Thomas Merton on theology and contemplation

"Contemplation, far from being opposed to theology, is in fact the normal perfection of theology. We must not separate intellectual study of divinely revealed truth and contemplative experience of that truth as if they could never have anything to do with one another. On the contrary, they are simply two aspects of the same thing. Dogmatic and mystical theology, or theology and 'spirituality,' are not to be set in mutually exclusive categories, as if mysticism were for saintly women and theological study were for practical but, alas, unsaintly men. This fallacious division perhaps explains much that is actually lacking in both theology and spirituality. Unless they are united there is no fervour, no life and no spiritual value in theology; no substance, no meaning and no sure orientation in the contemplative life."

Very well said, Mister Merton. I think this describes a tension everyone who's spent any amount of time in the Church feels. We must not choose one over the other... we must integrate these two beautiful things... Our thought about God must be held in tension with our experience of God.

seasons

Today had that feel of autumn. I love the changing of the seasons. There's something about the air that's different... it makes you realize that things don't stay the same forever- that summer doesn't last forever! I think August is my least favorite month. If I lived in Colorado I doubt I would say that.. but living in Georgia is not living in the mountains!

September reminds me that it's not perpetually hot in our world... It reminds me that eventually things cool off. It also reminds me that football season starts very, very soon!

Here's to another seasonal change. Everyone run find your sweaters... we'll need them in two months!

finn singing

finn singing
Originally uploaded by krismcdaniel

He wrote these lyrics himself.

How to shrink a church

A friend passed this along to me and I figured it was so good that I'd share it here. The title says it all.... "How to shrink a church". The author makes some very interesting points about our current American religious landscape.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/aprilweb-only/116-41.0.html

Ikea = not from around here

So I'm in Ikea today to buy clay pots for tomato planting. I buy two pots only to note that one of them has a crack in it while I'm packing it into the car. Thinking it would only take a minute to exchange a cracked pot for a good one, I walk back inside with receipt and pot in hand. I am directed to the returns/exchanges station at the end of the store. Upon arrival, I note that there are two employees behind a desk and one other lady present. She is with one of the attendants. The other attendant seems available, so I walk to him to make my exchange. He stops me and points to a ticket dispenser and informs me that I must take a ticket. I smile, walk over and grab a ticket. I wait with ticket, receipt and cracked pot in hand. A coupe of minutes go by and the available attendant walks over to a button on the wall, hits it and then calls out loud, "Number 9." I look down at my ticket... look around and see only myself and one another confused person who'd just walked up, then look down at the number 9 on my ticket. It's my turn. I step forward and a process ensues where he examines the cracked pot, looks at my receipt and then issues me a store credit card that resembles a credit card... Why does everything look like a credit card these days? Everything from library cards, to YMCA cards, to Starbucks gift cards, to store credit(cards) looks like a credit card. I hate that... because I hate credit cards.

Ikea built to handle thousands of returns, I guess. (That makes sense because I am convinced IKEA is a Swedish term meaning cheaply made) But today there were only two of us needing help and the process seemed very odd... very formal. It made me laugh... and then think - IKEA... not from around here.

A ring (on the ground) in the dark

I've just now got 'round to reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I honestly don't know how I've made it this far without reading this, but I have. Maybe it was all the Dungeons and Dragons folks from my youth that loved the Hobbit stories... At any rate, I'm reading them now.

The imagery of the books is like water to my imagination. I'm glad, after a fashion, to only now be discovering these works for the first time. You know, there is only one first time for everything we experience... it's a joy to be touching this wonderful world for the first time as a 33 year old man. A gift, indeed! What I'd give to read To Kill a Mockingbird again for the first time, or the Narnia books. At least I get this 'first time' at this time in my life.

