09.06.10
Posted in books, semiotics, transition at 12:00 pm by len
An Emerging Dictionary is not really a dictionary, but a syllabus and anthology: a collection of thoughts, organized alphabetically by virtue of a particular conversation.
Why not a roving, eclectic dictionary that is both ridiculously current and particular, rooted in the broad conversation on culture, the gospel, and change; and at the same time, nearly universal, broadly inclusive, referencing names, old and new, that are used in this conversation. Why not write the ABCs of the emerging and missional conversation: an anthology organized by alphabet?
Under A are found Affections, Ancient, Apophatic, Attractional and St. Augustine. Augustine has never been more relevant, with his thoughts on desire beautifully elucidated by William Cavanaugh. Augustine is the guy who quipped, Inquietum est ad nostrum. Those were his literal words, which in our clumsy manner come out as, ‘Our hearts are restless ‘til they find rest in you.’ In our consumer culture, desire itself has become a commodity.
Some names attached to these A words would be Robert Webber, Frost and Hirsch, Reggie McNeal, Jonathan Edwards, and Saint Gregory. Both Augustine and Saint Gregory are referenced in relation to the rediscovery of apophatic prayer, and the exploding interest in spiritual formation and ancient practices.
This week I am sharing an excerpt from the “C” section – you may download the PDF using this LINK.
And the page at the Publisher, Wipf and Stock.
Permalink
Posted in complexity/systems, leadership at 5:00 am by len
Eddie Gibbs little book, one of the best in the last few years on ecclesial leadership, keeps popping up. Recently I dug back in looking for a quote and rediscovered the power of the second chapter, titled “Why Leadership Styles Must Change.” Eddie bases much of this chapter on the work of Harlan Cleveland. On page 65 he writes about the implications of the shift from the center to the margins (the end of Christendom really.)
But there are two components to this location. The first is the end of Christendom. The second is the new location of postmodernity and discontinuous change. In this location we have to learn to swim in the waters of complexity and so we require leaders who are not stuck or insecure when it comes to change and adaptation (similarly see Roxburgh in The Sky is Falling). This is why many current leaders are lost; they are specialists, not generalists. They have learned to survive in a compartmentalized world. That is no longer possible. Cleveland lists eight attitudes that are indispensable to the management of complexity.
Gibbs quotes Harlan Cleveland on the eight attitudes necessary for managing complexity.
* a lively intellectual curiosity; an interest in everything — because everything really is related to everything else and there to what we are trying to do, whatever it is
* a genuine interest in what other people think and why they think that way — which means you have to be at peace with yourself for a start
* a feeling of special responsibility for envisioning a future that’s different from a straight-line projection of the present. Trends are not destiny.
* a hunch that most risks are there not to be avoided but to be taken
* a mindset that crises are normal, tensions can be promising and complexity is fun
* a realization that paranoia and self-pity are reserved for people who don’t want to lead
* a sense of personal responsibility for the general outcome of your efforts
* a quality like “unwarranted optimism” — the conviction that there must be some more upbeat outcome that would result from adding up all the available expert advice
Gibbs, Leadership Next, 65-66
See also “the evolution of hierarchy.”
Permalink
09.04.10
Posted in complexity/systems, emergence, leadership at 4:49 am by len
“To address these questions we need to develop a clearer understanding of our rapidly changing times before we can expect effective, enduring solutions. The deeper roots of our present predicament need to be laid bare.
“This is not an easy path. It may require challenging even our basic assumptions, views, and convictions. But we believe that this is not a path without hope. Descending to deeper layers underneath today’s grave predicament may even reveal almost forgotten, long-neglected spiritual resources.
“The lives of palm trees in Northern Africa provide a surprising metaphor for the fruitfulness of digging down to the deepest levels (see Figure 4). For centuries, palm trees have been planted in the middle of deserts, a feat that seems impossible. But it becomes truly unbelievable when one sees the actual process. The tree planters dig a hole in the sand, fifteen feet or more, and they push the young tree down into the hole. They then cover the tree entirely with sand, and they finish by carefully securing a large flat rock on top of the young tree. By all appearances, the planters have systematically eliminated every possibility of growth for the young tree!”
