I’ve been pondering two messages my generation heard constantly growing up. “You can do anything you want to.” And self-esteem. But I think as we grew up those two messages twisted into something very different than the adults around us intended. Many from my generation, though they may not voice this, believe that if we’re not doing the best thing we are (or at least think we are) capable of, that somehow we’ve fallen short. That we’re not living great lives. You can hear it in the tone of voice when someone tells you what they do for a living. Since most of us didn’t end up being ballerinas or athletes or artists or firemen or the president of the United States, we feel like we’ve settled. Because our esteem, our worth, is in our self, when we haven’t lived up to the dreams and expectations of our youth, we don’t have a self we think is worthy.
I think that’s the natural result of those two messages, especially when used together. What do you think? And is this something you see in my generation, or am I making it up out of my head? Leave me a comment.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Flammable: Handle with Care
The Fire of the Word by Chris Webb was an excellent read. His writing was simply refreshing and engaging. I was challenged to stop treating Scripture as something to be dissected so I can digest it easier, but as an encounter with a lover. Analysis can be a good first step, but we have to go further. He gave some practical exercises to do that: several months of daily Bible readings to ponder and journal on, with different directions each week.
He tackled Scripture's inerrancy by saying that we need to start viewing the Bible as a book that God is whispering through to us, "Look: I am here." Instead of bickering over whether all the words are correct, we need to allow God to meet us in the words. It certainly doesn't address the questions surrounding textual criticism, but it cuts to the core of the matter - will we allow God to be authoritative? His word to transform us? His love to overwhelm us?
He also addressed the resurgence of lectio divina, especially in Evangelical circles. Apparently, we've missed the point. It's not just to read the passage slowly and prayerfully, listening for a word or phrase to us. Some of the repetitions are meant to point us toward allegory and Christ's presence in every text. I had no clue.
There's actually a conference in Denver called The Fire of the Word May 4-5 with Chris Webb and several other authors who are championing spiritual disciplines for today. I can't go, but I'm looking forward to those daily readings. I hope to start them this summer.
He tackled Scripture's inerrancy by saying that we need to start viewing the Bible as a book that God is whispering through to us, "Look: I am here." Instead of bickering over whether all the words are correct, we need to allow God to meet us in the words. It certainly doesn't address the questions surrounding textual criticism, but it cuts to the core of the matter - will we allow God to be authoritative? His word to transform us? His love to overwhelm us?
He also addressed the resurgence of lectio divina, especially in Evangelical circles. Apparently, we've missed the point. It's not just to read the passage slowly and prayerfully, listening for a word or phrase to us. Some of the repetitions are meant to point us toward allegory and Christ's presence in every text. I had no clue.
There's actually a conference in Denver called The Fire of the Word May 4-5 with Chris Webb and several other authors who are championing spiritual disciplines for today. I can't go, but I'm looking forward to those daily readings. I hope to start them this summer.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Leadership Discernment
This week has been full of interviews and praying. It's strange for me to think that most "hiring" processes don't involve prayer. Whereas, if we didn't rely on prayer, we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot.
Four students are considering Small Group Leader positions, which includes leading a weekly Bible study, helping a community form, reaching out to new students, and growing members in witness, prayer, and possibly leadership. For the seven students we didn't feel were ready for leadership, we decided on a few growth steps we thought they should take.
Last year, we had to ask if the students applying were even missional. This year, we shifted to asking if students were mature and influential, actually leading people already. Not everyone has really owned the mission of God as their calling and privilege; most of them still tend to focus on creating and attending Christian activities. But they're more aware of what God's mission actually is, and they're more interested in seeing it happen through them. We saw culture change in just one year!
Four students are considering Small Group Leader positions, which includes leading a weekly Bible study, helping a community form, reaching out to new students, and growing members in witness, prayer, and possibly leadership. For the seven students we didn't feel were ready for leadership, we decided on a few growth steps we thought they should take.
Last year, we had to ask if the students applying were even missional. This year, we shifted to asking if students were mature and influential, actually leading people already. Not everyone has really owned the mission of God as their calling and privilege; most of them still tend to focus on creating and attending Christian activities. But they're more aware of what God's mission actually is, and they're more interested in seeing it happen through them. We saw culture change in just one year!
Monday, March 12, 2012
Good Christian B******
I watched the pilot for GCB (what they’ve shortened the title to so they can stay PC) early last week. It was mildly funny, but I was unsettled and sad after watching it. Think Desperate Housewives goes to Texas and gets religion. The main antagonist, Carlene, quotes lots of Scripture out of context and makes pronouncements about God not liking a failure and how Jesus wouldn’t hang out with thieves and prostitutes in her neighborhood.
