In the midst of craziness, but I had to check this out...

Read this article by Fuller's own Kara Powell, if you're interested for the future, or have ever gone on a short-term missions trip. It raises some important issues that we as Westernized Christians who do these trips must contend with and be honest about. I loved going to Africa this summer, but I did struggle with the real "help" I was providing. It's one reason I decided to help sponsor one of the children in Ilula: so I can remain connected in some way with their community...I am also wanting to take a trip this summer somewhere (possibly Cambodia, Zambia, or Venezuela)...this would also be for school credit, but this article reminds me of the things that I wrestled with in my Incarnation and Mission class last quarter, and how I need to consider the needs of the people that we seek to serve before my own desire to feel "helpful."

This is also why my "project" (for lack of a better term) at my church...not the Kingdom Assignment (as dubbed) but something I've been working on before that... is something that I've become passionate about...an entire church community seeking regular, consistent time with the downtrodden and oppressed, welcoming them into community and engaging in mutual exchanges with them. This is all very vague and cryptic, but i don't have the time (or energy :( ) to explain. I will post on this again soon, in hopes that people out there in the wide world of cyberspace will pass on wisdom, encouragement, criticism, etc.

new look. new assignment.

My blog got a makeover this week. Even though I still have no clue what I'm doing. I need help with making my blog more reader-friendly. Anyone out there willing to help?

It's been an eventful week thus far...this weekend my friend Kyle from Texas is coming to CA to go skiing w/ me and some friends at Mammoth. Way excited.



The interim pastor at Lake Avenue Church (my church Warehouse's big brother church, came to preach for us last Sunday night, about God and money. He talked a lot about stewardship and the importance of recognizing our money as not belonging to us but to God, and living accordingly. He then went on to ask for volunteers from the audience...I was one of them. He handed each of us a 100$ bill and said, "You can take this money if you realize that a) this is God's money, not yours, b) you can do whatever you want w/ it, so long as it serves to further the kingdom of God, and c) you must report back to the church in 60 days what I did w/ the money."

So now I'm on a Kingdom Assignment. There's four of us from my church hub that volunteered, so we have 400$ pooled together. Anyone have any ideas of what we can do?

what a night to finally turn on the Olympics.

Lindsey Jacobellis was in a clear route to victory in the first ever Olympic women's snowboard cross. She had survived some very tough competition in the previous runs, she fought her way to the lead after coming from the far side of the track to cut in front of everyone, and two of the trailers ended up wiping out bad (one left the mountain on a stretcher). She had a commanding lead by the home stretch, no one was close; she only had to coast for the gold. Then she did a method air on the last jump to show off for the crowd. Then she fell. And she ended up getting the silver.

Jerry Seinfeld comes to mind: In the Olympics, gold is great, of course; bronze is at least something. But silver is like the Committee saying, "Congratulations. You're the first loser. No one lost better than you."

My dad also comes to mind: Don't showboat. Don't hog the ball; don't be afraid to use the backboard; play it safe. Jacobellis could've used my dad's help last night.

This afternoon I'm recovering from a 4-hour marathon Ultimate frisbee excursion. And beginning work on my Gospels paper. Hopefully I can stay awake.

(btw... this is my first post w/ a pic! Quite a moment for blogging history. Hopefully it turns out.)

some notes from the volf conference.

1. Theology is for a way of life. We only speak of God at the point of intersection between God and humanity. Theology guides the church into a way of viewing the Christian faith in the context of our tradition and particular practices. It is intended to be a relevant practice; often theology refuses to be relevant. Volf seeks to maintain relevance by speaking about how God relates to particular issues of our world.

2. Is theology "systematic"? Theology helps us to see how things "fit" together; it aids our understanding of Christianity in that it provides consistency to our beliefs. But we must be careful about this... our Scriptures aren't neat and orderly like we would like them to be, and we shouldn't attempt to cram everything into the same suitcase of theology...yet we can't leave these things behind, either! Volf suggests letting them "dangle out of the suitcase," or, taking these things as carry-ons luggage. The complex things of the faith are seen as resources and not competitors to our theology. This requires patience, and humility, as well as a respect for our Scripture.

3. Christians are in the precarious position of attempting to avoid both sectarianism (by defining ourselves as what the world is NOT) and radical accomodation (reshaping our faith based on the surrounding culture). This is where Volf's(admittedly messy) idea of "embrace" (opening ourselves to the "other") and "double vision" (Attempting to see/understand the world through the "other's" eyes)can be helpful tools for theology. It is good for Christians to enter into the world, into the "pluralistic marketplace," and with an attitude of humility and respect, attempt to both proclaim and learn.

