Facebook Church

I've been thinking lately about social networking website in terms of ministry, primarily my thoughts are social networking as a primary means of ministry. A few conversations in the last few weeks have prompted some of my thoughts.

First, talking to Todd Craig about college students away, he mentioned how some freshman have a hard time forming new relationships particularly in their second semester of school because their first semester they simply maintained previous relationships through Facebook. I didn't have that temptation, but I did notice that in my freshman year there were some who tended to struggle with isolation and lonliness and if a social networking site was available that would easily have replaced relationships within the new context.

Second, I met with a church member about using social networking to engage people outside of the Tulsa area. LifeChurch, for instance, uses Second Life. This person was pushing me to think of our new ministry, the Venue68, in broader terms of the Tulsa area.

Third, at Annual Conference a teen stood up during our Strategic Plan presentation to share about evangelism. She shared the importance of using Facebook in terms of evangelism, instead of home visitation, which is what most people were used to.

So, here's my confusing. On one hand, I am fully behind using Facebook/MySpace in terms of ministry because it is a way to speak the gospel in the common "vernacular." Missionary efforts always need to take into account speaking according to the local languages. When Europe was being evangelized a common debate between the East and West, among other things, was translating the Mass into the common vernacular for the new converts. The West held, until Vatican II, that Latin was the appropiate language, and that converts would need to learn Latin. Subsequently, people who could not read Latin had no access to the Bible. The Reformers rebelled against this idea, and many people were martyred because they sought to speak the gospel according to the common vernacular. So, as we move into a new era in the world, are we speaking in the common vernacular or forcing people to communicate in antiquated means?

On the other hand, the gospel is incarnational. God did not virtually become flesh. "The Word became flesh and dwelled among us." Furthermore, we remember the gospel through tangible means- we eat the bread and drink the wine, and are covered in actual water. In addition, Christian community, while universal, actually works on a local level with real people living in real ways, with real problems. Can you have Christian community via a social network?

Annual Conference

I've been in Annual Conference all this week. This has been referred to by Todd Craig as watching C-SPAN, which is about right. Annual Conference is the annual meeting of the United Methodist pastors and lay leaders in the Oklahoma Conference. It is considered the business meeting of the UM connection, but there is little business to be done, it is rather all reports on the status of various ministries in OK. I've sat through many, many 5-25 minute reports on the status of various things such as campus ministries, camping ministries, United Methodist Women/Men/Youth, committees on race and reconciliation, the Black church, the Hispanic church, the rural church...

Wesley called annual conference a means of grace, that is a way we encounter God's grace in our lives. He called this experience "holy conferencing." I can't imagine that our current practice is similar to Wesley's holy conferencing experiences. I don't feel refreshed by the annual conference experience, instead I tend to be put in a foul mood. Yet, there are many pastors and lay leaders who tend to love this experience.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull

I just got back from the latest Indiana Jones movie. This is the first movie I had seen in an opening weekend in a long time. I was so excited I even bought popcorn and a coke, two things I never do! The Indiana Jones trilogy has been one of my favorite movies of all time. I love the adventure, the humor, and the characters in all of the Indiana Jones (even the Temple of Doom). However, I walked out of this movie saying to Abby, "my childhood has been ruined!"

This movie had elements of the old movies, but none of the fun. I did laugh out loud a few times, and I did enjoy seeing the car chases- classic Indie movies, but the rest of the movie was a waste of time. Aliens!! Come on!

The woman was the same character from the Last Crusade. Harrison Ford struggled delivering lines, and he walked and looked like an old man. And in the end, Indiana gets married?!? I guess Indiana Jones is all grown up now, he is now Henry Jones and not Indiana Jones.

On top of it all, this movie was outrageous in the stunts- even for an Indiana Jones. Falling off the three waterfalls, running the duck off the cliff hitting the tree and then going into the river, barely escaping the ants... Come on! The old movies didn't go that far! On top of it, it was more believable because Harrison wasn't so stinkin' old.

Honesty

This week's sermon is on honesty. Looking at the story of Joash, the child king of Judah, who was a good king because he was raised by the priest Jehoiada. Tom made the sermon about honesty, and I had a hard time seeing honesty in the text. Instead, I saw mentoring.

So, I was thinking about honesty in the Bible. On one hand, I can take honesty to be a moralistic message on truth telling. Indeed, truth telling is important, but the truth is everyone lies at some point. If my wife looks bad, I tell her she looks good. If someone preaches a bad sermon, I tell them it was good. It is just natural to tell these little white lies. Is that sinful? Or is brutal honesty sinful? How do you speak the truth in love, as the Bible would say?