The nicest, most mature person on the show was the protagonist, Amanda. Recently widowed from an adulterous Ponzi schemer, she moves her 2 kids back to Dallas to live with her mother in Highland Park. Her old high school “friends” are afraid of losing their husbands to her, and want some revenge for all the torture she put them through. After spying and plotting, they all go to church. Then they spy and plot some more.
I felt uncomfortable because, gross caricature though it was, I feel these same tensions in the middle-class churches I’ve attended. Power struggles, desperation for security and comfort, wanting to be justified and even managing a little revenge against someone who slanders me. I can only imagine how they play out in churches filled with rich people – the temptations must be unbelievable. But here’s the thing: most Christians I hang out with are on some level trying to follow Jesus, albeit very imperfectly. And I think that’s what makes me angriest – the Christians in this show weren’t trying to follow Christ. They weren’t fighting their temptations, trusting the Holy Spirit for their well-being, or loving their enemies. Let’s not even talk about sacrificing for the poor among us – there aren’t any poor anywhere near their church!
But Amanda didn’t love her enemies either; she decided to gossip about Carlene through prayer during church, the exact thing Carlene had done to Amanda at the beginning of the show. That’s who they portray as the heroine? As I said, Amanda is the nicest, most mature person. But being nice and mature doesn’t qualify you for God’s Kingdom. Having a relationship with Jesus does, but that relationship means more than being nice and mature – it’s a call to lay down your life. About the only thing I could agree with in the show was when Amanda told Carlene, “How dare you call yourself a Christian!”
The nicest, most mature person on the show was the protagonist, Amanda. Recently widowed from an adulterous Ponzi schemer, she moves her 2 kids back to Dallas to live with her mother in Highland Park. Her old high school “friends” are afraid of losing their husbands to her, and want some revenge for all the torture she put them through. After spying and plotting, they all go to church. Then they spy and plot some more.
I felt uncomfortable because, gross caricature though it was, I feel these same tensions in the middle-class churches I’ve attended. Power struggles, desperation for security and comfort, wanting to be justified and even managing a little revenge against someone who slanders me. I can only imagine how they play out in churches filled with rich people – the temptations must be unbelievable. But here’s the thing: most Christians I hang out with are on some level trying to follow Jesus, albeit very imperfectly. And I think that’s what makes me angriest – the Christians in this show weren’t trying to follow Christ. They weren’t fighting their temptations, trusting the Holy Spirit for their well-being, or loving their enemies. Let’s not even talk about sacrificing for the poor among us – there aren’t any poor anywhere near their church!
But Amanda didn’t love her enemies either; she decided to gossip about Carlene through prayer during church, the exact thing Carlene had done to Amanda at the beginning of the show. That’s who they portray as the heroine? As I said, Amanda is the nicest, most mature person. But being nice and mature doesn’t qualify you for God’s Kingdom. Having a relationship with Jesus does, but that relationship means more than being nice and mature – it’s a call to lay down your life. About the only thing I could agree with in the show was when Amanda told Carlene, “How dare you call yourself a Christian!”
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Musings on Multiethnicity
At the Multiethnic Staff Conference, God revealed kernels of truth during our time in prayer, conversation, and speakers' teaching and Bible studies over Acts 2, 6, 8, 15, and 20. Here are some of the questions I’m grappling with:
What got us here will not get us there, so what do we do now?
Is God’s fire consecrating us to share the gospel in others’ heart languages?
Taking care of widows led to priests, a hard, unreached community, joining the early church. Who are the “widows” on campus?
As we do cross-cultural mission, will we allow our theological convictions to be challenged? Will we lead wisely and prophetically, asking all (my people too) to give up cultural particulars to live attractively so students can hear the gospel?
Is the gospel I share good news to non-Christians? To my students? To me!?! How have I used a one-size-fits-all gospel that may actually be bad news to some?
God will meet me when I stay in dissonance. Am I running away?
What unpopular controversies do we need to engage in? We missed out on the civil rights movement, and now we have little trust built with black churches.
Are we transforming students into IV staff workers or witnesses?
Will we find a new way forward in a changing world that is no longer tied to resource-dependent, financially-driven, business-oriented ways of thinking?
Will I count how many blind people see, how many poor we proclaimed the gospel to, how many oppressed we released, not just conversions and demographics?