From The Other Journal, June 15, 2010
Global Problems: The Lost Dimension
by Bob Goudzwaard and Mark Vander Vennen
Permalink
09.03.10
Posted in books, hermeneutics, learning at 5:00 am by len
If you are speaking/teaching/preaching with any regularity, what have you found to be the best NT commentaries, and if you enough knowledge to venture an opinion, the best commentary series available today? And why?
I note, for example, just these three volumes from different series:
IVPNT, Galatians by G. Walter Hansen.
The Baker Exegetical series looks interesting.. and expensive! Anyone know who Thomas Schreiner is?
And then Eerdmans puts out their New International series: Romans by Douglas Moo, Philippians by Gordon Fee, and Galatians by Ronald Fung. I note the set (18 volumes) can be had for about $500.
Permalink
09.02.10
Posted in audio, ecology, gospel, poetry/prose, semiotics, the arts at 10:45 am by len
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
. . .
The name that no human research can discover–
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.
TS Eliot
* * *
I find myself, particularly around a hungry lunchtime in an empty house, talking to my cat. (If you are the caregiver to a friendly animal, you know this condition. If not, you are likely, like some of my relatives, to think me insane).
It’s a curious experience, to be eyeballing an intelligent animal. One frequently has the sense that they understand much more than they do. It’s a projective phenomenon — but some days I wonder if the thoughts in our heads are placed there by these animals. “I really am cute. Scratch me behind the ears”). We’ve had Kiara – or she has had us – for seven years now. A beautiful sealpoint Siamese with startling blue eyes, we will find her a new home before our next move. No — we haven’t told her yet.
* * *
Earlier this year Ellen Davis was interview on Speaking of Faith. This one comes recommended. Ellen is the author of Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. I am only downloading the interview today, but I believe it also includes Wendell Berry. The subject, “Land, Life and the Poetry of Creatures.”
Permalink
09.01.10
Posted in life happens at 1:34 pm by len
I was on my way back from the mall this morning when I spotted a young man with straggly hair standing on the median with a cardboard sign. It read simply, “Travelling, hungry, broke.”
I drove a few more blocks but felt like the Lord was whispering to me, “This is your day to provide.” I thought about it for another block, the traffic was fairly heavy and I didn’t really feel like eating fast food for lunch. My next thought was this, “This is someone’s son or daughter. If it were your daughter, wouldn’t you be praying that someone would stop and help?” I turned around at the next light.
I parked and crossed to the median. I caught his attention and he walked toward me. I offered, “how about lunch at Burger King?” He flashed a smile. “Sounds good, thanks.” We chatted as we walked back to the car. Dave is from Victoria and had been in town only a few days. More recently he had been on the east coast of Canada, but it was getting cold and wet. As we got into the car he told me his girlfriend was somewhere around, and sure enough as we approached the next light there she was with her own cardboard sign. I stopped and she saw Dave in the car. I rolled down my window and asked if she wanted to join us for lunch. She got in and away we went. Chantelle is a vegetarian, but Burger King happens to offer the best veggie burger in town.
We sat and ate and drank orange juice, talked about BC towns and BC weather and BC food. Chantelle had spent nearly half her years in Winnipeg, so we talked also about Winnipeg winters and the Forks. They were a pleasant (and hungry) couple hoping to stay in Kelowna for a while, and maybe pick apples or grapes. I told them that METRO offers a free breakfast at 9 AM on Sunday. That sounded good to them – maybe we’ll meet again.
Permalink
Posted in gospel, pilgrimage, poetry/prose, theology at 5:00 am by len
I am tracking the intersection of two threads of conversation over the past month or so. The first thread was with regard to the increasing absence of the Old Testament in the teaching and discipling ministries of the church. The second thread was the difficulty of publishing “Christian” fiction. By “Christian” fiction I don’t mean fiction about the OT or NT stories, or fiction which is always obviously religious. That would be to reduce fiction to propaganda. A good story has internal integrity and may address ultimate concerns through a variety of lenses. Some might not appreciate the work of Flannery O’Connor, for example, but it is densely religious.
It hit me sometime after the first conversation about the apparent irrelevance of the Old Testament, that these two concerns are connected. The OT stopped mattering when two other things happened: place became an abstraction (and at the same time, history), and salvation became either an internal and personal concern, or something primarily future and other-worldly. Both these movements away from the groundedness of reality in history, away from the real implications of the Incarnation, push us away from the concreteness and messiness of the story. The story doesn’t matter if salvation is merely personal or a future destiny. Context then no longer has meaning, since ultimate meaning resides outside history. Then why worry about what God did yesterday? Only the intersection of my story and God’s story matter when salvation is a spiritual and personal matter.
