Creating A Worldview

A TLS blog

This is an ongoing series of blogs, written about my experiences at Trinity Lutheran Seminary.

I've found that being in a seminary of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) has some distinct qualities. It means that my worldview is going to be stretched, and that's a good thing.

In my first semester, I've experienced the following:

   • A trip to a Jewish synagogue

   • A trip to an Islamic mosque

   • Signed up for an urban immersion trip to Detroit, Michigan

   • Read and reported on books by Muslims and theistic evolutionists

   • Worship in bare feet and a walk on a prayer labyrinth

   • Worship at an inner-city church

   •  Challenging conversations in class on an almost daily basis

I've been stretched in my faith. I'm not bothered by this. I guess I'm finally old enough and wise enough to know that I'm not really that wise at all. I have plenty to learn, and this seems to be the place—and these seem to be the experiences—to make that learning happen.

The Cafeteria And The Cosi

Truth can be found in strange places. That strange place for me was in a seminary cafeteria as I ate my lunch today.

Let me try and paint a quick picture here to explain.

Our seminary's cafeteria is small. It reflects the smaller attendance that is typical these days at a specialized higher-education facility like a seminary. The lunch offering is small. There is nothing remarkable about the way the food is arranged, or even about the food itself. It's pretty average. After all, it's just a cafeteria.

Now compare this with the Cosi deli across the street. Cosi is comparable to a Panera Bread or maybe a Quizno's. In delicatessens like these, everything has been analyzed with an exquisite eye for detail: from the way the line will form at the register to the style of lighting to the placement of the soda tap to the style of chairs and tables. No stone has been left unturned. Granted, all of that nice ambience comes at a modest cost. Let's just say it's no cafeteria.

And so I looked at the people eating in the cafeteria with me, and I realized that sometimes we don't really want all of that wonderful ambience and atmosphere that's found in a nice restaurant. Sometimes we just want a plain turkey sandwich and a small bag of chips. Sometimes we don't necessarily care if upscale, trendy music is playing softly in the background. Sometimes we simply want simple.

For those of us who work in the church, we often find ourselves trying to be a Cosi. We want our entryways to look inviting, and we want every detail of worship, from the music to the multimedia, to be flawlessly polished. In all the effort, sometimes all people want is a simple cafeteria meal.

So what's the balance?

While aesthetics certainly shouldn't be ignored, we also should remember that the church has always been a refuge for the weak and the poor, the insecure and the fragile. If you're really poor, you probably don't feel 'welcome' in an upscale delicatessen. While a church should be a nice, clean, and inviting facility, a church should always remember the 'cafeteria' factor. Let the building be simple and average enough to represent everyone—the rich and the poor, the upstanding and the outcast, the lost and the found. 

Quote From The Blogosphere...

Here's a quote I love from a man named Russell Moore, who is Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I say to my non-Christian friends and neighbors, if you want to see the gospel of Christ, the gospel that has energized this church for two thousand years, turn off the television. The grinning cartoon characters who claim to speak for Christ don’t speak for him. Find the followers who do what Jesus did. Find the people who risk their lives to carry a beaten stranger to safety. Find the houses opened to unwed mothers and their babies in crisis. Find the men who are man enough to be a father to troubled children of multiple ethnicity and backgrounds.
And find a Sunday School class filled with children with Down Syndrome and cerebral palsy and fetal alcohol syndrome. Find a place where no one considers them “weird” or “defective,” but where they joyfully sing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”
That might not have the polish of television talk-show theme music, but that’s the sound of bloody cross gospel.

Now that rings pretty true to me.

Taken from http://www.russellmoore.com/2012/08/17/pat-robertson-vs-the-spirit-of-adoption/

Before You Judge Me...

Before you judge me, know that I don't like to consider myself Republican, Democrat, Independent, or otherwise. I would love to think I vote for every candidate (local and national) based on their specific qualifications and ideas.

With that said, here's the funnniest Facebook post I've read this week, in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's ruling to uphold the Obama Administration's Affordable Care Act.
Note: They sarcastically posted this under a big 'thumbs-up' to Obamacare logo:

"NO... it is horrible! I am a republican and i hate the idea that people now dont have to worry... you all are socialist !!!! I am going to now move to Canada where they have a universal health care and i clearly dont understand what i am talking about! Also, woman suck! And I know that this so called "global warming" is a lie you made up to scare us! USA USA! errr... i think i forgot to mention GOD too... yeah, GOD! You are not a true christian now!"