How do I help students see the Biblical basis for multiethnicity? Can I help students of every ethnicity (including white!) see their culture's beauty and besetting sins? Will they love those different from them, and not assume we’re all the same?
Who isn’t at the table in my chapter? Why?
Will I engage the sin of racism? I need to pray, take my own journey to healing, develop cross-cultural friendships, expose the invisible, and share my power. I need physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness to do this for the long haul.
Pretty intense four days, huh? It was a blessing to be there; I’m grateful senior staff recommended me as one of our region's attendees. I feel responsible to bring back what God gave me to bless other staff and students; I’m praying I do.
What got us here will not get us there, so what do we do now?
Is God’s fire consecrating us to share the gospel in others’ heart languages?
Taking care of widows led to priests, a hard, unreached community, joining the early church. Who are the “widows” on campus?
As we do cross-cultural mission, will we allow our theological convictions to be challenged? Will we lead wisely and prophetically, asking all (my people too) to give up cultural particulars to live attractively so students can hear the gospel?
Is the gospel I share good news to non-Christians? To my students? To me!?! How have I used a one-size-fits-all gospel that may actually be bad news to some?
God will meet me when I stay in dissonance. Am I running away?
What unpopular controversies do we need to engage in? We missed out on the civil rights movement, and now we have little trust built with black churches.
Are we transforming students into IV staff workers or witnesses?
Will we find a new way forward in a changing world that is no longer tied to resource-dependent, financially-driven, business-oriented ways of thinking?
Will I count how many blind people see, how many poor we proclaimed the gospel to, how many oppressed we released, not just conversions and demographics?
How do I help students see the Biblical basis for multiethnicity? Can I help students of every ethnicity (including white!) see their culture's beauty and besetting sins? Will they love those different from them, and not assume we’re all the same?
Who isn’t at the table in my chapter? Why?
Will I engage the sin of racism? I need to pray, take my own journey to healing, develop cross-cultural friendships, expose the invisible, and share my power. I need physical, emotional, and spiritual wholeness to do this for the long haul.
Pretty intense four days, huh? It was a blessing to be there; I’m grateful senior staff recommended me as one of our region's attendees. I feel responsible to bring back what God gave me to bless other staff and students; I’m praying I do.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Hollywood, here I come!
(Cue music) I'm gonna be a star! (Do jazzy dance and singing number, with extras slowly joining in behind me as I head out of town. Like in the most recent Muppets movie).
Okay, so I'm not going to be an actress in Hollywood. Not yet at least...
I'm on my way to Los Angeles for InterVarsity's Multiethnic Staff Conference, March 6-9. I'm hoping to participate in some healing conversations about our racial heritage and identities, see dividing walls broken down as we repent and worship together, and learn ways I can bring the power of the Kingdom in this area back to campus. I'll let you know what happens!
Okay, so I'm not going to be an actress in Hollywood. Not yet at least...
I'm on my way to Los Angeles for InterVarsity's Multiethnic Staff Conference, March 6-9. I'm hoping to participate in some healing conversations about our racial heritage and identities, see dividing walls broken down as we repent and worship together, and learn ways I can bring the power of the Kingdom in this area back to campus. I'll let you know what happens!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Leadership Ellipse
I finished The Leadership Ellipse by Robert Fryling this weekend. It's a spiritual formation book for leaders who are worn out from trying to balance the tension between our inner relationship with God and our outer ministry to others. He introduces the idea of an ellipse, an oval to those of us who aren't geometry enthusiasts. Ovals have two focal points, unlike a circle with just one big bull's eye in the middle. Too often, leaders burn out from neglecting their relationship with God, feeling like hypocrites and frauds in their work. Or leaders retreat for a time and return refreshed, but without many ideas on how to bring what they experienced into the rest of their lives. But authenticity by itself isn't much to shoot for - we need transformation. So Fryling wrote a book to help leaders develop "a harmony of our inner and outer lives that together are in harmony with God and his purposes in us and in the world."
His first two sections were excellent, but since I've read a number of spiritual formation books over the last year, the practices he suggested weren't new. Excellent, but not new to me. The last section was particularly helpful for me, though.
He talked about our fears and self-pity - seeing ourselves like grasshoppers. I know, weird metaphor. It's from Numbers 13:33; you can check out the whole story here. Basically, some of the Israelites charged with spying out the Promised Land came back and reported there was no way they could even hope of taking it over - there were giants living there, and they reported, "We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Fryling believes the practice of wholeheartedness can address the self-pity behind these fears.
