outside is better

Announcing my new Blog: World Without End

After several months of thinking and work, I am letting everyone know about my new site World With End, found at postmoderneschatology.com Over the last few years around here, I have started working through a new focus and interest regarding eschatology.  After thinking about it, and getting some class credit for it, I want to launch this site today.  Over the next few weeks, posts will move out at a quick pace, mainly to set in a good foundation.  My hope is that this new site can really start conversations about a topic that many Christians get nervous about, and especially bring interest to how social and cultural situations influence eschatology. 

Over the last 2 years, my call to a pastoral vocation has been confirmed over and over, especially to those who aren't a part of traditional church life.  It is a ministry that has to interact with despair and hopelessness and that has caused me to think even more about how Christians talk about the end.  That was one of the main driving forces behind starting this new site.  I am not abandoning Outside Is better, and it will continue to be my "homebase", but I am really excited about building a newer place for conversation, so please go over and visit it, interact and be a part of the community.

Towards Developing a Post-Modern Eschatology

This is one of the final pieces in the changes that I have made over the last few months (see the main announcement here).  One of the reasons that I left my previous church (and denomination) was that I wanted the freedom to develop more of my academic work into more of a pastoral focus.  This means that all of the complicated work I have done in the last few years regarding liturgical theology and eschatology can really get aired out on in a better way.

But I need your help.....

I have it cleared with one of my professors to develop a series of Blog Posts instead of writing a 25 page research paper.  I get to cite Amazon for my resources, engage with video clips and review movies....AND IT ALL COUNTS.  My working title for the project is "Developing a Post-Modern Eschatology", and I am really excited about doing it.  The release method will be announced shortly, but I have a list of topic (blog post) ideas.  I want you to help me out with these...especially those that are in youth, college and young adult ministry.  Here is what I have so far.

Popular Catacysm
Why Study Eschatology?
Apocalypse Vs. Eschaton
Vision or Prophecy?
Zombies as social critique
The prophetic voice in the 21st century
Christianity and Postmodernity
Eschatology and the Sacraments
Canonical view of scripture and Revelation
Handling Judgement
Apocalypse in the Old Testament

And a few movie reviews (2012 and The Road for sure)

So let me know in the comments what you think.  Suggest topics, or problems that you have had regarding the subject.  I want this to be a resource, so I need to know different directions that I may not think of.

Worship, Eschatology and Sacramental Imagination: Part 1

I have never posted that many school papers here, because I felt that many of them didn't fit in the overall theme of this blog, but my recent work is a good marriage between academic pursuits and my calling regarding the local church.  There will be several posts to get through this paper, but I hope you enjoy it. 

This series will also serve as an introduction for some news that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks.

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Attempting to write a thorough response to our intensive class on sacraments gives a wide range of application towards topic.  The last year of my life has been spent in deep times of prayer and reflection towards how my two favorite theological topics, worship and eschatology, go together.  This has been more of a pastoral task instead of an academic endeavor, and I believe I found some finality through our week together studying Sacramental Celebration.  On the first day of class, we were prompted to express a desire about the class to someone next to us.  I told my classmate that I wanted to learn to express sacraments in a more cohesive and less academic manner, in a way that shows how they are the joining glue of the Christian life.  What I found through my reflections and readings was how the sacraments interact with my two favorite topics and a wonderful answer to my desire expressed on the first day.  My aim below is to show how the three topics (worship, eschatology, and the sacraments) dance together to provide a fuller understanding of Christian devotion.  After outlining a few concerns and directives, I will use Revelation 19:1-4 as a case study towards applying my topic.

Eschatology Versus Apocalypse
Modern Western popular culture is fascinated with the idea of an apocalypse.  Through the task of modernity, the idea of a divine originator has been taken out of the universal story of the world.  Instead, the belief is that the world started by chance (through the various theories of creation and evolution) and that the only way it will end is by apocalyptic chance.  The church has bought into this movement as well, especially since the mid 1850’s, with the development and popularity of pre-millennial dispensationalism.  Whereas the church used to have a view focused on fulfillment, it has shifted to theories of judgement and escapism. 

