Cones of Hope

Watching the weather news about a recent hurricane, I heard the term "the cone of uncertainty" to describe the possible but unpredictable trajectory of a storm. I was reminded of it with a quote in my prayer book on the hope that all things will be brought to God in the end. That is an older world-view that projects a "cone of certainty" in which everything will work out according to God's "goal"--a teleology of seeing how everything comes together in the end.

A perspective more understandable to the contemporary mind might be to refer to the "cone of indeterminacy" -- it may sound better than "uncertainty" and it rings true with quantum physics. Rather than seeing all things coming to a pre-determined end, even God's end, we see trajectories of freedom and choice with lives evolving and changing as they go along. The picture of fractals, lovely and complex patterns of developing reality, but not predictable in their outcomes. This is a "process theology" approach, it seems to me.

We can found our hope, as Christians, not in certainty but in the sense that God is luring us all, including the whole cosmos, into newer and more whole ways of being.

I Love it when I was right!

Two items in the news in the last couple of days confirm my earlier opinions expressed in this blog.
1. The new book about Warren Buffett, The Snowball: Warren Buffett on the Business of Life, is being advertised with the heading "What would Warren Buffet do?" That reminded me of my blog of November 16, 2007, when I recommended a dream ticket for president (sadly my recommendation has been ignored until now) of two Buffetts--Warren for president and Jimmy for vice president. Think of the Alan Jackson country song "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" which includes the line, "What would Jimmy Buffett do?" The song is about skipping responsibility, but I maintain that even Jimmy Buffett would do a better job at governing than the yahoos who've been in power the past eight years. But we really should have been listening to Warren.
2. Watching the presidential debate and realizing that both candidates have gone back on their vows to avoid mudslinging in this campaign, I thought about my blog post from March 11, 2008, on the concept of "teleopathy"--which means "goal sickness." Obviously the goal of winning has overcome the deeper values of integrity and honesty in the presidential campaign, and the American people are the worse for it because it diminishes our respect and trust in whoever wins the election!

Follow up on Harvey Cox

The man hasn't lost a step, theologically or intellectually. As he walked into the room he was wearing his Red Sox cap, very appropriate. About 45 people gathered, about half the seminary faculty, a few folks from the Presbyterian headquarters, a number of retired pastors from the area, and a few students (most of the other students had no idea who Harvey Cox is!) He talked about his Harvard undergrad class on Jesus and moral ethics, noting that most students, including the most secular and including those of other faith traditions, have no problem talking about Jesus.

He also talked about how there is a resurgence of religion in our time, often in the form of "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual." I was fascinated by the ensuing conversation about what Jim Lewis labeled the intersection of the appeal of high liturgical worship, such as Eastern Orthodox, the endurance of Pentecostalism, and the "spiritual but not religious."

It put me in mind of David Roozen's sociological study of denominations (Church, Identity, And Change: Theology And Denominational Structures In Unsettled Times, Eerdmans, 2005) in which he notes that those American denominations based on "affective" religion--such as the Episcopalians and the Pentecostals--are having a better time at adapting to the 21st century than are those denominations based on "the word" or what Cox called the "assentive" faiths based on propositional adherence. Of course its clear that the Presbyterians are in that latter group and are not faring well in adapting to the 21st century.

That may be partly why I'm attracted to teaching "emotional intelligence" to old-line protestant ministers, and also why Diana Butler Bass is able to promote re-traditioning--since she's episcopalian.

When Harvey Cox Came to Louisville

An Evening of Conversation
With HARVEY COX
“A Theologian Reflects on
Religion, Morality and Politics
in the 21st Century”

For Students, Faculty, Staff, Friends of the Seminary
Free, no registration required!
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6
7-9 P.M.
HUNDLEY HALL—GARDEN COURT
Moderated by Dr. Christopher Elwood

Cornell West has called Harvey Cox “one of the most significant religious thinkers of the late twentieth Century.” Cox is Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he has been teaching since 1965. An American Baptist minister, his research and teaching interests focus on the interaction of religion, culture, and politics. Among the issues he explores are urbanization, theological developments in world Christianity, and interfaith relations. He is a prolific author, including:
· When Jesus Came to Harvard: Making Moral Decisions Today, describing his immensely popular undergraduate course, “Jesus and the Moral Life,” which attracted hundreds of students each year.
· The Secular City, published in 1965, became an international bestseller and was selected by the University of Marburg as one of the most influential books of Protestant theology in the twentieth century.
· Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year, based on his experience with his wife, Professor Tina Tumarkin, of raising their son in her Jewish faith.
· The Feast of Fools;
· The Seduction of the Spirit;
· The Silencing of Leonardo Boff: Liberation Theology and the Future of World Christianity;
· Fire From Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality.

Participants in this evening of conversation will be inspired by the range of Dr. Cox’s spiritual history as we engage him with our questions and comments.

Seeing into the Future

www.anonymouspace.com

Driving around Louisville yesterday I remembered the fun of finding my way back to places I'd been years before. In the 1960's I was a student here and had a fondness for places like Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. When I came back to live here six years ago, I enjoyed driving around to find my way back, relying on the way coded deeply into my memories to guide my driving. It's fun. That's one way of finding our way around this world--following our memories.

A second way of finding our way is by using the encoded memories of others who have charted out the path ahead of us. We call them "maps"--printed on paper for those of us who remember them before the age of Google maps and GPS. Being able to read a map and orient oneself to them is a useful skill in negotiating a way around the world as it is known.

But I'm more fascinated by a third way of finding our way around. That is learning to move into an unknown future where our memories and our maps are not as helpful. If we truly believe that the cosmos is on a trajectory of transformation, then the future "ain't what it used to be." Simply downloading our memories and the guide-maps of the past and the present will only keep us stuck in the past or the present.

