Episode 35 of the Justice and Mercy Podcast, where Doug Pagitt discusses his new book, Seeds of Compassion, and Solomon’s Porch.

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This post is more personal than that of the standard fare here at .info but I think there are some applicable learnings for current affairs buzzing in the blogosphere.

I’ve been estranged from my family (mom, step-dad, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc…) for the better part of 9 years. Without giving all of the details; suffice it to say I did many things wrong as a teenager and my parents did many things wrong as parents. Neither party was able to forgive. Because of the strain I chose to close off communication. One time about 5 years ago I did contact my Mom in an attempt to live out the verse “As much depends on you be at peace with all people”. In a God given moment of humility I was able to say “Please forgive me” to which my Mom responded with “You’ve made your bed now lie in it” and slammed down the phone. In that moment, having honored God with his command to seek forgiveness, I had peace. The bridge to my family wasn’t reopened that day but I continued to trust that “All things work to the good for those of love Christ”.

Fast Forward 4 years. This past Christmas I received a Christmas card in the mail from my Aunt. Stunned that I got a Christmas card from her I didn’t open it. My wife however did. Inside was a personal note that read “We miss you guys being a part of the family give us a call. P.S. (my cousin) is getting married in May and she would love for you guys and the girls to come” My immediate response was I’m not going to the wedding. I questioned everything… “Who’s gonna be there”; “What’s their motivation for inviting me”; “What if so and so is there”; etc…

But then God began to nudge me. He reminded me of the call of a Christian. We are to be ministers of reconciliation; by our Love they will know us; as much depends on you be at peace with all people; Bless those who curse you. On and on scripture came in rapid fire pattern until I was literally on my knees humbled by the words of my Savior. Now I knew I had to go to that wedding to honor God and the commitment I made to follow him wherever leads.

Recently Saddleback Church issued personal notes to those in the blogosphere that have been most critical of what Rick Warren is doing; inviting them to a future conference. To say that this has caused a little questioning of motives would be an understatement. Quite frankly their (the bloggers) thoughts haven’t varied much from the thoughts that I had when I was invited to the wedding of my cousin. What is very different however is the public manner in which they are airing those thoughts.

A few weeks ago Ingrid wrote a scathing response essentially stomping on the graciousness of Rick Warren to pay for the trip. Recently Chris Rosebrough of Extreme Theology wrote a more balanced response to his invite and in fact accepted the invite. But again questioned the motives of the invitation. In fairness to Chris he has since removed that post stating “There is a commitment that I need to honor and I want to respect the wishes of my host.” Which shows character and perhaps a willingness to take a “wait and see” approach.

Others however (who haven’t received invites) have been blogging and commenting voraciously; ascribing all kinds of conspiracy theories to Rick and Co.

Purpose Drivel had this to say.

Wow. I have to wonder what the spin will be on this one. I would be torn. Do I go and let him twist the event to his own advantage? Or do I decline and let him publicly say “they wouldn’t play nice, look we even invited them for ‘dialogue’!”

I guess if I could have a recording team there to record the meeting, I would be OK with it. Then nothing could be edited for slant/spin purposes without it being exposed by the opposing team.

Jim Bublitz of Old Truth in the Extreme Theology comments (the old post)

I‘ve been hearing about all of the invites to this event for the past week and have wondered what’s really behind it all. Is Warren finally starting to see that the blog world is a great detriment to his methods, and this is his way of doing damage control? Surely he’s not naive enough to imagine that he’s going to change the minds of people like you and Pastor Bob DeWaay who is also there and has written a book against Warren’s teachings. Or maybe Warren thinks he’s going to shower you with gifts and kill you with kindness (so to speak) to the point where you are going to think of him as “Uncle Rick” from now on; somebody you just can’t speak poorly about. I just don’t know, but will be interested in your opinions. It just doesn’t make sense.

