As with all good seminary classes, Living the Text in a Postmodern Context has made me think, challenged my prevailing assumptions, and opened me up to new ideas and concepts. I am still processing the information presented in the lectures and as I continue to mull it over, new insights and questions continue to arise. This first entry will be a reflection of what I have processed thus far with a realization that these are just initial thoughts and that more reflecting will be occurring in the weeks and months to come.
One area in my life that has been challenged by this class is my concept of what it means to “do church”. To be honest, lately I have been having a great deal of trouble with attending church. While there are some parts that I still enjoy such as building community and relationships, there are other aspects that were troubling to me and after much reflection I still could not figure out the source of my discontent. It felt as though that every worship service was exactly the same: we sang the same type of songs, heard the same type of sermons, and was the same worship experience week after week. I began to think that I had come to the end of my time of attending church and the problem mostly lied with me. However, after this class I learned that the reason I was becoming “bored” with church is that, to use the words of Steve, was that my church was using only one muscle group in proclaiming the gospel. (I admit that some of the blame is my own and I need to hold myself responsible for my part of the blame). In the 4 prong diagram of proclaiming the word (word, image, dialogue, community) my church was only using one, the word. While my church was very good at using this technique, it made every church service exactly the same. As a result of this class I began to ask how I could help the leadership of the church to expand the way the live out the text in our setting and what my responsibilities are in educating the congregation. I also plan on asking around to see if others are feeling the same way as I am to start the process of “living out the Gospel” in a more holistic way within our church community and worship services.
Another way in which this class has challenged me also relates to church; not specific to my own congregation but in a much more general way. Two ideas that captured my attention was the concept of hearing multiple voices while living out the text and how we can live out the text in our congregations in community rather than as individuals. I think the idea of including multiple voices while living out the text is especially important in our congregations. For too long people that our living on the margins in our society have not had a voice within the church. If there is anyplace in our society where people on the margins should be heard it is within the church. In fact the Bible calls us to break down those walls (Galatians 3:28) that divide people and allow other voices to be heard. I desire to be a part of a movement within my own church and the church in general to allow the voices of people on the margins to be finally heard.
Also, the idea expressed in class that challenged my thinking is that the western church is highly individualized and the interpretation of the gospel has been done on a individual level. It seems like a lot of our churches are based on the concept of individualism and I have begun to think about ways this can be broken down and that our places of worship can become counter-cultural; living out the text within a community of believers instead of individually.
A third area in which I have been challenged in this class and an area in which I have changed my way of thinking is how I will use what I learn in this class to live out the text in a ministry setting. Although at this point I am unsure of what my ministry setting I will be in, I do know that I desire to work in some way with college students and young adults. Two concepts that I would like to use in my ministry setting are DJing and storytelling. As I worked with college students in the past within an urban setting, these two concepts would have been very helpful for me. In the future, how could I tell my own story as well as the stories of those that live in that context in order to aid the young adults to understand the gospel in new and refreshing ways? Instead of telling the students about the issue of homelessness in the city from my point of view, why not have a homeless person share their real life experience and stories of being homeless. (This would also bring in the concept of multiple voices as well.) I am also interested in how I can bring the concept of DJing into my work with young adults. What are some things from the culture that I can use to bring the text alive to young adults? As I plan the next step in my ministry career I will be making use of both storytelling and DJing, no matter where I may end up.
Lastly, this class has greatly impacted the way I look ay my personal spirituality. Much like my issues with church as outlined above, my personal spirituality has hit a dry spell. Throughout my life I have been taught that spirituality is a pursuit of the mind with little or no creativity involved. I was taught that using words was the way to connect with God; either through reading, verbal prayers, and other pursuits. However after this class I have felt excited that there are many other ways to express myself spiritually. I have never considered myself a creative person, but what would it look like if I branched out in my personal spiritual life and tried to connect with God in a different manner? This class has giving me ideas and the license to explore my relationship with God in a new light.
6 comments:
Shawn, I'm just coming out of a similar dry spell to the one you described (not wanting to go to worship services). It all seemed so repetitive to me. Plus, I speak at different churches, where I see a similar sameness. Although I didn't really like the "Spirituality to Go" book (sorry!), I think Olive Drane was trying to say that there's more to "church" than worship services. Her thoughts helped me to understand the role of the weekly worship service in the life of the church -- more a part of that life than even the center point of it. In that context, worship on Sundays becomes that -- worship! -- for me. And I can augment my faith walk through other avenues like study, fellowship, etc. through other means that may even take place outside of my congregation. I now use that time on Sunday morning to worship -- regardless of how repetitive the service might be.