I like to pull from the insights of the behavioral and managerial sciences to inform my understanding of human nature, and for this question I look to the work of Gary Klein on intuition (Klein, Gary. The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings to Make Better Decisions at Work. New York, Currency/Doubleday, 2003.) When new situations present themselves, our intuition pulls in our previous experiences and helps us transform them by imagination into possible scenarios for the new situation as it might unfold. Those quick choices of scenarios can inform quick action in a crisis situation.

If there's time for a more leisurely movement into the future, the spiritual concept of discernment comes to mind in which one quiets other voices and tunes into the deeper seated voice of God. A current source for understanding discernment in an organizational setting is Otto Scharmer's Theory U (Boston: Society for Organizational Learning, 2006). It's a discernment and systems thinking model that takes change into account for what he calls "leading from the future." I also go back to Jane Kise and David Stark's work in Life Directions (Bethany House, 1999) in which they help us identify our gifts, our passions and our values as part of the holy design for our lives that are part of of the guidance system. It is through these realities of our personal or corporate identity that we can build scenarios for the future that are true to ourselves and open to the future.

Finally, I like to invoke the notion of desire. If we can place in abeyance our own smaller agendas and fears and put our own desires in the context of what we understand of the Divine, we pray that our desires and the desires of the Holy One can be one. It's a future desiring, not for our own comfort and convenience, not to revisit the old familiar places, or even to impose the maps of others on the future, but to hope for something new that suits a new humanity in a new world.

How do you move into the future?.

New Lay Academy in Mid-Kentucky Presbytery

Called to Lead is a new program of theological education for congregational leaders offered in partnership by Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Mid-Kentucky Presbytery. Focused primarily toward Elders, but open to all, this two-year program will engage leaders in Bible study and theological reflection, as well as equipping them to serve their congregations with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.[1] A third component of small group coaching and mentoring is available to Elders who wish to further their study in preparation for becoming a Commission Lay Pastor under the care and authority of the Committee on Ministry (or Committee for Preparation for Ministry?) of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery.

Participants will meet one Saturday each month (except summer & December), for 8 hours. The fee of $30.00 includes lunch, handouts and instruction. In addition, participants will be responsible for purchasing required textbooks. Although participants are encouraged to commit to all classes, one may register on a monthly basis. However, those intending to complete the Commissioned Lay Pastor program must successfully complete all classes and any additional requirements for the CLP diploma. Costs for CLP component will be determined by the number of participants and will include other expenses for additional program requirements. *

Persons interested in participating in Called to Lead should complete the attached application, and send it, along with payment, to Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, 425 South 2nd Street, Suite 301, Louisville, Kentucky 40202. The application is also available on-line at http://www.midkentuckypresbytery.org/. Questions concerning the program should be directed to Rev. Peggy Owens, 502-561-8300 or owens987@bellsouth.net.


*Candidates for Commissioned Lay Pastors will attend additional small group coaching sessions and work closely with a pastor- mentor. Extra reading and written assignments will be required, along with psychological/vocational assessment and a final examination. The CLP component will be administered by the COM (or CPM?), which will have the responsibility of determining the fitness for commissioning. Participation in the program does not guarantee one a call to commissioned ministry.
For more information on CLP’s see Book of Order reference G-14.0800 or call the Presbytery office.

The Error of Church Unity

At the end of the 2008 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury was quoted in the New York Times (August 4, 2008) as saying he was hopeful the expected covenant would help avoid schism. If he is quoted correctly, he said that everyone would be moving along "in step" and the church would be acting more like a church.

That hit me right in the old ecclesiology! That might have worked in the earlier generations, but the church in the 21st century cannot flourish in a a lock-step unity. It's the same error being promoted in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Church leaders continue to hold out for unity as a primary value. The Presbyterians require a vow that church leaders will "further the peace, unity and purity of the church." I believe all three of those are off the mark as primary values. This post will deal with "unity."

I take my cues in this matter from an article by Arthur Dewey of Xavier University, "Ecclesial Techtonics" presented to the Westar Institute's National Jesus Seminar in 2004. In Section 11.7, Dewey writes:

• The sense of eccelesial unity ("one" [in the formula "one holy, catholic and apostolic church"]) can no longer be understood as a monolithic adherence to a propositional confession, nor reduced to a litmus test. The reality of human experience brings us to the recognition that unity is discovered in diversity, brought about by genuine human relations. Dialogue not dictate characterizes such unity in diversity. The hierarchical, pyramid of power collapses as a structural principle for church. This sense of inclusive unity agrees with the vision of the historical Jesus who trusted in a God that benefited good and evil, just and unjust. Paul also intimates this unity in the diversity through his understanding of the gifts of the Spirit to the community.

If we can have unity that promotes diversity (as illustrated in the table fellowship of Jesus), that celebrates difference, that allows freedom of choice in belief and practice, then I'm for unity. If unity is created through power, domination, coercion or force, or even through financial obligations, then I'm against it. If we have to sacrifice diversity for the sake of unity, unity has become an error. The church in the 21st century needs to focus on diversity and freedom over unity and purity.

And of course I value your opinion ESPECIALLY if you disagree with me--diversity, you know.

Adult Learning and Experiential Learning

Wedding something old, from way back in the middle of the 20th Century to something new--current brain research informing leadership theory and practice , Roy Oswald, following his 30 year luminous career at the Alban Institute, has created a Center for EQ-HR Skills. He brought his new creation to Louisville Seminary last week in a high energy, intensive week-long laboratory http://www.lpts.edu/Academic_Programs/Emotional_Intelligence_08.asp. Thirty two judicatory executives, ministers and students participated in a ground-breaking event, new to virtually all of them.