4. Volf is a pacifist, but he does not shy away (as many Christians do) from the idea of a God who seeks justice. God in his holiness demands justice, and becomes violent in reponse... that violence being directed towards the violence of humanity. Volf speaks about justice in terms of the violence that we invoke towards one another-- and that there will be a "leveling" of the playing field one day. God is patient with those who perpetrate violence, and does everything he can to penetrate their hearts (e.g. die for them on a cross). Yet the incessance of perpetrators, combined with the impatience of the victims who cry out, "How long, o Lord?" allows the possibility/justification for a divine violence. (Volf is hopeful, however, that God's mercy (invoked by the perpetrator's surrender) will be the last word.)

5. Christians, however, follow the model of Christ and submit to the violence of the world, and in doing so enacting violence upon violence. This is the only option for us; seeking justice through violence is in the hands of God alone; we do not take up the sword. (We must also consider how we perpetrate violence of various kinds--by excluding others, unjust economic systems, pride and ignorance, racism and prejudice, insistence on a Western perspective, refusing to show love to the least of these, etc.-- and repent.)


6. Indifference is a scary thing; Volf states that those who are indifferent to God, even as a self-proclaimed "Christian," is farther away from God than the staunch atheist (e.g. Nietzche), who takes God seriously enough to deny him! Indifference is a drug that numbs us from "feeling," from loving.

7. God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. There is no exit from God's relationship to us.

8. Volf spoke on atonement theories a little bit: There are two traditional views popular today: the substitutionary atonement theory (e.g. Anselm), and the identification theory (e.g. like Abelard). (Christus Victor is closely related to the former; think Narnia.) These are traditional conservative and liberal understandings, respectively. Volf likes the term inclusive substitution; Christ performs a substitutionary act in which we are present with him at the cross. (echo of Paul: "I have been crucified w/ Christ") In an important sense, the violence rendered to Christ was rendered to us as well. In some sense, therefore, we do identify with Christ, although it is not a mere identification. (Complicated idea, I know. What do you expect from atonement theories?)

9. Chew on this: God takes the anger of God onto God.

10. The church has an important role in His plan for the world's redemption. Yet the Gospel remains above the church--thankfully, considering the number of times the church has failed the Gospel in our history. Volf states (and I share this sentiment) that his experience with the church would not lead to a faith in God; it is his confrontation with the Gospel that has resulted in faith.

We also had "breakout" groups during the conference; mine discussed social justice, Volf, and emergent. I have some thoughts from that convo, but I'll save them for later.

sick.

So the doctor says I have a colon infection. How exciting is that?

As a result, I haven't really been myself since I've gotten home. (I felt great, thankfully, during the trip, just bad before and after.) I'm on antibiotics and I'm going to try and go to the beach tonight w/ some of the Fullerites. Prayers are appeciated.

Attempts to define "emergent."

During the conference I had more than a few conversations that went something like this:

Josh: "There is a lot of confusion today in the church about what 'emergent' is. "

Random emergent guy: "Well, I guess that includes me, too."

(This was quickly followed by Josh simutaneously experiencing both a sense of confused ignorance and of warm identification.)

To highlight this, Wikipedia (which is a wonderful resource that I am only partially familiar with)has put a cleanup tag on the "emerging church" article. The article's too "messy." Go figure.

Take a look at some of the editorial comments-- just to be amused, or perhaps to help clean the article up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Emerging_Church

Back from the Volf conference.

So I'm posting again... I just got back from the emergent conference, feeling very "emergent," although quite tired and having a barrel-full of work to do. To quickly sum, here are some convictions I've come to from this week:

1) New York City is an amazing phenomenon and landmark of American history. And it's just stinkin' cool. I found my great-g'father's manuscript from when he got off the boat at Ellis Island, I looked up the Statue of Liberty's dress, I visited St. Paul's Chapel, Washington's pew, the WTC site, Times Square, saw the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, watched the Super Bowl in Greenwich.... all great fun.

2) My blog sucks and needs pictures. And postings, for that matter.

3) I am a selfish American bastard who is very thankful that God is patient with him.

4) Miroslav Volf has more intellect in his snot-rockets than most of us...yet he still manages to be incredibly humble and to have a generous spirit.

5) There are amazing people doing amazing things in churches and leadership boards around the country...which I would do well to remember when I'm about ready to cast American churches into Gehenna.

6) Going on long trips without my CDs is a bad idea.

7) It will take a long time before I am able to process this week fully. Hopefully getting into the blog conversation with others from the conference will help.

And in that vein, I plan to start posting more regularly... so more to come soon.

Mammon!

