Teachings To Tune In To

As I prepared to teach my section on social gospel, my friend Doug recommended that I listen to Tim Keller's thoughts on justice that he heard from a teaching Tim did at the Reform and Resurge conference in 2006. I first listened to his thoughts on justice and was very encouraged and slightly blown away with his exploration of scriptures take on justice. And so I went and listened to his Church in Culture teaching too. Apparently Church in Culture was the first teaching and richly informs his teaching on justice.

He has some very interesting thoughts on why Christians ought to live in cities and on why justice is important to have imbedded within all we do as Christ followers.

Resurgence is kindly making these teachings available for free, so I thought I'd link them here.

Being the Church in our Culture
Preaching the Gospel
Doing Justice

Humility

Social Action

So, my good friend, Doug has asked me to partner with him in facilitating a conversation among friends next weekend. It sounds like fun. We'll be covering general topics like ecclesiology, community, culture and social action (the topic laid on my shoulders). The topics are general enough to be mined for quite some time. So the set up is this: 20 minute presentation followed by 45-50 minutes of question driven discussion.

My responsibility is to talk about social action in 20 minutes, packing enough fodder for an in-depth discussion.

As I've been praying and thinking over this, a three step process has come to my mind as a way to understand a persons or community's movement toward social action.

From ignorance to awareness.

From awareness to compassion.

From compassion to action.

As I discussed this with Doug, he thought that covering each step would be too much for a 20 minute session, so for the time being we're going to explore what it looks like to bring a person/community from ignorance to awareness. Here's where I'd like some feedback.

1. What do you think keeps individuals/communities from being aware of the needs of those around them?


2. What do you think are some steps that faith communities can take to raise awareness?


3. How do communities choose which issues to shed light upon?


4. What do you think are the most pressing issues?
   
   

Congratulations to the Conrad's

Well, my friends RJ and Tracy have now welcomed their daughter into the world! Congratulations, my friends!!!

Experience

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.

C. S. Lewis

Heroes Returns

My favorite new show returns tonight. Click on the pic and watch the previous episodes.

I love the idea that each of us has something to contribute to saving the world and this series plays that up to the hilt.

Warm Weather and Beautiful Baby

Cadence in one of her fav positions, flying around.
Yes, she smiles like crazy. This is our favorite kind of smile, reminiscent of the wassup commercials but rarely caught on camera, because the red-eye reduction flash freaks her out.
Before the bath (a dangerous position for dad, with the risks of urine or stool samples flying on his arm)
And how cool is this baby with glasses! Check out her googly eyes!

Ikiru

“The best way to protect your place in this world is to do nothing at all. But is this really what life is about?”

Darfur Crisis on Google Earth

Many of you know about the genocide and extreme crisis happening in Darfur. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has partnered with Google Earth to highlight the tragedies and bring global attention to these atrocities. Click on the picture and find out what they're doing. Use it as a way to pray and seek God's justice for this place.

Why Thursdays are my favorite days...

Because I get to stay home with the coolest girl in town. She loves to fly and holds her legs straight out when I hold her up like so.
And she likes to read. Quite a bright young lass.
Here she is instructing me on the nature of spheres.
And here she is holding her head up (a major feat for a person of her stature).

Every Thursday it's Dad day with Cadence. And I love it. I love this baby of ours.

A Psalm has been running through my head:

As a father has compassion on his children,

so will I have compassion...

God

Online Treasure

For my most recent birthday, my in-laws gave me the gift that keeps on giving: a book of common prayer. We have greatly enjoyed using it as a family and I've greatly benefited from using the daily office for my personal time with God. On Easter, we decided to follow the liturgy provided and it so happened that my parents were online at the same time. So I quickly stumbled on the online book of common prayer. We were able to use this and have an Easter service with my parents who were on the other side of the world! My dad and I served as the deacons and Aubrey and Sus read the scriptures. It was awesome!

If you don't know how to use it, it takes a bit of perusing to figure out. But I use the Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families under the Daily Office section. Check it out!

