Pomomusings » Books

This is Doug Pagitt’s Next Book

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:00:21 +0000

You are looking at Doug Pagitt’s next book, Church in the Inventive Age. It was found lost in The Local, an Irish bar in Minneapolis, close to the Minneapolis Convention Center, which just so happens to be where the PC(USA)’s 219th General Assembly is taking place right now. It’s not clear as to whether Doug might have lost it (if you don’t know, he lives in Minneapolis), or if someone had received an early copy and simply left it in the bar. Anyway, I got it. I’ve flipped through it. I’m really not sure if this is supposed to be public yet, but it’s the real thing, and here are all the details.

I know you can download Chapter 1 of Doug’s book here, but it seems like just putting up one chapter of a book is a little lame. Seems like since we are in the “inventive” age – we should be more creative with the way we share information and our ideas.

Here are a few excerpts that you might be interested in:

“I’m calling us to find our place in a swiftly shifting culture, to consider how we need to change what we think, what we value, what we do and how we do it. I’m calling us to be the church in the Inventive Age.

“We are not called to change for change’s sake. We are called to live faithfully in the time and place in which we live. Living faithfully may require us to make changes in what we do, but changing our practices is not the point. Change only matters if it’s based in an understanding of why that change is needed. If it’s not, the only change you’ll make is to trade one set of problems for another.

“When a culture changes, everything in the culture changes. Not all at once, but over time. The tensions we are seeing in American Christianity – declining membership in mainline churches, fractious relationships between evangelicals and mainliners, an untapped spiritual hunger among young adults – point to the discomfort change brings with it.

“We can’t pretend cultural change doesn’t impact the church. It does. It always has. Every church exists in the context of a culture. Every church has inherited a culture” (5-6).

And here is another excerpt from chapter 4:

“The implications for the church are just beginning to emerge. In the last 10 years or so, the values of the Inventive Age – the drive to create, the search for meaning, the sense of ownership, the open-source mentality that pushes the Inventive Age ever-faster into the future – have scattered across the landscape of American Christianity like seeds in the wind…

“The most obvious shift is the move toward smaller churches that facilitate connection. While the Information Age church gave us small groups as a means for developing deeper knowledge, the small communities of the Inventive Age come from a longing to find meaning through shared, self-generated experiences, to live out the faith in the company of a small community of friends…

“The role of the pastor is changing as well. The ability to teach and preach and lead is taking a back seat to the pastor’s capacity to create and facilitate open-source faith experiences for the people of the church.

“It’s far too early to know where all of this will lead. To be sure, the Inventive Age will have its share of mistaken notions, questionable practices, and bad ideas. But right now, at the dawning of the new age, it feels like a beautiful revolution” (32-33).

I knew the book was coming out this summer, but wasn’t really sure about the release date. I checked out the Facebook page for the book, and it says it is supposed to come out August 2010. I have a lot of respect for Doug, but seems like his ideas are worth being shared with more folks than might be able to pay for his book. I thought I’d put up some photos of the book so that you can get a look at some more of the content of Doug’s book.

I’m leaving for vacation in Hawaii in a couple hours, but when I get back, I might try and type up some more of the content. Until then – enjoy checking out these photos from the book (sorry the quality isn’t as good as it could be – I only had a few minutes this morning to snap a few shots).

Doing Theology Means Waking Up!

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:00:23 +0000

I just started reading “Doing Local Theology: A Guide for Artisans of a New Humanity” by Clemens Sedmak, and from page one I can already tell it’s going to be a great read. The book consists of 50 Theses for Doing Local Theology, in which he looks at the various ways in which local theologies are theologies created not by the educated elite, but by all who speak of God – by people enmeshed in local communities and thinking of God.

I think this would make a good read along with Philip Clayton’s “Transforming Christian Theology” – as they both seem to be making the move of taking theology out of the realms of the ivory towers of the academy and making sure that any good theology has legs – that any good theology IS a practical theology.

I love Sedmak’s very first thesis:

“THESIS 1: Theology is an invitation to wake up: to be mindful and attentive…In fact, being awake in a world full of wonders is the privilege of children. Doing theology in the spirit of children means seeking God in all things, being aware of God’s presence, listening to God’s voice, and being attentive to the signs of the times. We can do that only if we wake up.”

I love that definition of theology because it takes the intrinsic loftiness out of it. Theology isn’t something that comes off as a challenge, something that’s too hard for people of faith to do – but it becomes an invitation. An invitation to wake up – to become aware.

What do you think of this idea of theology as an invitation? Is it missing something?

Celebrate Earth Day by Getting “Everyday Justice” for Free

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:01:26 +0000

It’s Earth Day today and InterVarsity Press is celebrating by offering free Kindle edition copies of Julie Clawson‘s new book, “Everyday Justice.”

Julie’s book is a great way that each of us can find daily ways that we can attempt to live sustainable lives that are pursuing a type of “everyday justice.” It’s a great book and one I’d highly recommend to all of you.

And really…can you complain about getting an eBook for free? You don’t actually need a Kindle to be able to read this book – there are plenty of Kindle Apps for all sorts of smartphones and there are desktop versions of Kindle readers as well.

They are only giving away the book for free (normally a $9.99 Kindle book) from midnight to midnight on April 22. Download your copy now and start learning how you can celebrate, love and care for our environment.

Conversation with Andy Root about his book, The Promise of Despair

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:44:59 +0000

[You can "click to continue" below so that you can pause the audioplayer]

Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of having a conversation with Andy Root on his LiveBlog about his newest book, “The Promise of Despair.” I knew Andy a bit from my time at Princeton Seminary, and have since been increasingly impressed with both the rate at which this guy can turn out quality books, and the stuff that he’s been writing.

It was fun to get to talk with him about Chapter 3 of “The Promise of Despair,” which is entitled “The Attach of the Zombies: The Death of Belonging.” In Chapter 3, Andy talks about how, fundamentally, we just don’t know who are neighbors are anymore. Our old ideas of belonging and community are changing and so we have to rethink what that looks like in our faith communities today.

What Andy wants to suggest (and I’ll let him correct me if I’m misinterpreting it) is that we aren’t drawn together today through the usual ways of community, or by any sense of obligation…rather, Andy thinks that the way that communities will be formed and united today is through this promise of despair – through death (in its final form, but also in the many losses and deaths we all experience throughout our lives). What draws us together (in my own words) is that we’re all in this shit together.

I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in the church today and for a very different take on what community might look like. And if you’re interested, you can listen to the 15 minute conversation that Andy and I had yesterday by listening to the BlogTalkRadio player below.

The Importance of Story in My Life

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:19:07 +0000

“Story” has always been something important in my life. I used to read ravenously. I used to write stories for the local Young Authors Conferences.

While I’m starting to get into reading more now – it’s been something that I’ve let slide in my life – as my time has gotten consumed by technology & social media. But that hasn’t changed the way in which I view “story” as something that’s incredibly important in my life. I especially appreciated reading Brian McLaren’s “The Story We Find Ourselves In” when it came out 2003 and the idea of understanding the Bible as a collection of stories in which we too find ourselves a part of.

