Recommended Reads on Race, Bias, and White Privilege: A Continual Conversion

There are many great links to recommended reads as we continue to confront the horrific realities of racism that, as many have said, is this country’s original sin. In efforts for people of privilege to educate ourselves, we must remember the systems, structures, and powers of our day are not necessarily broken; rather, they are working precisely as designed in a nation with a history of enslavement, genocide, conquest of native peoples, and racism that targets people of color. Hauntingly, these are the primary backdrops of our social, economic, political, and even religious establishments and ideologies. The great evil is, despite endless pleas, protests, marches, movements, and orations by some of history's greatest activists and leaders, these very systems have not been deconstructed or reformed to eradicate systemic racism. Instead, they continue to be cowardly sustained and defended. 

To be clear, the road towards such understanding has been slow and difficult, at times painful and humiliating. I have had to confront my own racism, biases, and privileges for the last twenty years and more. Most of my pilgrimage of faith and discipleship formation has come by way of confession and unlearning much of what I considered true, good, right, and “normal.” For white people on this journey, there is no such thing as an arrival as “not racist;” there is only the continual conversion of the heart, mind, and lenses through which we view the world and our movement through it. I am beyond grateful for the patient saints and cloud of witnesses who have walked alongside me, extended grace to me, and continue to aid in my own journey to be the best kind of ally and co-conspirer for God’s justice and reconciliation. There is much work to do and the place we all need to start, especially for us white folk, is by taking a long look in the mirror. 

Or our book shelves. 

So here are some recommended reads and a few podcasts, too. I have not been to my office for some time, so going a bit off memory here. There are an infinite others, and would love recommendations. Talk to one another and do the honest work together. 

• White Privilege:Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michele Alexander
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Brené Brown with Ibram X. Kendi: How to Be an Antiracist (Unlocking Us Podcast) 
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Anything by Coates)
• Stop Asking People Of Color To Explain Racism–Pick Up One Of These Books Instead
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (The incredible film can be viewed for free here)
• Let’s Talk About Whiteness (On Being Podcast with Krista Tippet)
• Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele
• Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
• Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes by Mitri Raheb
• Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Talks about Racism  by Drew G.I. Hart
• Binding the Strong Man and Say to This Mountain by Ched Meyers (Commentaries on the Gospel of Mark)
• The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann 
• Many Colors: Cultural Intelligence for a Changing Church by Soong Chan Rah :) (I first read Next Evangelicalism, but have heard him speak live on this book and others)
• Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith by Mihee Kim-Kort
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
• Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
• Threatened by Resurrection and The Certainty of Spring by Julia Esquivel (poet, activist, and exiled Guatemalan)
• Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas
• Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. by Lenny Duncan
• But I Don’t See You as Asian: Curating Conversations about Race by Bruce Reyes-Chow 
• Anti-Racism with Andre Henry (Liturgists Podcast) 
• Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor

*Picture above is a collection of old books turned into the base of the bar at the Modern Times Lomaland Fermatorium. 

Threatened with Resurrection: Julia Esquivel’s Prophetic Poetry Much Needed for Today

Every now and then you stumble on something and someone you know others have read, but wonder what took you so long to encounter for the first time. Last night was one such night.

As I read Julia Esquivel’s poem, “They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection,” I could not help see her lyric as pertinent for our time and various places 36 years later. In light of the endless streams of stories of despair and senseless violence (as if there was any other kind) near and far, the Guatemalan poet and theologian offers us a reminder that the greatest threat to our despair and the powers that be is the hope of the resurrection and the inability for death to ever have the last word. This was something Esquivel knew first hand, as the activist, poet, and minister was on the frontline of justice movements in the midst of political unrest and genocide in her beloved Guatemala in the middle portion of the twentieth century. Esquivel would ultimately be forced to flee her country in 1980 and find exile in, among other places, Mexico, Nicaragua, and a monastic community in Switzerland. Read more about this radical and revolutionary saint here.  

Rather than butcher the beauty of the poetry through paraphrase and preface, read a portion of it below or the full text here. The poem comes from Julia Esquivel’s larger collection, Threatened with Resurrection; Prayers and Poems from an Exiled Guatemalan, Ann Woehrle, trans. (Elgin, Illinois: Brethren Press, 1994). As many preachers and teachers have already discovered, I am sure there will be need to revisit this piece come Easter. 

"They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection" (an excerpt)

It is something within us that doesn't let us sleep,

that doesn't let us rest,

that won't stop pounding

deep inside,

it is the silent, warm weeping

of Indian women without their husbands,

it is the sad gaze of the children

fixed somewhere beyond memory,

precious in our eyes

which during sleep,

though closed, keep watch,

systole,

diastole,

awake.

Now six have left us,

and nine in Rabinal,

and two, plus two, plus two,

and ten, a hundred, a thousand,

a whole army

witness to our pain,

our fear,

our courage,

our hope!

What keeps us from sleeping

is that they have threatened us with Resurrection!

Because every evening

though weary of killings,

an endless inventory since 1954,

yet we go on loving life

and do not accept their death!