I'm taking (finally) a class by Marianne Meye Thompson this upcoming winter--a class on the Gospels. She posted the following on her webpage:

http://www.fuller.edu/sot/faculty/thompson_marianne/cp_content/homepage/mammon.pdf

My day getting caught up on the blog world.

I'm not really good at this blogging thing, as noted by the frequency of my posts. But after spending the day yesterday with Emergent guru and urban ministry extraordinaire Rudy Carrasco (if he read that characterization, he would likely wince a little) I have become inspired to read up. Actually, I've been stalling from getting my classwork done. I'm convinced the "blog-world" wouldn't exist if it wasn't for college and grad students procrastinating on their papers and projects.

I really enjoyed my time with Rudy. Always cool to meet leaders who are honest with themselves and others. And the work going down at Harambee in Pasadena is first-rate incarnational ministry and discipleship. I'm excited to see where my community goes as a result of their work. It'll also be cool to see him again in Yale in February, since he's also planning to see Miroslav Volf and company at the Emergent Conversation.

So, check out Rudy's blog at http://urbanonramps.com/ ...his page has more links than a sausage factory, so this can keep you busy... ya know, if you have a paper due or something.

He posted yesterday on an article regarding evolution, creation, and theistic evolutionary theories . A good synopsis of the current debate. I particularly enjoyed the quote by St. Augustine at the very end of the article:

"'If we come to read anything in Holy Scripture,' he wrote 16 centuries ago, 'that is in keeping with the faith in which we are steeped, capable of several meanings, we must not by obstinately rushing in, so commit ourselves to any one of them that, when perhaps the truth is more thoroughly investigated, it rightly falls to the ground and we with it.'"

See? Even Augustine was postmodern!

(Btw... why is it so hard for people to admit that they don't understanding everything? Seems to me that if God were God, there might be some things which He understands that we are not meant to understand, or at least are incapable of grasping. Why do we have a need to control God, packaging Him in such a way so as to confine Him to our own limited understandings? This is surely reductionism at its most insidious. To fundies I say, Let God be free, damnit. Let him bowl you over with His radical love and grace. Let him confront you in the dark corners of your heart which you have felt comfortable in distinguishing from your life of faith.

Augh. This point has been run into the dirt by others already. I digress.)

I also found on Emergent Village an article which gives a great summary of "neo-evangelicalism" or "progressive evangelicalism" or whatever you want to call it. This is a simple description of the shifting of views taking place in the church and in seminaries in the US. If if resonates with you, congratulations. You're well on your way to becoming labeled as a flaming liberal by ill-informed people.

This is more rambling than anything else. I guess that means I'm becoming a dime-a-dozen, crazy, hot-headed emergent blogger.

Or, I'm just really not wanting to do my homework.

Harambe! Wal-Mart! Accountability!

Hey, I'm back! I didn't die, actually. Close... I've been at seminary. (j/k). So the last few months have been nuts, and Sam and Kevin stopped harassing me to post again (they figured out that I was too lazy for their pleas to have an effect) and I've been pretty much AWOL from the Internet in general since I don't have a connection directly to my computer anymore (I'm now using my roommate's laptop). Not to mention that I briefly considered this week defecting to myspace after "discovering" this phenomenon for myself, for the first time. I knew it was big; I guess I didn't realize how many people I knew were on it. I may defect eventually; as of now I don't care enough to do so. A cancelled trip to Mexico, as part of a project for my "incarnation and mission" class (not completely cancelled, we're leaving tomorrow at noon instead of earlier tonight), gave me the opportunity to finally post again, surely much to the delight of all. Tomorrow a group of friends and I will head to Tijuana and play with chicken-pox-infected orphans for a solid day. I couldn't imagine a better use of my time. Seriously.

There have been lots of themes the past few weeks-- the latest one being capitalism. In the last few years I've gone from being an implicit supporter of free-market capitalism (although I suppose all of us, regardless of where we stand, are implicit supporters by virtue of our patronage and received benefits of the capitalist system) to believing that capitalism itself is inherenly evil and is beyond the will of God, and that while we shouldn't go forming separate societies or calling for a deposing of our government in favor of communism, I thought that Christians need to be taking the idea of shared resources as portrayed by the early church (see Acts 2) more seriously.