The first sermon I preached when I started my position at Asbury United Methodist Church was entitled “Storytelling.” In the sermon, I pointed out that:

We tell stories because we are forgetful – and need to be reminded.
We tell stories because it is through stories that we cultivate our faith.
We tell stories in order to find out where we fit into God’s story.

When you think about the idea of story, what does it bring up for you?

In full disclosure, I wrote this post so that I could pick up a copy of Don Miller’s new book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” Chris Brogan really liked it and is giving away copies for anyone who writes a post about the role of “story” in their life.

An Advent Meditation by Danielle Shroyer

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:01:39 +0000

At its heart, the season of Advent is a four-week declaration that the God we follow has decided to be Emmanuel, God-with-us. This is not particular to Advent, as much of Scripture’s story tells us this same important truth. God was with Abraham and Sarah as they embarked into unfamiliar terrain toward a new promised land. God was with the people of Israel as they wandered the wilderness for forty years. God was with the scattered people of God during the time of Babylonian captivity even after Jerusalem’s Temple, a sign of God’s presence, was destroyed. God was with those three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fire, and with Daniel in the lion’s den. We proclaim God is with us because that has been God’s promise to us all along. In the Ark that traveled with us, in the Shekinah that gave light to our path, in the tablets that spoke commandments of life and at the altar where reconciliation was restored, God has been with us.

During Advent, we find ourselves declaring this age-old promise has come to us once again, this time through the rather insane idea that God has decided to become human, of all things. We had become comfortably accustomed to pillars of smoke and fire and a curtained-off Holy of Holies that smelled of incense. We were familiar with God being inside the traveling tabernacle at a safe and manageable distance from our own tents and living quarters. We enjoyed having holy people who would go in the Temple and do the holy things so that we could go about our business and catch the recap.

And then God had to go and make Godself known through the face of a newborn baby, vulnerable and utterly reliant upon human hands. God had to get born right in the middle of a population-saturated city- in a barn, of all places, which is no place for incense and gold plated goblets and fine robes. The barn is where you go to do your work—your dung-slinging work, your hay-bailing work, your messy calf-birthing work. The barn is where you wear the clothes you’d otherwise not be seen in, your hair mussed and smelling not-so-lightly of sheep.

God being with us, until now, seemed such a valiant, victorious kind of affair, like the character in the movie who arrives upon the hill just as the battle/love skirmish seemed lost. Glad as we were to see it, we expected as much. But now God has infiltrated that which we have quarantined the most—the mundane, everyday-ness of things, the space where we actually live our lives and think our thoughts and do our barn-like dirty work. God has become the guest who has arrived at our house when the sheets are dirty, the dishes are piled in the sink and the carpet looks like Fido has brought in fifteen of his friends for a spa day. Not to mention, we have not a THING on hand in the fridge.

We prefer to have a day’s notice for visits like this. We’d like the boundary of the holy to be clearly marked so that we can come toward it only when we feel ready—and also only when we feel like making the trip from our “real lives” over to that fancy, curtain-tastic tent where God lives.

At Advent, we do our best to prepare for the God who knows no boundaries to come and infiltrate all those places that are not company-ready, those places we have wanted for our own, those places we have tried to keep as holy buffer. But if there’s anything we ought to know by now, it’s that God is pretty insistent about this promise. God has decided to be God with us, even when we’re slinging dung in the barn.

*******************************************************************

I’ve heard some really great things about Danielle’s new book, The Boundary-Breaking God: An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise. While I haven’t had the chance to read it myself, if Jürgen Moltmann sings such praise about the book, it’s bound to be great:

“I am more than grateful for this book by Danielle Shroyer. It is not only, it is also beautiful to live with God’s promise in the heart and God’s enlarging horizon before your eyes. The Boundary-Breaking God is full of memorable stories and quotable sentences, going with us as faithful companions.” (Jürgen Moltmann)

Shroyer was very highly shaped by Moltmann’s theology while in seminary, and you can find Moltmann-theology all through the book – it’s a very hope-filled book. Through this book, Shroyer shares a portrait of Christianity “as a way of life that has always found its meaning on the margins of society. And, in reaching toward the margins, the entire story of God expands to include all of creation.”

I’m looking forward to reading this book over the Christmas break – but I have flipped through it enough to know that it’s going to be a good one. If you’re interested, you can check it out here.

The Teaching of the Twelve: Chapter 1

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:01:18 +0000

I’m happy to be a part of the blog tour for Tony Jones’s new book, The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing & Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community. I have just a few comments on the first chapter, and you can also read some more comments on the first chapter by Thomas Turner of Everyday Liturgy (Tony shares some on the 1st chapter too here).

I think I fall in the category of persons who had heard a little about The Didache, but couldn’t tell you much more than the fact that it was an early document in the Christian church. If you want a quick primer, Tony provides this short description here:

If you don’t know what the Didache is, it is an early Christian document, only rediscovered in 1873 in a dusty library in Nicomedia. At first, many considered it a forgery, but it was quickly determined to be authentic and attested in other ancient documents. Some scholars date it early 2nd century, but there’s a growing consensus that it’s earlier than that. I date it between 50 and 70 CE, contemporaneous with Paul’s letters and before the Gospels.

What I think I found most interesting was when Tony points out the information about the dating of the Didache. As Tony mentioned above, while there is currently still some debate on the issue, it’s most likely written around the time of the Gospels and as Tony mentions in the book, “the Didache records a Christianity seemingly unfamiliar with the theology and writings of the Apostle Paul” (1).

So many times when looking at Christian theology, some folks go straight to Paul (when I was in college, any theological question could be answered by someone going to Romans to see what Paul said). But what was it like to live in a pre-Pauline time? How did followers of the Way of Jesus make sense of their faith and their call to live in a kingdom way before Paul? Perhaps the Didache is one of the documents that can help give us a sense of what that kind of faith-filled life might have looked like.

Finally, I was also interested when Tony wrote that:

“…the Didache contains to mention of clergy or priesthood, nor does it grant bishops ecclesiastical authority, so it wouldn’t have been a very popular book for the burgeoning church hierarchy in the fourth and fifth centuries” (9).

In an age where many are saying we need to get rid of the clergy-laity divide, or at the very least, rethink what that relationship looks like in a flattened world, it will be interesting to see how the Didache handles questions about leadership and authority in the church – or if it even does address any of those questions.

I think it’s great that Tony has taken the time to look into this very important and little book. And I think it will be interesting to read the other persons’s thoughts who are on this blog tour of Tony Jones’s The Teaching of the Twelve. I hope you will pick up a copy for yourself (they make great stocking stuffers!) and join in the conversation.

