My Theological Worldview

I took the Theological Worldview Test. Here's what I got:

82% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan
75% Emergent/Postmodern
54% Charismatic/Pentecostal
54% Neo orthodox
43% Reformed Evangelical
39% Roman Catholic
39% Classical Liberal
36% Fundamentalist
29% Modern Liberal

I'm a lot more Emergent than I would have guessed.

I have a Mentor

I've finally been assigned to a mentor. Just five months after finishing the MIP, I got the e-mail from my dCOM chair that I have been assigned a clergy mentor and I registered to the online system on GBHEM, though I'm still waiting for the electronic signature from mentor and my DS. I hope that won't take too long.

I'm concerned a bit by the slow pace that I got assigned a mentor. There's also a bit of a communication problem where I had trouble getting e-mail responses from my DS and the dCOM. The church constantly says they desire young clergy, and I am incredibly excited about the prospect of going into the ministry. I want to begin the candidacy process. I want to go to licensed local pastor school before seminary, but my annual conference requires me to be a certified candidate before I can do so. When the communication and assignment of mentor takes so long, I fear I won't be at that stage before that time. I hope having a mentor will let me be a little more connected to the system.

Why Our Unity is Worth It

I'm going to contradict a post I made a few weeks ago. I argued that our fighting over doctrinal issues has come to the point that our unity is becoming more of a hindrance than a strength. I now, after a lot of prayer and thought, want to argue that our unity in Christ is much more important than doctrinal issues.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus." This familiar verse from Galatians reminds us that the divisions that caused so much strife during the early church could not divide the body of Christ. The idea that salvation came through the Jews was still a very prevalent one during the early church, and when Paul began preaching faith by salvation through Jesus Christ, it caused a lot of controversy. The Gentiles were now offered salvation through Jesus Christ. Many still believed that salvation came through the Hebrew people. This was an issue that struck the very core of Christianity. Paul boldly declared that there is unity in the body of Christ. No one is better than another; Christ makes us one with each other.

An issue like homosexuality doesn't come close to cutting into the core of what we believe as Christians. Although I believe homosexuality to be a sin, what someone believes about homosexuality is not nearly as important as what they believe about grace and salvation. As the body of Christ in the United Methodist Church, we need to learn how to approach each other with love and understanding. We will not come to a sanctimonious agreement where both sides of the debate will be satisfied. We will, however, still be one in Jesus Christ. We will still know that God has called us together as a church to do ministry in the world. We must focus our energies on spreading the Good News that He is risen and that He will come again. We must use our strength together to minister to the homeless, the sick, the imprisoned, the mentally disabled, the least, the last, and the lost. Our unity allows us to use our monetary strength and the strength of our many hands to be the hands and feet of Christ to the world. We could not do many of our powerful ministries like UMCOR or UMVIM as effectively if we were a further divided church.

The divisions within the church, even the existence of multiple denominations, is saddening. John Wesley set out to reform the Anglican church, not to start a new one. The church that grew from his preaching has split many times even in the few centuries it has been around, and we should not encourage further division within the body. Don't misunderstand me: doctrine is important and I believe that there are universal, unchanging truths about our God. But not everything is cut and dry. God is more concerned about how we are living out the Great Commission in the world than about our infighting over homosexuality and other comparatively smaller issues.

If we are to remain a church, we must end our focus on homosexuality. General Conference time should be limited so that we only spend a small percentage on sexuality issues. We must focus our energies on making the church better and more effective at making disciples in the world. We must be willing to learn from the churches in Africa that grow by leaps and bounds compared to the United States. We must be willing to change and allow the movement of the Spirit to change us and to change our church. We must try to understand why the United Methodist Church has such a high median age and why we are failing to attract young clergy. But we can do all of these best if we remain steadfast and committed to our covenant together to be a dynamic movement in the body of Christ. The bureaucracy of the UMC is nothing compared to the power that God has to change us, our church, and the world.

Update: edited for grammar.

Maundy Thursday and the duty of Constant Communion

Tonight we celebrated our Lord's Last Supper before he would be betrayed and sent to die for us. We remember the powerful words that Jesus recounted, and he told us to "do this in remembrance of me."

As we celebrate his supper on this special night, I reflect on communion as a duty for Christians. I am saddened that in the United Methodist tradition, communion is often a monthly or even a quarterly event. This was originally out of necessity. As the Methodist movement was spreading across America, ordained elders were difficult to come by. They went around their circuits and celebrated communion with many different churches, while the weekly services were led by lay people. Now, though, most of our churches are served by persons who are authorized to serve communion. Yet, we still serve communion rarely.