I was struck by Bilbo finding the ring - and I know enough about these stories to know that this ring changes everything - whilst lying alone in a Goblin's cave in the pitch black darkness. He's been knocked unconscious in a battle and left alone on the cold, hard floor of a cave. He wakes with fear, realizing that he is alone and lost... as Bilbo gropes in the dark, looking for a wall or way out, he comes across something the shape of a ring... he slips it into his pocket (instinctively as he had no idea of it's ultimate usefulness) as he's looking for a way out. Isn't that a funny way to introduce a profound discovery? A Hobbit, alone and terrified - lost, finds a ring that will change his destiny while looking for anything but a ring. Sometimes I've found rings like this in the darkness... but at the time I was never very happy about groping in the dark - mainly because I'm afraid of that kind of darkness. I wonder if Tolkien is trying to show us something about our life and about our own struggles with darkness - and about the things we might discover while in those lonely places.

Again, it's fun to read these books as a grown up... or at least as a person who is (hopefully) growing up.

book reflections, Next Christendom

Reflections on the North American response to Jenkins' book. I will say this: I was a bit frightened by this book... in a good way, I think. Jenkins raises some very important questions about the changing face of Christianity among our brothers and sisters in the global South churches.
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Philip Jenkins explores the explosive growth of global South Christianity in his work The Next Christendom. The Church in the South is increasingly distinct from the Church in the North (or West), but many Western Christians only consider Christianity on their terms. At the beginning of the book Jenkins says, “Many of us share the stereotype of Christianity as the religion of the West or, to use another popular metaphor, the global North.” This stereotype begs for deconstruction, and that is exactly what Jenkins sets out to do in The Next Christendom. The expansion of Christianity in Africa, Latin America and Asia paints a picture of a vibrant Christianity. This images stands in striking contrast to the declining Churches across Europe and North America, which once served as the center of the Christian world (specifically Europe). Jenkins articulates this reality toward the end of the book when he says, “Looking at Christianity as a planetary phenomenon, not merely a Western one, makes it impossible to read the New Testament in quite the same way ever again. And the Christianity we see through this exercise looks like a very exotic beast indeed, intriguing, exciting and a little frightening.” The statistics offered by Jenkins are mind numbing. Growth among nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America is unparalleled - both in terms of conversion and population expansion. Here in the United States, the emergence of Global South Christianity presents us with many challenges and opportunities. We must embrace the reality of a changing Church if we’re to keep up with the shifting ethos of our faith.

The first opportunity at hand for the Western (also Northern – I will interchange these terms) is to simply recognize the changing world. We have a penchant for ignoring the world around us as it changes. This ignorance is pervasive and very destructive. If we don’t expand our vision of Christianity to include the global South churches, we may just deceive ourselves into thinking that Christianity is a dying religion. Jenkins says, “To adapt the phrase once applied to the increasingly conservative U.S. electorate of the 1970s, the stereotype holds that Christians are un-black, un-poor, un-young. If that is true, then the growing secularization of the West can mean only that Christianity is in its dying days.” I have heard people lament the impending death of Christianity because of the many empty churches in Atlanta’s city center. If we don’t expand our search to areas often overlooked by white middle class Americans, we might be convinced to believe them. The fist step is opening our eyes to see something we might have missed.

This exploration must begin with a question. How is it possible that many in the church of the global North are ill informed when it comes to the dramatic expansion of Christianity among those in the South? There are several reasons for this, but one reason in particular must be addressed. There exists a latent racism in the North when it comes to people of color. This ugly reality manifests itself in many ways, not the least of which being negative media coverage of events in the global South. Our common (and historic) perceptions of peoples in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia are largely negative. We think of tribal warfare and civic unrest more than we ought, all the while ignoring the many advances that have occurred in parts of the world that exist well outside the shadow of Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty.

Facing these attitudes is a crucial step in our being able to fully recognize what is happening in the Church in other parts of the world. Without an appreciation for their contribution to Christianity, we will never embrace and learn from our brothers and sisters in the global South. It is important to note that this embrace and appreciation is not just a foreign missions concern. Atlanta, my city, is home to an increasing immigrant population. We house more refugees than most cities in North America, and the Latin American community is booming. If we’re to truly love our city we must make room for the people groups that do not traditionally originate from here. I must confess that The Next Christendom has been very challenging in this respect. I have not paid sufficient attention to the foreign population that resides very close to my own church, convincing myself that I had my hands full with our North American population. My heart has been pricked in a new way over the past couple of weeks as I’ve noticed resident aliens living side by side with folks who attend my church, and noting that we have not been aware of those who exist outside the mainstream of society.

