Davison's Doodle

This and That: a mixed post.

It has been sometime since I posted my own words.  I’ve been working on words for the Dmergent site, but cannot get anything on the screen that doesn’t have a tone of complaint to it.  What follows represents many of the things I’ve been pondering and thinking about, talking about with my peers or my companion, and flat out struggling with while I serve in ministry.  It could be that my subconscious is reminding me that I will have served in ordained ministry for 20 years this November and almost all that time focused on ministry with youth, children, and young adults.  Like some of my colleagues that are “boomer” age, I think I’m revisiting, rather than wondering, what I’ve given my life too and why?  I’ve been thinking systemically and theologically about Christianity and my expression of it though the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Below I am not commenting about any specific congregation, Region, nor any persons’ call to ministry, nor anyone’s belief in God or their expression of what “Christ” means.  So, here it is, this and that.

This . . .
Distrust of institutions and the overt ways that many of our institutions, secular and sacred, have failed humanity in general, American society specifically, has given way to a questioning of authority and credentials that would have made the 1960’s Woodstock generation ecstatic without the drug assist.  My post will seem “joy” depleted and I am aware that much of what I write appears to be negative rather than the critical reflection I think is necessary for a time such as ours.  I can still hear our GMP telling me to not let the “bad wolf” howl on my shoulder.  Well, one cannot adapt, improvise, and overcome without preparation, which includes critical reflection, to give one the confidence and ability to change, willfully, rather than react.  I guess that passes as “bad wolf” these days.  It is ironic that someone like me, who is anti-institution, now argues what must appear to many to be a conservative, institutional position.  I trust that Dr. Edens and Rev. Margaret Harrison are having a good laugh in eternity.  It is from their example, and many others that continue to serve in ministry, that I blog, speak, and serve in ministry with children, youth, and young adults that are the Church today and tomorrow.  I am working on being dispassionate about my observations and concerns for our little frontier movement and for Christendom.  Why today?  It is a convergence of things I’ve been reading, conversations overheard and held, and an awareness that the systemic defunding of ministry with children, youth, and young adults coupled with generic ecumenism within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is one of the root causes of the decline of many of our congregations.  I want for statistics to ground my claims, but no one has done that kind of research.  The academic work of Kenda Creasy Dean, Andrew Root, and others are pointing a way back to a ministry based in theology, practice, and relationship, from the edutainment experiments of the past twenty years.  When asked what someone interested in youth or children’s ministry should be studying in seminary or after the degree I respond, “All the bible, theology, preaching, education, and pastoral care courses you can.  Read research in sociology and anthropology too.”  When asked by some what they should be reading, but not going to seminary I often respond, “Why not go to seminary if you feel called to youth ministry?”

That . . .
What is typically called “contemporary” or “blended” worship in non-denominational, independent, and some mainline congregations generally means a “praise band” or “praise team,” video screens rather than hymnals, and a dressed-down minister/pastor (no liturgical garb except maybe a large cross).  TV preachers almost always dress for success.  It is a marketing and fund raising technique that “like asks like” brought to the preaching craft.  The pastor may or may not have any formal training or education for ministry and this is considered an asset.   Sanctuary space with symbols inspiring silence, reverence, noting that something important and mysterious happens here, have given way to stadium style concert venues or club settings where the preacher, the band, or praise team set the tone for mystery.  Pulpits give way to wandering preachers that are performers and the biblical story is evidence, almost an idol, something to be believed like a book of spells, rather than teaching stories of ancient peoples dealing with similar human struggles that we in the 21st century face: meaningful existence, sorrow, community, the knowledge of God, and joy.  What makes these services and congregations “contemporary,” “blended,” or “emergent” is the style of worship rather than the content of worship.  Liturgy.  The band or team has replaced the choir and it has a performance feel to it.  Christian creeds have been reduced to praise chorus, something I once heard Fred Craddock describe as 7/11, “Seven words, eleven times.”  This new form of creedal Christendom has found its way into non-creedal denominations like mine, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) primarily through church camp settings, things picked up a workshops, but not integrated into Disciples practice, or ministers following non-denominational trends that are “growth” strategies.  For others these “7/11” are another form of chant or prayer that draw on monastic life.  The ecumenical movement has been a success!  Observe the way Protestant and non-denominational Christianity has become generic, not unified in building a kindom of God that is just, equal, or stands against the consumerism culture, but generic through contemporary style and pop-theology.  Christianity has been tamed in the West as a means of liberation for the least of these in society or as the voice of conscious in government.  I understand that many, many persons have been “de-churched” in their lives and that creating a space that doesn’t feel like the institutional Church that drove them away, or invited them to leave, is one answer to questions of “hospitality.”  But, the content, the liturgy is what creates relevance in a service of worship that makes it traditional, contemporary or emergent.   Some Disciples of Christ congregations are doing this well without simply borrowing from “successful” ministries.  The most contemporary or emergent worship I’ve participated in has been Unitarian.  Much of what is called “contemporary” or “emergent” worship that I’ve experienced is repackaged and dressed down orthodox Christian theology.  Emergent seems more like a style of worship than a developing or evolving theology or way of being.  Orthodox and Neo-Orthodox Christianity blurs the divinity of Jesus making him co-equal to God so that worshiping Jesus is worship of God.  A first century Jew would have not spoke such words nor suggested such a thing.   Not even the over confident Apostle Paul, an educated ancient Jew, would have suggested such a thing unless spinning a story to help Gentiles understand God through the lens of their Roman imperial culture and how God’s kindom is different.  The overall picture of Jesus is a person that always pointed to God and away from himself.   For me it is about the way(s) of Jesus more than the Christ of faith.  Why am I thinking about this today?