This can also be traced to modernity and the rise of the individual.  With the idea of “individual” comes the philosophy of “individual religion”.  The Church shifted from the Patristic teaching regarding communal fulfillment to a concern with the individual after death bringing a preoccupation with “the multiplicity of affections and appetites that mark the spiritual progress of the individual believer.”(1) The community of God has lost its focus on the sacramental nature of community and how it serves as a beacon to the relationship that exists within the Godhead.  Our eschatology bears this fact, and underpins our entire soteriology.  Reclaiming an eschatological view focused on the eschaton, instead of an apocalyptic theology that bypasses a sacramental view of the end will be a primary task for the historical Christian church in the 21st century.

Understanding Sacramental Vision
Forming a postmodern eschatology is different from merely critiquing what has been done in recent evangelicalism.  It would be easy to fall on modern liberal historical criticism to draw a new exegesis, and to simply interpret the apocalyptic texts of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation as fables and take a liberal preterist stance, denying prophetic realization.  But this does not allow for an engagement with the Biblical text as a living breathing sacramental object.  Secondly, it takes the biblical story and divorces it from an embodied, communal Christian lifestyle.

M. Robert Mulholland writes on the idea of vision in his book “Holy Living in an Unholy World”, a commentary on St. John’s Revelation.  He begins the book with a lengthy section on how vision interacts within Revelation and christian life in general.  Vision is a holistic experience that take up the entire human psyche and “impact the totality of the human being and go beyond the limits of human beingness.  Such experiences appear to be holistic and unitive immersions of the person involved in the larger matrix of reality of which human existence is part.”(2)  Admitting to the Christian life and the mystical teachings regarding the sacraments allows this type of experience, and builds an environment of worship that recognizes this aspect of the Holy Spirit in sacramental practice.

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1 Colin Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, 1050-1200 (Harper and Row, 1972) pgs 139-152
2 M. Robert Mulholland Jr. Holy living in an Unholy World (Francis Asbury/Zondervan, 1990) pg 18

Telling the Truth about ecclesiology in the local church.

After I got back from youth cap last week I spent a couple of days recovering by watching way to much television.  I am the kind of guy who loves commercials, and these new Ally back commercials took the cake.

After a few laughs, I realized that these commercials paint of picture of what happens in the local church many times.  In our attempts at revival style evangelism, we often promise a life that is better than anything else, but is all actuality barely differs from the secular world.  I have never seen hidden print in a church bulletin, or stipulations to what church membership "actually" requires, or a list of social norms that an attender must hold to...but these exist within the church.

When we base our entire ecclesiology (theology of the church) on evangelism and salvation experiences, we are dropping the other end of the ball when it comes to our existing members and others that need care.  Even Willow Creek recognized that they did a bad job of this, and published the findings in their Reveal study.  Ask any average Protestant church member what the purpose of the local church is, and you are more than likely to get an evangelism oriented answer.  You may not believe me, but I am not trying to dog evangelism, but to put it in its proper place within the greater corpus of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Through Jesus a new life is offered, but in the name of organization I think we all to often fail at this.  The quest is to build Churches that are self-sustaining outposts of the kingdom of God, providing the type of caren(physical, emotional and spiritual) that people need.  When new members are brought in (either through salvation or transfer), we must stay attached to them to make sure that they are able to transition from a mode of taking into sustaining.

My church had a woman join about 5-6 months ago.  At first she seemed to be a great member and brought TONS of children into our church, almost tripling our childrens church attendance.  But after a couple of month, she started slowly dropping off and we have barely seen her in 2 months.  We see her children from time to time, and we have kept a good handful of the other kids she brought, but I think we lost her.  She needs more than we can give.  I am not talking about financial help, but the type of sustaining pastoral care that is best brought about by a community, not an individual.  Her not coming isn't a result of her backing down, but us not fulfilling what we promised when she became a member.

Here are just a few things I think we need to learn to exhibit and practice.
1.  Build churches of care-giving.  There is no such thing as sedentary membership.  The days of coming on Sunday and listening to a sermon and that constituting membership are gone.  I love how 1 Peter sets up the idea of a boundary of church membership, and inside that boundary is safety, love and the ability to meet needs.  This is what we need to grow towards.