Children of Men

A movie worth watching.

The movie takes place in a world torn apart by greed and lack of hope. The world is haunted by the reality that no children have been born for 18 years. It is a world with no future.

There is a scene in this movie that I will remember forever. As a battle is a raging between British officials and a rebel group, the cry of a baby is heard in the middle of the explosions and screams of the injured. And something mystical happens. The residents hiding in their rooms, protecting themselves from the random bullets straffing through their building, begin to poke their heads out into the hallway, reaching out to touch the baby as her mother and Clive Owen walk by. The sergeant leading the charge into the building changes his commands from "Charge in" to "Cease Fire". As he yells "Cease Fire", you hear his followers echoing his command throughout the building. "Cease Fire". The soldiers put up their weapons. Some cross themselves. All are amazed. All are taken with the newness. Everything stops.

This stopping. This cease fire. There is something in the newness of the baby. In the middle of the fray of the battle.

There was an earthquake two thousand years ago. An opening of a tomb. A surge of hope.

abandonment

Love so amazing

so divine

Demands my soul

my life

my all



These words have been running through my head today.

spring is here!

Well, spring is on it's way. Cadence's expression here is how I feel about it!

What I miss the most...

So, I'm away at Festival of Life with our teens. Our first night was great.

But I tell you what I miss...I miss these two ladies above. That Cadence is getting more irresistible every day. That Aubrey is getting more beautiful every week.

Ah Friends

So my good friends, Nate and Sam joined Aubrey, Cadence and me for the weekend. It's good to have friends like these. Here's a pic of us on our way for some good ole' downhill sledding

What needs to burn?

I've been thinking about the Jewish sacrifical system and what it has to say to my life today. There are the conclusions that are often told like, "is your all on the altar?" or "we need to give our best to God".

But one that's been sticking in my spirit is how the sacrificial system connected the temporal things with eternal things. There was a unity of things that will last and those things that will last forever.

A sacrifice was always something important to the person making the sacrifice. It was something like grain or goats, things that were needed for sustenance and survival and and even for defining status. But as they were burning, they couldn't be used for any of those. By making the sacrifice, the person showed who really provides and defines sustenance, survival and status.

So I've asked myself. What in me needs to burn? What in my theology am I relying on for survival?

And this may be an extension of the previous conversation? What in our American theology and practice needs to burn in order for us to connect more fully to the heart of God?

For me, the first thing that pops into my head is busyness, the desire to always have something to do. Doing things isn't bad. But when doing the things becomes the object...something's gotta burn.

Another is the inclination to create an "us vs. them" attitude. Yes, there are differences, but there is also sameness. What needs to burn there?

Just more thoughts and questions...

[Edit] A funny photo sent by Tim Miller of one of his professors, Dr. Stone.

Does Theology Evolve?

That's it. It's a question with many implications. I'm asking in part because of my participation in a class that covers the "distinctive" doctrine of my denomination. I'm asking because I am wondering if our "distinctive doctrine" following John Wesley is a part of the evolution of theology. And if it is, are we called to stick to what Wesley said or to carry on what he continued, the evolution of theology?

Before I die...

In a paper for my pastoral counseling class at NTS I was asked how I will evaluate success in ministry/life. Since I was typing it last minute I did not get to really reflect on the whole thing and thought this would be a good space to do that.

Here are the questions I put in my paper. I'm willing to change the questions. These came to me with 40 minutes left to write the paper. Some of them are tailored specifically for my needs (and how ADD I am), others are general.

1. Did I listen for God’s voice rather than letting my own thoughts and concerns govern whether or not I ministered to others?
2. Did I love people as God loves them? Meaning, was I present with them? Did I see them with all the dignity that he does?
3. Did I seek to grow in all the ways God revealed to me?
4. Did I encourage others with grace to grow the way God revealed to them?
5. Did the use of my authority encourage growth in God, or did it push others away from God?
6. Did I find ways to involve others in the leadership of the church?