The "T-Group" ('T" for training) was created in the 1940's and flourished through the 1960's as a premier way of enhancing the interpersonal and group effectiveness of leaders in many fields. Kurt Lewin, shown here from NNBD.org, was the pioneer who discovered the power of open and unstructured interaction in small groups as a learning technique. We call it experiential eduction, by which we learn by doing first, then reflecting on the experience and then practicing what we've learned in the group. it is designed for adult learners who assume full responsibility for their actions and their learning in the group setting. The National Training Laboratories in Bethel Maine was established to promote this method (www.ntl.org). Due to a variety of historical factors, the T-group method faded away in the latter third of the 20th century, but it has been receiving new energy among a group of former leaders in the movement, crystallizing around Oswald's new venture.

Oswald's genius brought him to the conclusion that he could best teach the new brain-discoveries in multiple intelligences, particularly emotional and social intelligence, through the experiential t-group method. I am pleased that Louisville Seminary could be a part of this new movement at Roy's invitation. I myself participated in T-groups in the 60's and 70's, learning to learn and learning to lead such groups with my mentor Burney Overton and others, so Roy invited me to dust off my group skills and become a co-leader for one of the small groups. Four other experienced and skilled and wise facilitators were imported for the event, all veterans of the Mid Atlantic Training Committee, a church based training program from that same era.

I discovered I still could do it. Moreover, I discovered how much of my core educational philosophy is still shaped by the theory behind t-groups. The job of the educator is to provide a safe environment for a group to form and cohere, and offer particular insights and suggestions for ways the group could practice their inter-personal and intra-group skills. I believe that the spark of creativity is in each one of us, and that we long to be transformed by our experiences into the people God longs for us to become. I have seen many times how receiving information from trusted group members about how one is perceived (often called "feedback") can create a learning loop to re-adjusting my self-understanding, and then putting new ways of functioning into practice in the group for further feedback.

I have a diminishing commitment to the "banking method" of education by which a student arrives empty at the "school" and the teacher deposits into the student the knowledge needed or sought, which the student can withdraw later as needed. Yes, some learning needs to be rote memorization and gathering basic knowledge, but the really valuable knowledge, the practical wisdom, is gained by experience, reflection, action and further reflection. We still have a long way to go, however, in preparing ministers for church leadership in the 21st century to provide them with the opportunities to experience and practice the wisdom they'll need.

Recalculating as a Process Theology Metaphor

After a wonderful week of teaching Emotional Intelligence in an experiential learning mode (more on that in the next post), which included a module on process thought as a theological reflection partner for a relational leadership model, I was moved by the sermon I heard Sunday from my favorite preacher. Full disclosure: she's my wife, Rev. Deborah Fortel (shown at left), Interim Pastor at St. John Presbyterian Church in New Albany. Her sermon follows:

"Recalculating…"
Romans 8:29-28
St. John, July 27, 2008

We have a new companion in our car. It’s a Nuvi, a little computer that connects with a global positioning satellite and gives us directions that get us from one place to another. David’s two kids presented him with the Nuvi for Father’s Day, and having it with us when we were driving around San Francisco and northern California on our vacation was a great stress-saver. It’s like having the most skilled map-reader in the world with you, keeping you from getting lost, even if, like me, you are seriously map-and-direction-challenged. Now since David is a very generous man, and because he doesn’t do a lot of driving around for his work, he has let me use the Nuvi. The other day, when I got in the car, going someplace I knew perfectly well how to find, the Nuvi came on. Out of curiosity, I used the screen to direct the Nuvi to take me home, and then went off in a completely different direction…just to see what would happen. I pulled out of the church parking lot, and the Nuvi told me to turn right, but I turned left. Immediately, the computer voice, (a calm pleasant woman’s voice) said, “Recalculating.” And a few seconds later came the instruction to go 200 feet and turn left. But I turned right. And the computer said, “Recalculating.” And again gave me instructions to get me home. Again I went on my own way and again the computer announced that it was “Recalculating.” And again gave me different directions to follow. And so it went. I haven’t tested it out, but I really think that I could go 3,000 miles in the opposite direction and the Nuvi would keep “recalculating” and giving me a new way to get me home.
Now I always want to be careful about what kinds of metaphors I use for God, so I don’t want to push this very far – after all, God is definitely not a computer – although I might argue that God could choose to speak in a woman’s voice! Still, I think that God’s love for us and guidance to us is something like that GPS device. God has an infinite capacity to be patient with our mistakes, foolishness and outright downright sin – and God is always offering us a way to use our wrong turns and mistaken shortcuts to get us back on the path to the place we really want to go, recalculating over and over again on our behalf and for our good.
That is how I hear Paul’s often-quoted words from Romans, “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purposes.” (Romans 8:29) Paul means that God is at work in and through everything that happens to help us bring good from the events of our lives, and to guide us through even the most difficult and challenging times – even the ones we bring on ourselves
.
Because it is sometimes easy to misunderstand Paul, I invite you to notice with me some things that Paul is not saying.

1. Paul does not say that everything that happens is good. And that is a relief to me, and probably to you as well. It would be very hard indeed for me to find any way to name as “good” all the hardships and sufferings in our world. Sometimes, of course, suffering and hardship can lead to learning and growth and we see it quickly. But sometimes as far as I can see they are only pain and hardship that may, in fact, sour and harden a person. Sometimes, tragedy is just awful tragedy in which nothing good can be seen – for a long time, if ever.
2. Paul does not claim that everything that happens is caused by God. The floods in Indiana are not the proof that God is utterly disgusted by our friends less than a hundred miles north of us, nor did God single out the children who died in the schools of China at the time of the earthquake and mark them for death. Natural disasters are the consequence of natural forces at work, sometimes worsened by human efforts to control the environment. Exceptionally heavy rains overflow riverbanks, and tectonic plates shift far beneath the surface of the earth. And bad things happen to good people and bad people alike.
3. Paul is certainly not suggesting that God is responsible for human evil. The long-delayed arrest this week of Radovan Karadzic reminds us of the origin of the terrible term “ethnic cleansing.” Karadzic is the man who planned the massacre of 8,000 men and boys in pursuit of “ethnic cleansing” of Bosnian Muslims. He is a horrifying sample of what humankind at our worst can do. Let us be clear that it was not God’s doing – it was human evil in a particularly dreadful form.