They have threatened us with Resurrection

Because we have felt their inert bodies,

and their souls penetrated ours

doubly fortified,

because in this marathon of Hope,

there are always others to relieve us

who carry the strength

to reach the finish line

which lies beyond death.

They have threatened us with Resurrection

because they will not be able to take away from us

their bodies,

their souls,

their strength,

their spirit,

nor even their death

and least of all their life.

Because they live

today, tomorrow, and always

in the streets baptized with their blood,

in the air that absorbed their cry,

in the jungle that hid their shadows,

in the river that gathered up their laughter,

in the ocean that holds their secrets,

in the craters of the volcanoes,

Pyramids of the New Day,

which swallowed up their ashes.

They have threatened us with Resurrection

because they are more alive than ever before,

because they transform our agonies

and fertilize our struggle,

because they pick us up when we fall,

because they loom like giants

before the crazed gorillas' fear…

...Join us in this vigil

and you will know what it is to dream!

Then you will know how marvelous it is

to live threatened with Resurrection!

To dream awake,

to keep watch asleep,

to live while dying,

and to know ourselves already

resurrected!

The Absurdity of Forgiveness: Immaculèe Ilibagiza, Rwandan Genocide, and Not Knowing What I'm Doing

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)

I have heard these words more times than I can count. They especially pop up and echo from pulpits during the 40-day Lenten journey. Yet, as someone who has grown up and still lives a fairly privileged and protected life, one of Jesus' most subversive and seemingly offensive declarations has often been tangled up with how-to methods for handling petty arguments and conflicts.

The reality is, I have more friends than enemies. Even those I may consider "enemies" are merely those with whom I have had difficult disagreements and harmless feuds that have never once affected my health, safety, freedom. These enemies have never once threatened my family or personal property. Still I find forgiveness difficult and choose instead to harbor at least a little resentment. A personal grudge tends to be more my trend versus grace.

Which makes the grace of Jesus in his final hours seem potentially irresponsible and impossible. In the midst of such brutality, to extend generosity and compassion to his offenders wreaks of suspicion? Then we take a look at the brackets around these words in the Gospel of Luke and maybe find some comfort. Maybe Jesus never really said this? The footnotes expose some of the earliest manuscripts lacked this statement. Is it possible that these words were merely penned by a redactor trying to drive home a message about our need to forgive?

Some of us may like to think so. If Jesus actually said this I am in deep trouble because forgiveness is way too hard and inconvenient in this me-centered, self-preservation world.

We would much rather our Messiah, as he is nailed to the beams, to revamp the persona that cleared the temple, overturned tables, cracked a whip, and pronounced judgment against unjust and unethical abusers of the God's house of worship. We want a strong and powerful Jesus we can rally behind with pitch-forks and torches, bent on cleansing the world of all those who have done us harm.

Then we hear again, "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing."

No, Jesus, you don't know what you are saying.

It's as if Jesus was actually putting into to practice the prayer he taught his disciples to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." Aware that only through forgiveness could true transformation and healing take place. Jesus knew forgiveness was the way even in the midst, actually especially in the face of the most horrific demonstrations of injustice and suffering. If forgiveness was not able to be extended here, than forgiveness was merely another popularized religious sentiment versus transforming ethical power.

Last week, I was blessed to hear the first-hand story of Immaculèe Ilibagiza. She is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, whereby over one-million people were massacred in less than 100 days. While Immaculèe survived the brutal Hutu-lead attacks on her tribal people, the Tutsis, the rest of her family members were not so fortunate. Immaculèe was left alone and faced more questions and reasons to grieve or seek vengeance than any of us could possibly imagine.

Yet somehow, someway, she mustered the strength and courage to forgive.

Here is a snippet of her story (excuse the cheesy intro and awkward show host):

I remember my reaction to hearing Immaculee's story in the Asplundh Auditorium. I wanted, like others in the room, to well up with tears. Instead, I sat in awe and shock. When Immaculèe began her talk with "three things I learned," the first being the power of forgiveness,* I started to question how this could be possible. I cannot easily forgive my intellectual opponents or the occasional family member who drops an offensive line here and there, and this woman has extended forgiveness to those who killed her mother, father, siblings, grandparents, and burned to the ground all she knew to be home.

Did Immaculèe know what she was really doing?

What about justice? What about settling the score? What about making things right?

Then she reminded all of us: to fail to forgive is to become just like your oppressors. To choose hatred and anger as your life-long posture is to give your enemies victory over your spirit. Animosity, retaliation, and harboring bitterness never makes anything right or whole again.

This was a hard epiphany and realization for Immaculèe, as many days she would skip the lines about forgiveness in her hourly recitation of the Lord's prayer.

Then Immaculèe was awakened, "they do not know what they are doing." Her enemies fail to understand. They fail to comprehend and if she refused to show compassion, grace, or offer forgiveness many consider irresponsible and absurd, nothing would ever change.