2.  Define moral boundaries in order to define holiness. In many smaller churches, there is always one member that can get a great fight going.  All to often these are power struggles.  In larger churches, there maybe a different type of problem regarding moral lapse.  Going back to 1 Peter, a clearly defined boundary that can be interpreted today as "church membership" does state what characteristics are examples of Godliness.  These are not set up to have "holy clubs", but to protect leadership and pastoral staff.  If this is enacted, it means that those who are at the margins are not excluded, but constantly encouraged in their faith until they are at this point.  Holiness should always be lifted not as an unreachable place, but an expected goal.  The issue here will be defining 21st century holiness and coming to terms with classic 19th century holiness. 

3.  Build a worshiping community that is focused on God and his actions, instead of humans and our emotions.  The consumer culture of worship has to go.  It promotes experience over embodiment and abiding.  But this also means our sermons, prayers and actions during "church".  I would imagine that this would look like more formal situations and more informal situations of worship, instead of re-working current ideas and Sunday hours.

4.  Be honest about what your church offers.  If you can only pull of a couple of services a week and a few pastoral visitations, don't pretend that you are in the same leagues as the big churches you respect.

These are just a few that came to the top of my head.  I became convicted lately that I don't offer to many answers. 

Camp Notes and the re-imagining of spiritual language

Well I (and my kids) survived summer camp.  It was 5 days of great fun, hard work, and  more orange drink than I think I have ever had.  In my previous post, I expressed how I was nervous about camp, but I felt it was a part of American evangelism that still had relevance.  Anytime you set apart time and allow people to be steeped in God good things can happen.  It was interesting to see my non-churched kids interact with a group of people from a different socio-economic and spiritual level.  After about 6 months of attempting traditional youth ministry, I threw it to the birds and started teaching them from the perspective that if they know who God is, they will be drawn to him.  They don't know any Charilie Hall songs, but most of them have a pretty good understanding of the Trinity and who God is. 

So at times camp was ackward.  Different kids responded in different ways.  I had one that would go to the back with the leaders and raise his hands and really involve himself in worship.  My girls did what most girls do, and had alot of fun with their friends.  I had another group of guys that just stood there, but I knew they were processing what all of this was.  Camp was a good thing, and all of my kids left with an idea of what it is like to meet with God.

I didn't have "problems", but I did have the time to make some notes.  Like I said earlier, my kids aren't from church, and I started to recognize the amount of language that had to be translated.  The Charlie Hall song "Oh God of Jacob", was filled with alot, mainly the line about "seeking his face".  That one really threw a couple of my kids for a loop.  I could write this post about how awesome it is to have these kids at this level, but thats not the point of the post.

How does our worship confuse outsiders?  People make jokes about "Christianese", but lets think about how much of our devotional vocabulary is based on revivialist spiritual experiences and the buzzwords that go around with them.  Could a non-Christian come into an average evangelical service and figure out what is going on?  Does our language speak of God in a way that is not esoteric, but instead speaks of his glory and actions?  Do we sing about us or Him? 

I have a professor that told me the best way to speak about God in worship was to use his own words, that scripture provides the pool of language and image to speak about God.  I know a common practice in alot of worship is to pull from the psalms, but by us picking up lines, do we break canonical ideas about the majesty and person of God?

What I have seen in de-churched settings, is that the language the brings people to understand and interact with God is not revival oriented and based on personal experience, but the classic words proclaiming righteousness and action on God's behalf.  I think this is because many older folk who aren't in church have experience with people talking about what "they think", but not enough about what God has said and what scripture says about God.  Instead of long sections of personal interpretation, extended communal scripture readings open there eyes to a new spiritual reality.

In regard to youth ministry, this means training our kids to not thrive on "mountain top experiences", but to develop deep roots of spirituality that will sustain them through times of doubt and need.  If they are never taught to worship themselves into a fervor, the idea of "bad worship" not bringing God in will never cross their mind.  Starting from a completely different point will hopefully allow the entire consumer mentality to be non-existent and instead a lifestyle of patterned devotion to God and what he has done will become ingrained.