I'm curious to see what other questions people are asking themselves.

Rob Bell and Ben Witherington

So Doug connected me to a post by Ben Witherington, New Testament scholar at Asbury Seminary. In this post, Dr. Witherington, a generous and in-touch scholar, recognizes the positive influence Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill in Michigan, is having on our world today. But he also provides a good critique of Rob's understanding of the Jewish world in Jesus' day. To sum it up, he suggests that Rob's understanding of the Jewish context is taken from a time a few years after Jesus was around.

[Edit]

My friend Brad directed me to a quality conversation about Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis on John Smulo's blog. Good follow up stuff.

Baby Loving

So, I'm pretty much taken by this baby of ours. Right now I am trying to work on my homework, but she is sitting in front of Aubrey and I in her little chair. And she is making the best faces in the world and just laughing her heart out. No reason at all. She's just laughing and smiling and cooing. Just because.

And she's making Aubrey and I just laugh and laugh and laugh.

Delight.

Love.

Joy.

The heart of the father.

Snow Day!!!

Ah snow!!!
Cadence's first Valentine's Day! She's lovin' it!

Krispy Kreme Delight

something

So my friend brad tagged me to do this. Crazy. I usually never do this and haven't tagged anybody else. but it was funny reading his, so i thought i'd add mine. if you wanna do it too, you should.

A-Available or Married? Married. Beautiful.
B-Best Friend? Yes, a few.
C-Cake or Pie? Pie. Pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream.
D-Drink of Choice? Cream soda. Orange cream soda. Frozen orange cream soda from sheetz.
E-Essential Item? Moleskin. For ideas or good stories or quotes.
F-Favorite Color? Green. Or blue. Or brown. I also like pink.
G-Gummi Bears or Worms? Gummy bears. The 5 pound bag.
H-Hometown? Chesterfield, VA.
I-Indulgence? Blockbuster, Total Access
J-January or February? Feb is my birthday month.
K-Kids and Names? One. Cadence Joy.
L-Life is Incomplete Without? Ipod.
M-Marriage Date? June 28th, 2003.
N-Number of Siblings? One. Susan Grace.
O-Oranges or Apples? Apples. Less mess, unless you indulge with caramel.
P-Phobias/Fears? The dark. I’m serious. I hate walking through my church alone in the church.
Q-Favorite Quote? Unsure.
R-Reason to Smile? When Cadence coos or smiles.S-Season? Season 3 of 24 is the best of all of them.
T-Tag 3 People. No.
U-Unknown Fact About Me. I had 12 teeth pulled at one time. Serious. 8 babies. 4 adults. I had gaps the size of alaska in my mouth.
V-Valley Girl. Right (with sarcasm).
W-Worst Habit? Brad stole mine…about picking the nose. But it wouldn’t be a bad habit if I lived in asia, where it’s pretty much accepted.
X- Men 3 was great.
Y-Your Favorite Food? Toss up between Asian or Mexican.
Z-Zodiac? Huh?

Praying through the phone

So, scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5 and elsewhere guides us to be in prayer, to be in touch with God, to throw up our hearts to Her at all times. I've often wondered how to make that practical, how to find ways that will assist me in doing this.

Last night I accidently discovered a method I plan on using again in the future. I was editing my contact list on my phone, which includes family, youth workers, friends, pastoral staff, teens. It reminded me of many of their situations and so I began to pray for them as I went down through the list. So, now, I think I may use this method again. Praying through my contact info...

This has piqued my interest. Are there any practical methods you have found to pray continually? I'd be interested in finding out...

[an addendum to the original post: you can have prayers text messaged directly to your phone. check it out! Ha! For only 7.99 a month! Nobody said prayer was cheap.]

can forgiveness happen before anything has happened?

I have a hard time with saying that God has forgiven me before I have even sinned.

Forgiveness is a release.

Forgiveness is an expression of love.

Forgiveness is not a token. It is a relational expression.

We can say that God loved us before we sinned. But did he forgive us before we did?

