Thoughts on “Ministry”

Disciples, Bro. Sylvain of Taize

Monday, Scot McKnight had a post reflecting on Graham Buxton’s book on pastoral theology, Dancing in the Dark: The Privilege of Participating in the Ministry of Christ. I haven’t read the book, but Scot’s post made me want to; and in the meantime, I like Buxton’s definition of “ministry” alot:

“Christian ministry is fundamentally about participation in the ongoing ministry of Christ himself, who invites us into all that he is doing today by the power of the Spirit.”

This is what I understand the Book of Acts to be saying in its introduction: “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven…” (Acts 1:1).

The clear implication is that the words to come in the second account are about what Jesus continued to do and teach after he was taken up to heaven — through the apostles and the new community filled with the Spirit at Pentecost. Though we often call Luke’s book, “The Acts of the Apostles” (and they are active in it), the real Actor is Jesus himself, by means of the Spirit he poured out on the Church.

That is the theological foundation of the truth that all believers are “ministers.”

Now, I hear that all the time, but the application usually made doesn’t quite fit the teaching.

Continue reading “Thoughts on “Ministry””

IM Film Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

“Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right then it’s not the end.”

* * *

Gail and I have had the privilege of traveling to India a half dozen times, and I know why people go there seeking enlightenment and guidance for their lives. No matter where you are in the country, the place is intoxicating. Nowhere will one find brighter colors, or more intriguing sounds and smells. Walking onto the streets of India is like entering a kaleidoscope and holding on for dear life while some unseen hand tips it and turns it and shakes it in the face of the sun. Your thoughts and emotions whirl and tumble as a sensory deluge inundates you and washes you away. You can expect to see anything and everything juxtaposed in such extraordinary combinations that your world, if you let it, may escape its “box” completely and cause you to take up entirely new ways of seeing.

Few films have captured this India like the one we saw the other night, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” It tells the story of a group of British retirees who travel to northern India to reside in what was advertised as a luxury hotel where they might inexpensively “outsource” the final seasons of their lives. Instead, they find their new home in a state of disrepair and under the management of a charming but clueless owner who dreams of glory but can’t make the phones work. The characters and acting are delightful (I especially liked Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, and Bill Nighy; and Maggie Smith’s farcical, over-the-top performance is a hoot), but the real center of the film is India herself, and I felt that if somehow they had been able to incorporate scent into this movie, I would have been right there.

The story, of course, is about personal journeys.

There’s the widow striking out on her own after her husband died and left her in debt, the married couple that has grown apart, with divergent views about the trip — one open to adventure, the other bitter that circumstance has driven her so far from familiarity, the man who grew up in India now returning to reconnect with his long lost lover, the two singles still hoping they have some sexual gas in the tank and looking for romantic connections, and the bitter, small-minded, intolerant woman who is only there because she can get the surgery she needs now and at a good price.

The young owner of the hotel, who inherited it from his failure of a father, is also on a journey. He has fled his home and the pressure of trying to live up to the image of his successful brothers and the heavy hand of his controlling mother. She wants him to return to Delhi and do the dutiful, traditional thing, but he has found love in the new India. He just doesn’t have enough faith in himself to say the words to his girlfriend.

They find themselves in a kind of “wilderness,” something with which we are all acquainted. As they explore the strange wonderland of Jaipur, they sort it out and find their paths.

This is a delightful film, funny and touching, with superb performances by some of the best actors of our generation. It is a feel-good movie, an entertainment for sure, but one that reminds us in a winsome way that each season of life involves a journey. Its main “message” — repeated throughout the movie — is: “Everything will be all right in the end… if it’s not all right then it’s not the end.”

How very “Internet Monk” I found that line to be!

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Directed by John Madden; written by Ol Parker, based on the novel “These Foolish Things,” by Deborah Moggach; director of photography, Ben Davis; edited by Chris Gill; music by Thomas Newman; production design by Alan MacDonald; costumes by Louise Stjernsward; produced by Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin; released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Cast: Judi Dench (Evelyn Greenslade), Bill Nighy (Douglas Ainslie), Penelope Wilton (Jean Ainslie), Dev Patel (Sonny Kapoor), Celia Imrie (Madge Hardcastle), Ronald Pickup (Norman Cousins), Tom Wilkinson (Graham Dashwood), Maggie Smith (Muriel Donnelly) and Tena Desae (Sunaina).

Chaplain Mike at Pastorum This Week

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I will be attending the 2012 Pastorum Live Conference in Chicago.