Then if I explore the Scripture about honesty I see some different ideas. In the prayer journal, there were two troubling stories. One was from the story of Joseph in Gen 42. This is the story of his reunion with his brothers. In this story, he frames Benjamin as lies about his identity. What do I learn about honesty from him here?

Then there is the very troubling passage from Luke 16. This is the parable of the shrewd manager who lies about how much people owe him, and Jesus commends him because Christians should be shrewd. Does this mean Christians should be dis-honest?

Then there is the prophetic and wisdom literature ideas on honesty, which is having balanced scales and treating people fairly.

I think the prophetic and wisdom lit. seems to hit the idea in the center. Honesty is essentially connected to living honesty. Does our confession, Jesus is Lord match our lives? Are we honest with this confession? Or rather is our life honest?

Yet another side of this is the the idea of truth vs. lie. Jesus is said to be the one who is truth in John 14:6 and furthermore truth is said to set us free once we know it. I think this happens on two levels. First, on a real practical level, living in ignorance is never free. Instead to live in ignorance is to enslave you to whatever idea it is. Maybe you don't know abestos is destructive, just because you don't know that doesn't make it not true. The same is true for our salvation. Just because you don't know the truth of Christ, doesn't make it not true. Just because you don't believe in God, doesn't mean God doesn't exist. So, when we come to the truth and put our trust in the One who is True, then we are set free from the deceptions that enslave us. Or rather, we are set free from the deceiver who enslaves us. We don't have to buy into the lie that our purpose is to serve ourselves and that happiness is the ultimate end in life. Rather, the truth sets us free to live in a new life free of the deception that lead us away from ultimate truth and ultimate meaning.

Moving Day?

Moving day was supposed to be on Tuesday, but nothing new has been done to the building. Hope to get in my by late next week.

Day With the Bishop

I spent most of yesterday with a group of new clergy and the Bishop of the Oklahoma Annual Conference, Bob Hayes. I can't say that I enjoyed myself. The thing about this meeting is that I continually struggle with the connectionalism of the United Methodist Church. I'm sure the Bishop and the cabinent saw this as a profitable time, but its not like I am building meaningful relationship. And on top if of all that, I see church ministry very differently than a lot of these people who are maintaining the organization. How do I network with people who have very little in common with me?

And yet at the exact same time, I love the connectionalism of the United Methodist Church. I love that every church will have a qualified pastor, maybe not effective, but qualified nonetheless. I love that if I ever really needed help, or just needed someone to cover for me, there is a DS or another pastor in town to help. I love the fact that I am accountable to someone, and everyone is accountable to each other. I love the fact that I cannot be fired from a church for upsetting people.

Yet, I don't seem to enjoy the connection...which leaves me thinking about what this relationship is really supposed to look like.

Free Grace and The Kite Runner

I'm preaching this week on Naaman's healing in 2 Kings 5. This is a story of Naaman, a great military leader, who even fights against Israel coming before Elisha in order to be healed. Two points emerge from this story. One is the universality of God's salvation. God is at work in the world, whether we acknowledge it or not. This has great implications for us.

Second, is the free nature of the healing he received. He comes bringing payment for his healing to pay the prophet. Prophets usually accepted payment for their work, such as Balaam. Elisha ends up turning his money away, which leads to next week on Greed. Naaman, because of his own greatness, expects Elisha to respond in greatness as well. I think he is expecting fanfare and fawning over Naaman. Instead, Elisha does not come out of his house and just sends a servant to talk to Naaman. He is told simply to go dip in the Jordan seven times and he will be healed. Strange.

He is upset by this, and I think it is because he expected some sort of magic trick that he would have to pay for and instead found an expression of grace that cost him nothing but some pride. I think the implications here are massive. The Msg offers this translation: "If the Prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn't you have done it? So, why not this simple wash and be clean?

How often do we make this so much harder than they really have to be? Naaman is looking for a way to make his healing justifiable through some hard work or through some payment of some money. Instead, Elisha evens the tables. If it were not so, then only those who could afford to be made well or who had the courage to do some daring task like a warrior would be made clean (or saved). Instead, Elisha makes it accessible to all.