Forgiveness is a releasing. How can you release something before it is even in existence?

My favorite shows

so i am happy, but i am torn. both of my favorite shows are back on the air.

Jack Bauer rejoined the USA fight against terror in 24 on Fox.

And Heroes rejoined the scene on NBC.

But here is the dilemma: they both air at 9 on Mondays. What show should I watch?

Well, I have found a compromise. Heroes actually airs online the day after! So, I shall watch 24 at night and then enjoy Heroes the next day. Hooray!

Saints and Stains

Reading The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser for a seminary course...there were sections of the book that left me feeling naked and cold and other sections that warmed me to the core.

One section that did both to me was the chapter of the book dedicated to the community of faith. Here are some thoughts spawned from it...

In the church we have saints and stains. We have the greatness of God and the fraility of humanity. We have a peace that lasts and the daily grind that disrupts any efforts for peace. We have the promise of forgiveness and the continuing selfishness that builds bitterness and emotional distance.

Get Messy

When you read the gospels about Jesus, you find him constantly touching people and allowing himself to be touched. I wonder what this has to say to us about how we related to others. Jesus seemed to have a way about him that was open to anybody who came near him. He'd pick up kids and put them on his lap, he'd speak to prostitutes, he'd touch lepers, he'd let prostitutes clean his feet (which had a whole different meaning then than it does now).

And he never promised that changing the world would be a clean cut thing. It seems that whenever you get into a relationship with someone you really discover that it is a messy process. Our challenge to our youth group this year is to get messy, to dive into others lives and seek to love people right where they are.

One of Jesus' most famous parables was the mustard seed parable, where he said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that grows and becomes a tree that birds can perch in. (It's great how Jesus uses stories and makes you actually process what he is saying, rather than just dumping info into you.) We had a friend, Brad Grinnen, come and explore those thoughts with our senior high youth this past weekend and it was quite the weekend. I am excited to see how our kids own what God is doing in their lives and seek to plant seeds of love, grace and mercy in the lives around them.

More Cadence Pictures

Grandma and Papa Fiegl with Cadence Joy
Auntie D and Uncle Marky
Maybe the first captured smile?
Kleinfeld Family Photo
Going home!
At home outside before we enter the house...
Cadence in her adorable rose outfit and in the cool moses basket...

i'm sure there will be many more of these.

we came home yesterday and Cadence slept soundly through the night with many thanks to Grammie's blanket and Grandma's Swaddling Cloth. We actually got three hours of straight sleep!

Introducing Cadence Joy

My world changed on Christmas.

Aubrey gave birth via C-section to Cadence Joy Kleinfeld at 9:20 Christmas morning. She came in weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 inches long.

We are happy to say that both mom and baby are recovering and resting well.

Here are some intro pictures of many that will follow.

Christmas Images

So, sometimes I get images stuck in my head for a while until i get them out. thoughts that might be significant...here are two recent thoughts.

I just heard a story on the news (click on picture for complete story) about a baby Jesus figurine who was stolen last year from somebody's yard. The figurine was returned this year with a set of pictures of the figurine in places the perpetrators had traveled. The "thieves" went around with baby Jesus and kept record of their time with him. For some reason, I think this story can be mined for some significance...

And the other image came to me when Aubrey and I were walking the other night and a family had just unplugged their inflatable lawn ornaments. it was kinda creepy, like the polar bear and her two cubs were having the life sucked out of them. and then we passed a place where the ILO's were being inflated from limp, lifeless flatness. and this image has stuck with me too...

what is it about these things that make such a media hubbub?

what attracts us to controversy?

Asbury College

I don't often toot the horn for my alma mater (spelling on that one?), but i just got a christmas card with this painting by Kyle Keys. I thought it was splendid and so wanted to share it with you all. Click on the picture to find out more about the grand Asbury College.

folk music...

i like patty griffin.

i like denison whitmer.

i wish i was more into this folk scene, but i'm not gonna force it.

a friend of mine just showed me a site where denison is giving away free songs for donations to his favorite charities. check it out: www.happybirthdaydenison.com.