Communion is a critical time for our worship. Our order of worship is prepared as a service of Word and Table, and a primary worship service without the time to come before God to receive his mercy by receiving the elements is missing a critical part. Christ has died for us and offers his body and blood for us a living sacrifice. We can remember quite powerfully the sacrifice that He made for us. With communion, we have an opportunity every week to come before God and recognize our sinfulness. We can recognize our unworthiness, and celebrate the fact that through Christ's blood we become worthy, and he invites us to his table.

We don't need to do the full liturgy every week. This could have the danger of the sacrament becoming simply a rote task. Instead, we can find other ways to recount Christ's last supper and discover other ways that God can speak to us through communion. Pastors can have an excellent opportunity to creatively communicate the message of Christ that he offers us through communion. We can also use it as a ministry opportunity; taking the communion elements to shut-ins on a weekly basis can be quite meaningful and powerful for both the giver and the shut-ins.

When I enter the ministry, I hope to be able to serve communion on a weekly basis. Though I have some fear that some churches may not be completely open to a seemingly radical change, I hope to be able to answer God's call to do some radical changes. I hope to be able to offer Christ to my congregation through communion as often as I can.

iTunes U and Technology in the Church

Apple has been promoting iTunes U, a section of iTunes where universities can post lectures, special presentations, etc. I've found MIT's offerings particularly useful, but what has been very interesting to me is noticing the number of seminaries and Christian schools that are offering classes or other content via iTunes U. Fuller, Duke, and Yale, all UM approved seminaries, all have offerings from the schools of theology. Of the 41 schools listed on iTunes U, 5 are distinctly Christian schools, with at least 2 more having divinity schools.

Is higher education maybe "getting it" a little more? I would love to be able to download lectures from my own school to be able to study from, and the fact that seminaries seem to be on top of this is encouraging. As a denomination, we need to embrace technology more. Church web sites, in general, are abysmal. Interactivity is something that is not just important for a web site's success, it's practically demanded. If users can't comment or interact with each other, the web sites "stickiness" tends to decrease immensely. If church web sites allowed members and guests to interact with each other, web sites could actually be a tool for more than just posting the calendar and the newsletter.

This doesn't even need to be restricted to large churches with big budgets and dedicated servers. Projects like the Web Empowered Church make this accessible to even small churches. They offer extensions for things like public (and private) journals, sermon management, prayer requests, and many more. I am a rabid web user and I am always demanding more information. When I come across a church web site that's outdated and with little to no real content, it's disheartening. I want to know about the ministries of the church. I want to know service times. I want to hear a sermon. I want to read the pastor's blog.

Podcasting (or netcasting as Leo Laporte would say) is also a tool that churches should be embracing. It gives them an opportunity to be able to reach a worldwide audience. Podcasts don't have to be restricted to sermons; they can be conversations, reflections, anything. If they become successful, pastors and church leaders could even do live shows and have people call in to share reflections on whatever comes up.

The rise of the web gives the church a powerful mission field that, if used correctly, could be part of the key to reaching young adults. The fact that seminaries are embracing things like iTunes U tells me that maybe they're starting to get it. Will it "trickle-down" to the pastors going into the churches and knowing how to use those key tools to reach out to other demographics? Perhaps seminaries should require technology courses for students that would help prepare them to be able to use the Web and technology to effectively minister to people. Of course, for someone like me who considers himself tech literate, courses like that sometimes end up being a waste of time. If done right, with a seminar-style teaching method and a focus on things like Web 2.0, podcasting, etc., rather than basic computer literacy like "how to use Microsoft Word", courses like that could be quite effective, even for someone like me.

Is Our Unity Worth It?

John at Locusts and Honey has some thoughts about Dean Snyder and his plan to bless homosexual unions without quite blessing them, so as to be in accordance with Discipline. It's very hard for me to believe that this can be reconciled with a vow to uphold our doctrines and discipline taken at ordination. There have been talks that this is civil disobedience, but it's deliberately avoiding actually defying the Discipline. In any case, the United Methodist Church has continued to strengthen its stance against homosexual unions, adding language that says we want to define marriage as between man and woman recently. I don't think it will change this General Conference, but again the important issues of why the church is declining, why our median age is so high, why we aren't making disciples the way we should, and why Methodism isn't a movement anymore will all be drowned out by questions of sexuality.