Transforming Christian Theology: A Review

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:15:21 +0000

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being asked to present at the “Theology after Google” national conference taking place at the Claremont School of Theology March 10-12. I will share more in the future about what I’ll be presenting, but it is going to be a really wonderful event. The event is part of the Transforming Theology project that Philip Clayton directs. I picked up Philip’s new book, “Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society” a few weeks ago, and think it’s an incredibly important and timely book for those of us who find ourselves hoping and working for a progressive Christianity. Philip wrote the book in collaboration with Homebrewed Christianity‘s Tripp Fuller – but since I don’t know who wrote which parts, I’ll just be referring to Clayton as the author – though I’m sure Tripp spent a lot of time on the book as well.

I should preface this by saying I heard Philip Clayton read a paper at the Center of Theological Inquiry a few years back, and while there were parts that I really liked – for the most part, I found it to be way beyond me. Sarah and I both spoke with Philip afterward and really enjoyed our conversation; I walked away both very impressed by Philip as a person and a little intimidated by him as a scholar.

So, I found it incredibly interesting that Clayton says this book marks a departure for him of writing theology that is only for the “specialists.” Because of his new understanding of what theology is, more specifically who should be doing theology, he can no longer publish the types of book he had previously been publishing:

“The second step in my transformation is to walk the talk, which means that I must also change how I communicate my reflections on Christian belief and identity. I can no longer publish theology books that are written primarily for specialists. From now on I must write for a broader audience, one that includes ordinary people who are eager to speak clearly and passionately about their faith–and those who are struggling to find out exactly what in the Christian story they really do care passionately about. In this regard, my last book [Adventures in the Spirit: God, World, Divine Action, 2008] represents the end of one era for me, and this book heralds the beginning of the next. Perhaps this will irritate academic theologians and there may be backlash.”

In the book, Clayton walks through three different parts: Theology for an Age of Transition, Theologies That Can Transform the Church, and Theologies That Can Transform Society. One thing I noticed throughout this book is a strong pragmatic bent to it – and Clayton mentions that quite often about the postmodern turn to belief. Theologies today need to work. I think there is an inherent skepticism in emerging generations today if we have air-tight systematic theologies that just…don’t…work. So, this progressive Christianity theology – whatever it ends up looking like – needs to be a theology that works, a theology that makes sense for the world we live in today and one that can be transforming in our lives and in our society.

There is also a call throughout this book to be about the act of rekindling theological imagination. Sarah would like that, as she is always talking about how so many problems we have today in the world and especially in the church stems from our severe failure of imagination. Clayton poses a challenge to many theologians and seminary professors as so much of our theological education today is merely teaching the theology that has been done in the past – and requiring students (those whom we would hope to be creative theologians/pastors in their own right some day…) to simply regurgitate someone else’s theology. How does that help to develop a rich theological imagination?

I know some readers of this blog are skeptical of anything that has the word “progressive” in front of it, let along progressive Christian theology. Many think it’s some namby-pamby/loosey-goosey type of theology. However, one thing that struck me over and over again was Clayton’s call for being passionate and knowledgeable about our beliefs – for holding deep convictions. The oft-quoted 1 Peter 3:15 (“be ready to make a defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you”) is not so much about having the right argument or being 100% certain and confident about our apologetics, rather Clayton writes:

“Instead, its primary call is to give a self-accounting – that is, to be able to explain our strongest motivations and reasons. To do this, we have to make sense of our own actions and convictions to ourselves first. Only then will we have any chance of making sense to other people…” (63)

Clayton talks about how so many mainline and progressive folks seem to care deeply about social justice concerns – but have a hard time saying “why.” What are our theological reasonings for caring so passionately about social justice? Can we point to a specific aspect of our Christian worldviews? Is there a specific scripture that speaks to us? Just because we are “progressives” – it doesn’t get us off for the folk for also being Christian and being able to individually know why we feel called to certain things.

For Clayton, anyone who identifies her-/himself as Christian should probably at some point work through what he calls the Seven Core Christian Questions. In many ways, this is what I have been doing through my Credo series. The seven questions Clayton believe are important to reflect on have to do with:

Theology: questions about God
Christology: questions about the person of Jesus the Christ
Pneumatology: questions about who the Spirit is
Anthropology: questions about what it means to be human
Soteriology: questions about what salvation is
Ecclesiology: questions about the church
Eschatology: questions about the “last things”

So Clayton’s definition of theology is: theology consists of all attempts to answer these core Christian questions for ourselves in light of the contemporary world.

Finally, I really appreciated Clayton’s reflections on what it means to define oneself as a “progressive.” For clearly, just as any of our fabricated labels, it has many definitions. He argues that it clearly should not be used as just an updated term for “bleeding heart liberal” because there are folk who are evangelical but refer to themselves as progressive evangelicals. He believes “progressive” is a term that splits the difference between conservative and liberal. Clayton writes:

“…if you are a progressive, you will tend to emphasize change and newness in what the church is becoming. You don’t have to hold to the modern doctrine called meliorism, the belief that the world is just getting better and better. But you do think there are some positive things that we can learn from the contemporary world – from science, philosophy, technology, social movements, other religions, and so on. This doesn’t mean that you disvalue the Christian tradition and seek to replace it with something different. But it does imply that you look for and value partnerships between contemporary culture and Christian faith…being progressive does not mean that you wish to reject the past. But it does suggest a greater emphasis on innovation, on openness to change…I will use the term progressive to describe constructive theologies that attempt to transform society.” (122)

And what is progressive Christianity’s mission as the church? Clayton looks to theologian John Cobb and quotes him saying that it is “working with God for the salvation of the world.” Of course – the “salvation of the world” is not some type of colonial desire to “save” everyone and to “civilize the natives” – but rather a more holistic understanding of salvation as both individual and corporate.

This was the first book of Clayton’s that I’ve read, and it’s definitely a very accessible book. I really enjoyed it and think it would have been helpful for me to read as I was starting seminary. If you’re interested in what Clayton’s vision for a progressive Christian theology is – for what a transforming theology might look like and how it interacts with our contemporary world, I’d highly recommend this book.

It’s Really All About God: A Review

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:01:19 +0000

While I’m sure many of you have already heard about this book, I wanted to add my $0.02 about Samir Selmanovic’s new book, “It’s Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian.” A couple years ago, I ran into Samir at the Everything Must Change event and had a great conversation about the work that he does as a part of Faith House Manhattan. I think the interfaith work and service that they are doing is really amazing and truly an example of the working out of the kingdom of God in the here and now. But that’s not a very popular idea with some. The blog post I wrote about that idea actually caused a job possibility to not work out (which, not that I can look back on the situation, truly was an unexpected gift – I would not have been happy serving at that particular church).

All of that is just to say that I admire and respect Samir for the work he’s doing and was very excited to read his book. Below are just a few thoughts about why you should pick up this book.

