick up new expedition members along the way. Some of these come from other expiditions some are simply lost and we run across them as we travel.

In all cases we recognise the importance of being together. This is not a journey we can or should make alone. We need each other and as time goes on we begin to understand the importance of everyone doing their part.

A "Found" Poem and adapted from The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

O for the humble soul of man
Worn out by grief and toil
And still more by everlasting injustice
And everlasting sin
His own and the world's
It is the greatest need and comfort
To find someone or something
Holy!
To fall down before
And Worship!


By way of explanation, a "found" poem is when you take something that exists as prose and turn it into poetry. I first learned about it from a book of poetry written like this by Annie Dillard. I claim no skill at poetry but I like the emphasis it gives certain pieces of writing and it helps me remember them. As for Dostoevsky, I am a big fan. I try to be reading at least one of his novels at all times.

Another Sign of the Apocalypse

"Football (soccer) is not a matter of life and death... it's more important than that." - Bill Shankly

Of course many would disagree with the late coach's comment but so many around the world apparently live by this creed. While watching my favorite soccer channel over lunch today I about fell off my chair when they ran a story about a soccer team specific cemetery. This hasn't happened yet but apparently a cemetery worker in Argentina noticed all the football related articles being left at gravesites and thought it would be good just to have a cemetery dedicated to a single team. In this case the team was Boca Juniors, Argentina's most famous team (I prefer River myself), and the idea was that a mausoleum type structure would be built at Boca's home stadium where departed fans and players could have their ashes deposited.

I am a big fan of a lot of teams in this world. Some are great (Red Wings, Pistons) and some stink (Tigers, Lions). I'm a big enough of a fan that I usually can't watch my teams play a playoff game because I can't endure the agony. I even endure rude and crude message boards just to keep up with my teams.

I can't imagine being such a big fan that I would want my ashes placed in my favorite team's stadium though. In fact, I think it would be sad if anyone mentions my sports fanaticism at my funeral. Hopefully I'm a little more well rounded than that.

The Role of Bishop - Take 2

Ed, I decided to answer your comment with a post because I couldn't keep it short enough. First let me say that I think job descriptions are way overrated so I don’t want to attempt such a thing here. I also gather from your comment that you feel that there is not much for the Bishop to do in what I have described so what follows is with that in mind.

I won’t deny that from time to time an individual may come along who has the charisma to dramatically set direction for the entire denomination and pull it along by sheer force of personality. However, I think these individuals are extremely rare (as in we may have had only 1 or 2 in the entire history of our denomination) and it is foolish to rely on it. Interestingly it is quite easy to find plenty of individuals who think they possess this quality.

Instead we need to rely on the abilities of pastors and lay leaders across our denomination and this means that our Bishop will function differently. I was recently asked if I wanted a strong or weak Bishop. I want a strong spiritual leader in our Bishop. By that I mean I expect him to spend considerable time in prayer, meditation and study of the Word. I also expect him to spend considerable time studying the landscape. That means he would have his finger on trends, fads and significant issues of our time. He would work at keeping up where God appears to be moving.

Out of this the Bishop will be in a position to keep prospective for us. Perhaps this is best illustrated by giving scenarios. Perhaps the Bishop would communicate to a pastor, church or cluster group that he felt they were getting off track in their pursuit of a specific objective. He may tell them that what they are doing is similar to what another group is doing and help them establish a network. He may tell them that though they are unconventional he sees some great potential in what they are doing. He may suggest that they try some approaches that he has seen work in other areas. And he may need to discipline on occasion. I think this is similar to what we see in the epistles and they give us a good example of what we need from our bishop.

I believe that through this the Bishop can become strong because of the influence he carries. That is the kind of strength I want. The opposite would be a Bishop who is given strength by rule. The problem with this is that it is a small step to being a dictator and that is not the kind of strength I want. Unfortunately this is the issue we are dealing with when we try to make a strong Bishop by rule. Many view the proposal to have the Bishop name the cluster group leaders as a way for him to control and dictate his agenda. I don’t see it that way. I see the person as more of a liaison between the cluster and the Bishop. He will be more of a facilitator. Leadership within the cluster will take form naturally. What is important is that the Bishop has a liaison with the cluster that he has a good relationship with. I am amazed at how so many have seen the proposal as being dictatorial or top heavy. I think people are getting paranoid here.

Communication is going to be extremely important in the position I envision. If you read a lot of blogs you kind of get to learn the heart of the blogger. That is what we need from a Bishop. I do not mean that the Bishop must blog but it is that type of regular communication that we need.

Finally let me say that no matter how much I describe this role there will be those who will say it is not enough. However, by design I think that we need to keep our Bishop less busy so that he can be a spiritual guide. There are times when the Bishop will need to impose discipline but even here, as mush as possible, I think the Bishop should delegate such responsibility as much as possible.