beyond potence...deep power

after finishing n.t. wright's book on evil and the justice of God, i have been reading greg boyd's essays on his 'warfare worldview', you can read through them here:

• what is the warfare worldview?
• old testament support for the warfare worldview
• new testament support for the warfare worldview
• six theses of the warfare worldview

although i am not here embracing the 'open theism' of greg, my theological tendencies really agree with the warfare worldview he purports in these four essays, which culminate in his books: God at War and Satan and the Problem of Evil.

in one essay, this warfare worldview is juxtaposed with the blueprint worldview (which basically is along the classic lines of calvin and the extreme sovereignty of God issues, so much so that it embraces what aurelius augustinus called monergism and double predestinarianism, which essentially supports the idea that human agency is entirely passive and God's agency is all-determining for both universal salvation, individual salvation, but also going to the edge (and people like john piper go over the edge) of saying all good and evil come from God (either purposively or permissably). in fact - and you can look on your own - greg boyd and john piper, these two prominent followers of Jesus, have been sparring off in their blogs and elsewhere on the issues of monergism and synergism (boyd tends toward synergism, which essentially supports the idea that God's agency and human agency cooperate in history, salvation, etc.)

my preference for the warfare worldview aside, the basics of the arguments are historical, reaching back to the "calvinistic" and "arminian" views of God's sovereignty and human free will and beyond.

yet what if God goes beyond potence to deep power.

[definition: potence - forceful; the quality or state of being potent]

merely being forceful is not enough. satan is what we might call a potentate on a cosmic scale, but a mere potentate is no match for the perfectly rightful and infinitely powerful King.

[definition: power - a person or thing that possesses or exercises authority or influence; ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something]

this kind of power that can give agency and choice to others in love yet still accomplish their will is beyond potence; it has more to do with the the deeper, older magic that c.s. lewis refers to in his chronicles of narnia triology.

lewis' sentiment can also be heard in what bishop n.t. wright says in his book covering this topic: Evil and the Justice of God:

• "...we are summoned by the most powerful love in the world to live by the pattern of death and resurrection, repentance and forgiveness, in daily Christian living, in sure hope of eventual victory."
• "The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love. The cross is not just an example to be followed; it is an achievement to be worked out, put into practice. But it is an example nonetheless, because it is the exemplar - the template, the model - for what God now wants to do by his Spirit in the world, through his people. It is the start of the process of redemption, in which suffering and martyrdom are the paradoxical means by which victory is won."

what seems to be the issue in most of this is the significance or meaning of suffering.

the fact is that we suffer, and others we know suffer. this is a fact of experience.

we also know that the Lord jesus promised that if indeed we follow Him, we will suffer.

...but the hell of suffering is often the why, the severity of suffering sometimes comes down to the meaning of the suffering.

i witness that if you give meaning to suffering, it empowers the person suffering (most times), but meaningless suffering is the worst kind of suffering (and thus my dis-like for the blueprint worldview: it seems to make most suffering meaningless).

[aside: it is not that i do not think that suffering cannot be redemptive, for surely it can be. it is also not that i think God does not send some suffering into our lives, for surely He does, either to test us, or to discipline us; i just do not attend to the idea that life on this earth and history are just a meaningless, predetermined chess match for God...it goes immensely beyond that, for indeed, in this history of ours and beyond it i witness that God has changed. yes, you read that right, God - the most moved Mover - has changed, in that Christ, very God of very God, became one of us (the incarnation) and lived as one of us and died (was crucified) and has been raised form the dead in an immortal body: thus God has flesh and if i have my christology right, Christ will be flesh-and-blood (and more) eternally. God becamse one of us!!! He suffered as one of us...and He saved us, as both fully man and fully God.]

as to the 'warfare worldview', i appreciate how greg brings forth soemthing i have long held to based out of scripture, especially because of the quote below on this in Jesus life and ministry, because Jesus is the center and entry-point for me even caring about this stuff:

• "The theme of God striving to establish his sovereign will (his Kingdom) on earth over and against forces that oppose him is prevalent in the New Testament. In keeping with the apocalyptic climate of the time, there are many references to angels at war with God, demons that torment people, and the powerful being who leads this rebellion against the Creator. His name, of course, is Satan."
• "Suffering takes on a different meaning when it is considered in the context of a cosmic war as opposed to a context in which everything is part of God's meticulous plan and mysterious higher good. In the warfare worldview we would not wonder about what specific divine reason God might have had in allowing little children to be buried alive in mud or a little girl to be kidnapped. Instead, we would view these individuals as "victims of war" and assign the blame to human or demonic beings who oppose God's will. Following Scripture, we would of course look to God for comfort in the midst of our suffering, trust that he is working to bring good out of the evil, and find consolation in our confidence that the war will someday come to a glorious end. But we would not look to God's purposes for the explanation of why any particular evil occurred in the first place. In the warfare worldview, this is understood to be the result of the evil intentions and activity of human and angelic agents."
• "My conviction is that, unlike the questions that the blueprint worldview raises, this question has a plausible answer. The trinitarian warfare theodicy argues that the answer lies in the nature of love. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God's essence is love (1 John 4:8, 16). God created the world for the purpose of displaying his triune love and inviting others to share in it (cf. John 17:20-25). I argue that it was not logically possible for God to have this objective without risking the possibility of war breaking out in his creation. The possibility of love among contingent creatures such as angels and humans entails the possibility of war. Six theses follow from the nature and risk of love. These theses, if accepted, render intelligible the warfare worldview of Scripture as well as the problem of evil."

so, a few questions:

• what do you think? are you more calvinistic and augustinian in your thinking about God's sovereignty and human free will or are you more arminian?
• what do you think of the warfare worldview? does it make sense? does it matter?
• what do you think about suffering and the meaning of suffering?
  
  

Trafficking Ring Busted in LA

...for our VAST friends in California and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force:


Inland News Today: Trafficking Ring Busted in LA

LOS ANGELES--A sex trafficking ring involving teenage girls has been broken up and four Guatemalan women have been sentenced to multi-decade prison terms.

Federal prosecutors say the impoverished victims from Guatemala were lured to the Los Angeles area and forced into prostitution. Some were forced to have sex with as many as thirty men a day or face beatings if they tried to escape.

Thom Mrozek in the U.S. Attorney’s office says international sex trafficking is new in Southern California.

“We don’t know how prevalent this activity is. We have a human trafficking task force that is active throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland Empire working with local law enforcement to determine if there are any victims out there, how quickly we can spring into action and take these women out of their misery.”

Sentencing of the four women and a man ends a two-year investigation that began in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. (INT)

Story Date: August 30, 2009

guest blogging: a place to run-to, not run-from

i am guest blogging over at the not-the-religious-type blog today.

my post is called: a place to run-to, not run-from...check it out!

i'm contributing to theolio

i am writing articles for the olio now.

what is the olio, you might ask?

well, the olio is the brain-child of and hosted by jason chatraw, who is the head of ampelon publishing and oversees the RE:FORM ministries (such as the let's tend the garden task force) at the boise vineyard.

what is the olio:
The word "olio" means "a miscellany, a medley" and that's what this site is all about as it pertains to the journey of following Jesus. More than 40 leaders, thinkers, and practitioners will be converging on this site each month to share their thoughts on their journey.

my article - the interconnectivity of justice - is the featured article today. check it out.

peace

the emotional intelligence of the church

i want to cross-post something from ken wilson's blog one step closer; it's his recent post on emotional intelligence...i thought it was quite good:

_________________________________

Emotional intelligence matters when it comes to spreading the gospel. Jesus had it. When he saw the crowds he felt compassion for them because they were harassed and downtrodden, like sheep without a shepherd. He had the emotional intelligence to look past all the things that might have annoyed or angered him about the crowds, and saw them instead in a sympathetic, yes, empathetic, light. The culture war approach to Christianity, so prevalent in the church today, ruins our emotional intelligence and understandably makes the crowds fearful of the church-no wonder they are staying away in droves. No wonder the growingest sector of religious affiliation is "nones" and I don't mean "nuns."