Through suffering and tragedy of every kind, God weeps with those who suffer and yearns over us and our world. God loves us persistently and waits for us to find our way back to healthy, peaceful, faithful patterns of life. When Paul says that “all things work for good for those who love God…” he is describing God’s way with us. God never gives up on anyone. And because of God’s great love for us, God is with us, partnering with us as we learn how to be God’s faithful people. And here is the most radical thing I will ever say: I believe that even Radovan Karadzic, even Adolf Hitler, even Osama bin Laden, could, if they only would, be encompassed by the love and mercy of God. No one is excluded from God’s love and mercy except by their own choice to turn away from the love of God.
Paul affirms God at work with us, in the hearts and souls of those who love God. God is involved with us, choosing to be for us and on our side, but choosing, also, to give us the freedom to keep taking wrong turns. God doesn’t wipe out our troubles or manipulate events. Instead, God stays with us. In the joyful times, in the challenging times, in the worst times we will ever experience, God is with us, and if we are able to listen for the voice of divine love, we will discover how even tragedies can become part of the developing pattern of our lives that moves us toward the good that God intends for us.
Some years ago I saw an exhibit of Chinese technology from the thirteenth century. What I remember most clearly is a special loom that was developed for weaving the very finest silk fabrics from silk threads as fine as a human hair. It is a two-person loom, constructed on two levels. One person stands on the upper level of the loom where the design is clearly visible. That person is responsible for knowing all the possible patterns that can be woven from the silk threads. The person who actually does the weaving is seated in front of the loom at the lower level. From the weaver’s vantage point the design is never seen clearly, for the weaver works on the side of the fabric that will become the inside of the garment. The person on the upper level of the loom sees the emerging pattern of the fabric, including not only variations, but also mistakes made by the weaver. The most important part of the task of the weaver’s partner on the upper level is to help the weaver incorporate any mistakes made into the design of the fabric so that new patterns emerge. And when more mistakes are made, yet more creative ways are discovered by the two working as collaborators in the creation of useful beauty.
And this, too, has become a part of the way I understand how God is with us. We do the best we can – and sometimes we do the worst we can – in weaving the fabric of our lives. We can’t see the pattern of the whole because we are in the midst of living. Often we get things wrong. Sometimes we deliberately muddle the pattern of our lives, but still God is with us, gently guiding us, and steadfastly loving us. There is, I trust, an overarching purpose of God at work in and through human lives and human history as a whole, but God is usually subtle and gentle with us. We can so easily close our ears to what God is saying…but no matter how far wrong we go, there is the divine voice saying gently, “Recalculating…” and offering us another way to create of our lives something good and beautiful, another way to find the place we most want to be. God yearns over us, urges us toward wholeness, and loves us into faithfulness. There is no end to God’s love, no mistake too awful to be incorporated into God’s great design, no way for any of us ever to be so lost that God cannot guide us home again.
“All things work for good for those who love God…”

Time for a new Gardiner Spring Resolution?

In the wake of the PC(USA) General Assembly Action to propose to the presbyteries that G-6.0106b, a paragraph of the denomination's constitution explicitly blocking faithful, monogamous lesbian and gay members from serving in church office, the next discussion is about what will happen in the presbyteries. More specifically, the discussion is focusing on whether pastors, members and whole congregations, like the New Wineskins group, who have been talking loudly for the past two years about withdrawing from the denomination will take this action as a prompt to go ahead and leave, or whether some in that group will decided to stay and "fight" this latest move toward a more inclusive and open church.

My own passion on this discussion leads me away from my usual pro-union position--I was a strong supporter of the reunion of the southern and northern streams of our tradition in the 1970's and 1980's. Today I'd like to start a thread of this discussion about whether we should craft a new "Gardiner Spring Resolution" for our presbyteries.

This is a real departure for me, because I'm usually critical of the action of the 1861 General Assembly which adopted the resolution of the Rev. Dr. Spring (shown above, from reformedpersepectives.com), pastor of Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, requiring commissioners to pledge allegiance to the "integrity" of the United States of America. It seemed to me to be an unnecessary hurdle that led to the split of the north and the south.

Practical theology leads one to reflect on current situations and re-think theological views and political strategies. Thus I'm now moving to a position that would prevent anyone who is planning to withdraw from the denomination from voting in a presbytery's deliberation on the proposed constitutional amendment to remove G-6.0106b. In other words, should we create a resolution that requires a statement of allegiance to the PC(USA) in order to vote on that amendment.

My practical theological reflection includes another piece of history, more recent than Gardiner Spring. In the preparation for Presbyterian reunion in the 1970's and early 1980's, a group of conservative southern Presbyterians were appointed to the Reunion Committee in order to assure that their perspectives were considered in the plan for reunion. Rev. Andy Jumper, pastor of a prominent congregation in St. Louis MO, was part of that group. He used his considerable persuasive power to frame and shape the Plan of Reunion and the proposed new constitution in his image. Then shortly after reunion was enacted, he led his congregation out of the denomination. I still feel the anger of betrayal in that set of actions, and that anger and reflection on that bit of history prompts me to raise this question for discussion.

Not that any of us can ever predict our future actions, but we can be more honest and transparent about our current intentions. If I were planning or hoping to withdraw, I would personally recuse myself from voting on that constitutional amendment. Since I'm not planning on withdrawing, I would be happy to pledge my allegiance to this denomination.