This conference is put on by the folks who produce Logos Bible software and features some of the finest Bible scholars in the world, including names you hear often here on Internet Monk, such as Scot McKnight, Peter Enns, and John Walton. (For a full list of speakers, click HERE.)

The focus of the conference will be on understanding the Big Story of the Bible and learning to grasp Scripture’s details in the light of God’s grand narrative.

I will be blogging at Internet Monk about the conference, including some interviews, and you can also follow comments throughout the days at:

  • Facebook. Just friend “Chaplain Mike” on FB and you’ll get my status updates throughout the conference.
  • Twitter. You can follow me @chaplainimonk.

* * *

Other Things to Check Out This Week:

  • A Week of Mutuality at Rachel Held Evans’ blog. The purpose of the week, in her words — “I’m not aiming to spend much time arguing against complementarianism, but rather showing that egalitarianism is a tenable position for Christians, based on scripture, reason, tradition, etc.”
  • An amazing article by Rachel Adams, which argues that disability does not equal suffering, and that we should learn to alter the way we view and talk about people with conditions such as Down Syndrome.
  • In light of our Sunday posts on changing relations between Protestants and Catholics, I encourage you to look at Ed Kilgore’s recent piece in the New Republic, “The Widening Political Divide Between Catholicism and Mainline Protestantism.” Kilgore ponders “cross-cutting trends” such as the growing liturgical unity between Catholics and the mainlines, while at the same time political differences are increasingly dividing them and leading Catholics to cooperate with evangelicals who have abandoned historic liturgy. “All these cross-cutting trends and counter-trends in American (and global) Christianity call into question any glib arrangement of denominations, movements, or individuals as conservative or liberal, traditionalist or modernist.”

Blessed Are the Aging

As a hospice chaplain, I work with a lot of older people. Lord willing, I will one day become “elderly” myself, as will most of us. Growing older, of course, has its own unique challenges, as does every season of life. If we face those challenges with God’s grace, we will be able to see humor in the changes life brings our way.

One wonderful agency that provides caregiving for seniors is called Home Instead. The following video features Mary Maxwell, a friend of the couple that founded Home Instead. Asked to give the opening prayer at the agency’s 2009 convention, she gave an addendum to her prayer that is hilarious and heart-touching.

Note: You can download the poem she reads at the end of her prayer HERE.

 

Is the Reformation Over? — Part Two: An Overwhelmingly Negative Stance

Is the Reformation Over? (part two)
An Overwhelmingly Negative Stance

Is the Reformation Over?: An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism
by Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom
Baker Academic (April 1, 2008)

On Sundays this summer, we will be blogging through Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom’s book, Is the Reformation Over? This work considers changing attitudes among evangelicals toward the Roman Catholic Church since Vatican II.

* * *

“As we enter the post-war world, without any doubt the greatest enemy of freedom and liberty that the world has to face today is the Roman Catholic system. Yes, we have Communism in Russia and all that is involved there, but if one had to choose between the two…one would be much better off in a communistic society than in a Roman Catholic Fascist set-up….America has to face the Roman Catholic terror. The sooner the Christian people of America wake up to the danger the safer will be our land.

– Carl McIntyre, 1945

It is hard for many of us today to grasp the depths of mutual mistrust and hostility that existed between evangelical Protestants and Catholics in the U.S. prior to the “modest and growing engagement” that has developed since the mid-1960’s. The quote above from a fundamentalist Presbyterian right after World War II may seem extreme to the point of being out of bounds, but this well represents the overwhelmingly negative stance conservative Protestants had toward Rome. Even liberal Protestants in post-war America were hesitant to consider Roman Catholics “Christians” and Roman Catholics, for their part returned the favor. For example, when the World Council of Churches met in Chicago in 1954, Cardinal Strich forbade Catholics from attending, even as reporters.

The basic evangelical polemic against Catholicism may be described in the following points:

  • It teaches that people earn salvation by good works.
  • It forbids common people from reading the Bible.
  • It makes up extrabibiblical saints, festivals, and rites that substitute human religion for biblical faith.
  • It makes Mary the coauthor of salvation.
  • It abuses authority by forcing new doctrines on the Church through the pronouncements of mere men.
  • It promotes a despotic hierarchy that strips the people of their proper status as priests of God.