One of the things I first appreciated about the book is the way in which Samir owns his story. He has a very unique story – and it has clearly impacted his view of the world and his spiritual journey. I think back to some of my experiences at Whitworth, an evangelical Presbyterian liberal arts college, and I remember being told things like “we can’t trust our experiences.” Or being told that we shouldn’t try to read our experiences into the Bible. Perhaps they have moved away from that a bit – I don’t know – but it’s pretty naïve to believe we can (or even should) come to the Bible or our spirituality pretending we are a clean slate.

Our life experiences, family’s beliefs, relationships with friends, sexuality, experiences with poverty in the world, worldviews – all of these things can and should impact how we live out our spirituality in the world and I think Samir is quite clear about that as well in his book. I want to share with you my two favorite quotes from the book:

“I will try to show that for religion to recapture human imagination, the theology and practice of finding God in the other will have to move from the outskirts of our religious experience to its center. The heart of a religion that will bless the world is going to beat at its edges” (13)

Sarah, my wife, often preaches and writes about our current failure of imagination. I tease her that it’s a phrase and idea that makes it into EVERY sermon she preaches – but if you’re going to have one theme throughout your writing, it’s a good one to have. As is the practice of finding God in the other. I think for many that is easy to do when “the other” shares the same religious tradition, but what does it mean for a Christian to find God in a Muslim? Or a Jew to find God in an Atheist? Or a Hindu to find God in a Christian?

“So herein lies the choice for those of us who are Christians. We can either stay within the Christianity we have mastered with the Jesus we have domesticated, or we can leave Christianity as a destination, embrace Christianity as a way of life, and then journey to reality, where God is present and living in every person, every human community, and all creation” (63).

Again – does that make you uncomfortable to read that God is present and living in every person, community and all of creation? Is that a different picture of God and God’s activity in the world than you are used to? It’s definitely a different picture of God than I had growing up – and one which I find much more comfort in today.

Samir is tapping into an emerging theology for the church today that I think helps bring us one step closer to working on our developing and deepening relationships with others and other religious in our pluralistic world today. There is much more I could say about this book and many more money quotes from the book I could share – but I’ll let you explore it on your own. I’d highly recommend grabbing a copy of “It’s Really All About God” today. It’s also available for the Kindle here.

Guest Blog: What If a Church Had an Expiration Date?

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:52:11 +0000

Today’s guest post is written by author and pastor Russell Rathbun. I got to meet Russell at Princeton Seminary a few years ago, and really enjoyed hearing him preach. Russell is a founding minister with Debbie Blue of House of Mercy, a pioneering emergent church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He’s the author of a brand new book called nuChristian: Finding Faith in a New Generation. nuChristian responds to recent reports of Christianity’s image problem. In nuChristian, Russell offers practical suggestions for leaders who want to reach out to the new generation with a Christlike community that is transparent, holistic, loving, engaged, just and humble. I asked Russell to write a guest post today for his stop at Pomomusings on his Virtual Book Tour. I hope you enjoy his post, “What if a Church Had an Expiration Date?”

What If a Church Had an Expiration Date?

I have talked to a lot of people who are starting churches and a lot more people who are trying to keep churches from dying. Both missions are very hard to accomplish. So, I had an idea. What if you started a church with an expiration date? Say, five years. That would be just enough time for an energized core group to get together and build a unique community—an incarnation of the Body of Christ that addresses a particular time and place, the context in which they are living. They could welcome friends and newcomers who are interested, intrigued, and drawn in by the body’s particular vision, worship, service, study, and creativity, inviting the visitor to become part of the life of the community. Finally this expanded group of believers would begin to articulate new visions for changing contexts and to develop new core groups around those visions, groups who would then go out and start several new churches with new expiration dates.

This could solve some of the major quandaries that arise in starting and sustaining churches. The greatest help would be giving a particular incarnation of the Body of Christ permission to be done—to say that our mission in this time and place, in this specific context is finished. To say, “We may not have done everything we wanted, but we have been faithful to our vision.” Or to say, “We did everything we hoped to do. Now let’s go do something else.” If this permission to say “It is finished” caught on, then maybe churches that have been around for a long time could close up shop without feeling like they have failed. It would give any small group of folks with no resources but an emerging vision of what God could do in their context, the permission to do something for just awhile—perhaps for only a year or two. And they wouldn’t have to feel bad for not building the next Solomon’s Porch or Jacob’s Well.

The church of Jesus Christ is not closing its doors. Only particular contextual expressions of that church will do so. Is the church in Ephesus still going strong with the same vitality and vision it began with? Contexts, people, visions, and relationships change, but the charge to go into all the world making disciples does not.

The Church with an Expiration Date would guard against our human tendency toward idolatry—to idolize dynamic leaders or our ability to build institutions. It would staunch our pretenses to power and require a continual refocus on how we proclaim the gospel for the transformation of this particular group of people, in this particular cultural context. The Expiring Church could produce two, three, or ten new vital, living, unique incarnations of the Body of Christ—and you would never have to start that building fund.

WIN A FREE COPY Contest Over

You can win a free copy of Russell’s new book nuChristian. The first 3 people to email me the answer to the below Christian AS WELL AS their mailing address will get a free copy. But it MUST be emailed to me here.

Question: What is the name of Russell Rathbun’s alter-ego?

Pocket Guides to the Bible, to the Afterlife and to Sainthood

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:20:21 +0000

I’ve had a chance to flip through a couple books recently, and wanted to share them with you. Jason Boyett is not a professional theologian, but he does live in Amarillo, TX (I’ll have to forgive him for that one…). He’s written a series of “Pocket Guide” books that are pretty clever. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times in my ministry this year, I’ve been asked a random question about the afterlife or saints, and thought to myself, “Dang! If only there was a simple, pocket-sized guide to the afterlife I could flip through to find the answer…”

Enter Jason Boyett and his Pocket Guide series of books.

For example, the Pocket Guide to the Bible has a handy “Cast of Characters” section so you could flip to Ehud, and find out rather quickly that he’s a “left-handed Israelite hero who assassinates Eglon, the super-fat king of Moab who holds the Israelites under his chubby thumb” (43). Or learn that the Nephilim were described as the “unnatural offspring of naughty liaisons between ‘sons of God’ (identity unknown) and hot young human females” (70). And for the real noobs out there, you could learn that Noah was “mostly known as the cute bearded guy who wrangles cute hippos and lions and doves while on a cute boat in all the children’s cute Bible stories. Whiteh conveniently leave out the part about the entire rest of the world drowning to death” (70). The Pocked Guide to the Bible ends with a list of “biblical flotsam and jetsam” which includes:

Five Health Conditions that Sound Absolutely Awful, as Described in the King James
The Four Best Moments for Donkeys
Nine Miscellaneous Things You Must Not Do, According to the Law of Moses
Seven Biblical Suicides
One Statement by Paul That, When Taken Out of Context, Makes Him Sound Relatively Hip
Four Biblical Excuses That No Longer Work Very Well
and many more

And who doesn’t want a Pocket Guide to the Afterlife? Now when kids come in with vexing questions about “Where am I going to go after I die?” I can just say, “Here – flip through this book – and let me know what you think.” It covers information about heaven, hell and other ultimate destinations – including some I had never heard of before, for example:

Chinvat Bridge: This is the place of final judgment in Zoroastrianism. I guess if you’re good, a hot woman is there waiting for you. And if you’re not…you got a shriveled old hag. Huh.
Duat: This is the ancient Egyptian underworld…it’s a parallel dimension, accessible only by the soul. Sounds interesting…
Naraka: Yah – you don’t want to end up here…this is the Hindu underworld…it’s at the bottom of the universe.