Presbyterian Stated Clerk Heritage--Gradye Parsons

There's a kind of historical joy in seeing a new Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected and installed at the recent General Assembly meeting in San Jose. Gradye Parsons has been a very popular member of the staff of the outgoing Stated Clerk, and did a very fine job with the question and answer time on the floor of the assembly.

I'm reflecting on the half-century of memory I bring to this event, starting with the saintly Eugene Carson Blake of the northern stream (shown at bottom). He sort of set the tone for both ecumenical and social justice stances that marked the denomination for the middle part of the 20th century. It was Blake who envisioned the Consultation on Church Union, for example. He was succeeded by William P. Thompson in the northern flank of the family. Jim Andrews (with the white Beard) was clerk of the southern stream at the time of Reunion and Thompson and Andrews jointly oversaw the early years of reunion. Andrews was chosen Stated Clerk afterwards and he retired and was succeeded by Cliff Kirkpatrick. Blake, Thompson and Andrews have all since died.

Although, since reunion, the social justice role has been severely limited, the ecumenical roles have continued. Blake, Thompson and Andrews were all presidents of the National Council of Churches, and Kirkpatrick is president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

The Stated Clerk is the chief ecclesiastical officer, with oversight of the denomination's constitutional polity, the connectional system of governing bodies, and the national meetings, and serves as primary parliamentarian for the biennial General Assembly. The Clerk is a major public face of the denomination and the kind of personal and spiritual presence that each of these men has represented serves us well.

Welcome to this grand succession of great leaders, Gradye. I offer prayers of intercession for your strength and courage for the days to come!

Welcome to this grand

Gemstones and Lifelong Learners

Listening to Janice Catron lead the last Spring Bible Study session on the Revelation of John, which she calls a "letter," with reflections on the gemstones in Rev. 21:19-21,I went off on my own little rabbit-trail of my own. Henry Ward Beecher, brilliant and controversial preacher of the 19th Century (shown above with his own "mullet" taken from http://www.chi.gospelcom.net/) was said to have been drawn to beautiful jewels. He apparently talked his wealthy benefactors into loaning him beautiful precious gemstones (shown here in an image from euphoriagems) which he carried around in his pockets, and would take them out and admire them and show them around to others. He said, in reference to the Revelation image, that these stones were a foretaste of the good life God intends for God's people.

Now I am not particularly drawn to jewels, but I believe I understand what he was thinking and feeling. I'm more drawn to the depth of beauty of God's people as they grow and allow themselves to be transformed in lifelong learning. Each learner refracts the light of God's creative energies, and shines in infinite variety of colors with the fire of that energy.

So I encourage us all onward toward a summer of reflection and learning with the words of Philippians 1:14-16: "In everything you do, act without grumbling or arguing; prove yourselves innocent and straightforward, children of God beyond reproach, in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation--among which you shine like stars in the sky, while holding fast to the word of life."

What's God Got to Do with It--control and command management style

I'm continually confounded by church organizations that are run according to the old command and control management style. You know the style--it's pyramidal, with control starting from the top and moving down, preventing individual freedom and encouraging homogeneity, saying "no" more than "yes," and generally keeping the lid on creativity. Yes, I'm talking about mainline protestant churches and church organizations that shall remain unnamed in this post. How do you go about loosening them up, encouraging more openness, more transparency, more flat organizational accountabilities, more ability of the people who are doing the work having the authority to made decisions, including financial decisions about their areas. Shall we offer more training, more organization development consulting? I'm afraid these initiatives are doomed to failure.

The aha moment I had recently was that the problem is not practical or managerial but theological. We have created organizational structures to match our perception of God. Those who believe in an "omni" God (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, who is never changing, perfect and beyond passion, those are the ones who are stuck in an organization that mirrors that construction of God: Controlling, Punishing, rewarding, Demanding, Inaccessible--like the angry god in the picture above.

I think it takes a theological reformation to recognize that God might be primarily: Creative, Relational, Loving, Freeing/empowering, Vulnerable, Changing, Discernible, Transforming. Then we might be able to recognize the ability of an organization to organize itself around the gifts and passions of its people and to be a good steward of its capital resources for the sake of its people and of the environment.

It takes a nod to process and liberationist theology to move an organization forward into a future-thinking mode so that something creative can happen to open up a church or church agency to love and relationality.

My reading of Catherin Keller's new book, On the Mystery (Fortress, 2008) helped me to begin thinking about the connection between theology and management styles. What do you think?

Siblings Wrestling Over Homosexuality

Hearing Margaret Farley, the Grawemeyer Prize winner in religion, talk about sexual ethics, prompted me to ask her what she thinks has made homosexuality the key issue in denominational and cultural battles in the last 30 years. "Why this particular issue at this time?"

She gave her usual calm, clear but well qualified and nuanced response about the loosening of sexual norms in the sixties and early seventies, which led to some people being able to recognize and talk about the fact that they love someone of the same gender. That experience and the co-relative experience of those who have family and friends who are gay and learn to love and except them, led to a deep shaking of the foundations of sexual identity. This shaking, because it is so fundamental, has become extremely threatening to some who "pull the shades" on that topic and insist on holding on to and enforcing the old norms and moralities. This identity crisis makes dialogue about the topic very fraught with difficulties.

I appreciate that Farley's notion of identity crisis is much more generous and graceful than my thinking. I think my thoughts are similar, however, in that I recognize that the acceptance of homosexuality challenges traditional standards of male dominance in which the male is active and the female is passive (also part of Farley's analysis), and the assumption that a man engaged in sexual activity with another male makes one of them "passive," and thus threatening to male identity.