You’re right Jim; it doesn’t make sense. Why would Rick Warren a heretic invite a fringe group of malcontents to a conference on his dime. I suspect because Rick is wise enough to understand that the caricatures we have in our heads (heretics and malcontents) vary widely from the reality of who people are in real life. Communication is the only thing that will close that gap. Which is exactly what I experienced at my cousins wedding.

Most of my relatives (sans my mom and step-dad) were gracious and affirming of me. Many were able to see the change (Christ) in my life and I was able to say to them that I am where I am today because of Christ. It was a powerful night and my wife, kids, and me were able to witness to my family the grace of Christ. On a very personal note I got to see my Grandfather, whom I assumed was dead. I was able to introduce him to his great grand-daughters and was also able to say good bye (he has cancer and Alzheimer’s and was given only about 2 months to live). Which was a wonderful gift from God in my eyes. Plus all of the caricatures that I had of my family were shattered during the night. In my humanness I would never have expected God to be able to reconcile my family. Sure I still have room to grow and certainly the healing in my family has a long way to go but God is good and able to “work all things to good for those who love Christ”.

Maybe God is calling all of us to that higher ground. Lets not let pride, humanness, or team politics get in the way of that calling.

Grace and Peace to all.

Found here:
Of particular interest is this:

Q: On the theology behind the emerging church, you reject the idea that there’s an absolute truth. So what boundaries are there on theology that churches are teaching? Can any church just call itself an emerging church?

A: Obviously that’s a challenge. The flip side of that question is look at the Catholic Church: For all of its orthodoxy, it could have bishops covering up for molesting priests. And evangelicals, for all their claims of orthodoxy, can be barbaric to gay people and can blindly support a rush to war in Iraq and can be, as we speak, fomenting for war with Iran. … Obviously, I have a lot of critics and they often say, ‘You’re wanting to water down the Gospel to accommodate to post-modernity.’ I say, ‘No, I really don’t want to do that. But what I do want to do is acknowledge first the ways we’ve already watered down the Gospel to accommodate modernity.’ … I think the naivete of some of those critics is that they’re starting with a pure pristine understanding of the Gospel. It seems to me we’re all in danger of screwing up.

Hatip: The Double V.

Tony Jones posted the latest installment of his “On the Road with Trucker Frank” series today, webisode 5. In this clip Jones talks with two Evangelical pastors about their opinions on church planting, what people want in a church, and going to bars.

The second pastor in the clip may be familiar to you, as he is none other than Pastorboy, a semi-regular commenter here at CRN.info. As is quite evident, he and Tony Jones don’t quite see eye to eye, especially on what God can and cannot do. Also, Emergent’s lack of statement of faith is a matter of contention. Perhaps one commenter on Jone’s blog sums up the difference in worldviews with this comment:

“Jesus is who the Bible says He is.”- you

“Well lets nail that down…”- other guy

There’s an interesting sentence.

I think there has been enough “nailing down” of Jesus already.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the entire, unedited interview.

I have been reading about how the SBC is slowly becoming catholic for a while now. And, anyone who is a part of the convention knows that this is far from reality. There is a lot you can say about the SBC: irrelevancy to world around it, unbiblical guidelines for ministry, use of funds — all that to say, I am not one who always tows the party line. However, this connection that Watcher’s Lamp makes is strange to me.

They make the comparison between the catholic practices of the stations of the cross and the prayer journey with signs and symbols that will be taking place at the Convention this year. First off, let me say that the practice is very similar. It seems (from the two sentences provided) that participants will go from station to station, be reminded of an aspect of God with a symbol, and stop to pray. How horrible could that be? In either case, no one is praying to the icons or symbols. Nor is anyone confusing Catholic theology with that of SBC protestantism. I am sure it will be a series of pictures from the 10/40 window, baptist churches, and various other images that will remind pastors to repent, give thanksgiving, and pray for the needs of the world.