For their part, the Roman Catholics have their own critique of Protestantism:

  • It offers salvation by faith while denying the need for holiness of life.
  • It abandons the Bible to the interpretation of every Tom, Dick, and Harry.
  • It denies that the Holy Spirit works through the means of the teaching office of the Church.
  • It neglects God’s gracious help provided to humankind through Mary and the saints.
  • It rejects the apostolic authority of bishops, councils, and popes, and accelerates rationalism, secularism, and moral anarchy.
  • It rejects the seven sacraments bringing God’s grace to crucial points of people’s lives.
  • It forsakes the God-given leadership in the community of faith and reduces everything to individualism.

Continue reading “Is the Reformation Over? — Part Two: An Overwhelmingly Negative Stance”

iMonk Classic: “You Need to Smile More”

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
from May 2007

Every day this summer school term, around 9:30 in the morning, I drive two blocks to the post office during a ten minute break from class. I get my mail, which often involves retrieving a package from the postal employee at the window. I know the postmaster well, but on days he’s off, he has an assistant. The new one just arrived and I don’t know her yet.

And today, the conversation went something like this.

“Hello. Spencer. Box 313.”

The young woman, maybe 30 years old, gets my mail and packages.

“Are you a preacher?”

You have to be a preacher to know what that question does to you.

“Yes, among other things. I preach, teach Bible and English up at the school.”

“You need to smile more.”

***awkward***

“That’s what people tell me.”

“I guess it’s just not your nature.”

***Quelling desire to say — “Like making personal statements to customers is your nature.”***

“I guess so. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

This isn’t the first time this has happened.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: “You Need to Smile More””

Saturday Ramblings

Oh joy. Today is the annual neighborhood garage sale in your Rambler’s neighborhood. I’ve spent the week culling out junk that I didn’t even remember I had, dusting it off, and putting ridiculously low prices on it all. As you are reading this, I’m sitting in a lawn chair, hoping that it all sells for any price so that I don’t have to do this again next year. Well, that is, if I don’t collect more useless junk between now and then. Some of what I found this week is not even worth putting a price tag on. I’ve assembled all of these worth less than worthless items for your enjoyment. We call them Saturday Ramblings.

Three prominent evangelical leaders have expressed their desires to move on from their current pastures to those that may, or may not, be greener. And another has been invited to leave, at least for a while, by his board. So, if you’re looking for a job, there are four more available.

The Pope is “saddened” over the scandal at the Vatican regarding sensitive and confidential documents which seemed to have grown legs and wings. Who is the culprit? Well, it would be easy to say the butler did it, but apparently that is just the tip of iceberg. I don’t think Peter had these kinds of problems, do you?

If you haven’t freshened your church’s website in a while, you may want to get to it. Seems that research shows that many “unchurched” people visit church web pages. I know I would be in the group that seldom visits their own church’s website. Do you frequent your church’s?

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings”

Open Mic: Pastoral Succession

John Piper has announced his intention to step down as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, a position he has filled for 32 years. Piper is not ill, and admits he still has the energy to pastor the church for at least another 10 years. But, he says, he feels his church is ready for “fresh vision.” Thus he proposed, and the church accepted by a vote, to prepare Jason Meyer to succeed Piper as pastor at a yet-to-be-determined date. Piper will mentor Meyer for the position, and when Piper and Meyer think the time is right, a second vote will be held by the congregation to formally accept Jason Meyer as their new pastor. (You can read a more thorough explanation of the process here.)

This seems to be a sensible, well-planned manner to replace a longstanding leader. I (and, no doubt, you as well) have seen pastoral changes split many churches into pieces, whether it be a personality-based church or a mainline denominational church. Of course, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have methods of replacing church leaders that don’t involve congregational input, yet still the transition from one man to the next can lead to some rather turbulent times.

So this morning I thought I would hand the microphone to you for you to share your thoughts on the good—and not so good—examples of pastor succession you have experienced. Also, what do you think is the proper way of handling such a transition? We have very few examples from the Bible to employ here. There is Paul mentoring Timothy, and then there is Elijah throwing his cloak over Elisha and walking away. Is one method better than the other?

Share with us your thoughts. Hold the mic close to your mouth so we can hear you clearly. And please, no popping your “P”s…

Michael Spencer’s Next Book

Update: The email address is now working again and we have received your emails! We have had over 30 offers of support. Thank you so very much! I will be starting to send out instructions and MP3 files. You should receive your first MP3 by Monday night (June 4th). If you haven’t heard by then, feel free to send me another email.