This helps fill out my image for what's happening in the mainline denominations, particularly my own PC(USA). It seems to me that one way of understanding the conflict over homosexuality is that we are having an ongoing fight between siblings, well known in family circles, in which the siblings have engaged in the battle for so long that they cannot imagine either stopping the fight or separating. The background for the two positions could be simplistically put that one side is holding on to traditional moralities due to the threat of gender identity crisis, and the other side is pushing for loosening the traditional moralities due to their experience with persons who are gay or lesbian.

The Biblical story of the sibling rivalry between Jacob and Esau is the model. They struggled within the womb (Gen. 25:22), they were born with Jacob refusing to let go of his brother's heel, and they spent their lives in a wrestling match. It is not accidental that Jacob dreamed of wresting the angel on the night before he met his brother again after many years (Gen 32:22ff).

It's not a pleasant image, and I'd be happy to replace it with a more hopeful story (although the last word on the Esau-Jacob match is that they cooperated in burying their father--Gen. 35:29).

Justice Love and the Grawemeyer Award

http://www.grawemeyer.org/religion/index.html

20 years ago, the Presbyterian Church (USA) considered a study on sexual ethics in which the criterion for good/bad, right/wrong was the concept of "justice love." The General Assembly, the denomination's highest governing body, turned it down--because it did not conform to conventional moral views of a majority of commissioners. I was mighty sorry that happened.

Thus it is with great pleasure that I let you know that Margaret Farley will be on campus this week to receive the Grawemeyer award in religion for her book on sexual ethics. See the link for more information.

Farley is a Roman Catholic, religious, Yale Scholar, well known to several of our faculty, and she takes a very carefully developed stance that justice is the basic issue in sexual ethics! Imagine that. And it is this very Presbyterian seminary that's giving her the award.

• Here's the basic information for you:
  Members of the LPTS community have the opportunity to meet Margaret Farley and hear her speak this Wednesday and Thursday. Margaret is the recipient of the 2008 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, for her book Just Love: A Framework for Sexual Ethics. Other distinguished guests will also be on campus to help celebrate Margaret’s receipt of this prestigious award, including Harold Attridge, Dean of Yale Divinity School, and Frank Oveis, former editor at Continuum (the publisher of Just Love). In addition, our own Kathryn Johnson is returning from Switzerland for the occasion. You should also plan to attend!
  
  Margaret Farley will be lecturing in the chapel at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, preaching in chapel at 10:10 a.m. on Thursday, and speaking in Frances Adeney’s class at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday (in 122 Schlegel—community members welcome).
  

If you've been hankering for a more complex and progressive perspective on sexual ethics, this is for you!

Patriotism and Discipleship--choices we have

Further reflection on the Jeremiah Wright flap, from a left-leaning democrat, but not about partisan politics. This is about how we parse our values of patriotism and Christian discipleship as church leaders and how our folks respond to our choices.

Hillary is quoted in the NYTimes this morning as saying: "Given all we have heard and seen, he (Wright) would not have been my pastor." She is further quoted as critiquing Obama: "While we don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives, we do have a choice when it comes to our pastors or our church."

The assumption in that last quote is a common one. Christianity is a voluntary activity. We make choices to join churches or leave churches or not go to church at all based on our private values and prejudices. One of our favorite prejudices leveraged against our churches and our pastors is patriotism. I've been reminded frequently as a pastor, and I'll be you have too, that we are not free to criticize our country or our president because that's mixing church and state.

I've always felt that I owe a higher allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ than I do to my country, and I'm a kind of American heretic because of it, I know. I am frankly shocked that Americans are criticizing Jeremiah Wright for mining the scriptures for God's priorities and using those scriptural insights to criticize the priorities of the government.

Hillary's comment also reminded me that prominent church members and community leaders are not above using their celebrity and their clout (and their contributions to the church) as a threat to domesticate the clergy. "If you say something I don't agree with, I'll leave this church and tell everyone why."

I personally believe Christians are called to a higher standard of behavior. Of course we are free to disagree with our pastors, but we're not free to reject the demands of the gospel to put God first!

Context in Preaching--Jeremiah Wright's critics

The seminary had a forum last week, organized by students, to talk about the flap caused by those who cherry-picked Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons for so called sensational clips and then tried to tie the Democratic candidate Obama to them. Our homiletics professor, Dr. Debra Mumford, pointed out that they not only took these clips out of context from the whole sermons and from their scriptural basis (Wright is a completely biblical preacher, by the way), but they also took him out of the context of preaching in a black church, out of the context of the black prophetic preaching tradition, and out of the context of black liberation theology. She also suggested that she could find nothing untrue in what was quoted by Wright--an important distinction!

I thought that the mostly white students in the crowd needed to think, as well, about how they approach public issues in their preaching in the context of mainline, European-American, middle-class congregations. Here is what I wrote in response.

In my 35 years of preaching to mostly middle and upper-middle class European American Presbyterians, I engaged in a very different kind of prophetic proclamation. I think Wright and I may use similar hermeneutic principles, but it did not look or sound anything like what he does. With my congregations, I listened carefully with ear and heart and mind to the culture and existential concerns of my congregation (as Wright did at Trinity UCC) and the historical situation in which we lived. Then I shaped the prophetic messages to work into their particular hearts and minds. I did not usually overtly challenge or criticize their compliance and collaboration with the dominant culture that oppressed others. The reason for that is that I had learned that they could not hear hope and gospel for themselves or for others if they closed their ears to the prophetic message. That’s similar to the mental processes we observe in commentators and news anchors and others who wont’ or can’t really hear Jeremiah Wright’s messages.

The other thing that I did in my congregations that is parallel to Wright—I let them know in as many ways as possible that I loved them, and helped them learn to trust me. After a while, they also became more open to my prophetic proclamation because it came in the context of trust and love. Each of us has to measure how long to let that trust build in a particular congregation before turning up the pressure in prophetic preaching.

