2009 Festival of Theology Lecturers Named

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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.
  

Diana Butler Bass @ LPTS January 19

I have just confirmed with Peggy Owens and Jay Magnus that, thanks to a partnership between the Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky, the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky and the Lifelong Learning Office of Louisville Seminary, Diana Butler Bass will present four lectures in Louisville the third weekend in January.

Bass is the author of the Publishers Weekly "Best Book of the Year" Christianity for the Rest of Us, and a major interpreter of the emerging church movement in the United States.

Her presentation at the Episcopal Cathedral on Friday evening, January 18th, will be for clergy. On Saturday, the 19th, she will give three presentations in the Seminary Chapel. Both events will require advance registration and space is limited.

More information on costs and how to register will be available on www.lpts.edu when the links are up and available.

Reflections on Mormon Territory

In a week and a half in Utah, including six days in Salt Lake City I could not avoid reflecting on the phenomenon of the Mormons, "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Their culture and influence is powerful in that territory. Although I can't find a lot about their current expression to agree with, and think it was a desolate place for them to settle just to get away from critics, I still admire the spirit of Joseph Smith's willingness to critique the Christianity of his time and to take the risk to believe that God could still speak to humanity with some new insights.

The Mormons emerged during the time and spirit of the 19th Century Great Awakenings that also produced the Campbellites, the Shakers, and the Harmonists of New Harmony, Indiana. My wife's family are descendants of another of those spiritual/social experimental groups, the Icarians, who settled in Nauvou, Illinois after the Mormons left.

What hits me now is that old-line protestant groups like my own Presbyterian Church are currently in conflict that may just be a resistance to any new inspiration from God on social and spiritual issues. We are so caught up in that fight that we are missing the opportunity to stretch and grow and be transformed by discernment of God's moving in the world. The United Church of Christ has it right with their motto "God is still speaking."

I'm wishing for more zeal and enthusiasm and risk-taking to move us into new possibilities to become a spiritually awakened and attuned church for the 21st century. If we don't, the zeal and enthusiasm of the Mormons and the evangelicals and the emerging churches will simply move on and leave us in the desert!