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  • Mark 9:34 am on December 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Wikipedia,   

    YouVersion – a 2.0 spiritual resource 

    Its amazing how things change, and how at the same time, things so much the same.

    Looking into how our culture works, I’m watching people at the check-out get replaced by automated voices and “self-checkout” lanes.  Haiku’s of the past are today’s Tweets.  We are at once more isolated and yet more connected than ever before.  We are scatter-brained, multi-tasking, over-worked and stressed out, yet we have created Wikipedia, the largest repository of human knowledge IN HISTORY.

    The same is true for spiritual formation. I am passionate about Christ-centered transformation in a person’s life – including my own – and yet I remain very firmly planted in our world’s changing world.  What of worth can come from using the tools of Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, and the like for the purposes of spiritual formation and discipleship?  How can we center on Christ through these tools?  I’ve written before on “Eschatechnology” and using technology as an extension of our resources in pursuing Christ.  Paul did it with the new Roman roads, mailing systems and parchment writing.  Moses did it with stone-tablets.  Martin Luther did it with the Gutenberg Printing Press.  More on that here.

    YouVersion is quickly finding itself among the coveted list of spiritual resources for the digital age.  They’ve just released a new version of their Bible reader online and on many of the smart phones.  Now you can choose or customize any number of reading plans, picking from dozens of translations of the text.  You can make contributions and comments right alongside the learned theologians (a la Wikipedia).  You can join groups, add friends, (like Facebook) and engage live presentations (at a worship service, for instance) with audience response, note-taking, and group-share.

    I’m still imagining what this might look like in our church network.  Maybe friends in an LTG become friends on Youversion and share insights into the text they’re reading for that week.  Maybe new disciples can read through the “Outreach New Testament” reading plan – designed for people just looking into the Christian faith or brand new to following Jesus. Maybe tweeting a verse that hit you while you were reading and beginning a conversation on Twitter with others.

    Certainly this tool is not for everyone – but it gives fresh life to those who are inclined like I am toward infusing their faith into a 21st Century world.

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    • Josh Frank 12:07 pm on December 21, 2009 Permalink

      There’s an interesting conference in CA coming up in March:
      Theology After Google

      More on that here:
      http://transformingtheology.org/calendar/theology-after-google

      Good thoughts as usual, Mark!

    • Mark 12:19 pm on December 21, 2009 Permalink

      Josh – cool! Where do you hear about such awesome conferences? I’m guessing that I’ll be “attending” via Twitter. :)

    • Josh Frank 12:26 pm on December 21, 2009 Permalink

      Most of them are through the emerging circles I still follow, folks like Adam Walker-Cleaveland and, to a lesser extent, Tony Jones.

      While California in March (Chicago’s extra month of winter??) sounds great, I’ll likely be following along online, too.

  • Mark 1:54 pm on December 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: augustine, bonhoeffer, , , robert putnam   

    The Need for Community 

    *Below are some notes I took while reading through part of Kenneth Boa’s Conformed to His Image. Some lines are direct quotes, others are my own thoughts – my college professors would hate to see them all mixed up like this – but consider yourself warned.

    ———————————–

    God created us as relational beings; and because of this we thrive best in community. Community is the hotbed of spiritual growth and renewal, yet it is a fragile and vulnerable space for the Evil One to invade and undermine.

    In the Western world, we are seeing an attack on community (not just spiritual community) on just about every level.  There is a fierce pursuit of autonomy, self-actualization, privatization, avoidance of accountability, and a nuanced form of narcissism called “self-esteem.”  Read up on this in the foundational book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam.  In addition, we as Americans have a heritage of distrusting institutions, traditions and especially authority.

    This blog post is not about wishing for days gone by, but about recapturing the biblical vision of covenantal community.

    Certain Christians groups emphasize either the individual, or the corporate.  Evangelicals really push their attention to the individual’s justification of self before God.  Other groups accent social justice and relevance in culture.  The dangers of irrelevant privatization on one side or mere social ethics on the other are the pits on both sides of the path.  Scripture seems to find a balance by affirming the good news of kingdom living in the present tense.  The spiritual life is both personal and social; both dependent on God and active in the world.

    God IS Community

    Scripture clearly shows God as a relational being. Even before the creation of the world God is in a pure, loving community of three (Father, Word, Spirit).  Since God made us in his likeness, we have been created for community with him and with one another.  As we make the choice to enter into that original divine relationship, we become members of a new community that is called to reflect the Godhead in its corporate unity. [youversion]John 17:22-26[/youversion] In essence, our Lord tells us, “If you love me, you will love the people I love.”