Why is it that we have such a hard time with symbols and icons in the Christian faith. I mean, it seems like Jesus was constantly using images and symbols when he spoke. Everything from mustard seeds to a lost coin became iconic for who we are to become, and how we are to live. Heck, I don’t think that anyone would argue that we should stop taking communion in remembrance of our Lord because the Catholics have created transubstantiation. I think Jesus understood that so much of our learning process is visual, not just auditory. If he set up symbols and icons to remind us of the truths of God, why shouldn’t we? Or are we dismissing it simply because the Catholics came up with it first?

Tags: catholicism

hip-hop beats and entertaining video mixed with theology — Really now? How worldly will we become in our attempt to make God relevant? This is the type of SBRWHTCD (Slowly Becoming Relevant While Holding To Calvin’s Doctrines) I have been telling you about! All this booty-shaking and hussy raising material in the church makes me sick.

sorry Chris, couldn’t resist.

Tags: a little humor

Ok, this is a bit off topic. A little while back Jeff from Sterling Heights MI emailed me and asked me if we could put together a fantasy football league. And surprisingly, yes we can. So just to give everyone a heads up I’ll open up sign ups for it in late June, we’ll draft in late August. We’ll use Yahoo’s service, so if you don’t have an account you can sign up for one (its free). We’ll start out with one 12 team league, and if that fills up we’ll start up a second one.

This is open to everyone (even n00bs and ODMs).

The only thing we ask is your smack talk be void of theological and ideological themes.

Oh, and that you don’t cry when I beat you by 50 points.

From Libertas (a conservative Showbiz blog my buddy John Kenneson introduced me to last year):

Though not a big fan of the fantasy genre, the first Narnia earned my eternal goodwill in a single scene. Any film that has Santa Claus handing out weapons to young children is a-okay by me.

Oh yeah – took my daughter to see Prince Caspian on Friday. It was an A+ in my book – especially so the next morning when E.T. was on TV – the stupid “enhanced” version that replaced all of the guns with walkie-talkies.

There’s this little book called the Shack that has gotten some people all hot and bothered. If you’re interested in truth rather than rhetoric you might want to amble on over to Steve Brown Etc and listen to the author himself.

Young’s reaction to the critics is also available on his own website.

Here’s a little sample, the whole thing is interesting though.

“Of course you know that people are writing and saying all kinds of things about me…and some of it is simply not true. They make assumptions about my beliefs and motives and character as if they know me, and some of them are my friends.”
“Hah,” she chuckles. “I know exactly how you feel.”
That makes me smile. “I suppose you do.”

“I take it,” she continues, “that you aren’t so much bothered by the good stuff they’re writing and saying. Very complimentary, some of that.”

This time I laugh. “I get your point. Lots of that isn’t true either. I’m not that brilliant for sure. But even though compliments are a little hard to receive, they are definitely easier than the negative stuff.”

“Such as…?” she is leading me, but I am more than ready to follow.

“You know, there a few that are saying that I have a subversive agenda to destroy orthodoxy…”
“Destroy?” she interrupts. “That’s a little overstated don’t you think?”

“Maybe, but have you read some of those articles and blogs…of course you have, and the emails where people think that I should burn in hell.”

“Well, if it’s any comfort, it’s often true that the way people positively or negatively respond to a story tells you something of where they are at, more than about you.”

Joe from the Evangelical Outpost asks this question:

How do you befriend someone who relishes what you despise? Can you show someone love while keeping your distance? If not, how do you draw near to someone who wallows in unrepentant sin? We’re told to follow the example of Jesus in loving our fellow sinners. However, we are rarely provided with practical advice on how to carry out this duty.

For instance, we Christians often speak about how Jesus was a friend to the sinners, how he would often be found in the company of drunks, gluttons, and prostitutes. In all of these cases, though, we are left with the impression that the sinners turned away from their sin. That seems to be the expected reaction to an encounter with the Messiah. Indeed, I can’t imagine how a prostitute could share bread and wine with Jesus and then go back to turning tricks on the street corner.

Still, it seems likely that some of them probably enjoyed Jesus’ company without being fully convicted of their sinful nature. How did he respond? How did his disciples interact with those people? And what do we do when we encounter those types of people today?