This week’s video asks if ‘Kin-dom’ language is more accurate and helpful than the old ‘kingdom’ idea.
It is an alternate translation of Greek word βασιλεία, (‘basileia’) and can unpacked a number of ways.
Watch the video and let me know what you think.
You can find a short articles here [link] on kin-dom and another video about implications for worship songs here [link]
Over the years, I have grown comfortable making 3 changes to songs that we sing at church.
Blood To Love
Atonement theories are fascinating and I love exploring different historical approaches to understating what happened on the cross of Christ. My historic understanding is one of the many reasons that I intrigued with how many hymns and worship songs from the past 2 centuries are so bloody. In the past 200 years ‘penal substitutionary atonement’ (PSA) has become the dominant understanding in many protestant circles and our songs reflect it.
It has a simple fix however. Just cut ‘blood’ out and paste ‘love’ in and it amplifies the meaning of the song even better! It does not detract from the meaning of the song and actually amplifies it, making it better.
The love of God is bigger than just the blood that Jesus spilled. There is more to the love of God than the fact that Jesus bled.
Somebody is going to argue this is how God forgives us of our sins … but the truth is that Jesus forgave sins before the cross (Luke 7:48, Matt 9:5, Mark 2:5, etc.). Jesus forgives sins based on his identity rooted in God’s goodness, not our violence. The incarnation not the crucifixion where God to identified with humanity and brought us into a new relationship. (for more read about the victim [scapegoat] on Good Friday)
Example: and old hymn has been remade (Cornerstone) and makes so much more sense with the change, “My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus’ [love] and righteousness”. It is more singable (less distracting) and richer theologically. It is not just our faith in Jesus but the faithfulness of Jesus by which God’s righteousness is imparted to us. [Here is another way to do it]
Father To Savior
In similar fashion, the change of ‘father’ to ‘savior’ is a significant upgrade. The Bible references God as ‘father’ not only because it was written in a time-period that was heavily patriarchal but because Jesus had a special connection to God he referenced as ‘Abba’ or dad. Here is the problem though, Jesus was not telling us the meta-physical (or ontological) reality about God, Jesus was using a relational metaphor to let us know how he (and thus we) might relate to God as a perfectly-pictured parent.
Jesus’ very identity was comprised of his connection to God and he said things that I cannot say like, “I and the father are one”. Things brings up several issues:
I love my father very much but don’t think that God is entirely (or only) like him nor is my father entirely like God. It is too limiting to confine God to my earthly understanding of paternal pictures.
Not everyone has a great relationship with their father. It is meant to be a metaphor. We have made it too concrete. We have concretized and given substance to something meant to be illusive and illustrative.
Example: In the new chorus added to the same Cornerstone song from our first example, it makes more sense to sing ‘savior’ than father. “Cornerstone, weak made strong in the savior’s love, through the storm, he is Lord, lord of all.” The confession of the early churches is that Jesus is Lord (not Caesar) and so this change is perfect both in our contemporary context and historically.
King To kin
Lastly, King imagery is so antiquated that Christians seems to be the last ones longing for a King. This is especially true of American Christians. The entire point of democracy is that we don’t have a monarchy. I cannot figure out the current obsession with royal weddings and royal babies on this side of the Atlantic. I also don’t understand our worship songs that make it seem like God rules from a far-off land and we are a colony of heaven here on earth. Between monarchy, imperialism, and colonialism I really worry about our Kingdom understanding.
God is here and at work among us by God’s Spirit. God is not high up and far off – that old picture of God was supposed to done away with in Christ’s incarnation. Yet somehow the church of N. America continues to long for a Roman way of ruling the world utilizing military power, coercive governance, and violent hierarchy to rule and reign.
It is almost as if we missed the upside-down, outside-in, anti-imperial, counter-kingdom that Jesus came to initiate. We have reverted to longing for monarchy and imperial rule. It is almost as if we missed the thing Jesus was teaching about and prefer the thing he was interrogating and subverting.
Example: Switch ‘kin-dom’ for ‘kingdom’ in your worship songs or prayers. See how big of a difference it makes to what you are picturing. Then switch out ‘King’ for ‘Queen of Heaven – Mother of us all’ and expose both the way that you are imaging and imagining the Divine.
Remember – it is just as accurate and as inaccurate to call God mother as father. They are both word pictures and relational metaphors.
Make these 3 changes to the worship songs at your church
I would love to hear about the difference that it makes – or what underlying ideology it exposes.
My friend Tad DeLay has written a second book, The Cynic and The Fool. I was first introduced to this concept by Tad a couple of years ago. I immediately asked him to come to the Loft LA as my conversation partner to talk about it. It was controversial to say the least.
I have held onto a very small part of the concept (that people are comfortable these days in the role of the cynic but that they want their leaders to be fools) and have radically changed my approach to ministry to account for it.
This weekend I will be presenting this concept in Sunday School, as part of the series ‘5 Favorite Ideas’, so I made a 10 min video to share and get the conversation rolling.
I would love your comments, questions, and concerns.
I would also love if you would share this with any leaders or pastors that you know. I want to have a much bigger conversation about the church being a different way in the world.
You have a wisdom deep inside of you that you might not even know how to access.
I want to introduce (or remind) you to an amazing concept: phronesis
Here is a ‘7 min sermon’ on the idea and a short explanation below.
I love this concept so much.
An interesting way to access it is by using the famous formulation of:
Then Zizek reminds us that the 4th quadrant would be “unknown knowns”!!
