video

3 Questions about ‘Change’

Can you help me as I get ready for Sunday?

This will be my 3rd service at Vermont Hills UMC – but it is the first gathering that will be built around conversation. The first week was a holiday weekend so I just introduced myself casually. Last week was a big communion week. This week we are moving the communion table and replacing it with a coffee table.

Would be willing answer 3 questions for me as I prepare to facilitate that conversation:

What is the biggest change that you have seen in society during your lifetime?
What has changed the most for you in the past 20 years?
What is one change that you would undo if you could?

My three answers would be something like:
1. The role of religion in public life.
2. Discovering Second Naïveté mid-preaching career.
3. TV in the living room and iPhones at the breakfast table.

I would love to hear your 3 answers.

July 14, 2017 2

Real Fake HyperReal Cynicism

It can be difficult navigating our hyperreal, liquid, fluid digital culture with any amount of discernment and sincerity. Disney Land is plastic and fabricated while branding itself the ‘happiest place on earth’.

Vampires, Zombies, Super Heroes and demonic exorcisms populate our movie theaters. Comedians are great at doing caricatures of TV preachers and faith healers. Surely there is something real somewhere in all of this.

In this 10 min video I use Rumsfeld’s ‘Known Unknowns’ as a model (and Zizek’s addition) to propose an idea about the Real/Real, Fake/Real, Real/Fake and Fake/Fake.

I’m working off of Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco in looking at the hyperreal.

Let me know what you think!

October 30, 2015 0

The Kin-dom Strikes Back

Kin-dom thinking is so different from the ‘kingdoms of this world’ that it calls into question translating what Jesus was talking about as ‘the Kingdom’.
‘Kingdom’ has been compromised and corrupted through the centuries.

Kin-dom is not top-down, unilateral or coercive. We are the children of God who have been adopted into God’s family (Romans 8:15 & Galatians 3:26).

This is a follow up to a previous post ‘There is no Kingdom of God’ [link] as there was some interest in more details about what the shift might look like.

October 28, 2015 0

Wisdom of the Wesleyan Quad

The Wesleyan Quad is my 2nd favorite theological concept.

Scripture
Tradition
Experience
Reason

In this video we look at those 4 configured as a living web of interpretation. I hold that it is far better for community discernment than a foundationalist approach (the classic sequence).

Let me know if you have questions or concerns – especially about the little game of 3 minus 1.

October 3, 2015 3

Evangelical Eschatology Experiment

This video is an experiment to tailor eschatology for an evangelical audience. A pastor requested that I customize my previous EndTimes theory to a specific crowd.

Let me know what you think! I’m afraid that it comes off like a 3 hour class crammed into 12 minutes … because that is exactly the case …

September 4, 2015 0

10 minutes on Afterlife

Life after death, the afterlife or the hereafter provide a major focus for some people’ interest in religion.

Here are some of my thoughts about the historical development and ongoing progress on our the way imagine eternity and the poetics involved.

At the end is a constructive, innovative proposal of how we can address this major topic.

August 29, 2015 0

10 Minutes on End Times

10 minutes on End Times!

Here are 4 things that you will want to reference:

1) Best book on Revelation: Chalice Commentary by Farmer – it will become your favorite

2) Partial reasoning of the 1968-1973 change: Continue reading “10 Minutes on End Times” →

August 22, 2015 3

10 Minutes on Religion

Religion is a tricky subject. Many assume that they know what it means while others have decided to reduce religion to fantasy in order to dismiss it.

The hope is to move from an either-or model of ‘true’ or ‘false’ to a “web of meaning”.

My theory is that at least 5 elements contribute the web of meaning. This moves us away from an either/or model of ‘antiquated myth’ or ‘divine revelation’.

5 elements are:

Experience
Formation
Event
Mystery
potentially something Real

This last one is always the most difficult. Those who are sure (fundamentalist, foundational) dislike the ‘potential’ qualifier. Those who dismiss religion are suspicious of the potential of something ‘real’.

Once we get rid of the false either/or choices we are free to think about what is going on in religion.

I look forward to your comments, questions and concerns.

August 19, 2015 3