These are alot of questions, but I think that they are the ones the church will have to asking itself more and more has our world turns away from Christendom and into a secular mindset.  But I don't think this is a bad thing at all.

Youth Camp for losers and evangelical drop-outs

I generally hated youth camp when I was a teenager.  It was cheesy and really hard to find a place to sneak and catch a smoke.  But tomorrow I embark upon the last fortress of my Youth Ministry career.  I am taking 8 kids to a holiness camp meetings youth camp.  I am also serving as a counselor.  As much as a chastise the current evangelical system, I really think youth camp is an important event.  Especially for kids that don't have a "church outlet", a comfortable worshiping body, it is important for them to see corporate Christian behavior.  I am slowly beginning to really love youth ministry, but to do it with the kids that most churches try to run-off.  So after next week, expect at least a post regarding camp...and follow me on twitter (@chaddbrooks) to get updates.  This should be a good week, and my prayers are for my kids to grasp the reality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit this week.  I would appreciate your prayers as well. 

What has to be learned by the American Church...not just evangelicals

I have been in the process of writing my follow up to my last post regarding communal doctrine.  I want to make sure it is really sweet, but in the process I came up with this list, which I am imagining to be a work in progess.  Feel free to push back or add to this.

What has to be learned by the American Church:

Fundamentalists:

• Issues regarding authority need be re-thought.  You simply make claims about biblical issues that just can't be substantiated with the History of Judeo-Christian tradition. (Read Craig D. Allert;s "A high view of scripture?")
• Speaking of traditon, it should be recognized more.  How do you think Christianity was transmitted pre-text? D. H. Williams is a great starting place.
• Proper Trinitarian Thoughts, an emphasis on all three members and teaching on how they properly interact with one another.

Traditional/Liturgical

• The difference between issues of justice and evangelism needs to be fleshed out.  While the justice piece has been important in the Mainline Protestant churches,  it is not thought of as an evangelical practice with kingdom/gospel dimensions.
• The Holy Spirit and His place within the sphere of worship.  It is evident in the words of your liturgies, but it needs to be put in practice.
• Cultural adaptation needs to happen, this means that things change in order to keep things refreshed.  This won't destroy the richness that is a positive trait, but will allow it to continue to be what it has always been, but in a way that translates to the non or de-churched.

Again, these are just working lists.  I want to think about an Evangelical list and a Pentecostal/Charismatic list.  I really see these not as destructive, but as ways that the church can hopefully grow in the 21st century.  For those that minister in "Non-Sexy" churches, and are searching for re-vitalization, I think these are points that have to be thought of.  The more people I meet on the street that consider themselves "religious" have no denominational or traditional loyalty, they just want to see a Church that functions like Jesus lived.

The Church and the World

Sorry if the rash of Bible reviews this week was a turn-off.  I was fulfilling some past due obligations.  Plus, as a Bible geek, I love getting to see different editions.  It makes me miss selling Bibles to people.

The last few months has seen my head return to a thread that it followed for a couple of years.  As this year has confirmed my call to the local church, I have been thinking so much about how Churches interact with the world around them.  A great book to stir thoughts is Barry Harvey's "Can These Bones Live?", I have been reading it bit by bit for the last six months and it never disappoints me.  Here is a quote I have been thinking about this morning.

"Christian convictions about God, the world and the relationship between them, which were painstakingly cultivated over several centuries, once formed an integral aspect of the hermeneutical practice that constituted the body of Christ.  Over the past few centuries, however, these doctrines gradually became deracinated systems of belief divorced from other practices and virtues of the church.  The shared beliefs of the Christian community were no longer tied to the church's public worship and work but were transferred into free-floating, interchangeable sets of ideas from which individuals could pick and choose according to their personal tastes."