This quote really exemplifies why I try to avoid talking politics at all. People just end up ranting and saying things that are insensitive and divisive.

Political Etiquette On Facebook

In the hours following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act first passed into law in 2010, Facebook was the place to voice one's opinions on the matter. There's an old joke about a bunch of men at the local diner fixing the world's problems over coffee. My friends, that's exactly what we are seeing on Facebook: Everybody has an opinion, and, yes, their opinion is the right one.

Should Facebook be used this way? Some would say, 'why not?' Others would say that it exemplifies the beauty of free speech in our country. Others would contend that it opens up dialog and discourse. I'm annoyed by it all, honestly. I'm finding myself judging people because they aired their opinion on a complex political issue. By posting your opinion on a hot-button topic that affects everyone, you're taking a chance. There will be plenty of people who will agree with you, and plenty who will not. Are you willing to alienate yourself that way? To be a divisive voice amongst your 'friends'?

CNN's Belief Blog ran a great follow-up article on this health care reform issue. John Blake, the article's author, notes that Jesus "was a healer, a provider of universal health care, a man of compassion who treated those with preexisting medical conditions." Now we certainly don't know what Christ would think about individual mandates, but we know what the New Testament says about him. There is a moral dimension to this debate, and at its heart is how the nation should best help "its 'least of these,' an estimated 50 million Americans who can’t afford health insurance, as well as those who could go broke or die because they can’t afford medical care." Most agree that health care should be widely available and also affordable, but Christians who quote the same Jesus come up with very opposite conclusions.

And these 'conclusions' end up on Facebook.

My point here is to say that certain opinions should be guarded carefully. Lots of very experienced, intelligent voices are weighing in on these legal decisions. Should we trust our government? Maybe not, but we should trust our God who is over all. And ranting opinions on a controversial topic will not bring anything but more controversy and debate. Instead of worrying about how our own health care may or may not be affected, we should be more concerned—every day—with all of those who are without.

Community

A TLS blog

In my next series of blogs, I plan to write about my experiences at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. I will be starting Greek this summer, then taking a full semester of classes beginning in late August. This will be a very new and challenging experience for me, and there's going to be plenty to write about.






Every Wednesday evening, the families that live in the Trinity Seminary apartments have a community dinner. Each family grills their own meat and brings a side item to share with the group. It's a very simple idea, yet it holds so much goodness and power. We gather and talk. We cook. We drink. We eat some burgers. We relax and enjoy a nice, summer evening. Our kids play together. Even when we don't feel like being 'social,' we gather. We gather, not because it's required—we gather because we need each others' company and support.

I'm always cautious about how and when I use the word 'blessing,' but I have to say that it's been a real blessing to live with this group of fellow believers who are committing their lives to church ministry. It's a blessing to share housing in a close-knit community. It's a blessing just to share food every Wednesday evening.

And so we gather. We usually don't even talk about God or church or anything like that. We gather and just let the community presence help us. While many people in life withdraw and resist opening their lives to others, I've been reminded that community and friendship are so important. We need this. We were created for this.

We Haven't Yet Arrived, But We Know We've Left Where We Were

A quote from a book caught my eye recently. It's a book I read a few years ago, called unChristian. It details research into the perceptions of Christianity from the point of view of sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds. And those perceptions aren't good. Still, what caught my eye was hope. The leaders of the Christian Church in the United States have hope for the future of the faith. Despite all the hypocrisy, apathy, and animosity that pervade Christianity, these men and women have hope.

Here's the quote that caught my eye:
"My dream is that thirty years from now, the church will be known more by what it is for that what it is against."  
Dr. Rick Warren, Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church and best-selling author of A Purpose Driven Life


Then another quote got my attention:
"I have faith that in the future we will make better decisions on what issues we think are important."   Mike Foster, president of Ethur; founder of XXXChurch.com

And yet another:
"Christianity is and has been quite a remarkable mess, and that's surely not going to change in the next thirty years. As for Christians, well, we really have just one thing going for us. We have publicly declared that we are desperately in need of Another to give us his righteousness, to complete us, and to live in us."  Andy Crouch, journalist and author

All of these quotes ring so true to me. As a full-time employee at a church, I am acutely aware of the many ways that Christians 'get it wrong.' Still...I believe we can do better. I wouldn't be wasting my time in this field of work if I didn't believe that.

We will always prove to be hypocrites. We'll always wrongly judge others. We'll continue to be selfish and self-centered too much of the time. We're human. But we'll also own up to those mistakes and press on toward our goal of being better people. People more like Jesus.

