Parker Palmer

30 July, 2004 at 3:32 pm (General)
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I was peering into Bob Carlton’s Corner of the blogosphere the other day, and he pointed me in this direction. It’s an address given by Parker Palmer entitled, “The Grace of Great Things: Recovering the Sacred in Knowing, Teaching, and Learning”. Bob referenced the speech in the context of depression, something he and Palmer have in common. I downloaded it because a local reference (Dayton, OH) caught my eye. In it are a number of quotes that bear repeating. I’ve worked hard to whitle them down, but it’s well worth your reading the whole thing.

  • [Paraphrasing a new principal's first address to his teachers] “We have to start to understand that the young people we are working with have nothing of external substance or support…. But these students have one thing that no one can take away from them. They have their souls. And from this day forth… we are going to lift those souls up. We are going to make those souls visible to the young people themselves and to their parents and to the community. We are going to celebrate their souls, and we are going to reground their lives in the power of their souls. And that will require this faculty recovering the power of their own souls, remembering that we, too, are soul-driven, soul-animated creatures.”
  • “[The soul] is like a wild animal: tough, self-sufficient, resilient, but also exceedingly shy…. We cannot beat the bushes and yell at each other if we expect this precious inwardness to emerge.”
  • “We do not grant respect to students, to stumbling and failing. We do not grant respect to tentative and heartfelt ways of being in the world where the person can’t quite think of the right word or can’t thing of any word at all. We don’t grant respect to silence and wonder. We don’t grant it to voices outside our tight little circle, let alone to the voiceless things of the world.”
  • “One of the greatest sins in education is reductionism, the destruction of that precious otherness by cramming everything into categories that we find comfortable, ignoring data, ignoring writers, ignoring voices, ignoring information, ignoring simple facts that don’t fit into our shoebox, because we don’t have a respect for otherness. We have a fear of otherness that comes from having flattened the terrain and desacralized it. A people who know the sacred know otherness, and we don’t know that anymore…. Too many students have learned, through that reductionist model, a disrespect for the otherness of the things of the world.”
  • “I believe that movements start when individuals who feel very isolated and very alone in the midst of an alien culture, come in touch with something life-giving in the midst of a death-dealing situation. They make one of the most basic decisions a human being can make, which I have come to call the decision to live “divided no more,” the decision to no longer act differently on the outside than one knows one’s truth to be on the inside.”

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A Face in the Crowd

30 July, 2004 at 3:22 pm (General)
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We hold a monthly gathering at HCF called Weekend Reels. (I’m proud to say I’m not a part of making it happen. We have an aspiring film maker and movie buff in our midst who drives the gathering. Passion turned to action!) It’s a movie ministry whose aim is twofold.

First it provides a setting that allows people to make new acquaintances or build on friendships already in progress. For example, I met Brad. He was one of about 300 people living in the neighborhood around our storefront to whom we sent an invitation via postcard. I don’t know much about Brad yet (He seems to prefer older movies.), but hopefully he’ll come again next month and we can chat again.

Second, Weekend Reels seeks to facilitate conversation via the evening’s movie. Last weekend’s feature was A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan and introducing Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes. Rhodes is a “drifter, storyteller, and guitar picker” who is discovered by a local Arkansas radio station while sleeping off a bender in the local jail. With his irrepressible charm and mile-wide smile, Lonesome rockets to national fame via the relatively new medium of television.

From an artistic point of view, the film is quite good. I was struck by the wonderful photography throughout. The cinematographers’ ability to translate mental pictures to film, particularly in the age of black and white, fascinates me. Moreover, the performances were excellent. Griffith’s over the top portrayal of Lonesome is a far cry from the Sheriff Taylor most folks know. (This was Griffith’s first role. Kazan discovered him doing stand up in Tennessee.)

Though it first premiered in 1957, Crowd’s themes resonate strongly today. The film seems to speak directly to our pop-driven, sound-bite hungry, media saturated culture. Kazan and his screenwriter Budd Schulberg explore (indict?) the power of media, particularly television, to shape and even create public opinion. At the height of his fame, Lonesome proclaims: “I’m not just an entertainer. I’m a force, a power!”

Today we are in the midst of a new media revolution. The television oligarchy is being usurped by a diversity of voices. Millions of Internet publishers - and to a lesser extent independent film and television studios - are recasting the media landscape in their image. Don’t like what you see on the big three networks? That’s fine. Alternative voices are easy to find. (The downside: It’s easy to exclude voices that run counter to your point of view and listen only to those that reinforce it.)

I leave you with a recommendation - see the film - and a challenge. Open yourself to a variety of perspectives. Read some liberal (or conservative) columnists. Find a few global voices. Listen to someone with whom you disagree.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with having an opinion; just don’t hold too tightly to it. Have humility and see the world from another point of view. Doing so can only help you.

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Paying Church Staff

27 July, 2004 at 11:35 am (General)
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Joining the conversation started by Jonny Baker and continued by Darren Rowse and Si Johnston

UPDATE: It appears the topic is being touched on by Jason Clark and Phil as well.

Quick Background as I Understand It: The community, moot, has been turned down for a denominational grant, forcing them to re-think their plans, such as bringing on one (or more) paid staff member. This opened the discussion: Why pay staff? What about the priesthood of all believers? Doesn’t this just perpetuate the institutionalism from which some are trying to escape? Does this betray a desire among emerging church leaders to simply slap a fresh coat of paint on the same old house?

