Catching up

Well, its been a long while since the last post. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I was out of town with my family for the week before Thanksgiving, then I was in hangover mode after the Buffs were spanked by Nebraska last Friday. Then to top it all off, we got our first real snowstorm this year and I discovered that the driveway (3 car driveway) and the corner sidewalk of our driveway takes a long time to snowblow/shovel. The 26″ drift on one sidewalk didn’t help either. So, not major news to report, but just checking in.

One thing that has come up is a clearer focus for my next DMin project. In focusing on the concept of “communication theology,” I think I have somewhat changed things about and focusing somewhat on the communication of theology. The two things aren’t totally unrelated. The major thing that has become clear to me is that the church hasn’t done a spectacular job in connecting theology to real life. How does the concept of the Trinity really matter? What about the doctrine of election?

I go back to one of the classes that I took when I was in seminary. It was a class focused on the doctrine of election – a subject that comes up time and time again in real life. However, when I sat down the first day and read the syllabus, there was one day – yes, one day – that said, “How this matters to the church.” Ironically, it was the last day of class – the day usually reserved for nervous students about finals or projects instead of serious, indepth discussion. It was a joke – we spend the entire semester in our heads – trying to figure out aspects of this very confusing and very un-solvable theological concept instead of spending time talking about how people experience this and deal with this in their daily lives.

The other side of the experiential side of faith is that people need to be given opportunities to live out their faith in vital, active, real ways. The church has for too long thought that it was enough to have beautiful music in beautiful sanctuaries with articulate and focused sermons. The churches that are growing and making a difference (a large number of which have some pretty goofy theology) are giving their people things that live their faith out – whether in small groups, ministry activities, outreach, discipleship, etc. The churches that are stagnant or shrinking are those that are still doing things as they have always been done before.

More to come as I further work the concept out and craft the project and application.

Reflections on life and the unfairness of it sometimes

There are times when being a pastor is really really hard. The last few days have been one of those times. I am a pastor in a church in South Dakota and on Friday, we had one of our members die very suddenly. This isn’t all that unusual and I honestly have done probably over 60 funerals in the time I have served this congregation. At times, I feel like it is too easy for pastors and other “religious professionals” to do funerals because how often they occur in our callings, but that’s another topic entirely. Anyway, this woman was a healthy, strong, energetic, faithful 51 year old who suffered a stroke out of the blue. There were no risk factors, no family history, nothing that would make one stop and say “she’s at risk.” Just a call on our emergency line early Wednesday morning asking one of us to come to the ER.

Its in these times that I can hear the echoes of my past theological leanings – what a perfect opportunity to share the Gospel! Remind people that we can be taken at any time! Live every moment like you think it will be your last! Repent now! I know those words because I have spoken those words in the past in connection with not only invididual events, but larger ones as well. I remember those who went to NYC in the weeks after 9-11 to distribute tracts and other Gospel “literature” trying to get people to convert. It just horrifies, saddens, and pains me to hear that stuff. A podcast I listen to quite often reflected on this very topic recently – Wired Jesus.com

Anyway, back on topic. Through my experiences of ministry here, I have changed a great deal. I used to go the route of how all things will eventually make sense, will be clear, etc. I don’t know if I can say that today. I think it goes back to the old cliche of how one can see too much and be unalterably changed after that. I have seen too much in these last several years, both in the lives of the people who I serve, but also in the world to say that everything all fits together into some grand beautiful puzzle somehow.

Back in the day, if I read those words from someone else, I would probably have questioned whether they were really a faithful Christian. Thankfully that’s not the case today. I don’t know how someone can really enter into the pain and suffering of human life without some realization that there is stuff that happens that just doesn’t make sense and causes us to say to God, “What is going on?”

I guess this just continues my thoughts from a few weeks ago about Tom’s podcast (linked above)…a never ending question…God are you listening?

Sometimes a football is just a football

I first must say that I am normally all for psychological / sociologial studies and inquiries into “contemporary” topics, but every so often someone just goes so far off the edge that its just plain silly. An essay in my current book did just that. In “God in the Details” one of the essays is entitled, “Collective Effervesence, Mail Performance, and the Ritual of Football”. The essay starts well and good in focusing on the religiosity inherent in the american fascination with sports, football in particular. There are many parallels of how people act at sporting events and how they act in religious events (singing, group chants, emotionalism, ecstatic experiences, etc. There are, of course, limits to this comparison, but you get where I am going.

Well, the last part of this essay focused on the relationship between the male oedipal experience (if one believes Freud was in the right on this) and the male fascination with football. He brings up all these points about how the “one team against another” concept represents the inner struggle a male has with coming to grips with the fact that he cannot sexually have his mother, but has to settle with other females instead. He also speaks of how the language used by coaches, players, etc is sexually charged as well and that is reflective of this male struggle.

To paraphrase Freud…sometimes a football is just a football. Many of the same comparisons can be made to other sports – hockey, baseball, basketball, curling, etc. Does that mean that every sporting endeavor is a working out of the male oedipal complex? Does the fact that one is trying to get a ball into a hole in golf mean that the addiction to golf is a sexually charged one as well? Please. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes a football is just a football.