My favorite part was probably some of the sections in the “Afterlists” in which he shares with us Eight Surprises About Hell, as described by Bill Wiese in 23 Minutes in Hell (I always loved those books…wow).

The last one I had to look through was the Pocket Guide to Sainthood. It is described as a “field manual for the super-virtous life.” If you’re new to the world of saints, this book should come in very handy. It starts off with a helpful glossary of terms, including beatification, canonization, chastity and the fourteen holy helpers. Next it runs through a long, long list of Saints we should all know. There are some pretty famous ones listed like St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Nicholas. But also lists lesser-known saints like St. Martin de Porres and St. Clare of Assisi.

Next we get a chapter entitled “There’s a Saint for That” which is really handy if you are trying to find someone a gift for a certain occasion or need to know what saint to pray to. For example, St. Benedict Joseph of Labré is the saint for rejects. St. Frances of Paola is the saints for naval officers and of course, St. Isidore is the saint for the Internet because he wrote a huge twenty-volume compendium of “universal knowledge.”

So, if you know someone who is just starting their first year of seminary – these would be very good additions sitting next to Calvin’s Institutes or Barth’s Dogmatics (probably much more fun and worthwhile reading). Of if you know someone who enjoys some good Christian/biblical humor, these would also be good books to pick up for them. And if you want to keep up with Jason, you can read his blog, follow him on Twitter or be his friend on Facebook.

Youth in Revolt: The Movie

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:01:43 +0000

When I was in high school, I picked up a copy of a book called “Youth in Revolt” from a used bookstore in Olympia, WA. Honestly, I picked it because the cover looked pretty interesting. Little did I know that I was about to read what was quickly becoming a cult-classic in the Bay area. “Youth in Revolt,” published in 1993 and written by C.D. Payne, consisted of the fictional diaries of the teenager, Nick Twisp. I became quite enamored with the book and even created the Official Nick Twisp Homepage (unfortunately – or fortunately – Internet Archive doesn’t have an archive of it online anywhere. I even had the chance to interview C.D. Payne when I was in highschool and down in San Francisco for a school trip. He thought it was great that I had created the very first webpage for his book – and we became friends.

If you’ve read the book (or when you see the movie) you’ll see that there is a theme of Airstream trailers in the book – and in college, my friend Tony (from Queer Messages) and I went on a roadtrip and got to visit C.D. Payne again and we actually stayed in Payne’s Airstream trailer!

The movie, featuring Michael Cera (from Juno and Arrested Development) as Nick Twisp, will be released on October 30th. It looks pretty good – I’m happy for C.D. Payne who has always been talking about his hopes that it would one day turn into a movie. While I can’t recommend the book without some hesitation (it was a little ‘racy’ for a high school student), the movie should be good and worth checking out.

Have a Little Faith: A Review

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:01:11 +0000

I should say that I’ve never read any of Mitch Albom‘s books before. I’m pretty sure my mom told me about “Tuesdays with Morrie” but I never got around to reading it. So when I was asked to review “Have a Little Faith” – I thought it would be interesting to give it a shot. Besides, with positive reviews by Bishop T.D. Jakes, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Cokie Roberts and of course, Senator Bob Dole – how could it not be worth reading?

Here is the book’s description on its website:

Albom’s first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have A Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an 82-year-old rabbi from Albom’s old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.

Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he’d left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor – a reformed drug dealer and convict – who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.

Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Mitch observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi, embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.

Since this is actually the first Mitch Albom book I’ve read – I really can’t compare it to his others. However, it was a quick read and it’d probably fall into a “theology-lite” type of book. Being that it was a non-fiction book, I appreciated the memoir-esque nature of it. One of my favorite book genres is probably the “spiritual memoir” and I appreciated the look into the spiritual lives of both Henry (the Christian pastor) and Reb (Albom’s rabbi).

I don’t know that the book is particularly brilliant or challenging on many points, but it does address some important themes, from death to spirituality to the life as spiritual journey. Albom writes in a style that is easy enough to follow and pulls you in to get to know these characters, these people, he’s writing about.

If you really liked Albom’s other books – I’m guessing that you’ll probably like this one as well. And…I did finish it. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have finished it. So it was an easy enough read and enjoyable enough for me to stay interested. Sorry – that doesn’t sound like the most glowing of reviews – but it could be that this book just didn’t do “it” for me – whatever “it” is.

A Community Called Taize: A Review

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:01:00 +0000

There are many places in the world that I would love to travel to. Between my wife and my immediate family, I’m the only one who hasn’t been to Iona – and I think there is something wrong with that. However, another well-known worshipping community that I would love to visit some day is Taizé. Many in the contemporary church culture are very aware of the Taizé community now because of their simple – but powerful – music used in churches around the world now. In the .bE alt.worship gathering I lead from time to time, we generally try and use some Taizé music when we can. And when churches decide to start an “alternative” or alternate worship gathering – one of the most popular options is to do a “Taizé service.”

Does this mean that it’s simply a passing fad in contemporary church culture? Will it be forgotten about when Aboriginal drum circles become the “in” thing. I don’t think so – and that’s because Taizé is the real deal. It is a place of Ubuntu, as Desmond Tutu calls it in his Foreward to Jason Santos’s “A Community Called Taizé.” Desmond Tutu writes:

“In my language, I would call it [Taizé] a place of Ubuntu, a place of community, where every single person matters and where no one is diminished since that would lead to the diminishment of all.”

I got to know Jason Santos during my time at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the field of practical theology. Santos has traveled to Taizé numerous times (he was even present on the night of Brother Roger’s death), and the brothers at Taizé expressly gave him permission to write this book. As I read it, I had to agree with reviewer Dennis Okholm when he wrote “If a virtual reality tour can be conducted through words, Jason Brian Santos has done it in this book.”

I really felt as if I knew what it felt like to be there at Taizé and experience the life and worship and context of the brothers of Taizé and their pilgrims who traveled from all around the world to be there. And if you are planning a trip to Taizé anytime soon – Santos even gives you plenty of practical and packing tips in Appendix A.

Santos does a beautiful job of painting a picture of life at Taizé and helps us learn more about the history and hopes of this community working for peace and reconciliation in the world. If you want to learn more about the book (including a short sample of Santos’s writing) checked out A Community Called Taizé: A Story of Prayer, Worship and Reconciliation.

