Reading Shirley Guthrie and thinking about GA

As I begin preparation for ords, I picked up Shirley Guthrie's "Christian Doctrine." In light of my experiences at GA different things have jumped off the page.

In his discussion about studying the Bible he states "There is always the danger that we will find in the Bible only what we take with us to it - that we will use it to confirm what we already think and will hear only what we want to hear.... What is to keep us from simply using the Bible to give authority to our own religious, social, political and economic prejudices What is to prevent us from using the study of this ancient book as a pious excuse for refusing to face the radical claims of the living God on every area of our lives, hear and now?" - p 11

"The self-revelation of God is in fact so new and unexpected that it is often offensive to those who think they already know who God is and what God must say and do if God is really God." - 56

These 2 pieces made me think back to GA and wonder what lens are we viewing Scripture through? Are we bringing our biases and fears hoping to find only what we want or are we willing to let go and let God be God? Christianity has always had a scandalous edge to it, perhaps moving toward the ordination of GLBT persons in the next scandalous move. After all blacks and women have been allowed to preach.

The struggle of theology continues....

Theological Issues...

Walking away from GA one of the things that grabbed hold of me is the lack of theological depth in the church today. Many of the debates that should have been from a theological point, were not, there was more debate on a personal emotional level. Along with this is the lack of Scriptural awarness and a difference of how we interpret Scripture. There are many ways Presbyterians have historically interpreted Scripture, but the most prevalent to me at GA, was what do I bring to the text and how does the text say what I want it to say. So where have we gotten lost?

I was reading Michael Jinkins book "Letters to New Pastors" the other day and something he said struck me. The theology of the congregation is only as deep as the hymns it sings. So how has the prevalence of contemporary music (particularly the old 7-11 songs - 7 words sung 11 times) and the changing of the old hymns and in some cases getting rid of them affected congregational theology? Because we have tried to use more inclusive language have we begun to lose the ability to see God as utterly transcendent? Does the phrase "High King of Heaven" point us to a transcendent God?

How do we begin to reclaim our theological heritage? How do we help our congregation rediscover the importance of them each being a theologian and that theology truly does matter? I can't help but wonder if we as a denomination and as the larger catholic church, if we would be in a better place that we are now. How has a lack of theological understanding impacted what we are doing as church (or not doing)? How has our lack of understanding added to the arguements?

The Trinity paper raised a ton of debate that I wasn't sure where it came from. But then I got an email from my sister after an article ran in the local paper. She was totally against the names brought forth as other ways to speak about the triune God. What I feel that she and a bunch of people missed was the fact that every image for the triune God, was to be anchored in the historical formula of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. No one was out to change the baptismal formula or say we could use the historic names. It was instead a time to encourage the church to look beyond one way to name the triune God and to look at Scriptural images that are used and bring those forth.

This has caused me to stop and look at what I feel called to do. I feel strongly about theological education in the church. I wonder if this my deep joy that intersects with a need in the church.

Nice to be home

GA in Birmingham was an incredible experience, although something akin to drinking from a fire hose. I have been posting the last several days on the GA blog, which, I will continue to post stuff there as I prepare to go to Montreat for "The Hope of the Church" but I will start posting here again as well.

I didn't realize how tired I was after GA until Saturday. This week is finishing up some financial aid stuff and then it is back to Oklahoma for a few weeks with Montreat in between. While I am in Oklahoma I will do a couple weeks of supply preaching. One of the lectionary texts is from 2 Samuel as Uzziah touches the ark and dies (although they leave that out). If I were in a gutsier mood I would attempt to tackle that text, but maybe not. I lean toward 2 Corinthians 12 and the thorn in Paul's side "my grace is sufficient for you" is the phrase that jumps off the page. We'll see where I am lead with this.

Peace.

HYMNS FOR EVERYBODY

HYMNS FOR EVERYBODY
Good evening, friends, and welcome to our hymn sing. We are pleased
to announce that we have a hymn for everyone. Our program this
evening will include:

The Dentist's Hymn - Crown Him with Many Crowns
The Weatherman's Hymn - There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
The Contractor's Hymn - The Church's One Foundation
The Tailor's Hymn - Holy, Holy, Holy
The Golfer's Hymn - There Is A Green Hill Far Away
The Politician's Hymn - Standing on the Promises
The Optometrist's Hymn - Open My Eyes That I Might See
The IRS Agent's Hymn - I Surrender All
The Gossip's Hymn - Pass It On
The Electrician's Hymn - Send The Light
The Shopper's Hymn - Sweet By and By
The Realtor's Hymn - I've Got a Mansion, Just Over the Hilltop
The Massage Therapist's Hymn - He Touched Me
The Doctor's Hymn - The Great Physician

And for you motorists at..

45 mph - God Will Take Care of You
55 mph - Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
65 mph - Nearer My God To Thee
75 mph - Nearer Still Nearer
85 mph - This World Is Not My Home
95 mph - Lord, I'm Coming Home
Over 100 mph - Precious Memories!!!!

Go See Cars!

A group of us went last night to see Pixar's Cars. Cute movie. Great soundtrack! We went to a theater that was showing it in DLP (digital projection) WOW!!! Big difference. I love that animated movies now are written for the adults as well. I think this graphically is the best of the Pixar movies and while it has a good story line, I still am a fan of the Incredibles.

New Blog just for the GA Experience

I just created a new blog that is devoted to my experience at GA and a conference 2 weeks later. This is the summer adventure. I will post as often as I can while at GA and Montreat. The new address is linked below.

Future Moderator

We'll just have to wait and see if this title is fitting or not. This adventure could either affirm a thought from SYS I almost 2 years ago or make me breath a sigh of relief. Only one week left.

A Trip Home

It was nice to be home and to see family and friends. I spent the first few days playing with my nephews Josh and Jayson. Then they left with their Mom and Dad and my other sister and dad for France for a week. Besides playing with the boys, I also had time to see folks from my church and who I used to teach with.


Aah Norman, Oklahoma. Home of the OU Sooners. This is the North end of the stadium. There are times that I forget how much I miss the sites of my home town. Especially during football season.


While I was home I also had the opportunity to participate in worship at my home church. Having been in several different churches, I really like my home church.

Although is was nice to be home, it was also nice to come back to Austin and see my frends here. Now begins the preparation for General Assembly in Birmingham. Right now my glorified thought is to post daily from GA. We'll just have to see if that actually happens.