Being right or sounding right or treating Christianity like it's primarily a "belief system" rather than a way of life, has blinded the church to her lack of emotional intelligence. Our emotions do two things: they move us to do things and they can be felt by others. Our words are one thing, our feelings are another, and people detect our feelings more powerfully than our words. All this talk of "hate the sin and love the sinner"? People feel the hate and the love doesn't stand a chance.

So let's pay attention to our feelings, just for this post. How do we feel about entire groups of people who stay away from church in droves?

How do we feel, for example, about people who have different political views? People tend to treasure their political views and take them personally. How would you feel about bringing yourself and your views into a setting in which you expected them to be met with, at best, polite-unspoken hostility?

How do we feel, for example about people who are part of the gay community? Many in the church are so caught up in the debates about gay marriage and so tuned in to media voices filled with contempt toward gays. Is it any wonder that that the church mirrors the emotions that go with the debates and the media voices? Are these the emotions that empower us to share good news the way Jesus shared his gospel of the kingdom with the sheep (of his pasture) who were harassed and dejected in his eyes, and made him feel deep compassion? Jesus has a heart of love for people that we can barely comprehend. I'm talking about his love. Do our feelings mirror his heart?

Or lets' take the feelings that ooze out of the church surrounding science and scientists. Say the words, "climate change" or "evolution" or "stem cell research" and what feelings are evoked within the church? Not thoughts, not opinions, not convictions, not beliefs-feelings.

The feelings of say, of a cornered racoon? Or a threatened porcupine? How effective are such feelings for announcing good news?

How do we feel about any group of people when we don't know very many of them personally? How do we feel about any group of people when we simply fail to give them the benefit of the doubt like we give ourselves and people we know well?

I suspect that this post might generate comments that are focused on the beliefs surrounding various "issues." But this post isn't about the issues, per se, or the beliefs surrounding them. Just the feelings. And just the feelings in relation to the impact the feelings have on our capacity to spread the gospel to people who are on the outside of faith looking in.

Duh, we need a little emotional intelligence in order to do our job

RE:FORM 2009 workshops

the central maryland vineyard will be acting as your hosts for RE:FORM 2009, which is only 3-and-a-half weeks away!

i think i mentioned before that john odean and i are doing one of the workshops...below is the full listing for the workshops at the RE:FORM conference (see the RE:FORM website for more information about the conference and registration)

Here is a list of the confirmed and scheduled workshops thus far:

WEDNESDAY
Wholly Jesus: Bringing Clarity to a Spiritually Confused World
Mark Foreman
In this workshop, Mark will share some of his insights as a pastor on how to talk to a growing segment of the population that is seeking wholeness in a broken world.

Seeing the Trees and the Forest
Rusty Pritchard
Flourish co-founder and president Rusty Pritchard will show how you can talk to a conservative congregation about the environment in a way that engages people to take action. Rusty’s fresh perspective brings a voice to the discussion on the environment that pastors wanting to engage their congregation in creation care must hear.

Taking it to the Streets
Steven Hamilton & John Odean
Steven Hamilton, formerly with the Department of Homeland Security and now serving on the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, and John Odean, senior pastor of the Central Maryland Vineyard Church, will help you move your church from awareness to taking action in becoming a solution for stopping human trafficking in your city.

THURSDAY :: SESSION ONE
Red State, Blue State—It’s Easy Being Green
Jason Chatraw
Jason Chatraw, director of the Let’s Tend the Garden ministries at the Vineyard Boise Church, share the successes and failures—along with some great ideas—on moving a churches from a conservative state to become green with gusto.

Simple Spirituality
Chris Heuertz
Chris Heuertz, who serves as the International Executive Director of Word Made Flesh and has traveled to nearly 70 countries working with some of the world’s most vulnerable people, examines five important virtues all Christians need and how those lead to us reaching out to the world around us in extraordinary ways.

A Home away from Home
Lynn Brown & Adam Hoyt
Lynn Brown, who leads the Vineyard Boise Church’s Love Justice ministry, and Adam Hoyt, who serves the Muslim refugee community in Clarkston, Ga. with his family, shares about how local churches in almost every community have an opportunity to reach out to other cultures without ever leaving town through ministry to refugees.