One reason why we don’t typically pay much attention is due to cultural differences. The old adage of separate but equal comes to mind. Learning new languages and developing sensitivity to cultural divides make for hard work, so too often people groups exist side by side but experience little to no overlap. This speaks to an inherent laziness in majority people groups. This tendency toward apathy and ignorance is as true for middle class Americans as any majority group in the world. I am guilty of this sin. One of the liturgical rhythms in my life is a prayer of repentance, where I confess sins connected to what I have done in addition to those stemming from what I have left undone. My ignorance of local immigrant communities is a sin of omission. I have left this part of my local responsibility undone, and I do not think I’m alone in this respect.

Once we in the North begin to notice the emergence of the Church in the global South, we will have to fight the temptation to use Southern Christians for our own gain. Methods of church growth run the spectrum here in the United States and this will surely prove to be a temptation for Western Christians as they begin to learn of the growth in the South. I am reminded of Wendell Berry’s description of the difference between strip miners and cultivators. Strip miners extract from the environment only what they can use, all the while doing damage to the overall ecosystem. We are often times very effective strip miners in this respect. We must adopt a learning posture with relationship to our brothers and sisters in the South. We must receive, not just take at will by borrowing principles indiscriminately. I see a challenge of humility for those of us in the North that do, in fact, come to recognize what’s happening in the South. In times past, when the Western world saw resources in other parts of the globe, we took what we wanted without much thought to the impact of our actions. Jenkins highlights this as a recurring weakness of Imperialistic endeavor in The Next Christendom. A new sensitivity is needed for this exploration. We cannot see the growth in the South and try to distill principles for church growth on our own soil. We have to look deeper than that, to the heart of what’s happening in the South, so we can participate in the renewal (where it’s appropriate for us to do so) without doing harm to it.

Another challenge will be learning to hold our own models of ministry lightly in light of emerging theology in the churches of the global South. This openness becomes more relevant because of immigrant peoples that may live near us. For too long we have believed the myth that we hold all the cards when it comes to foreign relations. Westerners have presumed to possess superior resources (money) and expertise, regardless of the endeavor. But some of the flavors emerging from the Kingdom expansion in the global South are quite different from what we’ve grown accustomed to here in the North. Elements of Pentecostal fervor feature more prominently in Churches of Africa, Latin America and Asia. South world Christians place great emphasis on a vital experience with God. This stands in sharp contrast to our more staid religious expression here in North America and across many countries in Europe. African writer Chinua Achebe describes the conversion of a Nigerian man in these terms, “ It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow…” This sense of feeling faith in the bones is demonstrated across a wide spectrum of denominations in the global South, but specifically so in Pentecostal denominations. Jenkins notes, “According to reputable observers, by 2000, Pentecostal numbers worldwide were increasing at the rate of about 19 million each year.” That is remarkable growth indeed!

Western Christians have to work out ways to understand and embrace this Pentecostal fervor as a part of the changing face of Christianity. Too often, we either resist or exploit changing dynamics – either opting to reject an idea that is foreign to us as false or use it as a tool for growth and innovation. In this instance, I believe a learning posture would serve us best. It could be possible that the decline of religion in the west is due, in part, to our lack of fervor. Maybe we don’t hold fast to the God of the scriptures like our brothers and sisters in the South. Jenkins notes that, “… the apostolic world as described in the New Testament is not just a historical account of the ancient Levant, but an ever-present reality open to any modern believer, and that includes the whole culture of signs and wonders.” These words present a real challenge to me. My Charismatic upbringing afforded ample opportunity to wrestle with perceived spiritual excesses. These struggles with a Christian culture that made me feel uncomfortable have caused me to step back from overtly Pentecostal worship expressions. But reading Jenkins reminds me that I cannot simply sweep Charismatic expressions of Christianity under the proverbial rug. Millions of believers per year are embracing elements of Charismatic Christianity, and this reality is changing the face of Christianity. I want to wrestle with this tension – both in my own walk with God and in our community context. Could it be that we have grown too sophisticated? I sometimes wonder if we’ve thrown the baby out along with the dirty bathwater? It seems as if Christians in the South truly do benefit from interacting with the scripture, and the God of the scripture, as a present possibility. We need to sit with this tension and be open to re-negotiate some of the cultural biases that have shaped our worship.