A Hidden Wholeness: A Review

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:01:03 +0000

I haven’t read a lot of Parker Palmer’s books, just Let Your Life Speak. I really appreciated that book at a time in my life when I was thinking about the questions of calling and vocation that he brings up. Recently, I was sent a copy of “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life” to review on this blog. Let me say first that I am currently looking at a shelf of 30 books I’ve received (and these are just the ones I’ve kept) that have been sent to me to review over the past 9 months or so. I used to love getting free books – however, now it’s a little overwhelming.

But I did want to share with you about the new paperback release of Parker Palmer’s “A Hidden Wholeness.” The hardcover edition came out in 2004 and this is the new paperback edition, which includes a guide for readers & group leaders, as well as a DVD entitled: “Circles of Trust: The Work of Parker J. Palmer.” So it’s a great deal for the book when you think about the enclosed DVD. I watched a couple of the clips from the DVD and it would be a great addition if you were going to use this book with an adult small group or if you wanted a clip for a retreat.

Palmer takes an in-depth look at the soul and its relation to the world in this book. Palmer writes:

“The soul is generous: it takes in the needs of the world. The soul is wise: it suffers without shutting down. The soul is hopeful: it engages the world in ways that keep opening our hearts. The soul is creative: it finds its way between realities that might defeat us and fantasies that are mere escapes. All we need to do is to bring down the wall that separates us from our own souls and deprives the world of the soul’s regenerative powers.”

One of the parts that I think was really helpful was his analogy of our lives as a Möbius Strip. So often people tend to keep their “backstage” life on the inside (in their souls) and keep it away from their “onstage” lives. We have all of these deep yearnings and intuitions and feelings that we feel are not safe and so we tend to create a circle and keep them on the inside. Palmer argues that we should be striving to live out our lives as if they were a Möbius strip. If you were to make a Möbius strip like the one in the video above, you could begin to trace the outside of the piece of paper and suddenly and seamlessly you would find yourself on the inside of the strip. It can be deceiving because there really is not “outside” or “inside” – Palmer describes a life lived in this way:

“…the two apparent sides keep cocreating each other. The mechanics of the Möbius strip are mysterious, but its message is clear: whatever is inside us continually flows outward to help form, or deform, the world–and whatever is outside us continually flows inward to help form, or deform, our lives. The Möbius strip is like life itself: here, ultimately, there is only one reality.”

I find this to be a very interesting idea especially when we think about the question of identity in the world today – amidst social networks and face-to-face encounters with people – our lives are very much like Möbius strips. The outside forms the inside and vice versa. And we are constantly taking things that some would rather keep on the “inside” and sharing them and hoping they help inform or form our worlds.

As you can see, Palmer’s book is rich with ideas and concepts that will help us continue to think more and more about who we are at our deepest core and how our souls interact with the outside world. If you’re a fan of Parker Palmer, this book certainly won’t disappoint you.

Dallas Willard’s Knowing Christ Today: A Review

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:01:02 +0000

Dallas Willard is one of the great Christian thinkers, theologians and writers of our time. I’ve read a few of his books before, including The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives and The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God. So when I was offered the chance to get a preview of his new book, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge, I jumped at the chance. It was just released today in hardcover – and you can get it on Amazon.com.

Here is a quick blurb of what the book is about:

In KNOWING CHRIST TODAY, renowned philosopher, teacher and bestselling author Dallas Willard answers the most provocative questions facing the church today. Willard persuasively argues that we need to re-think our understanding of tolerance, that we can rationally affirm the existence of a creator on the evidence of the created universe, and that Christian spiritual truths are a body of knowledge that, when treated as such, become a life-changing and reliable source that should be granted the same authority as other disciplines.

Willard covers a TON of ground in this book, writing on such topics as miracles, Christian pluralism, moral knowledge, faith and the role of pastors in the world today.

This is not an easy, devotional type of book. Rather, it is one that looks at some of the most profound Christian truths, and examines them in light of Willard’s argument that “knowledge” is not a bad thing and is essential to faith. As mentioned above, Willard covers a great deal of subjects, and I don’t have time to go over them in detail in this short review. But I did want to share with you a few quotes that I found very helpful.

Towards the end of the book, Willard deals with the question of Christian pluralism. I found this specifically enlightening to read in light of the Plurality 2.0 series on my blog. Here are some of Willard’s thoughts on Christian pluralism:

What this Christian pluralism says is that, because God is who Jesus Christ shows him to be, any person who in God’s eyes it seems right for him to accept certainly will be accepted by him. That acceptance will in every case be an act of mercy. This is a faith in God that excludes boasting of any kind – especially religious boasting – and places everyone on an even footing before God’s mercy (Rom. 3:27–31).

Christian pluralism thus concedes that people of “other” religions or no religion at all may be “right with God.” But from within the resources of its knowledge it insists that, if that is so in a given case, it will not be because the individuals concerned merely profess the beliefs and sustain the practices thought to be essential to recognized members of their particular religious culture – including Christians. It will not be because of their religion. Rather, it will be because their lives are centered on that same love that is expressed in the person and teachings of Jesus and of his people at their best. It will be because God is love. (181-2)

He goes on to discuss the slight variations between weak and strong versions of pluralism and what is compatible and incompatible with Christian faith. The chapter, as well as the discussion questions provided, would provide for some really interesting conversations.

In his final chapter, Willard speaks about the role of pastors in the world today. Using the Great Commission as a model, he believes that the pastors are supposed to be the teachers to all the nations. He has some very interesting thoughts about the role of the pastors today, and here is just one quote:

Their [pastors] task is not to get people to believe things, to share “Christian” feelings or rituals, to join Christian groups, or to be faithful to familiar Christian traditions…The task of Christian pastors and leaders is to present Christ’s answers to the basic questions of life and to bring those answers forward as knowledge – primarily to those who are seeking and are open to following him, but also to all who may happen to hear, in the public arenas of a world in desperate need of knowledge of what is real and what is good. (198)

If you’re a fan of Dallas Willard, this book will be just one more of his that you will want to have in your library. And if you’ve never read a book by Willard before, this will be a great way to get acquainted with a really profound and influential Christian philosopher and theologian.

Presbyterian Bloggers Unite: Campus Ministry

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:01:15 +0000

Additional posts on PC(USA) Campus Ministry can be found here on the Presbyterian Bloggers United page.

My connection with Presbyterian Campus Ministries came during my second year of seminary at Princeton. I did my Field Education with Princeton Presbyterians, the Presbyterian campus ministry at Princeton University. The year I spent working with that ministry was a great experience learning about college ministry, what that looks like in a large university setting and and experienced some of the joys and struggles of Presbyterian campus ministry.

Like many Presbyterian campus ministries, Princeton Presbyterians was not a huge group. The Campus Crusade groups and other evangelical campus ministries would get 80 kids to worship on a Friday night, and our numbers never usually surpassed 20 students.