Holiday Pictures

My dear wife Aubrey loves the decoration time at Christmas time...so these pictures are a tribute to her creativity and fun-loving spirit, even though she feels like she didn't do much this year, because of the baby in her belly.
Hooray, in front of our decorated Christmas Tree!
Aubrey always likes to decorate the door...this is a picture of the wreath before it browned (we're debating taking it down or hacking a part of our tree off so we can make another one)
me and sis setting up the tree...oh what fun...oh the memories of years ago...
Sis and me after the tree decided to not fall over...

I am thankful for family, for memories, for ways of remembering during the holiday times.

(I accidently typed "holidaddy times"...baby must be on my mind).

time wasters

so a couple teens showed me a website that is absolutely awesome at helping you waste time. on this site, you create lines for a sledder to slide down and you can make him do little loopty loos and jumps and flips and...

it's www.linerider.com.

go there. waste time. enjoy.

call your friends over and make it an event!

creation groans

Somalia and Ethiopia conflicts...

Peace on earth to all men and women...

what if...

what if love was the hallmark of the church?

what if people left the church because the community loves so much?

expecting

it's any day now.

every time aubrey wakes up in the middle of the night (let's just say an average of 5 times), I wonder.

every time my cell phone rings and I see it's Aubrey, I wonder.

We've got the room set up. The basinet is ready. The clothes have been washed. The electronic swing has been tested. The car seats are installed. The bags are packed.

Advent has new meaning.

What if I lived this way with Christ? Expecting and hoping to find him at any moment...

The greatest Christian revolutions come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.

Philip Yancey

Irresistible Revolution

Shane Claiborne, author of irresistible revolution and friend of The Simple Way, did a little survey on "Christians about their (mis)conceptions of Jesus. It was fun just to see how many people think Jesus loved homosexuals or ate kosher. But I learned a striking thing from the survey. I asked participants who claimed to be "strong followers of Jesus" whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question. I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor, and less tahn 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire adn worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.

"When the worlds of poverty and wealth collide, the resulting powerful fusion can change the world...I long for the Calcutta slums to meet the Chicago suburbs, for lepers to meet landowners and for each to see God's image in the other. It's no wonder that the footsteps of Jesus lead from the tax collectors to the lepers. I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end."

Irresistible Revolution, 113-114

At the Margins

my friend scott emailed me an interesting article. It's an African bishop's critique of the American Church and it's concept of power and change.

Here's a section of text about the Great Commission:
We need to begin to read the Bible differently. Americans have been preoccupied with the end of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission: "Go and make." I call them go-and-make missionaries. These are the go-and-fix-it people. The go-and-make people are those who act like it's all in our power, and all we have to do is "finish the task." They love that passage! But when read from the center of power, that passage simply reinforces the illusion that it's about us, that we are in charge.

I would like to suggest a new favorite passage, the Great Invitation. It's what we find if we read from the beginning of the Gospels rather than the end. Jesus says, "Come, follow me. I will make you fishers of men." Not "Go and make," but "I will make you." It's all about Jesus. And do you know the last words of Jesus to Peter, in John 21? "Follow me." The last words of Simon Peter's encounter are the same as the first words.

I hope you enjoy and are challenged.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Anybody who's anybody should check out the most recent sermon series at Mars Hill Community.

They brought the pain especially on hell and witnessing.

They told the story about the blind man who was healed with Jesus' spitwad. How the man, when asked about the healing, repeated "I don't know". It's okay to not know all the answers. What's most important is that my life has been changed for the better b/c of Christ.

[edit from original post: the sermon series (title of the post) can be accessed on the link above. the first one by rob bell is a little scattered, but the rest are more direct and a pretty interesting examination of how God desires to change Christians...rob seems to be talking about people who think they have it all together and rather than having the love and mercy of Christ, use their Christianity/religion as a weapon against the world rather than an invitation to the world.]