Olive M. Fleming Drane, "Spirituality to Go", (London: Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd: 2006)
I can empathize with your feeling as if an overemphasis upon words has led you to a spiritual “dry spell.” In a church tradition where words are the primary means of connecting with God, additional methods often go overlooked or are discouraged outright. For that reason, I appreciated Olive Drane’s book, Spirituality to Go. Drane’s perception that “There is a discernable yearning among many people to reconnect the various parts of our lives in such a way that we can experience a sense of personal interior harmony that will also spill over into our relationships with those among whom we live, work and spend our leisure time” (Drane, p. 3), spoke to me strongly. I believe it characterizes my own longing to experience a spirituality and relationship with God in everyday life that is not entirely reliant upon rational argument and intellect. Without a tradition to teach me how to develop these areas, I wasn’t certain how to begin, but Drane’s book provides a wide variety of ways in which a person can begin to bring their spirituality into a “24/7” world. As Drane states, some rituals may speak to you powerfully, whereas others may not affect you at all (2005). What is important, in my opinion, is that in experimenting with these spiritual activities, we may find ways to connect our lives with God in a way that speaks to our hearts and emotions as well as our minds. God bless you as you “explore [your] relationship in a new light.” –Lee Perry
Drane, O. (2005). Spirituality to Go. London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
Shawn, as I read your blog my heart ached. I so desperately hope and pray that you find a community of faith that will reach out to you and your family with the relevant love of Christ. I pray that you will be nurtured and inspired by your church to find your own unique way to live out the gospel and discover your own ministry setting. I am called to be an ordained pastor, and this class opened a whole new way of thinking about church and how to live in a community of faith. I was thinking of all the people who feel alienated in a “traditional” church setting and structure. It is my desire to create a setting more like Rose described in chapter 4 of her book. I hope to experience a conversational community of faith one where people of multiple cultures share in the teaching, preaching and learning. Like Steve in Postcard 6, I see the pastor as a missionary who is sent to reach out to the local culture, to build up the community of believers and help other disciples discover their place in God’s mission. (106-110) I feel so confined and powerless at times to enact such changes in my highly structured denomination. I share with you the frustration of seeing a better path but not quite knowing how to get on it.
(1) Taylor, Steve. The out of Bounds Church. Grand Rapids, Zondervan. p. 106-110.
(2) Rose, Lucy Atkinson. Sharing the Word: Preaching in the Roundtable Church. Louisville, Westminster/Knox press. P. 89-118.
Shawn – I was powerfully impacted by your statement, “If there is anyplace in our society where people on the margins should be heard it is within the church. In fact the Bible calls us to break down those walls (Galatians 3:28)…” Steve spoke of the unfinished story of the other – the poor, weak, widow, orphan, stranger, and that, which is yet to come. Each person is invited to become “other.” Another coinciding, and powerful statement is, “deconstruction, is the precondition of justice.” It does seem appropriate (and Biblical) to deconstruct and consider multiple ways to engage and find God in the “other.” Rose also states that people in conversations also have to listen to the other in openness and be willing to take the risk that the other may have something important - possibly even transforming to say (pg. 9). In the Reader, William Stacy Johnson states that we have an opportunity to move beyond foundations, beyond totality, and toward the Other (pg. 140). He says the emphasis on otherness is one of the most promising constructs in the postmodern “repertoire” (pg. 152). I agree.
Your desire to inject your life with creativity is a desire I also resonate with. Olive Fleming Drane articulated well numerous ways in which the ordinary meets the sacred (1) - a sort of ‘Moses finds God in the burning bush’ way of living. God has breathed new life into me recently in my Bible study through reading The Prostitute in the Family Tree (2). Adams reminds us that the Bible is humorous, not boring and dry. His take on Matthew 22:15-22 alone is worth the price of the book (3). I pray that the Creative One might blind-side you with His love.
(1) Olive Fleming Drane, Spirituality to Go (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2005), ix-x, and throughout.
(2) Douglas Adams, The Prostitute in the Family Tree (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997).
(3) Ibid., 7-10.
Words do have a way of getting us bored. I can relatively understand your dry time, as that is my present reality. I do know that the power of the word is much like a sponge – when it is used within the backdrop of action-- it is resourceful and full of life giving water. When the word is used free of application it can be equally powerful but in the opposite way, it sucks the life from us as a sponge that hasn’t seen moisture in recent memory.
The church is in a dry spell too. As the Church still holds onto the belief that if they just do what they’ve been doing but with more work ethic and energy then it will re-birth itself. I’m sorry to say that that is the definition of insanity and for me (I don’t know about you) constitutes to my dry time. I wrestling with this since class I am refreshed by the creative look of Matthew 15:21-28 by Debbie Blue in Sensual Orthodoxy in her sermon of the Dog Woman. Debbie Blue paints a picture of the contrasting worlds of text and image with Jesus and the Canaanite woman. Here is a woman that is dry (“bored” per se) and needs a new day (healing of her daughter). She has been living within the “grid” of the current culture and ironically seeks the last candidate (man, Jewish, rabbi) to heal her daughter. She is so passionate for a cure she is not offended by Jesus words of division, but turns the tables and receives the left-overs of the bread from God’s table.1 What would happen if we as the church would have that fervor to be content with the crumbs from the table of God – if so, I know we too would be healed?
Great thoughts, it provoked me!
Blue, Debbie – Sensual Orthodoxy p.65-69.
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