So Immaculèe ventured to the prison of the one who murdered her mother and brother and offered forgiveness. She chose to send away her hostile resentment. It was not easy. It was not refined, polished, or sentimental. Immaculèe's grace was not offered without personal resistance. Forgiveness did not erase the pain, the lament, the tragedy, or even excuse the wrong-doing. Forgiveness certainly did not mean forgetting.

Forgiveness meant following Jesus and choosing not to return evil with more evil and violence with more violence. Immaculèe refused to allow resentment to define her very existence.

Forgiveness ultimately allowed Immaculèe to seek justice out of love versus hate, evident now through her various non-for-profit work and advocacy for orphaned children in Rwanda.

I left the gathering at West Chester University with a heavy heart.

How many times have I harbored bitterness for extended periods of time?

How often have I responded to conflict with deep-seeded anger and hostility?

How often does the church fail to forgive one another we call brothers and sisters in the faith, frequently over petty differences of opinion, interpretations of the Bible, or church praxis and policy?

How common is it for us to justify violence, aggression, and war with personal, political, and national enemies?

No wonder not much has changed over the course of human history.

Forgiveness does not make sense.

Forgiveness may seem somewhat absurd, even naïve.

But forgiveness is the only way towards real change and liberation.

Forgiveness is the unconventional way of Jesus. The way Jesus pursued even unto his final breath.

Jesus knew what he was doing. Immaculèe knew what she was doing.

Do we?

That's something to ponder this Lent.

Notes:

* Imaculèe's two other points: find meaning in everything and the power of neighborly love.

**See a sermon on forgiveness as jubilee and reflections on this difficult line in the Lord's Prayer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wz6i5ru1ikhntuf/Forgive%20Us%20Our%20Debts.pdf

Are You Willing? Youth Encounters with a Leper and Ordinary Opportunities to Love Your Neighbor

I am not willing to share a beverage with someone other than my wife and kids. This may have started as a kid and the visions of shards of whatever falling from my father's mustache into the preferred liquid to be consumed. Some call me a spit-phob as a result.

I am not willing to eat pickles. Actually, I take offense to the consumptive assumption that Americans prefer pickles on their chicken sandwich or burgers. Restaurants nationwide refuse to consider what the vinegar residue, i.e. pickle pee, does to the roll, waffle fries, and whatever else is on the purchased platter. Hint: ruined forever.

I am not willing to jeopardize the health and safety of my wife and kids.

I am not willing to text and drive.

I am certainly not willing to root for the New York Yankees regardless of who they play or if they are on my fantasy team.

And when I was in Honduras this past summer, when I looked over my shoulder and saw a teenage leper propped up against the wall of the cathedral as our youth were in conversation with some folks from the Micah Project, I was not the first to be willing to offer food and drink.

The high school youth were more willing than I. Actually, they were willing because one of the homeless youth, despite his lingering high from yellow glue, was more than willing to offer compassion and empathy.

I will never read Luke 5:12-16 the same again.

Never.

The story goes like this. A leper, accustomed to exclusion and isolation from people, community, religious hubs, and sacred practices, gets word about this Jesus whose message hinges on the marginalized and social outcastes. This religious teacher many called Messiah, went from town to town, village to village, and city to city breaking every social norm and religious taboo.

Would he be willing to outstretch his hand towards even a leper who had not known human contact and connection since his diagnosis?

Would the love of God, the kingdom of God, the dreams of God's healing from disease, oppression, exclusion, and constant rejection be extended to him?

"Jesus, if you are willing..."

"I am willing..."

Are we willing?

A large part of what it means to be called a disciple of Jesus is rooted in willingness. Willingness to follow. Willingness to try the impossible. Willingness to use your gifts, talents, resources, passions, and time for a greater cause than yourself. Willingness to fail. Willingness to love those the world has rejected. Willingness to have your eyes and ears opened to others the world has closed itself off to? Willingness to surrender all that you are to the dreams of God that are not only for you, but also and especially for the whole world.

Willingness to embrace the leper in your midst, and those just like him, whom Jesus considered on the A-list of his divine banquet.

But not all of us will have the chance to meet a leper like the one in Luke's narrative or our friend in the Honduras cathedral. This can easily become another means to dismiss these stories as though though they have nothing to say to us. But we encounter lepers every day.

Each day youth who walk into a school, which is more a less a village of teenagers, they encounter large numbers of their peers. And not everybody fits in; not everybody is welcome; not everybody feels as though they belong or they are valued by another.

There are lepers who sit in isolation from those who do belong, at those folding tables in the cafeteria. They may walk the hallways with head down, doubtful anyone is aware of their existence until they are bumped into by someone headed the opposite direction.

There are those who live across the street from all of us or a few houses down who do not fit the accepted image of cleanliness, lack the ideal body type, practice a stereotyped religious tradition, or have a history of struggles with mental health.

There are those who sit beside us on the train as we commute from the 'burbs to the city, others with whom we share an office or cubicle, and those we pass by on the streets as we walk from the train to that very office complex.

Are we willing to stretch out our hands of compassion in a way reflective of Jesus the Willing One?

