100,000 Hits

On Friday, one of you will be the 100,000th hit on th is blog.

Cool.

Dumbledore?

My wonderful, overly observant, creative, and not-afriad-to-say-it-to-your-face, nine-year daughter suggested to me that I should be Dumbledore for Halloween as she made me aware of her awareness of the few grey hairs emerging on my gotee and on my head.

Oh she laughed and laughed, thinking it to be quite funny. And her laughter was not misplaced because just prior to her laughter, she delivered her lines with an innocence (false though it was) that wandered into believability.

I love having children. I know that my own personal entertainment and amusement is not a good reason to have children, but dang, they are entertaining and amusing.

Messiah: Stubborn and Patient

Broken bread; broken body,
Hunched under a world's wait
For a Messiah - The centuries
Stumble into each other
Anticipating a hero;

Broken bread; broken body,
Hunched under a world's amnesia
Of a Messiah - The centuries
Push each other over
To be the hero;

Broken bread; broken body,
Holding together a world of wounds,
For this Messiah - the centuries
Gathered together.

Hard To Kill: Restoration Movement Version

There are lots of reasons for people to abandon their Restoration Movement church these days. Hypocrisy, irrelevant arguments, out of touch worship styles, some weird theology, and a growing sense of becoming the new Amish. And to be sure, many have left their RM church in the dust.

But larger numbers of people have remained. Oh sure, there are some who remain because they are trying to cling to old traditions and good feelings from the 1950's, but this crew is diminishing. Many people in RM churches, in contrast, are staying as they are slowly re-theologizing their lives in a number of ways. What keeps them from leaving is not so much the same theological adherence as their parents, but other theological, social, and strategic perspectives. Forces other than perfect doctrinal adherence are driving these people.

Here are a few:

1. Network. Their network of relationships is so strong that to leave the congregation would not be limited only to what happens on Sunday morning, it would mean losing deep friendships, a collective sense of direction, and the support of people who "understand." They would lose their "we-ness."

2. Comfort. There is something important about knowing where the blind spots are. Having to learn new blind spots can be very difficult and unnerving once you find them. Lots of these people who stay understand that putting themselves and their chidlren through the kind of change that moving on requires might do more harm than good.

3. Personalized Emergence. Many people who stay in RM churches know that there are flaws and tolerate them corporately; however, they have found other missional, spiritual, or worship outlets not provided by their congregation. Most of these people do thses kinds of things under the radar - under the radar not out of fear for themselves, but that their hearts are so good that they do not want to makes waves for other people.

4. Excessivley Patient: These people have hope and a high view of God and people. They believe that the current "identity crisis" RM churches are supposed ot be having is not going to outlast their dedication to God. They believe that God loves this people called the RM (among many other, of course) and will not leave them to be overrun by church tyrants, spiritual thugs, and the warlords of religion. They believe redemption is in process and in fact works best when things look their worst.

The Restoration Movement is going to be a hard one to kill off. There are just too many people who are truly loving God and exploring new theological realities who choose to remain.

Latest pics

Over here are my latest pics.

Philosophy Shifts in a 1000 places

Everywhere I turn, philosophy is hiding behind the door. From theology to theories of family and family therapy, to ideas about how change happens, to research methodology, philosophy is always there somewhere.

Not only is philosophy ever-present, it gathers and exerts a powerful influence people's thinking. Furthermore, people need not be aware that they are influenced by philosophy for it to have influence. In fact, the less aware a person is that philosophy has an influence, the more influence it is likely to have.

Let's look at theology and church. The emerging church is experimenting with a philospohical shift from modernity to postmodernity. It has sparked a huge debate. Many have called the emering church a heresy. The loyalty people have to their denominational brand is threaened with the emerging church. Emerging church people would say that they are just re-thinking church in a way that is truer than what church has become with all of the denominational contaiminations.

In the world of counseling and therapy, there is a shift from modern to postmodern. The big dog model of therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), has been one the top for models of therapy. The problem is that it doesn't work for everyone. New, postmodern, models of therapy are emerging. There is a pragmatic approach interested in common factors more than model of therapy. There are other postmodern therapies emerging as well. CBT disciples cannot agree that anything but CBT could help anyone. Kind of sounds like denominational loyalty to me.

I am now learning about the implications philosophy has on research and research methods. I wonder if similar patterns will emerge here as well.

What do you think?

Diagnosed by Palmer

If you are human, especially an educator or minister kind of human, then you should read Parker Palmer's little book called, "To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey."

The whole book is good, toggling between the philosophical and practical. It relies on wisdom of the Desert Fathers and a saying by Abba Felix.

What struck me this morning on the thrid to last page was this excerpt:

But most of us in our daily lives exist neither in solitude nor in community, but somewhere in between. We sacrifice both form and content of truth. Seldom are we truly alone, and seldom are we truly in relationship to others. This is the vacuousness of mass society and mass education: our lives alternate between collective busyness and individual isolation, but rarely allow for an authentically solitary or corporate experience. In this half-lived middle ground, our solitude is loneliness and our attempts at community are fleeting and defeating. We are alone in the crowd, unable to touch the heart of love in ourselves or to touch others in ways that draw out the heart.

Choking on RESEARCH

One time when I was a kid, I recall eating a large piece of pizza with my mother at the Pizza and Pasta in the local mall. A couple of college students approached us and asked if they could photograph us for a project there were doing. They needed photos of children doing things. They asked me to take a big bite of pizza, so I did.

Cheese and pepperoni drooped between my teeth and the pizza crust in my hand as I pulled my head slowly back from the pizza crust. The thinning cheese strand dangling between my mouth and the remaining pizza supported a single pepperoni, but the cheese was losing a battle to gravity.

The college students snapped photo after photo as I tried to smile with a massive mouth full of pizza. I had literally bitten off more than I could realistically chew.

I now feel like I have done the same thing, only this time it is with research projects. I am involved in varying degrees with 7 research projects. My professors said, "Do some research," and there I went doing research.

But, just like the pepperoni pizza, I really like it.

How I learn

One of the things I am learning in doctoral studies is how I learn. Here are three examples.

1. I learn by writing. I knew this already, but I am finding that so much becomes clear to me when I write.

2. I learn by conversing. I need others to talk with. In my conversations with people I am affirmed and corrected. Knowledge and insight are created in conversation.

3. I learn by failing in front of other people. This is in no way pleasant, but it sure does motivate. When I fail publicly and then come to awarenes of my failure, I can feel the blood fill the flesh in my face. The humiliation can get so intense that I want to run away and become a ditch digger in Alaska. But then I come to realization that I have borrowed too much money to avoid graduation - and I stand there and take it, red face and all.

I work too much

I knew from the beginning that this semester would be a bear. It's a grizzly as it turns out. I am working very hard, but I am loving it.

Blogging will be sparse, I am sure, through Christmas. However, I will try.

One of the tasks I am completing this semester is called the CRITICAL REVIEW. Basically I am critiquing, in a scholarly way, a patch of literature. It is a daunting and educational task. I have been thinking theories of family, psychology, and communication lately. I bet you've been thinking the same thing.

Of interest at this moment, however, is that HEROES is on. Me time.

Good-bye.