I think it becomes hard for those who believe homosexuality is acceptable to remain true to their denomination when continually it tells them that they are wrong! Schism is not the end of the world. The Methodist movement has split over issues before and we can still work with each other. The World Methodist Council is a good example of how we maintain ecumenical relations with those in the Wesleyan tradition despite some theological differences. But our denomination grows weaker as we continue in-fighting. I think we are sacrificing some of our strength and ability to make disciples of Christ in favor of unity. I think this is a poor sacrifice to make. We don't have to break apart and never speak again; we can maintain strong relationships together and work together.

Our theological diversity is a strength, undoubtedly; but we might have to sacrifice some of it. We're still not all in agreement over everything; even if I agree with someone about homosexuality doesn't mean I agree with him or her about other important theological topics. We must all pray for guidance as we continue through this, but I doubt there's going to be a mass change in opinion that will make us all agree that homosexual is or is not a sin.

Young Adult and Youth Ministry

I'm seeing a lot more articles and things about the denomination having special programs for youth and young adults. I'm glad to see this, and I think things like the young adult address at General Conference are an excellent way to get youth more involved. But it seems as though we almost come to the point of marginalizing youth and making us more of an outside group than a part of the church. It seems like we've always got to change things a bit in order to make them "relevant" to youth or to better appeal to youth interests. This works to a degree, but sometimes it feels like it's just dumbing down the gospel in the name of trying to be relevant. I get frustrated sometimes in that it seems like my opinion as a youth isn't quite as valid; instead I should be worrying about the youth issues and not the big important adult issues. Many of us aren't just interested in how much pizza will be served at the next youth group meeting, but instead what the direction the church is going as it relates to important theological issues.

The global church structure resolution that's on the table of General Conference is so vitally important to youth interests because by the time the proposal would be implemented, many of us who are young adults/ youth now will be in leadership positions in the church! I'm glad that the connectional table had youth and young adult membership, but I think that we can't stop at just having just two youth and young adult members on this very important committee.

Sorry for the slow publishing; this is a very busy semester for me and I'm entrenched in a show that I'm stage managing at the moment.

A New Semester

So, I began my second semester yesterday. I'm taking number systems, which is a math proofs course, psychology research methods, Acting I, and an advanced psych seminar. I'm also stage managing a show again, this time Little Women. It's a much larger cast than the first show I managed, so it will be interesting to see how well I'm able to deal with the new challenges from that.

In any case, as I begin my new semester, I'm still waiting to hear from dCOM about my clergy mentor for the candidacy process. I am very much ready to begin, but I've still not been assigned a mentor to begin, and the GBHEM online application won't let me continue without having a mentor's name. I'm hoping to get certified within a year or two so that I can go to licensing school and get licensed before seminary. My dilemma is this: I'm engaged to a lovely woman who has health problems that mean student health insurance offered through grad schools would be woefully inadequate for her needs. She and I would like to get married following our undergraduate studies, but this will be impossible if I can't get her decent health insurance. She plans to get a PhD which will take at least five years, so my thought right now is to serve as a licensed local pastor at a level which would qualify me for conference health insurance (half or 3/4 time, I think, is the minimum), and go to seminary at the same time, taking a less than full time course load so that it will take me about five years to finish and that she and I will be able to go through this without being inundated by medical costs. In this way, I can be applying what I'm learning in seminary and also decide if parish ministry is really something I'm up to. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Covenant Renewal

It is New Years' Day, a time of new beginnings. Although this is a time that is very busy for me with a musical I am advising on the lighting design for, I am reminded of the Watch Night covenant and service that John Wesley modified for use with the Methodists.

This is a very powerful service for me and one I hope to be able to use when I begin pastoring a church. The service, originally three hours long, reminds us of the blessings God has given us and gives us the opportunity to renew our covenant with God and to make it a reality in the following ways:

1. Set apart time to spend alone before the Lord. This is something that it often a challenge for me. I have difficulty doing this when I get busy, especially when I'm in the midst of a theatrical production. I always try to get back to my daily ritual of centering on God: studying His word, praying about the events of the day to come. Wesley's service reminds us to "seek earnestly God's special assistance and gracious acceptance of you... searching your hearts whether you have already freely given your life to Christ." It is incredible that God has offered me his assistance and acceptance, yet I can forget to accept it when I get so busy.

