Myers-Briggs Revisited in Hell

When I was studying at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, the students were expected to take Myers-Briggs type indicator as an assessment tool in Person in Ministry class. I like to analyze and put things in the right boxes, probably more then most. At the same time I have learned by experience that such practices are quite limiting and not always as useful as I would wish. Continue reading Myers-Briggs Revisited in Hell

Integrating Youth Ministry

Some time back I observed a congregation dealing with an interesting issue. To strengthen their youth ministry in the past, they had bought a building next to the church for the youth, due to limited space in the main building.

Now the youth building had become a visible and quite established reminder about how the youth ministry was its “own” entity in the congregation. In fact the youth even had their “own” service on Sundays, when they came over to the main building for a contemporary worship experience, before heading back to their fort. Continue reading Integrating Youth Ministry

Change Aversion

Few months ago a person said to me: “I saw this idea in your notes. Sorry, but something similar was tried by our intern 9 years ago and it didn’t work. So, I think you can just forget it.”

Stupid me decided to spend time explaining how my idea was in every way different when it came to shared responsibility, participation and ownership.

The reply should not have come as a surprise: “If we do this, and we probably should, it has to be done as we did it 9 years ago, otherwise we can’t control the outcome.”

Understanding Youth Ministry

Few months ago I was asked to articulate my personal understanding of youth and young adult ministry. In an attempt to answer I wrote a comprehensive reply with a specific congregation in mind. This is in no way a final word on the issue, but an attempt to give insight into my current thoughts concerning congregational youth ministry. Parts of this posts are directly from my thesis, Ecclesiology and Evaluation, which I wrote at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in 2010. Continue reading Understanding Youth Ministry

How is the Church?

On the Ezra-Nehemiah scroll, we come across an interesting tension between Ezra 3 and Nehemiah 8. If redaction criticism is used to address the texts, it can be claimed that Nehemiah 7.72b-8.3 is in fact a twist on Ezra 3.1-5.* Both texts describe celebration in the seventh month. The texts start in exactly the same way.

Continue reading How is the Church?

Distribution of Health Care

Originally written in 2007 as a paper in a course in Bioethics. Revised for clarity.

In this post I will look at distribution of health care. In western societies, the invisible hand of Adam Smith is usually considered the best way to distribute goods. In this post I will explain why that is not the case in distribution of health care and look at few issues that need to be considered when looking at health care distribution and prioritization in health care. Continue reading Distribution of Health Care

Pride and Despair

Almost eight years ago I attended a lecture (overview in Icelandic) at Pontificial College Josephinum, where Dr. R. Scott Appleby introduced the project Fundamentalism Observed, which he edited with Martin Marty.

Daniel Malotky mentions Fundamentalism Observed as an excellent source when looking at fundamentalistic movements in his article Fundamentalist Violence and Despair. Continue reading Pride and Despair

Is Democracy a Christian Virtue?

Three years ago I was asked to write a curriculum for YMCA/YWCA in Iceland based on a list of virtues chosen by The People’s Meeting (isl. Þjóðfundurinn), a initiative created to find and reaffirm the real values of the Icelandic population in the aftermath of the financial collapse in Iceland. Continue reading Is Democracy a Christian Virtue?

The Big Game, Football, and Civil Religion

I have thought about it many times. I have been to few games at Ohio Stadium, attended baseball games in AAA leagues, and watched the Super Bowl while living in the US. It is amazing to witness the dedication, the liturgy, the symbolism, and the worship segments of it all. Continue reading The Big Game, Football, and Civil Religion

How do we understand our relationship with God and how does it affect our political leanings?

In Fides et Historia, vol XXXII, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2000), I came across an interesting article by David John Marley; Martin Luther King Jr., Pat Robertson, and the Duality of Modern Christian Politics. I have mentioned the article earlier, in my Icelandic Bible blog when I was writing about Exodus 22. Continue reading How do we understand our relationship with God and how does it affect our political leanings?

How do we see Christ in light of Religious Pluralism?

John Hick’s attempts, in an article in Journal of Theology for South Africa, to make sense of the incarnation of Jesus Christ in a pluralistic world. In the article, which is named General Introduction – Christology in an Age of Religious Pluralism, Hick rejects the notion of Jesus Christ as a literally son of God. Continue reading How do we see Christ in light of Religious Pluralism?