    The private/corporate polarities mentioned above are reflected on well in one of my favorite books on the topic, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together:

    “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will only do harm to himself and the community…You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out.  Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Into community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; You are never alone, even in death…If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you.”

    [youversion]Luke 6:12-19[/youversion] is an excellent text on moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry.  Jesus spent the night in solitude with God, in the morning he formed a community by inviting his disciples to follow him, then in the afternoon Jesus ministered with his disciples to the physical and spiritual needs of the crowds.  This is a path we can follow too.  Community is the bridge that connects solitude (intimacy with God) with ministry to the world.

    True community is not a collection of lonely or isolated individuals but a dynamic interaction of people who know they are accepted in Christ.  God does not call us to be” Christians at large” or “a colony of hermits” but a vital organism of others-centered people of which Christ is the head.  True solitude and true community enrich each other through their creative interplay where the horizontal meets the vertical.

    The corporate life of the body of Christ is not optional.  Its never easy, but we are impoverished without it.  Among other things, it provides:

    • relational enrichment and commitment
    • trust, love, and acceptance
    • mutual submission out of reverence for Christ
    • physical, psychological and spiritual healing
    • nourishment from the common work of listening to God’s voice together in Scripture, prayer, and life.

    Challenges to Community

    The Church has always had its manipulators, controllers, and faction builders.  Even worse, few of these people even realize the the corporate damage they inflict, and usually paint a veneer of concern for the best interests of the group.  Just look at the church in Corinth.

    In [youversion]Phil 2:3,4[/youversion], Paul recommends “Do nothing out of selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”  Learning to please only Christ, the irony is that we can then find the right position to truly meet the needs of others.

    The fundamental threat to community is self-centeredness, the vital builder of community is others-centeredness rooted in Christ-centeredness.

    Hell is self-centered and isolational; heaven is others-centered and relational.  Having a corporate spirituality is costly because it asks us to go against the grain of our fallen instincts for privatization and personal control.  But Scripture reminds us that joy is only experienced in full when it is shared, and atrophies when it is hoarded.  Thomas Merton has said plainly, “We are not at peace with each other because we are not at peace with ourselves.  And we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.”

    The Key to Creating Community

    Surrender and self-denial in Christ is the KEY to biblical community. It is in this context we can read Augustine’s profound prayer, “Lord, your best servants are those who wish to shape their life on your answers rather than shape your answers on their wishes.”

    The Church does not exist for the individual – it is inappropriate to leave a church when it no longer “feeds you.”  Maybe its a calling from God to bring some of your own spiritual food to the potluck!

    You cannot wait for the perfect group of people to arrive to “start your church” – you must surrender your ideal of community to allow the one before you to thrive.

    So you think you really want a taste of this divine community?

    True community in Christ is not created by attempts to “make it happen;” instead, it is a by-product of others-centeredness – which comes from losing our life to seek Jesus. [youversion]Matt 16:25[/youversion] Death is the only way to resurrection.  Conversion to Christ and to the cross should in turn lead to conversion to community.  Everything you do alone in the Lord is useless without it. [youversion]1 Cor 13:1[/youversion]

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    • Michael Coghlin 1:00 pm on December 15, 2009 Permalink

      Hey Mark,

      I just started receiving the House 2 House newsletters and noticed a “Mark Willis” as one of the contributors. Combining my sharp wit with the brute force of Google (and your well-laid-out blog) I put two-and-two together to realize, “I know this guy! I sat in class with him! Wow…” I’ve recently become involved with a network of house churches in Calgary, AB.

      So, though I’m not responding to your post, I am giving you a hearty “hello, eh?” from chilly Canada. I look forward to reading more of what you’ve written.

      Grace and Peace,
      Michael

    • Mark 2:43 pm on December 15, 2009 Permalink

      How exciting man! Praise God for what he’s up to in Calgary. I’ve actually visited Calgary (and Medicine Hat) a long time ago and loved it while I was there. Hope to keep in touch with ya – do you have a blog or anything?

  • Mark 7:09 pm on December 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Diversity, glenn beck, Kenny-G, matthew raley,   

    The Diversity Culture 

    Stop for just a moment and think.  Clear your mind and take a breath.  Consider your worldview – your perspectives, points of view, political leanings, religious beliefs…the very lens through which you see your world.  Now, think carefully – who is the person that represents the most complete opposite end of the spectrum?  Generally, humans reserve trust and friendship with people they believe are most like them – and tend to demonize and stereotype those most different from them.

    For many in America today, conservative Christians and the liberal secularists are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  One tends to hang out on Sunday mornings, the other on Saturday nights.  One votes for the Democrat, the other votes for the Republican.   The worst evil for one is social deviance, whereas the other shuns bigotry.  One is urban, one is suburban.  One wears suits, the other has dreadlocks.    One is PC one is Mac.  You get the picture.