He also challenged leaders to be attentive to the people around them, not just the structures they're trying to keep or develop. I think this was a good reminder to me of the pull I've been feeling to actually hang out in my students' environment, check their status updates on Facebook, and not just ask the "spiritual check-up" questions when we meet.
His last chapter, on being a grateful creature, offered a definition of leadership as "defining reality and saying thank you." One of my Area Director Josh Howell's favorite sayings is, "Reality is our best friend." Being honest with ourselves and students about what's really going on, where our choices lead, and that things are either much better or much worse (depending on the student's outlook) than they usually think. My chapter building coach and Associate Regional Director Andrea Thomas has told me, "Bring the fun!" We weren't celebrating at our leadership meetings when something went well, or just that we were getting to partner with God on campus. So we started having "forced fun" in the middle of leadership meetings and spending time rejoicing and praising God during prayer meetings. I think I'll try just outright thanking students more, too.
His first two sections were excellent, but since I've read a number of spiritual formation books over the last year, the practices he suggested weren't new. Excellent, but not new to me. The last section was particularly helpful for me, though.
He talked about our fears and self-pity - seeing ourselves like grasshoppers. I know, weird metaphor. It's from Numbers 13:33; you can check out the whole story here. Basically, some of the Israelites charged with spying out the Promised Land came back and reported there was no way they could even hope of taking it over - there were giants living there, and they reported, "We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Fryling believes the practice of wholeheartedness can address the self-pity behind these fears.
He also challenged leaders to be attentive to the people around them, not just the structures they're trying to keep or develop. I think this was a good reminder to me of the pull I've been feeling to actually hang out in my students' environment, check their status updates on Facebook, and not just ask the "spiritual check-up" questions when we meet.
His last chapter, on being a grateful creature, offered a definition of leadership as "defining reality and saying thank you." One of my Area Director Josh Howell's favorite sayings is, "Reality is our best friend." Being honest with ourselves and students about what's really going on, where our choices lead, and that things are either much better or much worse (depending on the student's outlook) than they usually think. My chapter building coach and Associate Regional Director Andrea Thomas has told me, "Bring the fun!" We weren't celebrating at our leadership meetings when something went well, or just that we were getting to partner with God on campus. So we started having "forced fun" in the middle of leadership meetings and spending time rejoicing and praising God during prayer meetings. I think I'll try just outright thanking students more, too.
Friday, March 2, 2012
38 Days Later...
It's been 5 weeks and 3 days since my last post. Whoo.
I've met a few more times with the guy from the New Year's Resolution station to study the book of John.
At Breakthrough, our regional conference Feb. 10-12, I directed the Word track where 125 students learned how to study the Bible inductively, apply what they discover to their lives, and hopefully fall in love with God and his Word. I also managed the book table there, selling lots of InterVarsity Press books that could impact students for a long time to come. At least, I know they do that for me.
I helped publicize and host the Veritas Forum. At lunch, Os Guinness shared about the problem of suffering and evil, and that night, he discussed the great need for civil but truthful conversations about our most divisive issues.
I started helping the Asian American InterVarsity chapter, because their staff had to go to the hospital. He's doing a lot better now, and will be coming back this weekend, but the doctors still aren't sure what caused the health problems.
I've had one cold, and I'm in the middle of another. We moved all the IV stuff into our new home office (it's so cool!). Kyle took me to see Moulin Rouge - The Ballet. And Jack, our dog, has not had a bath in a really long time. He's kinda stinky.
I've met a few more times with the guy from the New Year's Resolution station to study the book of John.
At Breakthrough, our regional conference Feb. 10-12, I directed the Word track where 125 students learned how to study the Bible inductively, apply what they discover to their lives, and hopefully fall in love with God and his Word. I also managed the book table there, selling lots of InterVarsity Press books that could impact students for a long time to come. At least, I know they do that for me.
I helped publicize and host the Veritas Forum. At lunch, Os Guinness shared about the problem of suffering and evil, and that night, he discussed the great need for civil but truthful conversations about our most divisive issues.
I started helping the Asian American InterVarsity chapter, because their staff had to go to the hospital. He's doing a lot better now, and will be coming back this weekend, but the doctors still aren't sure what caused the health problems.
I've had one cold, and I'm in the middle of another. We moved all the IV stuff into our new home office (it's so cool!). Kyle took me to see Moulin Rouge - The Ballet. And Jack, our dog, has not had a bath in a really long time. He's kinda stinky.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)