I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer asking myself the question: ‘What would a charismatic and incarnational faith look like?’ On the surface this is an easy question to answer and we could say that the incarnation means that we would be the means through which the power and spirit of God will flow into the world.
Yet this doesn’t address one of the key points of struggle I have in general with charismatic theology. This struggle is that the implicit model for understanding the world (and its interaction with the spiritual world) I see most charismatics functioning under the older model where people are pushed around by good/evil spiritual forces from some spiritual realm. I don’t see this as being an incarnational worldview but rather a view that looks to the heavens to explain the actions of the world around us.
Instead I see the incarnational model being one where the God of the Universe actually dwells within us (see Pentecost in Acts 2:1-21) and that it is through this indwelling that God works in the world. We see the spirit of God work through and out of Jesus in his ministry as he preached and healed those he came in contact with.It isn’t that God couldn’t do what he wishes without us, but that God has chosen to empower people with the Spirit of God to do God’s work in the world.
So my question might better be stated through asking how can we hold the reality of God’s incarnation within us as the primary means through which God desires to establish Heaven on earth when charismatic theology general tends to imply that we must call out to a God above who might or might not act? Can we allow space for the miraculous alteration of systems and structures that lift millions out of poverty or sickness? Can there be space for the sweat of God’s people to be seen as an act of God’s power equal with or surpassing healing or deliverance? Or are we content to us God’s power as a shortcut that lets us to not expand our ability to love? How can we affirm suffering, and suffering with others as a blessing (as Christ suffered and so shall we) when we exalt God’s healing and deliverance as the ultimate form of blessing?
The issue is deeper than the means by which God chooses to exercise his power in creation. I believe that if we don’t wrestle with questions like these the charismatic church will simply become a church full of people with similar problems and no diversity as they alienate those whom do not experience the “power” of God as articulated by a few. Then it will simply become a church for some, and not for all (which is my current hope).
If you have any thoughts or additional questions to add please leave them.
It’s a bit bizarre, but every now and then I find myself in one of those moods. Wondering what life would be like had I not walked away. After years of hard work I had achieved an incredibly unique situation, having access into a very closed off industry and getting offered several jobs every year to do whatever I wanted (magazines, event production, filming, etc). This was a deep honor, and amazing considering I wasn’t even 18 years old. Read the rest of this entry »
I know this is almost to awesome to handle. but the quote comes from a image my friend Ned posted to his twitter account. The photo I stumbled accross the next morning and thought that it was a match made to be.
I figure since I have a bunch of friends over at Bethel Seminary that I would post the courses I’m currently signed up to take over the next year. That way we might end up in some together!
Summer 2010: Doing Theology in a Global Context – GC 739 – 01
- Dr. Roberts & Dr. Stone | End of June SPF: Self in Community – SP 600 – 10
- Daniel D. Jass | End of July
Fall 2010: Discipleship in Community – DC 501 – 01
- Cionca | Monday 8-12 am Introduction to Pastoral Care – PC 501 – 01
- Leih | Monday 1-5 pm “Patron Saints” for Postmoderns – SP 707 – 01
- Armstrone | Tues 7-10:15 pm
Winter 2011: Effective Communication from Old Testament Genres: Eat This Text I – CP 743DI – 51
-Dr. Ridder | Online Cross-Cultural Church Planting – GC 672 – 01
- Dr. Stone | Thurs 8-10 pm
Spring 2011: Understanding Your Audience: Scanning the Crowd – CP 762 – 01
- Durie | Thurs 5:30-7:30 pm Systematic Theology III – TS 503 – 01
- Dr. Roberts | Thurs 1-5 pm Christian Social Ethics - TS 505 – 01
- Walker | Mon 1-5 pm
With all of this some you might be wondering how close I am to being done with all this school. Actually pretty close. As of tomorrow (after I give my sermon and turn in my paper) I will have 88 Credits done out of the 144 needed to graduate. Each of these courses is 4 credits, plus my internship ends June 15th and that adds another 4 credits to my load. This means this time next year I will have 132 credits done! With only 3 courses left towards my Masters of Divinity.
It has already been a long journey, but it is very exciting to feel like the end is quickly approaching. And to think that I am likely going to finish in only 3.5 years is pretty exciting as well.
A week and a half ago we had our very first meeting of Ignite on May 9th (this will be the monthly college rally for students in the twin cities and at substance church starting this fall). The whole idea of this night was to give a taste of what we hope to do this fall. This way we could get some good media to use in promotions, get some word of mouth buzz, and help us refine our approach.
The message from that night was recorded, and I believe it went pretty well. I would love your feedback (in the comments or via email). So please let me know what ya think of it! The scripture part at the beginning actually took place during worship before the announcements and my message. This was the first time I had a part in the entire production of a service (and not just the message). It is pretty cool how much creativity one can pour into that 75 minutes.
I hope you enjoyed it and found it encouraging. I got help writing the message from Mike Svoboda, awesome feedback from Mark Mellen and Bill Svoboda and I did all the graphic and video editing this time around (filming help from Gabe Hymer and Jordan Prins). Looking for people who would like to help with the creative stuff this fall.