THURSDAY :: SESSION TWO
From Debate to Dialogue: How Christians and Seculars can get along
Ken Wilson
Ken Wilson, senior pastor of the Ann Arbor Vineyard and author of Jesus Brand Spirituality, explores how churches can engage the vast unchurched segment of the population through finding common ground and collaborating as opposed to finger pointing and isolation.

All Dressed Up with No Place to Go? : Engaging the Next Generation
Ben Lowe & Anna Jane Joyner
Ben and Anna Jane, who both work on the project Renewal: Students Caring for Creation, demonstrate how important it is for the church to provide training and opportunities for today’s young people to engage in issues of social justice.

Supply & Demand: Stopping the Demand for Sex Trafficking
Donny Pauling
Donny Pauling, a former producer of porn videos for Playboy and others in the adult entertainment industry, addresses the root of the demand in the supply-demand chain for sex trafficking—and what churches can do about it. He will be sharing part of his story that led him eventually out of the porn industry and into a relationship with Christ.

lectio: john 6:56-69

"He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. "We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."
- John 6:56-69

what a provocative piece of scripture...i'm certain it appeals to gothic-type and vampiric christians. shocking for the rest...

verse 56 - is this eucharistic commentary or not? i remember having a conversation with my friend about how we have de-valued Christ's sacred meal. we were at a large gathering and were handed a pre-packaged thimble of grape juice with a tiny wafer sealed on top as we went into the service...to which my friend commented: "this is supposed to be the great fellowship meal with Christ?? not much to it nowadays." we find this "abiding" principle here as well (usually when we want to talk of abiding we turn to john 15 with the obvious metaphoric language of the vine and branches and vinedresser, which certainly does not seem as scandalous); in fact, i cannot think of a time i have heard anyone teach on this passage; yet eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood is abiding in Him...and leads to the eternal-kind of life.

verse 62 - Jesus seems to become even more provocative as resistance and questions arise. (so not like our modern-day teachers who tease and ease out everything...i guess i should learn to be more provocative). even as Jesus refers to His "ascending", we need to remember the cruciform-shape of the raising-up/ascension-language throughout the gospel of john: Jesus is raised up like the bronze snake in the wilderness with moses, those who gazed upon it were healed...and in other places Jesus returns to His Father by being lifted up on the cross. when Jesus "is raised up" and crucified on the cross, can we with the disciples see the wisdom and glory of God in it?

verse 63 - at times, i totally forget this...and end up burned-out in trying to do everything in my own power, the power of my own flesh. yet i have tasted this fact: it is indeed the Spirit who gives life!! and O, how i need it...

verse 66 - i think this is a common occurrence in the circles i run in. as soon as something gets difficult or even a little scandalous, people stop walking with Him. Lord help us!

verses 67-69 - to me this is one of the most beautiful and poignant interplays in scripture. i think of people walking away and abandoning Jesus at this point of his ministry. i think it hurt Him...and He turns to his friends to see what they will do...and surprise! they get it...or at least they get that He has everything they need and they have no place else to find It. so many times the disciples around Jesus are disappointments, not having faith (...o ye of little faith...), having the wrong attitudes (...let's call fire down upon this city...), not getting it (...have I not been with you all this time...), and here the encouraging word is uttered by simon peter: to whom shall we go?..you have the words of eternal life and we believe and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God. i think the Lord cherished this moment, held it close to Himself as He went forward...what hope it must have brought to Him that His Father was indeed at work.

++Christ Jesus, let us eat and drink of you so that we may live, yea live abundantly. amen.++

the society of vineyard scholars

it’s one of the things i truly love, a great conversation about scripture and/or theology...so it's also encouraging for me to see vineyardusa creating space and engaging in theological reflection and conversation called the society of vineyard scholars, not to mention an upcoming conference in february 2010; i wrote a paper to submit for this regarding wisdom and the kingdom of God for the 'Society of Vineyard Scholars' conference.

if you are interested:

• vineyardusa director berten waggoner writes concerning the importance of theological reflection.
• ken wilson, who oversees the vineyard great lakes region, writes about the theology and practice of the kingdom of God in his article on exploring the vineyard's core values.
• derek morphew, vineyard scholar from south africa, writes about the kingdom and healing the dualism of personal and social ethics.
• then don williams writes about the kingdom both now and not-yet

RE:FORM Conference - September 2009

The Central Maryland Vineyard will be acting as the hosts for this year's RE:FORM conference at the Cedar Ridge Community Church just outside of Baltimore, MD on September 16-18.