With reading the context and building trust, over the years I learned to frame the gospel and the prophetic message in ways that would open their hearts and minds to the possibility of inner transformation for themselves and compassion and commitment to others, particularly to those on the margins. This was not always fruitful, but I kept at it. Frequently they thought I was “making them think” which is white folks’ way of struggling with these issues, and that was OK with them. They also knew, because I repeated it often, that they were not required to agree with me. As good Presbyterians they were required, instead, to come to grips with the scripture passages, listen to my proclamation, examine their own conscience, and arrive at their own conclusions. Thus I could do prophetic preaching that fit the time and place, in my own particular way.

It's all about the context!

Watching Clinton and Obama turning on each other in a kind of pit-bull fight to the end reminded me of Dr. Ken Goodpaster, Professor of Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul MN, with whom I worked doing ethics training for high school students, and who coined the term "teleopathy." The theologically trained might catch the roots of the words--it means "goal sickness." It is described in his new book Conscience and Corporate Culture, just out from Blackwell. (See a review at:

http://http://www.isfp.co.uk/businesspathways/issue32.html)

A leader afflicted with teleopathy gets so fixated on a goal, such as winning a presidential nomination, that ethics and values are lost in the battle. He says this fixation or addiction is accompanied by distancing from one's humanity, and a rationalization that loses touch with reality. What makes this pathology so insidious is that one can easily slip over the cliff from a healthy and effective striving for excellence, with its virtues of courage, determination and perseverance. When the goal becomes more important than the people and the systems with which we are working, we're in danger.

Church leaders need to be inoculated against the disease of teleopathy because we drink the water of divine vocation and work in stained-glass environments. When you're doing God's work, it's easy to get so zealous that being right and achieving our goals are more important than the Holy One whom we are supposed to be serving. The inoculations take different forms, but my favorite is a veil of humility that holds my own limitations in front of me, and a good dose of relativity to cast doubt that I've got the final and best take on the situation.

Holy Spirit, give me courage, determination and perseverance, without pathological fixation.

New Source for Presbyterian and Ecumenical Studies at Louisville Seminary

President Dean K. Thompson announced yesterday the appointment of The Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick as Visiting Professor of Ecumenical Studies and Global Ministries at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Kirkpatrick, who is currently stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is also the president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. He serves on the governing boards of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., the World Council of Churches, and the Council of Presidents, United States Chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace.

The announcement was made during the “Voices of the Church Dinner,” which was held March 4 in conjunction with Louisville Seminary’s annual Festival of Theology and Alum Reunion. Kirkpatrick was the guest speaker.

In September 2007, Kirkpatrick announced that he would not seek a fourth three-year term as stated clerk in the 2.3-million-member denomination. In a published statement addressed to friends and colleagues, he cited a desire for “more quality time with my family, to be able to devote myself more fully to the responsibility I have undertaken since 2004 to serve as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and to share in the life of the church, both locally and globally, in new and creative ways.”

Kirkpatrick’s term as stated clerk will conclude at the end of the 218th General Assembly (2008) in San Jose, Calif., in June. He was first elected to the office in 1996 and is only the second General Assembly stated clerk elected since Presbyterian reunion in 1983.

At Louisville Seminary, Kirkpatrick will teach up to two courses per year in areas of his expertise, including the ecumenical church, Presbyterian studies, the global church, Presbyterian polity and governance, congregational leadership and ministry, and practical theology.

“We at Louisville Seminary are deeply grateful for Cliff Kirkpatrick's wise, humble, and unselfish service in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and among ecumenical and Reformed communities throughout the world. We look forward to his new and promising relationship with our dedicated faculty and students,” stated President Thompson.

Kirkpatrick’s appointment will run three years and will also allow him to offer his services in Doctor of Ministry degree seminars and in Lifelong Learning events, which address the ecumenical and global church, middle governing body leadership, and church leadership.
Kirkpatrick said he will welcome the opportunity for interaction and conversation with faculty and students and of becoming an active member of the Louisville Seminary community.

Kirkpatrick will be a great resource for pastors, denominational officers and other church leaders for continuing education, for independent studies, and for general counsel drawing on his extensive experience in mission, governance, and interfaith and ecumenical relations.

I'm looking forward to having him around as a colleague! Welcome, Cliff!

March 5-8 Festival of Theology

2008 Festival of Theology and Alum Reunion
Young Voices in Homiletics
Worship - Lectures - Master Classes

FEATURING: Anna Carter Florence - Otis Moss III - Cláudio Carvalhaes - Debra Mumford
March 2-5, 2008
ALSO: Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk (chief ecclesiastical officer) of the Presbyterian Church (USA), will speak at the "Voices of the Church" dinner, March 4, 6 p.m. Reservations are required by Feb. 20.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Register Online* Schedule About the Speakers Reunion Events Download Brochure
At the 2008 Festival of Theology you will hear four outstanding young homileticians explain their approaches to preaching in daily lectures, witness them putting their theories in to practice in community worship services, and explore ways to incorporate what you learn through small group conversations in master classes and panel discussions.
*All lectures, worship services and master classes are offered free of charge. Reservations and tickets are required for some Festival and Reunion events.
SPEAKERS
Debra Mumford - March 2, 7 p.m. and March 3, 11;15 a.m.Frank H. Caldwell Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Louisville Seminary She is said to teach and preach with authority, creativity, and prophetic imagination as she guides future pastors in moving from text to sermon and from context to sermon in faithful proclamation of the Gospel.
Otis Moss III - March 3, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago He is the author of Redemption in a Red Light District (Four-G, 1999), and his essays, articles, and poetry have appeared in Sojourners Magazine, Urban Spectrum, and African American Pulpit, which recently named him one of the “20 to watch” ministers who will shape the future of the African American church. Newsweek has cited Moss as one of “God’s Foot Soldiers committed to transforming the lives of youth.”Anna Carter Florence - March 4, 10 and 11:15 a.m.Professor of Preaching and Worship at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga.As a scholar and writer, her research interests are testimony, feminist theology, the role of experience in preaching, and the history of preaching women. She is the author of Preaching as Testimony (Westminster John Knox, 2007) and the editor of Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers by Walter Brueggemann (Fortress, 2004).
Cláudio Carvalhaes - March 4, 2:30 p.m. and March 5, 10 a.m.Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching, Louisville Seminary As a theologian and artist his focus on reviving worship for the 21st century is deeply informed by an understanding of worship around the world. Carvalhaes began teaching at Louisville Seminary in the Fall of 2007, and as a much sought after speaker, writer, and consultant, he has served with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in its peacemaking and immigrant groups ministries.
CONTACTS
For Festival of Theology Lectures: Carol Webb or David Sawyer
For Alum Reunion: Lisa Kolb or Leah Bradley
800.264.1839 502.895.3411
Register Online.