But if this is less than true, then the story is everything. Context is everything. Place is everything. The actual visible community is the only true apologetic for the gospel. We need a sacramental lens – God is at work in and behind everything we see: grace is ubiquitous. As Carrie Newcomer sings,
Holy is the dish and drain
The soap and sink, the cup and plate
And the warm wool socks, and the cold white tile
Showerheads and good dry towels
And frying eggs sound like psalms
With a bit of salt measured in my palm
It’s all a part of a sacrament
As holy as a day is spent..
See also Wiens on abstraction, Holt on place, de Certeau on modernity and its effects.
Permalink
08.30.10
Posted in books, gospel, hermeneutics, poetry/prose, theology at 8:43 am by len
Part VI of Kenneth Bailey’s “Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes” is an introduction to the parables. It’s a powerful and packed four pages, especially the first two. Here they are for the enlightenment of all..
“Very early in the life of the church outsiders saw Christians drawing their faith from parables. One of these witnesses was Galen, the most famous medical doctor of the second century. He was also the first pagan to say positive things about Christians. Around AD 140 he wrote:
“Most people are unable to follow a demonstrative argument consecutively: hence they need parables, and benefit from them . . . just as now we see the people called Christians drawing their faith from parables [and miracles] and yet sometimes acting [as those who philosophize] . . . and in their keen pursuit of justice, have attained a pitch not inferior to that of genuine philosophers.”
“In later centuries parables became a source for Christian life (ethics) but not Christian faith (theology). it is instructive to note that in the second century Galen saw Christians building their faith on parables.. How did parables lose their status as a source of the Christian faith? Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
08.28.10
Posted in complexity/systems, ekklesia, mission at 11:14 am by len
A helpful insight from the sustainable kiwi, Steve Taylor:
“Here in South Australia we recently enjoyed the visit by Dave Male. One of the big helps for me was when Dave talked about the size of the core team in planting fresh expressions. He was making the point that the smaller the team, the slower the progress, but the more likely it would be radical re-expression of missional life. In contrast, the larger the core team, the more quickly the plant might grow, yet the more likely the new plant can end up look like it’s planting parent.”
Read more: HERE
Permalink
Posted in life happens at 11:13 am by len
Last year after years of sticking with a single recipe for oatmeal/whole wheat bread, I tried a new recipe. At the same time, I tried some new flour – an organic, stone-ground whole grain flour with no additives. The result was a whole wheat cracked grain bread loaf that is probably the best home baked bread I have ever had. If, like me, you love a great slice of fresh bread with real butter.. well, it doesn’t get a lot better than that.
Shortly after I tried another recipe.. a 100% whole wheat loaf with molasses and honey. Ever since we got our first bread making machine in 1995 I have been crazy about fresh bread. The smell – the flavor – the great toast it makes along with eggs in the morning – or fresh sliced with some homemade soup: yeh, you can smell it now right?
Last night we were giving away hotdogs and mingling with the chilled street dwellers downtown. We’ve had a rapid shift in the weather from a high of 35, and now two days later the high is 19. That means our night temperatures are below 10 C. We should have thought of fresh coffee – would have gone over big last night.
Anyway, we stopped at the gospel mission to pick up hot-dog buns. They get the day old buns from Safeway and sometimes from Buns Master, and always have more than they can use. They foisted about eight bags of bananas on us also. We used most of them but brought the excess home with us – very ripe. So this morning we baked our favorite muffins – bran and banana with no added sugar. These muffins are best fresh and with a bit of jam or honey.
Muffins and bread are my most common baking project. I have been known on occasion to bake a lemon meringue pie, using a store bought crust of course. And in the winter, every few months, I make cinnamon buns. The bread machine makes this so easy.
I find that baking clears some space for my mind and spirit. I usually listen to some great music while waiting for things to cook, except in the case of bread which is mix then forget for four hours. It’s been a while since I shared a recipe here — if I have time I’ll put the muffin recipe online one day soon.
Permalink
« Previous entries Next Page » Next Page »