When Michael Spencer passed away in the spring of 2010, there was a consensus among the many readers of Internet Monk that he was just hitting his stride as a writer.  Many of you have asked if we are planning to publish an anthology or anthologies of the articles that he had written here.  Jeff Dunn has hinted that this is in fact in the works.

Well, this is the first response to those calls.  Michael’s life’s desire was to know Jesus better.  The tool that he used more than any other to accomplish that task was his study of the Gospel of Mark.  He decided back in 1982 that Mark would be a major life project.  Here is what he had to say on the topic:

In my ministry, this turned into something I love to do: Cover the entire Gospel of Mark in the setting of a retreat or 3 sessions. A large part of this is asking everyone to read Mark and then, working with a group, graphically present the Gospel of Mark.  I’ve now led studies of the Gospel of Mark dozens and dozens of times. I go through the book 3-4 times a year with my students, and have done so for 15 years. I’ve concentrated on Mark in my preaching and teaching.  I can be annoying about my interest in Mark, but I hope it’s been helpful to my students and congregations.

So, rather than repackaging material that Michael had already published at Internet Monk, we are taking it one step further.  Through scouring Internet archive sources, and through the assistance of his wife, Denise, we have been able to find the following source material originally composed by Michael Spencer on the topic of the Gospel of Mark:

  • Thirty five written Bible studies
  • Twenty seven hours of audio Bible studies
  • Five sermons
  • Fifty blog posts

This represents about 800 pages of source material! It is tremendously varied, ranging from folksy sermons, to in-depth Bible studies, to the Internet Monk rants we have all grown to love.  I have been busy organizing and collating this material, and my challenge is to bring it together into one cohesive commentary on Mark.

We don’t have a title yet.  We are not sure who will be publishing it.  What we do know is that this is going to be one amazing look at the life of Jesus through the eyes of Michael Spencer and the Gospel of Mark.

We do need some assistance, and we would like to throw open the opportunity to help to the wider Internet Monk community.  The audio Bible studies (54 in total), and the five sermons need to be transcribed.  If you would like to contribute to this book by taking on one or more transcriptions then send me an email to michaelspencersnewbook [at] gmail [dot] com with what you would like to do and I will send you an audio Bible study to transcribe along with further instructions.

I am really excited by this project, and I am really looking forward to help bring Michael’s life project of the study of Mark to a fitting conclusion.

Flying Through The Flame Of Creativity

Editor’s Note: This is a transcript of a lecture given on the campus of a private college in the late 1980s. I came across this while working for a publisher several years ago. When it came into our possession, we first tried to contact Prof. Van Lorn in order to arrange with him the publication of this transcript. That is when we learned that the professor had passed away in 1996. His nearest living kin, a second cousin, was not interested in participating in what he considered “the ramblings of a man who would have made a much better priest than professor, had he taken my advice,” and signed a waiver allowing the publication of this lecture. The publisher then gave up on the project, and I have received permission to present it here.

Dr. Peter Van Lorn was a professor of art history for more than 40 years, serving at two different small private colleges, one in the Midwest, and the other in his homeland of Canada. This particular lecture was given after he had retired from the Midwestern school. Apparently he was visiting with friends in the town where this college was located and, at the request of the head of the art department, agreed to speak to this class, an Introduction to Art class. At the conclusion of his remarks, applause is heard on the tape for more than two minutes.

The purpose of today’s talk is to try and dissuade you from becoming an artist. If I cannot talk you out of a life spent in the arts, then take this as a warning of what lies ahead.

You notice I do not say “a career in the arts.” A career is something you slip on in the morning as you would a coat, and then hang it up again when you arrive home in the evening. A career is something you can change or modify as you like. A career has a beginning and an ending. In a career you work in order to live, and you strive to work hard in order that you may live well.

A life in the arts, on the other hand, is not a career but a calling. It is what the ancients called a vocation. It is from the Latin word vocatio, meaning “summons” or “calling.” Imagine that you receive a letter from an officer of the court instructing you to appear before the judge on a certain day and at a specific time. You would ignore such a letter, or summons, at your own peril. Life would become very difficult for you if you chose to run from the summons. You would not be a free man; you would always be on the run, looking over your shoulder every minute to see if a policeman was about to arrest you. It is far better to answer a summons than to run from it.

That is the nature of a vocation or calling. You know what you must do, even if you don’t want to do it. You know your life will be miserable if you deny the vocation. But I am here today to tell you that if you answer the call—as you surely must do if you indeed hear such a call—your life will most likely be destroyed.

Continue reading “Flying Through The Flame Of Creativity”