2. "Be serious and in a spirit of holy awe and reverence." A covenant can't be taken lightly. I love liturgy and traditional worship, but sometimes I see that when we overdo certain liturgies they become trite; no longer a special time. Even the holy mystery of communion can become rote. God is a God who makes all things new, even liturgies hundreds of years old. We cannot take worship lightly or just go through the motions. We must realize the amazing work of the Holy Spirit when we make a covenant with God.

3. "Rely upon God's promise of giving grace and strength... trust not your own strength and power." Of course, we cannot expect to keep a covenant to grow and maintain our walk with the Lord without relying on God. I think this will be a challenge for me as I continue through the candidacy process. Sometimes, the convoluted process seems to be quite far from holy and discerning. I've found myself relying on my own human understanding and ideas to get me through it, even at this early stage. As I progress through the candidacy process and eventually in my career as a pastor, I must be aware that God promises to give me strength. As I sit through a challenging PPRC meeting, I must remember that I cannot do it on my own; I was called to the ministry by God and He will not forsake me when times are challenging. God's grace is more than enough for me.

4. "Resolve to be faithful." This is much at the heart of the covenant service. Our covenant renewal reminds us that we have not always been faithful throughout the previous year, even though God has never forsaken us. We can make a covenant to be faithful to our calling as Christians and to the faith. We are forgiven of our past sins, thanks be to God, so we resolve to go on to greater holiness. We resolve to continue in our journey on to perfection.

The service then goes into a covenant prayer. I have blogged on the abbreviated version in the hymnal, so I won't go into a great deal of detail, but the covenant prayer reminds us of these things:

1. To put away all of our idols. We must put God first in our lives. Nothing will stop him from being the God of the Universe, but only we can let him be the God of our lives.

2. We must let God be our God gain.

3. Christ is the only way and means of coming to God. Without Christ, we can do nothing. He is the way, the truth, and the life. We are not worthy to come before God but for the blood of Christ.

4. We must suffer with Christ. We must take up our cross and follow the risen Lord.

5. God has given holy laws as the rule of our lives. Part of taking up our cross is to follow the law of Christ and of God. Love our neighbors and love our God. Be Christ to the world.

6. God searches and knows our heart. We can't make a false covenant with God; he knows our sincerity. We can certainly go through the motions, but God knows every thought and knows whether we offer our covenant with sincerity.

Renewing my covenant with God reminds me of my calling as a Christian. I must humble myself before him more this year. I must continue to work through the ordination process so that God can use me in new and exciting ways in my life. I must be God's servant and a servant of God's people. I must ask God for forgiveness when I stray from my covenant with Him. May God continue to work through all of us, both corporately and individually to further his ministry in the world. Especially as United Methodists, may we all be reminded of our covenant with God this year as we move closer to General Conference.

And now, let the covenant that we have made on earth be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Quotations taken from The United Methodist Book of Worship, pp. 289-294

Handbell Hero

Here's an amusing game. My church while I'm at Binghamton University doesn't have handbells, so I can use this to quench my undying thirst for bellringing.

And Can It Be?

"And Can It Be That I Should Gain?" UMH #378
Charles Wesley, 1738

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

This is my favorite hymn of the hymnal. I won't write much on this as it's really hard to speak much more than what these words say. I especially like the imagery of "my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee!" The blood of Christ frees us from the power of sin and sets us free. Praise God!

Happy 300th birthday, Charles

Bishop Felton May Releases Statement on Shootings

This UMNS story caught my attention. After speaking of how tragic it was for the families of various shootings, Bishop Felton May says this,

We also long for effective legislation and law enforcement to control or ban the weapons used in these kinds of attacks. Yet another wave of shootings, including those in Colorado, sends a signal that guns have very little or any place in a society that claims to be civil and compassionate.

First of all, the church shooting was yesterday. It is inappropriate to immediately call for political action before the dust has settled. Secondly, the church shooting was only stopped by an armed security guard. Under many gun control laws proposed, only security guards who also work as policemen would be able to carry guns. Thus, in this case, the death toll was as low as it was because of the presence of firearms.

Further, gun control laws will not stop most criminals. Prohibition of alcohol did little to curb alcohol use; indeed, it precipitated the rise of organized crime. This is not to say that gun control laws are completely analogous in this situation, but banning guns will not solve the problem. In countries where handguns have been banned, there has been little effect on overall violent crime rates [1}. Britain has had fluctuating violent crime rates since its passage of a handguns ban, but there is no clearly downward trend. In fact, another study suggests a 40% increase from the passage of the ban in 1997 until 2001 [2].