There are things that we don’t even know that we know … and this is why we need to know about phronesis.
Another way of approaching the idea is to focus on the kind of knowledge that is produced:
A helpful analogy can be found in learning to play a musical instrument:
“Playing the flute, Aristotle observes, has value and fulfills its purpose well before the music stops. This is especially the case with ethical conduct and political activity, an ongoing process of deliberation that requires practical wisdom (phronesis). In contrast, (he) viewed building a house as poiesis— satisfactory only when the construction process is complete.” [1]
Unfortunately, after Aristotle poiesis got subsumed into praxis and was reduced into the binary that we have inherited today in the classic split between theory and practice. The final, and perhaps most popular, of these concepts is habitus.
The habits of faith form a character in you through repetition and spiritual practice.
You have a wisdom down inside of you.
It operates on a lower register than your immediate thoughts.
It is not just head knowledge.
It is deep inside of you – down in your bones.
Learn to trust your gut and follow your heart.
[1] Cahalan and Mikoski, Opening the Field of Practical Theology, 305.
Earlier this month I responded to a survey being done by a grad student about new worship communities and churches in revitalization.
Below are some of my responses to the 3 questions – and here is a 10 min video with some pictures spliced for illustration.
1.What innovative practices set your faith community apart?
Vermont Hills UMC is attempting a hybrid expression that combines two very different ecclesial and liturgical formats. We have been a classic mainline worship format for our 50 years of existence. We never went through the ‘blended worship’ wars in the 1980’s and 90’s. We never had a worship band or song leader. It is just piano, occasionally organ, and a choir. We use singable hymns so that the singing is robust and fills the space with sound.
We have now added a coffee shop/living room feel that splices in conversation and a TedTalk style homily early in the gathering. Also, instead of the sermon, a different person (or persons) comes to a high-top table and has a conversation. Sometimes it is about the homily, or the passage of scripture – other times it is about an outside topic (such a non-profit that we support). This serves to ‘decenter’ the sermon so that our gatherings are centered around conversation.
Another innovation is that each time we do communion on the first Sunday of the month, we try something different. The two most recent communion weeks, for instance, were vastly different than each other. In January, we set up 6 round tables in the corners of the sanctuary (we have an odd shaped space) and had 8-10 people at each table. They served each other communion with a prepared litany, and commune together for the rest of the service. In February, we set up different stations – a baptismal font, a table full of prayer candles, etc. – and had them wander around the space doing different activities before they went to the communion station. A 6-minute video played on the screen for those who did not want to wander.
2. How does your faith community meet people where they are, literally and figuratively?
I have developed an ecclesiology called Church 2.0 where we provide the space but not all of the content. The conversations during our gatherings are unscripted so that people can bring their concerns and insights.
Another aspect of our service to the community is the many non-profits we participate in and support financially. In January and February, we have had a different ministry or group ‘come to the table’ and tell us about what they do and how we can get involved. This includes our backpack ministry that packs food for kids at the elementary school next door who would not have food on the weekend, and Neighborhood house that helps families get back on their feet. We have 7 or 8 of these ministries that we support and participate in.
3. How does your faith community develop and equip young leaders? eg internships, pastoral residencies for young clergy, intentional communities?
I have only been here 7 months but we already have a young minister going through the ordination process and several seminarians who help teach and lead. The format of ‘the table’ allows multiple voices to heard. Depending on the topic, they can help teach Sunday school, mid-week Bible study, ‘preach’ the homily, and be the liturgist as well. This gives them lots of opportunities to participate and practice. We will be developing a ministry team in 2018 for formalize this process.
Dialogue across the table is the key though. It is a platform that allows their voice to be elevated and broadcast. It is shared influence instead of one persons talking for 20-30 minutes week after week.
Yesterday’s visit by seminary students was so encouraging.
It did however bring up some issues that I did not cover in yesterday’s video.
5 issues from yesterday’s seminary visit:
– experience of absence
– small and big church
– rural, urban, and suburban
– diversity
– love the questions
-cynic and fool [link to the book]
Here then is a followup video to cover those issues:
Let me know if you have any other topics to address.
The future of the church is not a stage show. The performance oriented, pre-scripted, uni-directional spectacle that creates spectators instead of participants will fade away. It doesn’t fit the interactive, de-centered, and democratized society that we live in.
This 10 min video is for a seminary class that is coming to visit my church today to see how we do Church 2.0 (or interactive, participatory, church in the round, etc.)
The former video that covered this material (Church Present & (near) Future) has been very popular while I was away. I have received several requests to redo it with a better mic.
Topics covered include: emergent thought, church as google, and Web 1.0 – among others
Let me know your thoughts or questions
We live up against The End. Not the end of the world or the End Times … just The End. The economy (capitalism), democracy, media and war are now empty echos of former expressions.
The church is always trying to reform, revive and redeem an echo of an ancient broadcast.
The current configuration is insufficient for the contemporary situation.
Here is 10 min video introduction – an Invitation to Innovation
In my studies I have found an amazing line of concern/critique of our media saturated consumer society. In the coming months I will be talking about some of the implications for the spiritual life of our faith communities.
In this video I introduce some of the ideas and frameworks that will punctuate this theme. I am also employing this theme for the conversations at the church I help facilitate (the Loft LA) in our Sunday gatherings this month.
Let me know what you think or any additional topics you would like to address.
__________
Just in case you are interested, here is a short invitation to the series (on Vimeo)
Image Is Everything from Bo Sanders on Vimeo.
Bo Sanders: Public Theology 