Over the last two weeks quite a bit of time has been spent thinking about life, where I am at right now, what I am doing with my time and relationships, and so on. Initially there was a bit of despair as I journeyed through thoughts about this all being in vain. I believe that we honor Christ most in the excellence that we bring to the execution of the passions that God has placed in our being. Yet when balancing so many things I am passionate about it is easy to feel as though the time I have to put towards excellence leaves my results less than excellent.
At this point the title, Excited for Life, probably isn’t making all that much sense. It isn’t that I’ve been disingenuous above, only that those feelings only express half of the reality I have the privilege I had forgotten I get to experience on a day to day basis.
The reality is that these last two weeks have pushed me into prayer about where I am at and to spend time reflecting on those things I am juggling in life (work, family, church, and seminary). I do often feel the tension and weight of my responsibilities yet it is in the midst of this tension that I’ve felt God’s pleasure through the works of my hands. It isn’t that this sense of God’s pleasure has been missing in my life, but rather I’ve just stopped appreciating it. A short next step would lead me to start ignoring it. In some ways I think I was beginning to ignore God’s pleasure in my work in little ways.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, but taking that extra time to pray and lay everything down before God again has brought the reality of His pleasure back into focus. This is so exciting to me. To experience God’s pleasure in the little things I do day by day fuels my motivation for excellence. Knowing that, as one of His sons, I represent Him in some small way it is an honor to give all I was, am and will be to him.
This morning I was honored by the chance to preach at Minnesota Teen Challenge to a room full of men working on real life change. The passage is Luke 19:1-10 and this is probably my best sermon I’ve given to date. Please check it out, enjoy it, and let me know your thoughts (email or in the comments). Thanks! The image below was the title slide, put a couple of the other slides below (first time I actually took time to make a power point I liked).
Life has been very full lately. This is a very good thing. The four spheres that make up my life are still rolling along, moving, and being used by God. So a quick life update is in order for those who keep tabs on my wife and I through here.
Our Marriage
Things are going well. We are quickly coming up on our three year anniversary in January. We have been hanging out still in Minneapolis, and our cat is getting more and more crazy as the weeks go past (check him out on twitter)
Nineteen05 – Work
Things are really starting to pick up! We just finished an update last night that has gone over very well. There is also a lot of interest from the conferences we went to this summer. It is really excited to see the years of work starting to culminate in this type of response. So much love out to all of you who are current and soon to be clients of ours. So awesome!!
Substance Church – Internship/Work
Church went multi-site last week (officially, we had a soft-launch for several weeks to work out the bugs). This has been a really exciting change and transition for us at Substance. I am still working through my Pastoral Internship there for Bethel Sem (see below). It is fun running a campus, and at the same time when I think about the reality that I lead a campus it is a bit overwhelming. I love the logistics of it, and am stretched by the amazing people I get to serve as they make their church happen every week.
We just relaunched the church on October 4th and since then I’ve been close to a dozen new people to the church who have no sort of church background to speak of within the last 5+ years. These men and women are the reason I love Substance!
Bethel Seminary – School
I am now half way through my program! This rocks my world. I can hardly believe it. My bookshelf seems to think I am more than half way through, but it has been really good. Looking forward to getting through this quarter and lightening my load a little bit so I can focus more on nineteen05. Fun to realize that after this term I’m also done with languages! Greek has been a huge challenge to me, but its actually really fun when you look at something and know what it says. Amazing!
Thats it, life is full of goodness. So that does tend to mean that this blog is not as full. Till next time!
This is the second and final sermon I needed to give for my Preaching Practicum course that I took this summer. It was this past Sunday (8/16/09) that I had the opportunity to Preach at Eden Prairie Presbyterian Church (www.eppc.com).
I preached from John chapter 14 verses 23-27 and this was the second and final sermon presented for my Preaching Practicum at Bethel Seminary.
This is the Fourth sermon that i’ve given outside of a classroom since I had any professional training as a preacher.
I would really love feedback and thoughts on the style, delivery, and content of the message.
Thanks to everyone who came out!
Also if you’d like me to email you when I have preaching engagements in the future leave a comment and I’ll add you to a list. Think it’s a good idea to do that.
I just finished up 9 straight days of class, 8+ hours a day. While it was very intense and time consuming it was a great experience, though one i don’t think I will need to repeat. I took my first Old Testament course (OT501) on Genesis – Ruth, and then immediately rolled into my Preaching Practicum.
There is still work to be done for each course: papers and exams for OT501 and a sermon to write and deliver for preaching. But I thought it was worth celebrating regardless. Below is the sermon I gave at Woodridge Church on Sunday evening to part of their exchange service (thanks to those of you that made it out!).
There had been some very sizable changes from the way the sermon was delivered the day before in class. Even so, I don’t believe the audiance was any wiser for it, or that it really hurt my illustrations/approach. Would love to hear your thoughts!
I’ve been spending a lot of time this summer asking myself the question: ‘What would a charismatic and incarnational faith look like?’ On the surface this is an easy question to answer and we could say that the incarnation means that we would be the means through which the power and spirit of God will flow into the world.