This . . .
First, I am continuing to witness my denomination’s systemic devaluing of ordained ministry by creating paths to ordination into Christian ministry that do not include accredited higher education.  For all the sacrificial language used at the table about Jesus and God, sacrificial leadership is no longer a valued part of preparation for ministry as a way to think theologically about “servant leadership.”  The number of persons coming to seminary that cannot articulate a sense of call, with little long-term Christian experience, or fresh off an Emmaus Walk has required some seminaries to alter from “education” for ministry to “formation” for ministry.  It has required a “Sunday school” approach to higher education rather than a balanced academic approach.  A segment of the pastoral boomer generation feels ill-equipped by their seminary training to deal with the kinds of changes that have and are taking place in our culture and in the Church.  I empathize, but ask, “What kind of continual life learning did you do after seminary?  What kind of discipline or spiritual direction did you practice to maintain balance?  What kind of relationships with other ministers, peers or friends, did you cultivate to walk with you through ministry?”  Some of our leaders are embracing generic Christianity within our denomination under the cloak of freedom and out of their own vocational chaos.  This will lead to an even greater divide among our congregations, some whom will have seminary trained persons and others that will have “alternative” track training, but all ordained and available in the search and call system of our denomination.  I think this means we have to alter the “Promises of the Candidate” dramatically because alternative track is preparing persons for ordained ministry in specific settings and the “Promises of the Candidate” presupposes a larger understanding of Church.  This does not account for those embracing a growing ethnic constituency whose culture does not place a value on educated “clergy.”  The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is living through a reformation that will not end in a formal “split” because no one can financially afford it, but a schism is happening along racial, gender, sexual orientation, and educational lines all of which are based in our pragmatism and theology.  Seminary education, once the standard, was the place where all these collided and set in motion ways for persons to be authentic and educated for service in Christian ministry through a denomination that placed education, lay and ordained, as a core value.   Why would I make this claim?  Observe all the colleges, universities, and seminaries that Disciples began back in the day and continue to support.  The ability for Regions to offer unaccredited formal education of those wanting to be ordained into Christian ministry and serve beyond the congregation and Region that ordain her or him will further the generic ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Why would anyone choose our brand of Christian witness?

Second, I’m working on Sacred Steps: Children’s Sermon Journal and one of the Lectionary readings for October 9 is Philippians 4:1-9.  These are often heard words from the Apostle in this text that speak of gentleness, thanksgiving, and peace.  There are words about taking account of what is true, pure, honorable, pleasing, commendable, excellent or worthy of praise.  We should keep doing these things.  My background reading brought me to these two quotes that are working on me about this passage and what passes as popular, relevant Christianity today.

From Paul Tillich . . .
Pleasures can be provided and pain can be avoided, if we use or abuse other beings. But joy cannot be attained and sorrow cannot be overcome in this way. Joy is possible only when we are driven towards things and persons because of what they are and not because of what we can get from them. The joy about our work is spoiled when we perform it not because of what we produce but because of the pleasures with which it can provide us, or the pain against which it can protect us. The pleasure about the fact that I am successful spoils the joy about the success itself. Our joy about knowing truth and experiencing beauty is spoiled if we enjoy not the truth and the beauty but the fact that it is I who enjoys them.  [I added the italics to the sentence above.]
(Paul Tillich, “Ch. 19: The Meaning of Joy”, The New Being, Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1955.)  Click here to read more.

 

From Ronald Goetz . . .
Were we to try honestly to restate Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians from our own perspective, we would finally substitute our terms of value fir his. Where Paul would say, “Whatever is honorable,” we would better understand, “realistic.” Where Paul would say, “whatever is just,” we would settle for “acceptable.” Where Paul would say, “whatever is pure,” we would rather be “experienced.” Where Paul would say, “whatever is lovely,” we would say “functional.” Where Paul would say, “whatever is gracious,” we would be satisfied with “adaptable.” What Paul commends as “excellence,” we would translate as “cost-efficient.” And for us, what are the things most “worthwhile of praise”? Is not our praise most inspired by popularity and fame? In many ways the differences in fundamental values between the Moral Majority and those of us of a more liberal persuasion are fewer than we think. A neutral outside observer, seeing the similarities in our comfortable lifestyles, might well conclude that we are so alike in our praxis that our differences in theological theory are rendered trivial. This country’s liberals and fundamentalists alike are, after all is said and done, 20th-century American Christians.
(Ronald Goetz, “A Child of His Time”, The Christian Century, December 5, 1984, p. 1143.)  Click here to read more.