At its core, the issue isn’t money. The issue is time. Speaking for myself, I have no interest in setting up a new institution in order to sit on top of it. I do, however, want more time to pursue mission, to equip and encourage my fellow priests to do the same. I’d love to take the 40-50 hours each week I spend working in the office - like now :D - and devote it to things I cannot do from here. This is why money is important.

Paid clergy (or whatever term you prefer) is not inconsistent with the priesthood of all believers. Paul says a worker is worth his pay. (Granted, Paul did not chose to earn his own keep, but not because he thought it was wrong to accept payment; quite the contrary.) The NT seems to acknowledge that there are benefits gained by freeing some believers from their vocation in order that they might use that time to pursue mission.

While I hesitate to use a business analogy, imagine the church is a business. (Pick the most admirable business you can think of.) Can you imagine that business using only volunteer labor? Sure you can; it’s called a start up. The entrepreneurs devote massive amounts of time into launching the enterprise. They reinvest every penny into the company. They subsist off personal savings and venture capital, aka denominational grants. They sell their possessions. They may even take jobs at other companies in order keep things afloat. Ideally, the business succeeds, and our entrepreneurs can begin to draw a salary. It isn’t extravagant, but it does allow them to quit their other jobs, stop writing grant proposals, and focus on the business.

Can you see the parallels to church? Paying staff isn’t necessarily a perpetuation of the “paid-holy-man-does-all-the-work” mentality. It certainly isn’t an inherent contradiction of NT ecclesiology. (Am I using this word correctly?) It’s an acknowledgement that time is the limiting factor, and money can buy time. Denominational grants, personal savings, etc. are all important to get churches started on their mission. Ideally, those churches will attract/draw/create/whatever, enough members - enough individuals who believe in the mission and are willing to support it - to become self-sustaining. For many churches paid staff is part of the plan to pursue the mission on an increased scale.

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Suddenly Seminary - INRI

20 July, 2004 at 2:10 pm (General)
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jesus as child

Suddenly Seminary (hosted by the Tall Skinny Kiwi over at Habbo Hotel) met today to discuss a photgraphy exhibit titled INRI. This was the piece that struck me: Jesus as a child. The table brings images of the “Last Supper” to mind, a pre-emptive reminder of his unavoidable end.

My friend, Tom Fisher, wrote a Christmas song entitled “Even Now.” It’s a reflection on the fact that even as he was being born, Jesus was on the road to his crucifiction. At the very moment of his birth, Golgotha stood waiting to receive him and the tree from which his cross would be fashioned was growing. Christ’s childhood was anything but carefree.

Such has been said of today’s children. Divorce, violence, abuse, disease, etc.: All force children to age prematurely. The term “adultified children” has been coined to describe this phenomenon. You see it in their eyes, age, years, tears, widsom, hardness - all measured far beyond what is right. Christ and the suffering little ones share this in common.

Our Sudennly Seminary conversation turned to Jesus and his un-making of adults, the way he turns us back into little children. More than healing the wounds that “adultify” us, he un-makes them. Jesus re-creates lost innocence and youth. He frees us to stand playfully on the table of the Last Supper, neither oblivious nor fearful of its meaning.

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One Bald Man To Another

19 July, 2004 at 2:29 pm (General)
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Got a note from a fellow bald man who stumbled across my little site. Rather than respond privately, I thought I’d do so here. He writes in part:

i’m a 28 year old christian guy who is quickly becoming a fellow bald man. it has been totally devestating for me.  i was wondering if i could ask you a couple questions about how you dealt with it as a christian.

An interesting question, and one I’ve never really considered. Let me preface my thoughts with my own balding history.

I began losing my hair at age 16. I always had fine hair, and let’s just say it started getting noticeably “finer.” I began to grow it out at university more out of slovenliness than anything else. Finally, as a 20 yr. old junior, I made the big move. On a cold January day I borrowed my roommate’s clippers, and have ever since been the shining citizen you see now. What’s left of my hair has gradually gotten shorter, though I’ve never spent enough time grooming to keep up a 100% shaved skull.

I always viewed baldness as inevitable, and never gave it much worry. I was lucky enough to nab a girl who understands. (We started dating in high school, so she’s gone thru the whole thing with me.

I can only imagine what my balding inquisitor is experiencing. To go thru such an obvious transformation in the midst of career and possibly family. To be surrounded by the culture’s relentless message: “baldness is emasculating (Bullshit!); baldness is unattractive (Untrue generalization); baldness should be corrected.” So to him I offer these thoughts, off the top of my head, of course:

  • If baldness is a corruption introduced by sin, let your baldness drive you to long that much more for Christ’s return, when every tear will wiped away and, perhaps, every hair restored.
  • If baldness is part of the plan, then let’s enjoy God’s sense of humor. Perhaps he’s asking us not to take ourselves too seriously.
  • Finally, on a practical side, go with the flow. Baldness isn’t unattractive. A bald man fighting it, trying to hang on to the last strands of hair; well, I’ve never seen anyone look good in a comb-over. A $20 set of clippers sets you up for a lifetime of haircuts.

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More Wifi Fun

8 July, 2004 at 8:39 am (General)
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I’m back at Panera with a long-time buddy showing off TypePad. Check out Tom Fisher’s Music Ministry! He’s really cool.

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