Must we, as a "civil and compassionate" country also prohibit law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves? Though we as a society may be civil and compassionate, violent criminals are not. The War on Drugs has not stopped drug sales in the United States, why would a gun ban be any different?

A Response to "Right to Health Care"

There's a petition to change the Book of Discipline that has come from the General Board on Church and Society which would add and amend language related to health care. This statement stood out to me:

Providing the care needed to maintain health, prevent disease, and restore health after injury or illness is a responsibility each person owes others and government owes to all, a responsibility government ignores at its peril. In Ezekiel 34:4a God points out the failure of the leadership of Israel to care for the weak: “You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured.” As a result all suffer. Like police and fire protection, health care is best funded through the government’s ability to tax each person equitably and directly
fund the provider entities.

All of the above is new language that has been proposed. First, the Ezekiel verse speaks primarily to the priests and levites, not to the government of Israel. Certainly, the Bible doesn't speak to our modern health care system. The problem addressed in Ezekiel is that the church leaders were wasting their money for their own personal gain. It is not that the government wasn't adding enough bureaucracy to support a health care system.

We cannot say that health care in the form it is today is a right any more than we can say that food is a right. In fact, in nearly cases, private charities and private donors much more effectively support things like this. If, in fact, we were not taxed at such a heavy rate, we would have more money to donate to charities. If you'll recall, the government's response to the Katrina response was much worse than the response of private charities like the Red Cross and UMCOR. The education system, controlled by the government, is bloated and ineffective. Do you want the same kind of lines and bureaucratic incompetency you experience at the DMV now in charge of health care?

Our system of managed care, which has been around for nearly 40 years, has caused rampant inflation and made health care less accessible. The government's role in health care causes more problems than it solves. Republican Presidential candidate and medical doctor Ron Paul described his experiences as a doctor before managed care

“The amazing thing was it was the city hospital and there was no government; there [was] very little insurance and nobody was turned away whether they were illegal or legal, and nobody, nobody was quizzed. If you didn’t have the money, you didn’t pay, and people came in, and it wasn’t that bad. People didn’t lay on the side walks. You’re more likely to hear stories today of people being neglected in emergency rooms…and dying on stretchers—because we have managed care.”

The government cannot be expected to provide for every basic need. Do we now need government provided clothing, shelter, food, etc.? One of the government's responses to the health care problems was the HMO Act of 1973: yet again a government response which created more problems than it solves. We blame the HMOs for many of our problems today, yet they were allowed to become as powerful as they are because of government intervention.

The police and fire analogy given by the GBCS in the resolution is a poor one. Fire protection is provided by the local government. Imagine how horribly inefficient fire protection would be if it were managed by the national government. Most of our police forces are local. This works well because they can easily adapt to the needs of each individual area. The federal government is not authorized by the constitution to set up socialized medicine.

The federal government does not need to become even larger and more intrusive. As Ronald Reagan said, "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." The government is inefficient at providing needs that the free market handles much more efficiently

I also noticed that they removed a line which said that pharmaceutical companies should retain their patents and licensing rights as it pertains to HIV/AIDS drugs, changing the language as follows: "Countries facing a public health crisis such as HIV/AIDS must have access to generic medicines and to patented medicines without infringing on a pharmaceutical company’s patent/ licensing rights", implying that businesses should sacrifice their rights in order to support the HIV/AIDS crisis. This sounds fabulous, but the reality is that capitalism and pharmaceutical research couldn't happen if pharmaceutical companies can't make a profit. These HIV/AIDS drugs would likely never have been developed if the companies didn't have patenting rights. It sounds lovely that pharmaceutical companies should just eliminate all of their profits for the greater good, but that cannot feasibly happen; they wouldn't ever develop new drugs. The free market led to the development of those drugs; eliminating all economic incentive to develop drugs would put health care research at a standstill.

Certainly, we as a church are called to reach out to the sick and the needy. But we can't say that we must steal from -- I mean tax-- every American to do so.

Chrysalis, etc.

So it's the penultimate* week of classes here, and I'm leaving in just a few hours to serve as a team member for a Chrysalis walk. I'll be light on blogging in the next few weeks as classes wind down and as I go into finals week.

I would ask for prayers for all the youth going on this flight with me.

*I've been waiting for months to use that word