A man I met recently said it like this: We haven't yet arrived, but we know we've left where we were.

Consumer Quandaries

There's a nice little printer that I use at work. It's a wireless laserjet printer, and it's only about two years old. And it's now at the end of its life. All the buttons are blinking, which indicates that a service call is needed.

I suppose there's a "service" number to call, but we all know a maintenance call would cost three to four times the value of the printer (when it was brand-new, nonetheless). So I can do one of three things: I can call the printer repairman, whose costs probably include round-trip plane tickets from Madagascar. I can chuck it to the curb, condemning it to eternity in a landfill. Or, I can try and find a recycling center on the other side of town and hope they can reuse even one of its four-thousand parts.

I pretty much hate all of my options.

Herein lies my problem. As a consumer-conscious person, I hate the idea of buying a new plastic product rather than fixing the existing one. But I have to buy the new plastic product. I have to go out and spend money that shouldn't be spent on another cheaply-made printer that will end up breaking in two years. This is 21st-century America.

I guess I'm young enough to be used to it. Something breaks. Go buy a new something. And on the cycle goes. Still, I don't like this cycle. I'd like to be able to call someone when a product malfunctions and have the product fixed. This printer barely has any dust on it, and I'm about to get rid of it. Something just seems wrong with this picture.

Our landfills will continue to fill with a world of cheap plastic stuff that is not worth the cost of a repair. It's kind of sad.

Making Sense Of Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is a holy day for Christians. It commemorates Jesus's entry into Jerusalem about a week before his crucifixion and resurrection. The event was recorded in all four canonical gospels and has much symbolism tied to it. Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, which is often associated with peace, in contrast to a king entering a city on a war horse. In many of the lands of the ancient near east, people would lay branches or their garments on the ground, covering the path for someone of the highest honor to pass through. According to the gospels, this is what the people of Jerusalem did for Jesus as he entered their city. I say all of this only to note that there's much meaning, tradition, and significance that accompanies Palm Sunday.

And still...

And still I find myself feeling a bit out of place and awkward when we distribute palms at my church and 'process' into the sanctuary on Palm Sunday, as if we were welcoming Jesus on the spot. It's not that I don't respect the significance of the historical event. I actually love the meaning behind the pomp and circumstance of it all. Yet I feel awkward, thinking that most Christians wave palm branches without understanding much of why they're doing it at all. At the least, it feels like a worn-out, obligatory tradition that has lost much of its meaning.

And my confusion is compounded by the fact that Christians also engage in plenty of other weird traditions every week, like communion, that I don't have any problems with. Many Christians take communion every week. They walk up to their pastor, take a small piece of bread, dip it into a chalice of wine, then eat it. Many of those same Christians don't really understand why they're doing it. They don't know that communion is associated with the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples.

And still...

And still I don't have a problem with that. So what if they don't fully understand the sacrament of communion? Forgiveness doesn't have to be fully understood. That's why I'm okay with that 'tradition' in the church. So why do I find myself so agitated with Palm Sunday? By my own logic, I should get bristled about putting up a Christmas tree. What's the point of that, anyway?

So we'll wave our palms tomorrow. We'll celebrate Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. And I'll feel like a goober, waving a palm around as if I've been transported back to Jerusalem two-thousand years ago. In contrast, communion still makes sense to me. Baptism still makes sense to me. There's a holiness and power in those sacraments. For those who have a difficult time forgiving themselves, these are tangible ways to receive a forgiveness that's often hard to receive. Waving palm branches seems so much more obscure and irrelevant.

Spiritual journeys are complicated. We're all looking for meaning in life. And we all find truth and meaning in different places. As I consider my own feelings and preferences, I'm reminded that we're all on a rough, messy spiritual journey that doesn't always make sense. Just like waving palm branches.

Why I Like "Glee"