This week I think I'm coming to a more balanced perspective on capitalism, or as Rudy Gallescos (spelling of last name??!!), who works for the Harambe Center here in Pasadena and has been a national advisor and advocate for issues considering urban poverty (and, I might add, would fit in well at any emergent event you could think of) said, "Capitalism is merely in sync with the theological concept of ex nihilo." (Referencing Barth and company? Now you have my attention.) He believes, as a Latin-American male who has worked with and among urban poor for over two decades, that seeing capitalism as bad is only half the story; captialism has the ability to empower people, to show people that they have the capability to create a living for themselves, to give definition to one's own self-perception, as created in the image of God (it's difficult to stay hopeful amidst desperate conditions if you do not believe that there is indeed a way out, that isn't dependent on what someone can give you. Capitalism, when properly applied, provides the opportunity for economic hope, which in turn provides education, food, health care, and ultimately dignity.). Rudy likes the words from one of Bush's speeches referencing "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Can we hold the poor to a high standard? Rudy admits this is difficult, especially for the kind of the people he was lecturing to on Monday, namely, people who were primarily of Anglo-American descent, who have largely come from affluent backgrounds. Yet there must be a standard up to which the poor must rise, he said. True empowerment is not found in handouts and cash; it is found with increased accountability. Using the system as an excuse for one's misfortunes often becomes another form of racism or bigotry in itself, keeping the poor outside of the range of self-sufficiency and making them increasingly dependent.

It's difficult to argue with a man with such experience with working with the poor, from a minority perspective. Especially since my accumulated knowledge of economic theory is distressingly sparse. (He recommended a book called "The Mystery of Capital" by De Soto. I haven't read it, but I plan to. Y'all should check it out, too, and lemme know your thoughts.) Keep in mind that he was defending capitalism to a room full of people that he knew, when they heard the very word "capitalism" they instantly conjured up pictures in their mind of guys in black suits and ties with little horns coming out of their heads and dollar signs for eyeballs and rolling around in greenbacks like a pig in the mud. This included myself. Yet he was merely attempting to present another side to an issue that is mainly polarized into "good" and "evil" categories to a particular audience (I imagine that if he was speaking at Liberty University he would have sounded like a flaming liberal!) Because of this, I found his honesty and bluntness refreshing and hopeful, even though I don't think I can share his views completely. (Maybe. I dunno. )

This is where I am right now: Capitalism is not inherently evil. It's not an evil structure in and of itself. It has immense power. This power can be harnassed for much good, and also for much evil. The issue, for both the common people and for the management of MNC's and other businesses, is accountability: People in allowing their religious beliefs and morals to dictate their spending habits and financial activities (not separating the two worlds) and in believing that they have inherent worth in the eyes of God and in that finding the strength to use the gifts that they've been given; MNC's in creating jobs and opportunities for all people and families in their community, and to submit to necessary regulation and control by the government. My theological response is this: Human beings are created in the likeness of God, but for some reason also we all have this tendency to do selfish and bad things, which the church calls sin. This tendency we can't get away from, whether we like it or not. Furthermore, when a bunch of humans get together for the sake of self-promotion, evil can become systemic and compounded, and can create oppressive situations such as poverty, despair and dysfunction for those who are left in the wake of such a group's greed. This must be controlled somehow. Unrestricted capitalism is not the epitome of the American dream. There is, as the Bible teaches, such thing as "too much of a good thing;" especially when it comes at the expense of others. Christians, however, have been transformed and renewed in their sin by the Holy Spirit. Even though we haven't lost that tendency completely, when we join together as a group, somehow the image of God, in which we were all created individually, becomes better defined (assuming that the Holy Spirit is being actively discerned.) The church-the communally-incarnated body of Christ, therefore, should be at the forefront at insisting accountability for both the poor and the rich, petitioning the Christians within each group to take heed of the call of the Spirit.

In closing, I watched the Wal-Mart documentary tonight. (It's not so much a documentary as an all-out frontal assault on the world's largest MNC. Quick SAT analogy: "Farenheit 9-11" is to W what "The High Cost of Low Price" is to W-M.) Propoganda? Absolutely. Biased? Quite. Inaccurate? Perhaps in parts. Important? You betcha. Go get a copy. http://www.walmartmovie.com
This is no two-bit indie-doc; this is quality stuff. I don't doubt its one-sidedness in the least, but it's real hard to argue with the numbers (over half of Wal-Mart employee's children are on government assistance??!- gt www.ourfuture.org and petition your government officials to change this!) and the plethora of personal testimonies that the movie boasts. We demand accountability to our governments because they are powerful and have the ability to dominate, which we all believe is against human freedom. This is why we have democracy, and checks and balances. Wal-Mart has an annual net revenue that exceeds the combined GNP of many nations, and has the lives of millions of employees worldwide in its pocket--so why is it seemingly "Un-American" to demand regulation? Why do conservatives give more credit (and freedom) to our business leaders than our leaders of government? I'm not asking for Wal-Mart to perish (that would cause even more job loss and eventual poverty at this point), merely to be held accountable in being ethical about its business practices, and not being allowed to have a free pass anymore. Christians should and must take front-row seats in this "calling-out".

Now, I'm out.