Another opportunity open to the church in North America is mission and engagement in urban city centers of the world. Urbanization and immigration brings many global South peoples to city centers in search of work. This trend is occurring all over the world. As North American churches consider mission work across the planet, we must pay attention to centers of population growth, namely emerging mega cities in the developing world. Jenkins notes that, “More than 1 billion people – one-sixth of the world – are illegal squatters living on the fringes of a Third World city.” If we want to mobilize our money effectively, support in these areas will prove to be as strategic as it gets. But trends suggest that North American churches are giving less than ever before to mission work. One way for the churches in the United States to engage with this process is by partnering with reputable missions organizations in these strategic centers of population growth around the world. This partnership would be money well spent because many of the people living in these parts of the world are among the world’s poorest people, and they are candidates for Christian conversion.

We do have money to give, but we must not assume that means Americans have the corner on the market when it comes to our spirituality. As we’ve noted above, the spiritual vitality in the church of the global South reminds us that Christians in Africa, Asia and Latin America have much to teach us. Due to the fact that the American Church is simultaneously rich in resources and impoverished in our spirituality, there is great potential for a new kind of holistic relationship to emerge between North and South Christians. American money can go a long way toward relieving social ills in Christian communities in the developing world, just as African leadership can help us navigate the problems we are facing in our Western culture. Desmond Tutu’s No Future without Forgiveness is a beautiful account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and carries with it much insight for racial healing in our own context here in the United States. Additionally, The Bishop of Rwanda by Bishop John Rucyahana contains many valuable insights from the perspective of a suffering Church, which enables readers to look for God’s goodness in the midst of extreme difficulty.

No single book has spoken to this issue more than Never Silent by Thaddeus Barnum. In this work, Barnum tells the story of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) and how the Anglican Church in Rwanda came to the aid of Americans who were suffering due to liberal trends in The Episcopalian Church (TEC). Jenkins references this phenomenon toward the end of The Next Christendom. He says, “AMIA still flourishes. As the use of the “Anglican” term suggests, conservatives were seeking to place their own views in the global context, rather than merely using the local American term “Episcopal.” More conservative Anglicans have placed themselves under global South prelates…” Here we see spiritual oversight of Western churches coming under global South leadership. The Anglican Mission is part of the Province of Rwanda in the Anglican Church. This type of innovation speaks to the increasing collaboration among churches from the North and South. As the future comes to meet us, we must be open to new kinds of partnerships. The Anglican Mission is one of many who are leading the way into the future.

The last challenge I will highlight concerns world religions other than Christianity. The United States is predominately a Christian nation at the moment, but the rise of Islam in the fastest growing centers of population will make for an interesting future. Jenkins states, “The future centers of global population are chiefly in countries that are already divided between the two great religions (Christianity and Islam), and where divisions are likely to intensify.” The attacks on September 11, 2001 testify to this reality. Both religions are enjoying strong growth in the global South, which means American Christians will need to be more thoughtful and knowledgeable when it comes to Islam. One of the largest Mosques in North America stands 3 miles from the church where I serve as pastor. In addition to knowing and loving our emerging Latin American immigrant population, we must seek to know and love our Iranian neighbors. This challenge appears to be more difficult than Latino relationship building because of the massive divide between Christianity and Islam, but it is a challenge that begs for engagement.

At the end of his work, Jenkins states the basic thrust of the entire book. He says, “Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and persecuted, while it atrophies among the rich and secure.” That reality should give us pause here in the states, but should be cause for rejoicing that though increasingly embattled on our shores, Christianity is alive and well! The near future of the faith seems to rest in the hands of our brothers and sisters from the South. My prayer is that we would allow them to teach us something of what they’ve learned from God. If Christians are a worldwide family, with each branch demonstrating a different character component of God, then we need to receive from our relatives in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To this end Desmund Tutu speaks pastorally to African Christians. He says, “Be nice to whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.”