While I may not be a full-blown "Gleek," I must admit there's something about this show that stirs my soul. The evidence came in a season-2 episode called "Never Been Kissed" (my wife and I gave up cable and are slowly playing catch-up with this series). Without explaining all the 'who's who' details, I'll summarize the episode by saying that a couple of the guys in Glee Club have been finding it very hard to make out with their girlfriends, who only want to kiss and continually halt them from going further. For these guys to handle this hormonal pressure, they find that they can think of something unsexy and abruptly 'cool off.' They begin thinking of their female football coach, the tomboyish Coach Beiste (yes, pronounced like 'Beast'). The girlfriends begin to suspect that they're thinking of Coach Beiste when they're making out. Not realizing their motives, the girls get jealous and begin to say off-the-cuff remarks to Coach Beiste. Their Glee Club teacher, Will, hears about this and then admonishes them for doing the very thing that the Glee Club is supposed to stand up against (discrimination of those on the 'outside'). He tells the guys to stop doing it and that they'll never tell Coach Beiste about it. When pushed as to why the guys on the football team have been acting so weird around her, Will tells Coach Beiste what the guys have been doing. She is heart-broken and decides to resign. Will goes to see Coach Beiste as she's cleaning out her office. He comforts her by saying he understands what she's going through, as he was also an outcast in high school. "I've never been kissed, Will," she says. "I'm 40 and I haven't taken those baby steps yet." Will tells her that she's beautiful and then gives her a kiss on the lips. The guys try to make things right by singing Coach Beiste a song at the conclusion of the episode, and she decides to stay.

This episode did something for me that previous episodes had not. I connected with its storyline on a personal level. Most of us can relate to being picked on in grade school, but what I really connected with was Will's willingness to chastise his Glee guys for doing something seemingly harmless. He wants them to examine their motives, remembering that they're viewed as outcasts, too, simply because they like to sing in the Glee Club.

Simple, but very profound.

I connect with what Will Schuester does because it's the very same thing that I attempt to do with my youth group at church—promoting acceptance at a heart level. The logic is that even thinking cruel thoughts about someone else is wrong. Maybe it's wrong because it allows a level of bigotry into your subconscious. Maybe it's wrong because what's in the mind tends to flow out of the mouth. Maybe we can't explain why, but we know it's just wrong.

In this episode, in particular, we see that words sting, and even the most harmless looks can cast a long shadow of judgment. This happens, too, with another student. Kurt is the only openly-gay student at the show's high school and is constantly harassed by the jocks on the football team. He finds a friend and ally in Blaine Warbler—a student in a competing glee club. By the end of the episode, Kurt is standing up for himself against his harasser, saying he's not going to change no matter how badly he's treated. There's something special about this sequence, too. The ability to stand up for one's personal convictions is very hard to do, especially in high school. Then frame that in light of being harassed for those convictions, and it would be almost impossible not to just give up and try to blend in with everyone else. Again, in my youth group I try to teach students to be themselves, but also to be willing to go against the crowd. I don't want them to try to rock boats, but I do want them to rise above an immature status quo.

This episode, more than any other, has turned me into a true fan of Glee. I admit, sometimes Glee sends mixed messages that contradict the real point of the show. But there's also many virtuous undertones that I truly appreciate. I love the heart and soul of Glee—to not be afraid to show who you are, and to bond (rather than fall apart) in the face of opposition. And while I didn't expect to find such depth in Glee, I'm glad to say I've found it there.

Super Bowl Salvation

Photo by Scott Nellis

Street preachers....oh, how I loathe thee. As I walked through downtown Indianapolis, I saw a spattering of these pharisaical evangelists with their megaphones and brimstone signs. Indy's Super Bowl Village was the prime spot for these opportunistic preachers to do their thing.

Disgrace. And un-grace, too.

It's hard to fathom that people still believe that condemnation and judgment trump sincere love. I suppose these gentlemen feel that their duty as Christians is to take the Saul-of-Tarsus approach and convict people of their sinfulness, lest they end up in hell. But street signs and megaphones? Really? I've read my gospels, and I don't remember Jesus ever using those tactics. I wanted to tell them that I'm about to enter seminary and I've committed most of the sins on their sign. Then I wanted to ask them where that left me. Doomed to hell? I know this: there was no mention of forgiveness, grace, or love. They surely have missed the point.

It's kind of pointless to write and rant about such things. These guys have always been around, and always will be around. But still... They don't honestly think that soapboxing in Super Bowl Village is going to win any souls? Apparently they do.

Post With Caution

I was reading a blog recently by a pastor named Jonathan Martin, http://pastorjonathanmartin.com/. He wrote some very interesting thoughts about social media in relation to ministry (though his thoughts apply to any area of vocation). Here's the excerpt:

Last year, I contributed a chapter to a book for Dr. Raymond F. Culpepper called The Great Commission Connection.  I was asked to write about the connection between the great commission and media, with a special emphasis on social media.  In it I wrote at length about not only the promise, but the peril of social media, especially with the ability to so quickly speak destructive words within the Body of Christ without safeguards of Biblical accountability.  I tried to address this constructively in the broader construct of a theology of online life.  To quote myself:
When we have such powerful tools at our disposal, making it possible for us to broadcast our every thought and whim to the world with such ease, the key to using media in our mission may lie as much in our restraint as in our creativity.  Within a matter of seconds, I have the capability to share my opinions about any conceivable topic or issue with the world in a matter of seconds.  But just because I can, doesn’t mean that I should…
I try to heed my own counsel and be cautious about what issues I do in fact choose to address in this kind of format.