We don't have to strive to be heroes. We just have to be willing.

"God's love for you and God's love for the larger world in need cannot be separated. God's longing to see you liberated for life tgar really is life can't be neatly pulled apart from God's longing to see the poor liberated for life that really is life. The two are inextricable. God's concern for the stuff of our lives, and God's concern for the lives of those who live on the margins, can never be neatly parsed...Can you see what great news it is that this serendipitous double liberation isn't something extra we do? We don't have to add lots more overwhelming activity to what we've already got going. Rasther, the regular stuff of our lives- the commute to work and the potlucks and home improvement projects and errans and play dates- are the exact places in which we express and experience God's love for a world in need."

---Margot Starbuck, Small Thing with Great Love: Adventures in Loving Your Neighbor

Are you willing...

...to love your competitor on the local sports field?

...to serve a meal to the new parents down the street?

...to sit at that lunch table with those kids who eat alone?

...to engage in a friendly conversation with the person one seat over on the train?

....to invite the parent of the kids your kids are friends with to church on Sunday, or Wednesday, or any day?

...are you willing to go to Honduras, or Philly, or the borough down the road and learn about those who call the streets home and how you can be a part of their liberation?

Are we willing to see every day as an ordinary opportunity to outstretch our hands towards others and love our neighbor as ourself?

To follow Jesus is to be willing.

But this doesn't mean we have to eat pickles.

Thanks be to God.

 

Summer Reading 2013: How Much Will My Toddlers Actually Allow Me to Read?

Ambitious, I know! Having a summer reading list when trying to raise toddler twins is like attempting to walk over a cable stretched across the Grand Canyon. Only difference being while I try to cross, two sets of tiny hands shake the cable from both sides of the ravine. I may even have to hop over a stray lego or baby doll and thus surpass Nik Wallenda's level of difficulty.

Despite the boldness or unattainable nature, here is what I am reading (or attempting to read) this summer. Feel free to also check me out on Good Reads.

Love Does by Bob Goff

Honest Toddler by Bunmi Laditan

Pursuing Justice by Ken Wytsma

The Faith of Leap by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

Let Justice Roll by John Perkins

The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activist and Bishops Who Tweet by Brandon Vogt

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

The Theological Journey through Youth Ministry Series by Andrew Root

The Relational Pastor by Andrew Root

The Best Bible Study You've N/ever Had (What Does the Bible Actually Say?) by Brad Wortz

 

What's a Good Devotional? Contemplative Resources for Youth Spiritual Formation

I am frequently asked by youth and parents, "what's a good devotional?" They are eager to engage in some sort of sacred rhythm of prayer, meditation, and readings of Scripture and so consult the person whose paid to collect and occasionally write resources for discipleship. What they don't often realize, or maybe they do, is that asking this question will often lead to an invitation to check out my personal library. I love to have these conversations and provide guides for personal formation and contemplation.

I have even created a few of my own.

Imago Dei Youth Ministry annually gifts to confirmation youth and graduating seniors some sort of resource to aid them in their spiritual formation and pilgrimage of faith. I am pretty picky and border-line snooty about the resources I hand out. There are a lot of really bad devotionals out there.

There are also a lot of really good ones.

Here are a few things I consider before giving or personally using a "devotional" or some sort of daily guide for spiritual formation. There are also links to several of my favorites that I regularly consult or have recommended to youth and adults alike.

What Makes a Good Devotional?

1. Inward-Outward Journey: The trend in pop-Christianity is to look for a devotional that is all about "Jesus and me" or personal life application. While it is pivotal to have the personal relationship with Christ and to grow as an individual disciple, a good devotional propels the individual to engage the communal. We are formed inwardly to love outwardly, embodying in the real world the ethos of the particular prayer, scripture, meditation, etc. A great devotional speaks into our lives so that our lives speak into the world.

2. Move Beyond the Intellect: Often devotionals become brief studies of passages, words, theological concepts, or historical contexts. While there may be a place for this in a devotional, it's place is rather small. Personal devotion is not for the purpose of intellectual ascent. Instead, we engage in the daily ritual of devotion to rest in the presence of God, contemplate the person and work of Jesus, listen for the whisper of the Spirit, and allow Scripture to read us as we are then sent from the text read or prayer prayed. In fact, the best devotionals frequently have no commentary whatsoever.

3. Consider Ancient Disciplines: We are a people used to independence and self-direction. Yet, the practices of early and ancient Christians, especially those who lived/live in monastic communities, can be significant spiritual directors in personal formation. They are tools for ordinary saints interested in being set free of distraction and centered on the divine presence and call. Centering Prayer. Lectio Divina. Examine. Imaginative Prayer. These are just a few that I use in my personal formation and youth ministry retreats.