In this he reminds me of Khaled Hosseini's book The Kite Runner. This is a book about the need to make his redemption justifiable. Hossein's main character is Amir. He is narrating the story of his life. He is born into privilege before the Soviet Union takes over Afghanistan. His father is wealthy and has a sevant and his servant has a son, Hasan. Amir and Hasan are best friends, even though they are not on equal terms. Hasan always has to serve Amir, even in their friendship. One day, Hasan and Amir get jumped by a gang in the street and Hasan offers himself in a daring move to distract the gang from grabbing Amir. In that shuffle, Amir is able to get away unnoticed and hide out of view. From his hideout, he sees a detestable act as Hasan is raped by this gang of teenage boys. Amir leaves and doesn't help Hasan at all. He doesn't even see his friend for several days. Then finally he sees him, but his relationship is ruined. Instead of being friends, they're relationship is now relegated to servant-master. Amir feels very guilty because he was too cowardly to help his friend, but his guilt just keeps driving them further and further apart. During all of this time, Hasan remains very faithful to Amir even though Amir keeps treating him worse and worse.

After awhile, the Soviets come into the nation and he and his father have to flee. They leave behind Hasan in Afghanistan because Amir accuses him of stealing so he won't have to go with them to Pakistan and then later to America. That one instance ends up defining both Hasan and Amir. Later in life, Amir is a grown man living in California with his wife and his demons from the past come back and end up driving him back to Afghanistan to make things better. He ends up having to be faced with some "hard and heroic" deeds in order to get rid of his guilt and his shame from the past.

In that story I hear Naaman's story. I hear my story. Now, to be sure God always wants us to be heroic in our pursuit of righteousness, but not to earn Christ's righteousness. I just know that for me, so much of life is lived with the idea that I need to do something heroic in order to find my redemption. I need to at least wash in a better river than I'm told. It can't be that God's grace and healing are free to me and only cost me my pride. Its impossible to believe that God could heal someone even like me simply by his word. Surely, I have to show my faith. Surely, I have to earn my redemption. Surely, I have to earn my healing. How could it be any other way?

Sacrements and Deacons

I heard today that Deacons in the United Methodist Church have been given sacramental authority by the General Conference. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, the church has needed to respond to a changing understanding of the Deacon. Asbury, for instance, has deacons as associate pastors the same as elders. These deacons are even the leader of the worshiping congregation, but not the sacremental leader. Certain services at Asbury have had to bring in outside elder leadership. That doesn't make any sense. However, Asbury has also hired to additional elders so I think they have solved their problem.

The new understanding is that deacons can serve the sacraments in the absence of the elder with the consent of the Bishop in their appointed setting. Kind of confusing. Makes me wonder when that would ever be the case. Is this intended for agency work, because when else would an elder not be present in the life of the church?

This is a step in the right direction in getting the sacramental power outside of one order, however, I'm not sure it is defined clearly enough by the Discipline. Some people could manipulate that pretty easily and have a bunch of deacons and give them sacramental authority. However, most deacons understand that they have given up that authority to take that order because that order is not intended to lead the church through order or sacrament. It kind of makes me think it is just for agency work.

Renaissance Fair

This last Saturday, I spent a very strange afternoon at the Muskogee Renaissance Festival. Now, I was very hesitant on going to the fair, but Abby, Jason and Emily all wanted to go so I decided to not be a kill joy and take the trip out there to attend the Renaissance Festival. First of all, I was skeptical on the Renaissance culture in Muskogee, OK. I've driven through this town enough not to expect anything spectacular.

As we were driving into the parking lot, which was a grove of pine trees that surprised me because I was expecting a gravel parking lot, I noticed some of the people getting out of their minivans and pickups were actually dressed as middle ages people. The women were wearing long dresses, the men were in tights and carried swords. I thought it odd the actors would be arriving so late in the day.

Jason offered me a pair of sunglasses for the day. I turned them down because I was wearing a hat and didn't want to wear them. However, after I bought my ticket and saw how people were dressed I had to change my mind and go back and put on some dark sun glasses so I could stare at people because of their ridiculous outfits. I couldn't believe what people were wearing. As soon as we entered there were a bunch of women dressed as wenches or whores (not sure I know the difference). I couldn't believe how much cleavage they were showing. But it wasn't just them because everywhere I looked were women wanting to show off their bust in their wench dress.

We all walked through the "village" with a shocked jaw dropped expression on our face as we didn't talk to each other for a good five minutes. Instead we simply stared at the fake town being manned by the various characters. The thing was, it wasn't just the characters that were dressed up. Apparently, normal (or rather "normal") people were also dressed up in character even though they paid to get into the festival the same as us.

I couldn't believe my eyes all afternoon. I never did get used it. I was shocked by the bad English accents these Okies were trying to pull off. I was shocked by the lack of decency. I was shocked how these people had found themselves. I was left wondering how these people ever got into this. Here is the steps I propose:
1. attend Renaissance festival
2. return to Renaissance festival
3. purchase small piece of costume
4. speak in English accent
5. purchase full costume

I hope I never proceed past step 1.