Quote of the day from Sojourners website

“The church is obliged by its evangelical mission to demand structural changes that favor the reign of God and a more just and comradely way of life. Unjust social structures are the roots of all violence and disturbances. … Those who benefit from obsolete structures react selfishly to any kind of change.” – Archbishop Oscar Romero, November 1979.

Response to Japan

A good article on suffering through through the lens of different world religions. I love how the Christian response speaks about God walking with us through our suffering.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/20/finding-faith-amid-disaster/

Thoughts on the Small Catechism

It is required for two of my classes this semester to memorize Luther's Small Catechism. The classes are: History of the Church the Reformation period, and Lutheran Confessions. After growing up Catholic, I have officially been Lutheran for about 5 years. I've picked up Lutheran theology in bits and pieces from undergrad religion studies, weekly worship, leading confirmation at Trinity, and various other sources. So as a relatively new Lutheran I did not have any of Luther's Catechism memorized. But it seems that I am not alone even among lifelong Lutherans. Many of my Lutheran friends have confessed to me that they don't remember much of anything from the small catechism, which they haven't studied since they were 12.

(Granted... Luther's catechism is by no means the only available and suitable resource for teaching the basic parts of the Christian faith, however its fairly standard in Lutheran Churches.) So this leads me to the question: Why are we only teaching this stuff to people in middle school and then considering it good? How much do you remember from when you were in middle school? Frankly I remember more about the boys that I liked than what I learned in church or school.

Just some food for thought that I will take with me in my continued studies and hopeful pastoral work. I'll leave you with my favorite part of the catechism's explanation, the third article of the Apostles Creed.

I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him.

But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with Her gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith.

(Pronoun change is mine, that's for another blog :)

There is always hope.

A great passage from a book I'm reading for class:

The gospel of Jesus is not, finally, about how we or anyone else behaves. Is it?

Nor is it about the "correctness" of our beliefs.

It isn't about our "little sins," or our "big sins," or how convincingly we repent when we sin.

The gospel of Jesus isn't about sin at all! Its about what our sin bought us, (sin's "wages" if you will): estrangement from God in our daily lives, and worst of all, estrangement from God in our inevitable deaths. The gospel is about what God alone can do. And God can do it all. In Christ, God has already done it. The gospel is about Hope, with a capitol H.

Crossing the Bar: Home By Another Way pg. 82

by James G. Johnson

Vibrant Congregations

Over j-term I was able to get to know two professors that I really enjoyed, Rolf Jacobson and Craig Koester. Jacobson is my Hebrew prof. and Koester taught the Genesis to Revelation Bible class. Through forming these connections I was asked to be the student representative on a committee studying the Bible in congregations with these two professors along with Prof. Kathryn Shifferdecker. This is a part million dollar grant through the Lilly Endowment to look at what practices and values make a church a vibrant or thriving congregation. So needless to say I was extremely honored to be a small part of this project! (Although 1 million dollars sounds like a lot, its relatively small compared to many of the research grants Lilly donates)

Last week we had our first meeting with the congregations that will be participating in the Bible portion of the study. We are working with 11 congregations that are located all over the US including Arizona, Georgia, North Dakota, Illinois, and Wisconsin as well as congregations located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. It was very exciting to meet the pastors and lay leaders that will be a part of this research. They are all already doing great work in their congregations with the Bible, so it will be exciting to see the developments that result from them learning from some of these research experiments and from forming connections with each other.

The congregations will begin by taking a survey and conducting interviews about their experiences with the Bible. The data will then be compiled and analyzed. The team will meet with the congregations individually to suggest some experiments that could be implemented to meet the needs of the congregation. The whole process is designed around discerning God's Spirit in the midst of these congregations and trying new practices that could help in faith formation. So it should be an exciting journey to walk alongside these congregations in this process! Please keep these congregations in your prayers.

Good article by Rob Bell entitled: My Faith: Suffering my way to a new tomorrow.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/13/my-faith-suffering-my-way-to-a-new-tomorrow/