4. Freedom and Flexibility: Personal devotion should not leave you feeling guilty or behind if you miss a day or two...or seven. While it is important to maintain a daily rhythm, spiritual formation should lead neither to a guilt complex or make-up work. If you neglect the day's discipline, you should feel free to simply pick up fresh the next time you do engage the particular resource or practice. Anything else can lead to burdensome idolatry. Remember, Jesus said, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

5. Can Be Used Privately and Corporately: Recently one of our pastors gave the staff a daily devotional that many of us have been using quite regularly. What has been beautiful is you will occasionally hear colleagues pass each other in the hall and chat about what they prayed for that day in light of morning mediation. "Did you pray for Antarctica?" "I didn't like that Psalm." "That Scripture sentence really spoke to me this morning." It's also great when a particular devotional can be engaged at the same time and in the same place, moving through the contemplative disciplines together.

I have found that there is not one single devotional that works for everyone. It's also true that devotionals have lifespans; they tend to be seasonal. I often use one for a while, tire of it, then try something new, only to possibly return to an old favorite down the road. Nonetheless, I am quite convinced that some sort of resource is helpful.

Otherwise, you probably never will practice the presence, only get lost in your own thoughts.

And for me, that's an all too frequent practice.

Suggested Resources (send other favorites my way)

Seeking God's Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year (my personal favorite; gave out this year)

The Life with God Bible by Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Walter Brueggemann, and Eugene Peterson

Devotional Classics by Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Christians at the Cross by N.T. Wright (for Lent)

Eighth Day of Creation by Elizabeth O'Connor

Enjoy the Silence by Maggie and Duffy Robins

The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle

Call on Me: A Prayer Book for Young People by Jenifer Gamber and Sharon Ely Pearson

Rob Bell Has Come Out...with a new book. O yea, and as affirming of gay marriage, too.

Rob Bell has come out...

...with a new book.

What We Talk About When We Talk About God is more or less a culmination of Rob Bell's progressive and evolving theological convictions that eventually led to his departure from Mars Hill Bible Church. While the Evangelical world tends to stop and quiver anytime Bell speaks, or writes, or releases yet another vignette with dramatic pauses and obscure metaphors (like Oldsmobiles), I found his latest publication everything but controversial, ground-breaking, or worth Tweeting statements like "Farewell, Rob Bell" or "R.I.P. Rob Bell."

Instead, per the usual, I consider his work a welcome resource within my library of What I Try to Talk About When I Try to Talk About God with those who may not be interested in pouring their life into dense theology, philosophy and cultural exegesis.

That is, I liked it. Not as much as some of his others, but I liked it. I will recommend it, with fair warning- he talks a lot about quantum physics. But hang in there.

Bell has a knack for communicating complexity with clarity, for which I am envious and grateful. The pastor/film maker/writer/innovator/preacher/practitioner cleverly draws readers into the good news of God's love, which wins every single time.

However, what many readers often miss is that Rob is not saying anything new. Instead, books like Love Wins and What We Talk About... are rephrasings and anthologies of Christian theology that have been reduced to the margins by Evangelicals, yet embraced by mainliners and progressives for centuries. Just read his endnotes :) And if you are looking for more well-versed theology, read the primary sources instead.

Origen.

Paul Tillich.

Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Richard Rohr.

And my favorite, Karl Barth.

That's right, while some claim that Rob Bell is spitting out reverberations of Process Theology, which he certainly may, I find his work also reflective of the greatest theologian of the twentieth century- Karl Barth.

The thrust of his book hinges on God being forever for us in the person of Jesus. Better said, Jesus is God's universal YES to humanity and NO to anything that distorts God's intentions for all that God made as good and beautiful. See Barth.

Bell also reiterates much of his rhetoric from his speaking tour, The God's Aren't Angry, by underscoring God as "pulling us forward." That is, God continually propels us into God's new creation work and reconciliation of all things. God is not situated in the past. God is on the move and in the process of changing the world; a process that culminated in the resurrection of Christ. Barth says it this way:

“As such and with independent truth and power calling is man’s forward direction to God as his future, his new creation as a being which not only derives from the sentence of God in faith and is placed under his present direction in love but beyond that receives and embraces His promise in hope, looking forward therefore and moving forward to Him” (Church Dogmatics, IV. 4 p. 109).

Yet the most telling affirmation of Bell and Barth as (should be) "dance partners," to borrow yet another of his favorite images, is his insistence that God cannot be fully possessed or contained. The moment we think we have fully understood or possessed God, we have actually missed God altogether. We will have turned God into another idol, maybe the worst kind- absolute theological and dogmatic certainty.

Ah, Barth would be proud, "Theology must describe the dynamic interrelationships which make this procession comparable to a bird in flight, in contrast to a caged bird" (Evangelical Theology 10).

God is free and uncontainable, neither by Barth nor Bell. Not by this blogger or any Evangelical critic.

Still more, while Rob Bell may be trying to give a nod to his good friend, Peter Rollins by citing him:

"When it comes to talking about God, that which we cannot speak of is the one thing about whom and to whom we must never stop talking" (96).

Again, that's Barth, not Rollins or Bell:

"As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give glory to God” (The Word of God and the Word of Man, 186).

I say all this not because I am disappointed, rather thankful. I am not frustrated, simply bewildered. What others talk about when they talk about the rejection of Bell and his theology is actually nothing new. I also don't think it's honest.