Jonathan's words resonate deeply with me. I, too, have found myself with an aversion to Facebook posts and tweets that hastily communicate things that wouldn't be said face-to-face. I agree with him that it's just too easy to hit "post" and send your thoughts out to the world. In my work, people have left our church over issues that could have been resolved in a face-to-face meeting, but instead a train of emails set off a firestorm of hurt and misinterpreted motives. In fact, I hope to share this topic in future conversations, as blogs can cause the same problems as Facebook posts, emails, and tweets. And I, too, have found myself explaining why I said something in an email and what I meant by it. It's just not worth the confusion and trouble.

To reiterate, Jonathan said, "When we have such powerful tools at our disposal, making it possible for us to broadcast our every thought and whim to the world with such ease, the key to using media in our mission may lie as much in our restraint as in our creativity." In other words, watch what you say. This is truer now than ever. If the subject of an email is of significant importance, then that topic probably deserves a phone call. If you find yourself posting and tweeting about controversial matters, whether it be politics, religion, or even the antics of someone in the news, then pause. Stop for a moment and consider how your post will be received by those on your list of "friends." Will you alienate people? Will you offend people? Is this the type of comment that you would share at dinner with your friends?

I read posts on Facebook all the time that I find very...well, let's say 'enlightening.' Most of these posts are random, spur-of-the-moment thoughts. If these thoughts are simply that you're watching CSI tonight, then you're fine. But—and this is a very big but—if you find yourself posting your thoughts on a hot-button topic, then beware. These are the exact thoughts that will get you in the most trouble. If you're truly impassioned about a cause, then write your senator; don't post it on Facebook or Twitter. You will only ostracize yourself and cause others to question your motives.

The Evolution Of Reading In A Digital World

So I've been doing a lot of online reading lately, along with my standard two to three books at my bedside. I'm starting to notice the stark differences between the former and latter, and I'm finding myself a little torn. Every time I think of buying a Kindle or Nook and saving myself a lot of bookshelf space, I run across a dilemma that makes me want to regress to the pre-digital days.

My Digital Dilemma
I'll try to explain my dilemma by example. Every time I start to read a great online article or blog, I find my attention seized by another linked article within the text. Does this happen to you? The best recent example I can find is by a blogger and pastor named JR Forasteros. He has a great review of the new, controversial book Real Marriage by Mark and Grace Driscoll. I loved his review and thought it was very insightful. Still, reading the first paragraph of the review was like having my attention thrown in a washing machine. His review exemplifies what I've been doing here, which is what every blogger and news site seems to be doing...embedding links to anything and everything within their article. It's hard enough to carve out time to read in our advertising and media-saturated world. Now it's becoming harder still. I, like many young men, have the attention span of a 5-year-old. This is especially true when it comes to watching TV, walking through the movie section at Target, or looking something up on the Internet. Here's another example: Click over to AOL and try to search for something. Their Web page is filled with so much distracting, albeit amusing, fodder that you'll forget what you ever wanted to search for in the first place. I say all of this because I find it ironic, and a bit frightening, that I can't read an entire article without clicking on at least one or two links within that article before I'm finished. I get back to the first article and think, "What was this about again?"

This is the new norm. This is how Web sites track what your interests are and sell you stuff. This is how Facebook displays ads that interest you and Netflix knows just what movies and shows to recommend to you. Kind of feels like 1984, doesn't it? I'm not necessarily criticizing what bloggers and news sites are doing by embedding links to related topics. I'm just finding myself slowing down to analyze whether this is a good and helpful trend, rather than simply accepting it. As a society, we should continually slow down and analyze whether or not a new trend is useful, helpful, and, most importantly, good for us.

Let's face it...the digital revolution is altering us. It's changing the way we communicate (or the lack thereof), and it's changing the way we absorb information. So enjoy the technology, for sure. Just be sure to stop every now and then and think about what the technology is doing to you.

For My Own Curiosity  
Did you make it to the end of this blog without clicking any of the links above? Was it hard to come back to this blog after reading those others?