It was a really unique and diverse group. We had some students in the group who were just cradle Presbyterians and so “of course” when they went off to college they were going to find the closest Presbyterian group they could join up with. So we had students who had been to Trienneium and had served as youth elders in their home churches. But then, we also seemed to attract the students who didn’t feel like they fit in any of the other campus ministry groups. And that is where I think Presbyterian campus ministries can really strive.

Certainly it’s important to work with other ministries on campus (although, it was my experience that the larger “evangelical” groups really didn’t want anything to do with the Presbyterians), but I think Presbyterian campus ministries really have a unique role within the campus. We were known as the group that would accept anyone. Many students came to us after getting burned by the evangelical ministries on campus. We were the place where students knew they could come with their questions, doubts and imperfections and be accepted for who they were. Sure there was more to our group than just questions and doubts, but it didn’t seem that many groups on campus were comfortable with that.

It’s my hope that Presbyterian campus ministries can continue to be places that students view as safe havens, places where their faith can be nurtured and challenged and places where they can experience loving and accepting Christian community.

Jesus, the Bible & Homosexuality, by Jack Rogers: Final Thoughts

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:00:53 +0000

After having reviewed Jack Rogers’s “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality” over the past few weeks, I still want to say I highly encourage you to check out this book and give it a read yourself. Even if you are already someone who is 100% affirming of LGBT persons, it’s still an important and helpful book to read. Rogers lays a strong foundation for supporting an affirming perspective and gives good scriptural support for such a view.

One of the strengths of Rogers’s book is that he actively engages with Scripture all throughout his book. One of the many critiques of those of us who are affirming of LGBT persons is that we are completely disregarding scripture. Or that we’re allowing culture to dictate our understanding of scripture. However, Rogers shows that the interpretations of the few passages typically used to speak of the sinfulness of homosexuality are simply incorrect interpretations. Or, if you’re not willing to accept that they’re “incorrect,” Rogers at least shows there is the possibility of holding a different interpretation of the passage while still remaining faithful to scripture.

In one of my more controversial posts about homosexuality on this blog, I said “enough with the Bible already.” If you read the entirety of the post (and some of my responses to the comments), it would be clear that I was not saying we should throw out scripture. In fact we need to engage with scripture even more, engage with the passages that some claim are so black and white, and focus on the entirety of the scriptural narrative. Rogers serves as a helpful example for one way to engage with scripture and be able to argue for acceptance and celebration of LGBT persons in all areas of the church and ministry today.

I also appreciate how Rogers shares some of his own personal experience with LGBT persons in the church. While some may not agree with this, everyone interprets scripture at least partly based on their experience. No one can completely deny, nor should they, the experiences of their life when they come to interpret scripture. That is one of the reasons I initially said “enough with the Bible already.” There are many who believe homosexuality to be sinful and have never had a friendship with an LGBT person. For some, I think they should set their Bibles aside for awhile and spend some time actually getting to know someone who is gay.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) is in the middle of some very heated debates over homosexuality. We are not alone: this issue is impacting most of the mainline denominations. Unfortunately, it’s something that will probably be consuming our churches for some time. I’m hopeful, as are many others, that one day this will not be an issue for our churches. I’m hopeful that we can move toward a place not of tolerance, but of acceptance and celebration of the gifts that our LGBT brothers and sisters can offer to the ministry of Christ’s church.

Jack Rogers’s own witness in his book is an excellent example of how one can be a faithful Christian who loves God, honors Christ, seeks after the Spirit, respects the authority of scripture and works for the full inclusion of LGBT persons in our church today.

This post is the final one in a series of reviews of Jack Rogers’s book “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality.” For more information about the series, you can read the first post here. Individual Chapter Reviews: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.

Jesus, the Bible & Homosexuality, by Jack Rogers: Chapter 7

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:00:08 +0000

Chapter 7: Recommendations for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Rogers begins the final chapter with a very strong statement: “It seems to me that the church and every person within the church is faced with a choice: to witness to an ancient Near Eastern cultural bias of male gender superiority, or to witness to Jesus Christ and his redemptive life and ministry…The purpose of the Bible is not to forever weld us to an ancient culture. The purpose of the Bible is to tell us the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection” (109).

Following this strong statement, Rogers calls for action: “If you believe, like I do, that homosexuality is not a sin and is not prohibited by the Bible, then the next question becomes, how do we heal the church of this injustice that has divided us? Clearly, policies, by-laws and church constitutions in some cases, will need to be amended” (109-110).

Rogers says there have been certain precedents for official apologies from denominations: in 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention apologized for “condoning” racism and in 2001 Presbyterians asked the forgiveness of African Americans for the denomination’s historical involvement with slavery and segregation. Rogers believes that as a denomination, we need to apologize for our collective sin of homophobia. An apology is important, and perhaps a first step, but Rogers believes that it needs to be followed with action:

“Progress requires more than words. We need to demonstrate the depth of our understanding of Christ’s message through action. We need to give LGBT people full and equal rights within the church and work for their rights within the broader society. That means marriage, ordination, and every other right necessary to bring people who are homosexual into full equality with people who are heterosexual. The trajectory of Christian history is in the direction of ever-greater openness and inclusiveness. We rejoice now in the leadership in our churches of people of color, women, and divorced and remarried people. The time will come when having gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Christian leadership will be just as routine” (111).

Rogers goes on to share that while denominations today hold the Bible as the primary source of authority and guidance, each group has additional documents and subordinate standards that they turn to. For Presbyterians, it is our church’s Constitution, which includes both the Book of Confessions and the Book of Order. Rogers spends the remainder of the chapter discussing flaws in both the Book of Confessions and the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Book of Confessions
At the 218th General Assembly in San Jose, June of 2008, the Heidelberg Catechism was one of the heavily debated issues with regard to homosexuality. At GA, 30 seminary faculty members signed a petition, asking for a more traditional translation of the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 (background information here). Jack Rogers was one of those who spoke on behalf of this petition at GA, and he writes about it in this book. He shares the Question and Answer 87 in the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q. 87. Can those who do not turn to God from their ungrateful, impenitent life be saved?

A. Certainly not! Scripture says, “Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the kingdom of God. Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.”

Before Rogers had come to a different understanding of homosexuality, he thought this was fairly clear evidence of the denomination’s policy and thoughts on homosexuality. However, then he remembered that Johanna Bos, a professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, had stated that the text of Answer 87 was not authentic (115), but was rather an addition to the text from the 1960s.

Rogers went back and read through the original Latin version of he Catechism, a Dutch version, a 1645 English edition from London. And in every one of the translations he found and read, the list of the “impenitent sinners” was always exactly the same, in the same order: “unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or any such like” (116). In each of the translations, it went from adulterer to thief, not one mentioning “homosexual perversion.” Rogers believes this was inserted in by someone with the “general 1960s American assumption that homosexuality is inherently perverse” (118) and this insertion goes against the original intent of the Catechism.