What others are really talking about is the rejection of what has already been said before.

I also think what many are talking about is envy and fear. Critics are envious of his ability to speak with authenticity and clarity what many of us, maybe most of us, are actually thinking. They envy his ability to communicate the gospel in a way that actually draws cynics and skeptics into the community of faith others have been trying to preserve and defend for so long. Many envy his creativity and reputation with artists, poets, film makers, the Dalai Lama, and Desmund Tutu, who are working for the transformation of creation. Many may envy that God is actually at work in the other, the different, the liberal, and those who do not fit within labeled theological boxes.

Many may also fear he may actually be on to something that challenges how we go about our work, our witness, and our approach to Christian theology and mission.

O yea, and Rob Bell also came out...

..as affirming of gay marriage. (listen to the excellent interview here)

Many fear that, too.

But I am grateful, because what he talks about when he talks about God is extremely helpful for furthering the conversation about faith, gospel, and life lived as a disciple of Jesus within an ever-changing world that still longs for good news.

That's what I want to talk about. What about you?

"The beautiful thing would be if evangelical came to mean buoyant, joyful, honest announcement about all of us receiving the grace of God and then together giving back to make the world the kind of place God always dreamed it could be."

---Rob Bell

Related Posts:

An Invitation to Rob Bell by Greg Carey (Huffington Post)

Rob Bell Comes Out for Marriage Equality by Greg Carey (Huffington Post)

Why Rob Bell Still Matters to Me by Tim Ghali

Why Rob Bell Still Matters by Tony Jones

Karl Barth and the Doctrine of the Word of God: The Beginning and End of Missional Proclamation

When Helping Hurts: Must Read for All Interested and Engaged in Short-Term Youth and Adult Mission

"What are we doing this year?" asked several of my youth who continued to wrestle with whether they wanted to participate in year three of our youth-to-youth missional partnership in Honduras.

"I understand partnership. I agree with our definition of partnership. But when are we going to do something?"

In 2010, the Imago Dei Youth ministry embarked on a new adventure and claimed a new paradigm for youth summer and short-term mission: partnership. Instead of purchasing a packaged program that "makes mission easy," often at the expense of the poor, we were called into a more long-term partnership with youth in a developing nation contexts. We were invited by the Presbytery of Honduras and PCUSA World Mission to chart new ground and a more holistic and healthy approach to cross-cultural engagement.

We no longer wanted to assume that we could "bring Jesus" somewhere Jesus was already hard at work. We no longer wanted to assume that we had all the answers that simply needed to be implemented among the poor. We no longer wanted to worship our North American idols of projects and instead chose to enter into meaningful relationships with people who are gifted and called just as much as we are.

We no longer wanted to assume we were helping the poor through week-long service blitzes when in fact we may be hurting them and their human dignity.

In preparation for our initial partnership, and regularly consulted since, our leadership team read, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. They write:

"One of the biggest problems in many poverty alleviation efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich- their god-complexes- and the poverty of being of the economically poor- their feelings of inferiority and shame. The way that we act toward the economically poor often communicates- albeit unintentionally- that we are superior and they are inferior. In the process we hurt the poor and ourselves" (65).

This is particularly the case in naive, yet popular, approaches of suburban youth ministries. We often serve not because we are interested in long-term development and holistic transformation of whole people. Instead, we serve because we have an inner-longing to feel needed, wanted, and as though we have "made a difference." We chase after the rush that comes with quick charity and at the same time does not demand much sacrifice and surrender on our part. We are obsessed with the idea of justice and the possibility of change, but not always willing to endure what is really required for sustainable growth and transformation.

We teach our youth and church members that following and serving Jesus is really about us. We proclaim that discipleship and the way of the kingdom is easy.

"‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it'" (Matthew 7:13).

What Corbett and Fikkert remind us is that the desire to help and serve is not enough. We must be willing to contemplate how we can break open our limited understandings of the gospel and revolutionize the task and call of the church and youth ministry service projects and mission trips. We must shed our god-complexes, reject paternalistic tendencies, and explore how to empower those in developing contexts through new paradigms of partnership:

"Development is not done to people or for people but with people. The key dynamic in development is promoting an empowering process in which all people involved- both the 'helpers' and the 'helped'- become more of what God created them to be" (105).
"We assume that we have all the best ideas about how to do things...the truth is that we often do have knowledge that can help the materially poor. But we must recognize that the materially poor also have unique insights into their own cultural contexts and are facing circumstances that we do not understand very well" (116).

This sort of shift in youth ministry service and summer mission is not necessarily popular and may not draw the masses. Youth-to-youth partnerships run the risk of generating more questions from parents and church leaders who are motivated by results. It's hard to measure human dignity, which is often sacrificed for the sake of stories and photos shared with mission and outreach committees.