Individual belief has become core to many people in todays church.  People want to find the church community that best expresses their own individualism.  Thats why ministers have had to turn into marketing agents.  Think how many times a church is known by a specific ministry and other christian communities define it has "that churches thing."  I venture to say that this can get so bad, that core orthodox beliefs can become an optional thing in some peoples minds, because highlighting a specific core belief can become a local church or denominations "thing." 

This practice of being careful about how the church related to the world around it slowly became irrelevant when Christianity became mainstreamed, and it was no longer not only safe, but popular to participate in.  In a world that is slowly becoming more post "Culturally-Christian", I think it is time for the Church to come back together and realize that the classic actions of hospitality, safety, worship, and celebration are acts that are exemplified by Christ in the way that we should practice them.

Next...what communal doctrine actually does for the Church

Review: The Voice New Testament

It was several years ago that I first heard of The Voice translation project.  It was actually through my interests in Christian art and the release of The Last Eyewitness, a contemporary retelling of John 13-21.  I remember being interested with the work and made a mental note to keep up with it.  Meredith and I also visited Chris Seay’s church Ecclesia when we were at her parents in Houston.  The actual project of the Ecclesia Bible Society is interesting enough to warrant its own blog post.  Buts that’s not the point here.

The Voice New Testament is the first “long form” offering in the project.  While multiple smaller books have been put out, this is the entire New Testament.  I find that this translation actually answers many of the issues that I have in regard to a Bible that is stimulating enough to make people want to actually read it.  I know that is a statement that may make some uncomfortable, but its true.

What The Voice does offer is an accurate translation that is transmitted in un-orthodox manner.  What this means is that in sections of dialog sections, the text is broken up into script format, allowing the reader to follow along easier.  I also noted that in certain places in Revelation time based words have been rendered as in the Greek, and not inserted as part of the narrative. For example;

Rev 14
NIV
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.

NASB
Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.

The Voice
The scene changed. I looked and saw the lamb standing on top of Mount. Zion, and with Him were the 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name inscribed on their foreheads.

This sounds like it really doesn’t matter, but the translators of the voice have paid attention to the difference between written prose language and the idea of narrative community story-telling.  This is just one of the features about the voice that I enjoy. The writers identify this italic type as "words not directly tied to a dynamic translation of the Bible."  These are pieces of information that would be obvious to the original hearer (or reader), but in English don't carry the original meaning.  Solving this is the answer to one of my largest pet peeves in regard to English translation and how people read the Bible.

Another feature is the addition of devotional content that is placed amongst the text.  It is written by several writers who are well known in the more “emerging” contexts that The Voice is unofficially associated with.  The Voice also steers clear of some of the more recent issues in evangelical textual criticism dealing with authorship and dating.  It does this my simply staying away from the subject and not veering of into an inherancy/infallibility discussion.

My only problem with The Voice is the dual column format.  I know that this is a standard, and that not doing this could potentially disrupt the flow regarding the devotional section, but for a Bible that is really trying to get out of the mindsets of Bible publishing it was a surprise. 

Overall though, The Voice is a wonderful Bible and translation.  For those who minister to non or de-churched people it is a great Bible to use because it is able to communicate without assuming a Biblical worldview, which is hard these days.  Many Christian publishers understand it as a problem but don’t offer a good solution. The Voice has a high level of readability that gets out of the "a verse here.....and a chapter here" mentality of scripture reading. 

To download a free copy of the Gospel of John click here.

Are you worried? I'm not...

The amount of Christians that are going nuts and practicing Bible math these last few weeks is starting to get a little out of hand.  Forget donkeys and elephants-hold fast to the lamb.  Reading this a few times a day will keep everything in perspective.

Matthew 6

Giving to the Needy

1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

    2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Prayer

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

    9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
       " 'Our Father in heaven,
       hallowed be your name,

    10 your kingdom come,
       your will be done,
       on earth as it is in heaven.

    11 Give us today our daily bread.

    12 And forgive us our debts,
       as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    13 And lead us not into temptation, ^[a]
       but deliver us from the evil one. ^[b]'

    14 For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting

16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,  18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Treasures in Heaven

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

    22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, ^[c] your whole body will be full of light.  23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, ^[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

    24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Do Not Worry

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ^[e]?

    28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.