    Both live in worlds in which the other has no place.  Both exist in tight bubbles that exclude others.  In these secluded tribes, they can lob ideological grenades at other tribes and receive comfort from their peers.  All the while the chasm between people and Truth grows wider.

    I had never heard of Matthew Raley when I picked up The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between. He speaks to this reality of ideological tribalism with humility and truth.  He draws on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well, [youversion]John 4:1-26[/youversion], as a prime example of how Jesus engaged the “other” not as a propped-up caricature, but as a unique individual.  Samaritans and Jews distrusted each other politically, religiously, and even the other tribe’s very right to exist. Sounds familiar even today, doesn’t it?

    Jesus sat down next to the well, and began to cross barriers – claiming that mistakes had been made in both Jewish and Samaritan tribes in the identity of the other – both groups had inherited from their tribesmen lies about the other group.  When she showed signs that she was willing to take people (and life) case by case (rather than broad brushing stereotypes) he was able to work with her – and introduce her to the Living Water.

    But herein lies the rub – do people make life-changing decisions about faith and worldview as a group, or as individuals?  Raley says its about “crowbar-ing people away from their groupthink” (whether Christian or secular or whatever) and asking them to think critically about what they personally believe to be true.  It is at this point that I think I differ from Raley.

    I agree that to really help someone think critically about an issue, sometimes you have to remove their normal filters and lenses their culture gives them and let them try their best to think for themselves.  Other times there’s just not enough will-power in the person to do that, and if done properly, “salvation can come to the whole household,” as it does all over Acts.  Sometimes people come to Christ as individuals, extricated from their culture (Ethiopian eunuch, Samaritan woman at the well), and sometimes its through their community (Philippian jailer’s family, Cornelius’ household, etc.).

    He admits that most people in the “Diversity Culture” as he coins it, grow up with a “street postmodernism” – and are not really sure why they hold such pluralistic views – they know perfectly well that right and wrong exist, but “what they don’t necessarily know is how to integrate unchanging principles into lives that are full of change.” (Raley, 50) Christians too believe things without knowing exactly why – and they still are distrustful of those with different views.  What ends up happening is a world full of people who hate each other for reasons they can’t explain.  Back to stereotypes.

    Remember that archetypal person who you distrust the most, and put an actual face on them – someone you know at work, etc.  Find their uniqueness – something that shatters the stereotype you have of them.  Maybe its a hipster who listens to Kenny-G, or a liberal who secretly watches reruns of Glenn Beck.  You might just find yourself like the Samaritan woman at the well did, face to face with a the most important relationship of your life that you never saw coming.

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    • Agent B 12:27 am on December 5, 2009 Permalink

      I don’t think any real human listens to Kenny G

    • Guy Muse 11:35 am on December 6, 2009 Permalink

      A lot to chew on in this post. For me it is a good way to define who the “Samaritans” are amongst us. Often we can identify our Jerusalem, Judea, and have a good idea about who the “ends of the earth” are, but few of us can clearly put a face to the Samaritans in our midst.

    • Sean Landolt 6:48 pm on December 12, 2009 Permalink

      This is a good post and I’m interested in where you find the resources and what drew you to them. Why does inter-religious conversation catch your eye?

      Up in Canada I’m finding that people are very closed off from any religious conversation. Its not even a deeply personal issue its just a social taboo to talk about it. You can’t open up about it until you have developed a close friendship where you are each sharing your opinions openly. This is terribly frustrating becuase it means I have to put a lot into a person before I find out where they stand with God (on a side note though this does force you to learn how to love poeple for you they are rather than trying to change them). I’m doing a little looking around for inter-religious conversation, but I haven’t found anything yet. I think the culture up here in general is more interested in moving up in social status than in spirituality. This is probably why the culture has been seperated from Christianity sence the sixties. Once Christianity no longer held social statues people quite going to church. But I’m pritty new to the area, and people are like unions up here. Thanks for the post you got me thinkin’. And seriously how are you finding these books?

    • Mark 7:15 pm on December 12, 2009 Permalink

      Yo Sean! I’m with the Ooze Viral Bloggers, an online Magazine that does among other things book reviews. They send me a free book as long as I do a review of it (good or bad).

      Hey – ya otta check out Meetup.com – its a great way to link up with people in your area. Each time a new “spirituality” meetup group starts in my neighborhood, Meetup.com sends me an email notifying me of it. Pretty cool! Some groups are wacko, others are legit. That’s how we linked up with these guys – a great resource.

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