"While poor people mention having a lack of material things, they tend to describe their condition in far more psychological and social terms than our North American audiences. Poor people typically talk in terms of shame, inferiority, powerlessness, humiliation, fear, hopelessness, depression, social isolation, and voicelessness." (53)

I am grateful for Corbett and Fikkert's contribution to the missional and community development conversation. I am particularly enamored with their ability to make their wisdom and insights accessible to a broad audience, to include youth and their parents. However, there is a danger. Once you open this book and read it together in the context of a community, there is no going back. You will once and for all crucify old and destructive paradigms of youth mission and service.

You will also resurrect new opportunities to serve alongside neighbors in the developing world with much more lasting and holistic results.

You will live into the kingdom of God together...and for much longer than a week over the summer.

"What are we doing this year?" asked my youth.

I am grateful they have submitted their deposits, some not even from their parents' bank accounts, so they can continue to find out.

Other Beneficial Excerpts:

"North American Christians are simply not doing enough. We are the richest people ever to walk the face of the earth. Period. Yet, most of us live as though there is nothing terribly wrong in the world" (28).

"Rather than fleeing these urban cesspools, the early church found its niche there...the Christian concept of self-sacrificial love of others, emanating from God's love for them, was a revolutionary concept to the pagan mind, which viewed the extension of mercy as an emotional act to be avoided by rationale people" (44).

"The problem goes well beyond the material dimension, so the solutions must go beyond the material as well." (54)

"Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings" (62)

Another great read, with a pending review and blogpost:

Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It) by Robert D. Lupton

Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen (A Brief Review)

Poverty is complex. While many attempt to minimize factors and reduce root causes to the work ethics and morals of the poor, the pervasiveness of poverty in the United States is a multi-layered and systematic dilemma that transcends such naïveté. In David Hilfker's, Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen, [1] the misnomers and false assumptions are exposed and a thorough exposition is presented in efforts to educate readers and call all citizens to action. In essence, poverty alleviation is illustrated as a communal pursuit that requires informed citizens, elimination of stereotypes, and desegregation of neighborhoods in our nation, particularly our cities.

One of the primary failures of our population is to assume that poverty is an individual problem. In other words, when we promote the mentality that poverty is an experience solely caused by poor decisions, bad habits, and the lack of motivation to work by individuals, we ignore social and systematic factors that also contribute to and sustain economic insecurity. Hilfiker writes, "It is not surprising, of course, that a nation so strongly committed to individualism should so often search for the roots of poverty within the poor persons themselves" (xi). We must be lower pointed fingers at those who, although not completely void of personal responsibility, are caught in a broken social system of which each of us contributes.

When we consider poverty in the United States, we are reminded there is not one single root cause or generalized population at risk. That said, in efforts to combat poverty, Hilfiker is diligent to educate the reader so to become a more informed and responsible advocate and activist. Hilfiker reaches back into presidential administrations, especially those of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, and underscores the positive and negative social reform policies of the past that have contributed to urban poverty in the present (71-75). A primary intention is to expose myths about welfare, medicare, and medicaid, especially those that have been promoted throughout recent history concerning "welfare queens" and "free money" (87).

Urban Injustice also highlights the vast array of real contributing factors to poverty that are often overlooked. The lack of quality education, high costs of childcare, insufficient access to reasonable and affordable healthcare, declining environmental conditions that lead to poor health, increase in populations of people who are 'food insecure,' and families of those who are incarcerated, etc. remind the reader that poverty is multi-layered (32-34).

While poverty is not limited to a particular gender, ethnicity, generation, or geographic location, Hilfiker is quick to highlight that there are those who are at greater risk to no fault of their own. In other words, those who are born into contexts of poverty are more likely to become poor themselves versus those who grow up in contexts of affluence and luxury. Hilfiker reminds the reader that "poverty tends to be self-reinforcing" and a cycle difficult to escape or end altogether (26). It is also true that the gender inequality in our job market, whereby men are frequently paid more for the same position than women, leads to the "feminization of poverty" and women becoming at greater risk for economic insecurity (47). The same holds true for those who commit nonviolent financial crimes, e.g. shoplifting, in urban ghettos versus those who commit financial crimes as affluent executives, e.g. fudging expense accounts (36). This is not to suggest a need to be more lax towards one offender over the other; rather, we are reminded that an inconsistent and unbalanced judicial system may result in minimal financial consequences for one individual and the beginnings of generational poverty for another.

When contemplating the factors of poverty and effective strategies for alleviation, Hilfiker is adamant about the need to eliminate stereotypes and pervasive racism directed towards the poor and those who live in urban ghettos. He writes:

"In attacking poverty we certainly must confront the realities of 'ghetto-related behavior,' but we must not become confused about root causes. Mere survival within the 'surround' indicates enormous strength and resilience. Observe carefully in any inner-city neighborhood, and you will see many strong, resourceful, independent people who are not only keeping their heads above water but doing their best to strengthen the community as well. the problem is that these people are swimming against an overwhelming current of forces that constantly threatens to overpower even the strongest" (61).