Check out this month's edition of Charisma magazine to read a feature news story about the conference. This year's format will be more equipping and engaging than in year's past and will feature some great practitioners who are equally adept at imparting vision and inspiring you to take action in your church. The three crises of the RE:FORM conference this year will be:

• Environmental Decline
• Human Injustice
• Spiritual Confusion

Registration is now available at our new RE:FORM website, as is hotel and accommodations information. We'll be putting up more info as it is available. Be sure to sign up now to get the early bird special and pass this along to your network.

Main session speakers include:

• Mark Foreman (a simple man who is learning to follow Jesus wholly. He is the husband of Jan and father of Jon and Tim of the band Switchfoot. He is the lead pastor of North Coast Calvary Chapel—a “church without walls”—which has built its reputation by erasing the barriers of the church. Mark is a surfer and songwriter, and also serves as an associate professor at Bethel Seminary San Diego. He recently released his first book Wholly Jesus: His surprising approach to wholeness and why it matters today.)
• Leroy Barber (President of Mission Year, a national urban initiative introducing 18-29 year olds to missional and communal living in city centers for one year. Rev. Barber is the Pastor of a church plant, Community Fellowships Church. He was chosen as a contributor to UnChristian: What a New Generation Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters and recently released his first book New Neighbor.)
• Tri Robinson (founding pastor of the Vineyard Boise Church in Boise, ID and Let’s Tend the Garden ministry and is one of the leading experts on creation care among evangelical churches. With a strong teaching background that includes a Masters degree in administrative education, he is a sought-after conference speaker and passionate about transferring his working insights and experience on church leadership to a wide spectrum of churches. Tri and his wife Nancy live in Sweet, ID, where they manage a nearly sustainable ranch.)
• Rob Morris (co-founder and the president of Love146. Prior to establishing Love146, Rob worked with Mercy Ships International directing training schools at the International Operations Center. Rob travels internationally to speak and teach on issues of justice, compassion and human rights. Learn more about what his organization does at http://www.love146.com/.).

burning on the road to emmaus

from Exodus 33: "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

i have taken up (after postponing for a while) devotionally reading through william barry's book: Seek My Face: Prayer as Personal Relationship in Scripture. i paused at one point, and i have been reflecting on this passage:

"Joy may not only surprise us but also awe or terrify us. Ambivalence is ever present in our closest relationships and should, therefore, be expected in the most intimate of all, our relationship with God. Thus, for many reasons these experiences of our creation [the Creator touching us to our depths...what c.s. lewis describes as the desiring of "I know not what"...the indescribable touch and Presence of God] will seem evanescent. Yet don't they leave us recalling that our hearts burned within us, as did the hearts of the two disciples who met the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus?"

...this resonates deeply with me, as there are times that the touch and Presence of God is - in a kataphatic way - an expression that i would affirm: God is Love. it feels like liquid love. but there are also many times that what i perceive to be the touch of God is felt much more like william describes above: joy, but joy that terrifies. or even other times that are quite beyond description for me...i guess this is my apophatic experience with God that is less clear and more ambivalent, but very real and at least - while i may not proclaim at that point God is love - i would say that this experience of God is not hateful nor unloving, just..."i know not what"...and perhaps, in this way, God transcends my notion of Love, which i'm sure is a very good thing...

formation resources for cohort

for those of you who have been journeying together in our kingdom cohort spiritual formation group at the central maryland vineyard, here are a few items from friends of mine that i have referenced during our time together who write concerning discipleship and spiritual formation:

• ray hollenbach from the vineyard in campbellsville, kentucky writes about the jail break-in rather than a mere jail break at his blog about taking the yoke of discipleship seriously
• jason coker who is fostering a community of neighborhood house churches called underground vineyard in san diego, california writes about discipleship and spiritual formation as fitness
• dave nixon the erstwhile leader at vineyard central and sustainable faith in cincinnati, ohio writes about how community matters in spiritual formation on his sustainable faith blog