At the 218th GA, the Assembly voted to put together a special committee to look into this issue and bring back a recommendation to the 219th GA. More information about that decision can be found here.

Book of Order
In many ways similar to the Book of Confessions, Rogers believes the Book of Order also “embodies a trajectory toward ever-greater inclusiveness of people” (119). In Chapter 3, “The Church and Its Mission” we see this principle of inclusiveness very clearly. It calls the church “to a new openness to its own membership…becoming in fact as well as in faith a community of women and men of all ages, races, and conditions, and by providing for inclusiveness as a visible sign of the new humanity” (119). However, in Chapter 4, inclusiveness is made even more explicit:

“The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) shall give full expression to the rich diversity within its membership and shall provide means which will assure a greater inclusiveness leading to wholeness in its emerging life. Persons of all racial groups, different ages, both sexes, various disabilities, diverse geographical areas, different theological positions consistent with the Reformed tradition, as well as different marital conditions (married, single, widowed, or divorced) shall be guaranteed full participation and access to representation in the decision making of the church” (119).

This paragraph makes room for a great richness of diversity – however Rogers believes “this paragraph will be even more complete when it is amended to include the phrase, ‘different sexual orientation’” (120).

Finally, Rogers shares briefly about G-6.0106b, or Amendment B. The full text of G-6.0106b is below:

“Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of one man and one woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament” (120).

There have been endless debates over Amendment B since its creation but Rogers says the intent of Amendment B was clear from the beginning: “to find some sort of theological basis to bar people who are gay and lesbian from being ordained” (121). Rogers mentions there are several issues related to G-6.0106b. One of those is the understanding of the term “chastity.” For many it has been equated to “celibacy.” However, as Rogers displays through both the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Larger Catechism, chastity is something that applies to all people, both single and married.

The second issue Rogers raises focuses on what exactly “the confessions call sin.” He writes:

“The confessions are historical documents that reflect not only general biblical principles, but also the ethical standards of the time and culture in which they were written” (124).

He references many “sins” that the confessions mention that we do not consider as such today; Rogers states there are over 250 sins mentioned in the Book of Confessions, and “we all practice at least some of them in good conscience” (125).

I want to conclude with the final two paragraphs from this chapter:

“As I have shown, neither the Bible nor the confessions, properly understood, is opposed to homosexuality as such. However, many Presbyterians treat homosexuality as if it were the most important issue facing the church and the worst imaginable sin a human being can commit. Allowing three sentences in the Book of Order to preempt our biblical and theological tradition is a grave mistake that needs to be corrected.

The best methods of interpretation, from the Reformation on down through today, call upon us to interpret the Scripture through the lens of Jesus Christ’s life and ministry. Using this method, we see clearly that Jesus and the Bible, properly understood, do not condemn people who are homosexual. In church governance, our confessions and Book of Order embody a trajectory of ever-greater inclusiveness. To bar gay and lesbian people from ordination and marriage is a violation of these fundamental principles of our faith. One day soon, our church will once again upload these biblical and confessional principles by welcoming our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers as full and equal members in our church and society. The Holy Spirit is at work in the church. Praise God” (126).

This post is part of an ongoing review of Jack Rogers’s book “Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality.” For more information about the series, you can read the first post here. Individual Chapter Reviews: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. I also share some Final Thoughts about the book here.

Jesus, the Bible & Homosexuality, by Jack Rogers: Chapter 6

Adam Walker Cleaveland — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:00:05 +0000

Chapter 6: Real People and Real Marriage
In this chapter, Rogers deals with some of the stereotypes and language that surrounds the topic of homosexuality. For example, many times you’ll hear people refer to “the gay lifestyle” as inherently promiscuous, sinful and the specter of AIDS. This is just one way in which people use the power of language and perceptions to foster fear against the LGBT community. Rogers likes to point out the injustices and inequalities that exist in our current system, especially when it comes to issues related to clergy sexual misconduct. Rogers speaks about male PC(USA) pastors who have affairs with women in their congregations:

“…These heterosexual male pastors who have clearly violated the teaching of Scripture, their marriage vows, their ordination vows, by having affairs with female parishioners, are usually treated as individuals, with restoration always a possibility. But in the case of homosexual people the church makes a blanket a priori that none of them is worthy of ordination to serve as deacon, elder, or minister of Word and Sacrament” (93).

It would have been interesting if this chapter would have been written after the recent passing of Prop 8 in California. Rogers believes that the issue of ordaining people who are gay and lesbian is linked to the issue of marriage. Specifically in the Presbyterian Church (USA), candidates for ministry are supposed to be married or celibate. And since LGBT folk are barred from marriage in the church, we give LGBT persons one option: to remain celibate and not express their God-given sexuality.

Rogers spends some pages in this chapter going through recent court cases having to do with same-sex marriage (if you want a much more thorough account, read William Stacy Johnson’s “A Time to Embrace“), and also includes an in-depth look at some of the ways that James Dobson and Focus on the Family has sought to promote a case for male gender superiority and privilege, as well as his beliefs of homosexuality that directly go against commonly accepted science of the day.

In addition to the rhetoric of Dobson, there has also been violent rhetoric used against the LGBT community. He quotes televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who in 1994, said the following to his audience:

“I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry…And I’m gonna be blunt and plain, if one ever looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and God he died…In case anybody doesn’t know, God calls it an abomination” (101).

Homophobia, something I’ve experienced in some unfortunate ways recently, is driven by fear, ignorance and is an attempt to dehumanize a group of people who are seen as “other.” In the remaining pages of the chapter, Rogers shares some poignant stories of some of the LGBT couples he’s engaged with and developed meaningful friendships with over the years. I can echo many of his words when I think of some of the people whom I respect deeply and admire, who are both gay and Christian. I’ve learned so much from my LGBT brothers and sisters about how to live a life that seeks to follow after Christ.

Rogers quotes the late Lewis Smedes, a former professor at Fuller Seminary, when he was arguing for the full acceptance of LGBT persons in the church today. Smedes recalled a line from an old hymn, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea.” There is a similar line in William Sloane Coffin’s “Letters to a Young Doubter.” In a letter discussing issues related to LGBT persons, Coffin writes, “It’s always a good time to change your mind when to do so will widen your heart.” From the first time I heard that, I thought it was such a beautiful way to think about this issue, and so many others. I think it’s similar to the idea of wanting to err on the side of love and grace. As Christians, we should be people who are seeking to have wide hearts – hearts that can witness to the vastness and wideness of God’s rich mercy, grace and love. Rogers ends the chapter this way:

“There are gay and lesbian people in most of our churches. When they can be full and equal members we will all be blessed. The possibility that we can fully include all of our members in the life of the church is within reach. It requires only that we be true to the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith” (108).

I’m going to include, at the end of each of these posts, a link to an article written by Real Live Preacher, on the issue of homosexuality. I’ve always loved his writing, and I hope you will too. In his post, “Fractured Family of Men,” he shares a touching story of observing two gay men in a bar.