There is a sure level of personal accountability that must be maintained within contexts of poverty, but reformations of social systems and the eradication of stereotypes are also crucial to poverty alleviation. When the poor are labeled as unequivocally undeserving and lazy, we marginalize those who are willing and able to be lifted out of the depths of poverty when aided and supported by social programs (71). Furthermore, it is imperative to develop social strategies that utilize the often-overlooked giftedness and resolve of the urban poor as a means towards long-term personal and neighborhood transformation.

A final layer within Urban Injustice regards Hilfiker's call for the on-going desegregation of communities, both racially and economically. Hifiker suggests, "there are ways of revitalizing neighborhoods without removing the poor" (117). Drawing on the work of Robert D. Lupton, he suggests intentional 'reneighboring,' whereby individuals work across racial, ethnic, and economic lines and move into, versus out of, communities susceptible to poverty for the sake of collaboration and revitalization. However, this approach must only be pursued as partnership alongside the local poor and as a means to share resources and insights versus manifest oppressive coercion and imposition. In church speak, this is the very nature and theological thrust of the incarnation, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood" (John 1:14, The Message).

Poverty is complex. Poverty alleviation is even more complex. David Hilfiker's, Urban Injustice, is a vital resource for anyone who seeks to walk alongside the poor in efforts to revitalize communities and alleviate economic injustice in urban contexts. However, Hilfiker's work is not only a resource for those who work in U.S. cities. Instead, Urban Injustice is also a vital resource for all those who long to understand the root causes of poverty, work against a continually segregated society, and expose the myths and stereotypes about poverty that inhibit the progress and transformation of individuals and communities caught within oppressive cycles of scarcity.

"Even if we lift people out of poverty, of course, much of the damage that has already been done by generations of impoverishment and oppression remains and there will be much left to do"

David Hilfiker, Urban Injustice, p.127

[1] I first stumbled upon this book when immersed within the ministry of Church of the Saviour and The Potter's House community in Washington, D.C. Here is the bio from Seven Stories Press website:

"Physician and writer DAVID HILFIKER, M.D. has committed his life to social justice in the practice of his two professions. In 1983, after seven years as a rural physician in north-eastern Minnesota, he moved to Washington, D.C., to practice medicine in the center of the city at Christ House, a medical recovery shelter for homeless men, where he and his family also lived. In 1990, he cofounded Joseph’s House, a community and hospice for formerly homeless men dying with AIDS. He lived there for three years, and continues to work there today."

Pilgrimage to Daylesford Abbey: On Retreat with Barth, Ignatius, and Lochman

A view of the Abbey from the fields

It was not until I was a freshman in college that I started to appreciate the church fathers, mothers, mystics, and contemplatives who saturated the first fifteen-hundred years of the Christian tradition. My Christian experience, up until a pivotal course on "The Foundations of Christian Spirituality," assumed (falsely) all that was good, right, and true for Christian theology and praxis really began in 1517. [1] Despite my maternal family's rich Catholic heritage, I was a Protestant.

However, my studies and meditations, both in college and seminary, led me to reclaim the first fifteen-hundred years of Christian spirituality as critical witnesses within my own faith heritage and tradition. I began to covet spiritual conversations with my grandparents, whom knew more than I ever realized about the saints, patristics, and mystics, and I soon read selections from the likes of Ignatius of Loyola, Thomas Aquinas, St. John of the Cross, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, and Teresa of Avila. [2]

I was captivated.

This past week, my appreciation and gratitude for these witnesses took on a whole knew level. I spent two days on personal retreat at the Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA, "a community of priests, brothers, and lay associates of the Norbertine order." [3] The disciplines of solitude, meditation, contemplation, and personal retreat, which lay at the heart of the Norbertine order and communal life, are often the first casualties to the hurried rhythm of Protestant pastors and ministry directors. We become so inundated with ecclesial responsibilities, intellectual ascent, and homiletical preparation that we confuse doing the work of Christ with the person of Christ. [4]

This is, at least, true for me. After nearly a decade of church work, study, and ministry, this past Thursday and Friday was the first time I EVER spent extended time away...alone...for prayer and contemplation. The chapels and fields of Daylesford Abbey provided fertile grounds for sacred pilgrimage through the invocation, petitions, and doxology of the Lord's Prayer. Guided by adaptations of Ignatius of Loyola's, Spiritual Exercises, Karl Barth's, The Christian LIfe, and Jan Milič Lochman's, The Lord's Prayer, I was blessed with the opportunity to rest in, wrestle with, and give thanks for the very real presence of God as Father, whose Spirit invites us all to live into the Kingdom of the Son personally and vocationally.

Below are a few excerpts from my readings, alongside photos that do no justice to the beauty of the Abbey. My hope and prayer is for all Christians, myself included, to make regular space for pilgrimages to places like Daylesford. These spiritual excursions take us on intense inward journeys that enable us to be sent outward to be the people of God in and for the world. They remind us that while God's love and grace are certainly universal, they are also deeply personal.

This is a truth that I am tempted to forget. Thanks be to God, who through the space, landscape, brothers, and fellow pilgrims who ventured to Daylesford Abbey, I was reminded once again.