Michelle E. Melton
Director of Communications
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
1044 Alta Vista Road
Louisville, KY 40205-1798
800.264.1839
502.992.9358, direct
502.609.5697, cell
mmelton@lpts.edu
www.lpts.edu

2009 Festival of Theology Lecturers Named

save the date
2009 Festival of Theology & Reunion
March 15–18

New Ways of Being Church
Conversations on renewal and
transformation in mainline congregations

Yes, there are signs of hope for the church in this so-called post-modern and post-Christian era! In 2009, Louisville Seminary welcomes a celebrated trio of church leaders and writers who are spreading the news that the church of the 21st Century can and does re-think, re-tradition, and re-invent itself. By the time of the 2009 Lectures, all three of them will have published new books about Jesus.

Featuring

• Diana Butler Bass, historian and author of the popular book Christianity for the Rest of Us, brings with her inspirational presentation solid research showing that mainline congregations are thriving as communities that practice the Christian traditions.
• Marcus Borg, a New Testament scholar, speaks for many who seek a fresh and credible progressive understanding of Jesus Christ for this age. His newest book will be simply titled Jesus.
• Brian McLaren is the pastor and author (A Generous Orthodoxy and more recently Everything Must Change) who best represents the “Emerging Church” from an evangelical perspective, but his books and his presentations elude simple labels.
  

Emotional Intelligence Laboratory This Summer!

Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
UPCOMING LIFELONG LEARNING EVENT

Emotional Intelligence and Human Relations Laboratory
July 21 to 25, 2008

Course Description: This is an intensive and highly experiential one-week course, with the major amount of time being spent in a small groups of 10 to 14 people with two experienced trainers in each group. As group life unfolds, participants are offered feedback on the impact they have on others in the group. Participants will learn both inter-personal and Intra-group communication skills. The content of the course will focus on the four areas of emotional intelligence as keys to improving leadership effectiveness for church leaders.

Faculty: Roy M. Oswald, Center for Emotional Intelligence and Human Relations Skills,
Retired Senior Consultant with Alban Institute
David R. Sawyer, Professor of Ministry and Director of Lifelong Learning, Louisville
Seminary.
Adjunct Trainers to be named

Cost: For Lifelong Learning:
Tuition: $620.00
Food and Lodging: $490.00
The tuition fee include a survey on Emotional Intelligence: $160
This survey involves a 360 degree EQ evaluation of each participant
provided by up to 20 people related to this individual.
For Academic Credit (3 hours)
Tuition: $930
Food and Lodging, $490.00

For more information contact:
Dr. David Sawyer: Director of Lifelong Learning, Louisville Seminary
dsawyer@lpts.edu
800-264-1839 ext 372
Dr. Carol Webb, Lifelong Learning Assistant, Louisville Seminary
cwebb@lpts.edu
800-264-1839 ext 429
Roy M. Oswald, Executive Director Center for EQ-HR
roymoswald@aol.com
301 432 2616

Controversy over the Golden Compass

I've been fascinated by the opposition to the Golden Compass. That's a movie (out in December to very disappointing numbers) based on a fantasy series His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. The trilogy fits into the genre of fantasy occupied by Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowling. It has, however, fallen victim to the culture wars in which zealous christians (the lower case is intentional here) have opposed it, ostensibly because the stories contain characters and plot sequences that are critical of the church.

Now that I've read into the third book (still reading) and seen the film, I want to make my own comments.

First, the "church" described in the books and implied in the movie bears only a glancing resemblance to the institutions of Christianity, perhaps closest to the Roman Catholic hierarchy, but not really. After all, the last "pope" was Calvin who moved the Vatican to Geneva. Pullman describes a religious institution and power system that has managed to squeeze all the spirit out of its life and exists to maintain its power by oppression rather than freedom. I rather enjoyed the straw figure Pullman has created because I don't love any part of the church that destroys freedom and joy and creative growth of the spirit.

Second, the books describe the "afterlife" as a mystical union with the universe. Now that's not too different than what was reported in the Times' report of the latest encyclical from Pope Benedict (in Rome, that is).

Third, Pullman's god is an absentee god of the theists who got the universe started and then went off to contemplate deeper things. It's another straw figure and it's easy to root for the demise of such a god.

Finally, the central character of "The Golden Compass" is a strong, bright, capably gifted, courageous, and fiercely independent little girl. It seems to me to be quite possible that more conservative forces in our church families are deeply, and probably unconsciously, unable to handle any story line that puts a female, particularly a female child, in leadership.

When we saw the film on a weekend evening just after Christmas it was shown in the smallest screening room in a local multiplex with not more than 15 people in attendance. What a shame that this imaginative story about truth-telling and making a world where children can be whole and happy has been so diminished by forces of unenlightenment.