Combining and writing

I am currently bringing together the ispeculate.net blog and my old elli.annall.is blog here on ispeculate.net. This becomes a site that currently has approx. 800 posts, with the first post from 2004. The older posts are all in Icelandic, but over the last three years I have started to write more and more in English.

I am as well going through my papers, creating short posts with quotations and links to various interesting articles, and writing unto the blog, ideas and thoughts that I have written down with a pen or pencil in the past.

I have done some work to tag articles, to make it easier to find them, but I still have some work to do. As part of tagging articles I have also removed at least temporary all categories, though in the future I might decide to use categories as a way to separate between Icelandic and English posts. We’ll see.

Pewless by Martin E. Marty

This spring a certain Christian layperson has been criticized for not exiting his local church when he disagreed with something his pastor preached.

The experts on the subject have been, as far as I can tell, media personnel who never go to church, do not know what sermons are for, and have not experienced lively congregational participation; people who value fidelity very little and church hopping and sermon shopping very highly; those who have political stakes in their judgment; and people who pay no attention to the contexts of messages.

via The Christian Century.

Who Spends the Church’s Money?

In terms of spending, the more control the board exerts, the less a ministry can respond immediately to current needs. The more freedom ministries have, the harder it is for the board to monitor exactly what’s going on. Each church has to find the middle ground.

via Who Spends the Church’s Money? | Free Article Funds Budget Pay Income Expense.

Preaching as Reimagination

It is not that the church’s theological absolutes are no longer trusted, but that the old modes in which those absolutes have been articulated are increasingly suspect and dysfunctional. That is because our old modes are increasingly regarded as patriarchal, hieararchic, authoritarian, and monologic.

Walter Brueggeman asks how this affects our way of preaching in “Preaching as Reimagination.”

Sizing Up a Congregation

Arlin Rothauge’s “Sizing Up a Congregation” (pdf) is a great overview of the dynamics found in different sized churches.

It addresses the Family Church (0-50), The Pastoral Church (50-150), The Program Church (150-350), and The Corporation Church (350-500+). From the perspective of the pastor, the issues are different in each of those. The smallest one calls the pastor to be innovative and finding things to do, but at the same time be available. The Family church is all about being reactive, there is not a lot of room for innovation, the pastor often seems to have favorites (those that have initiative to be in contact). When we move into the program church, the root of complaints towards the pastor is that he is not available for all groups, and does not participate in all programs. The issues in the largest church group are seldom about the pastor, more about lack of space for various tasks (lets build something together).

Rothauge does not address what we might call mega churches or multisite variations.

Restructuring UMC

The United Methodist Church or, more specifically, its U.S. component, often continues to be entangled in U.S. political and economic ideologies and desires. … we must clearly grasp that the so-called “American Way of Life” requires critique. Capitalism and consumerism are not practices taken straight from the gospel.

Elaine A Robinson has an interesting article about the need to restructure UMC in an Age of Empire (PDF). Asking questions about the unbalanced relationship between north and south.

Prep, Inc

PREP (Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program) is one of the most comprehensive and well respected divorce-prevention/marriage enhancing programs in the world. PREP is a skills and principles-building curriculum designed to help partners say what they need to say, get to the heart of problems, and increase their connection with each other.

On their website are various resources about marriage, cohabitation, and divorces. It has a bend towards traditional understanding of the family, but valuable nonetheless.

Prep, Inc – Articles. – Of special interest is Marriage in the 90s: A Nationwide Random Phone Survey (PDF).

The cost of short-term missions

While on the phone, I asked her what she thought of those groups. Her answer might surprise you: “Everyone knows,” she said, “That short term missions benefit the people who come, not the people here.”

Is that true? If so, then thousands of people are raising millions of dollars each year to do something not for others, but for themselves. Are we fooling ourselves by pretending these trips help people when they are really just an excuse to see a foreign country? If our good works are not doing good, why do them?

via catapult magazine The cost of short-term missions. The original article is to be found on pdf at www.ajshonduras.org/joannsarticle.pdf.

The Theology of the Crumbs

The second symptom of the illness of man’s faith stems from relationship among fellow human beings: The Politics of Marginalization; more forcefully, Ang Politika ng Pagkamanhid.   The Rich Man did not mind Lazarus, covered with wounds and praying for mere crumbs that fall from his table.  There was a great chasm between them, even,though Lazarus was just at the Rich Man’s door.  Because the Rich Man was already comfortable, his world no longer accounted for Lazarus.  Farther and farther, every single day, araw-araw, until every single day reached forever at death, and the chasm became permanently unbridgeable.  Man responds to a similar situation every single day; a tap on the car window for every street children begging for coins; an absent nodding of the head for a lola on the umpteenth retelling of the story of her life; bribing for one’s convenience.  In a sense, this politics of marginalization is necessary to the economics of affluence.  Once man starts serving mammon, one can no longer be present to the people around him.

via THE THEOLOGY OF THE CRUMBS.

Islam

Another visit during my stay in Detroit was to a mosque in Dearborn and a visit to an American Arab museum. The fact that not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs is obvious but very often forgotten. The website www.discoverislam.com offers some helpful information about the faith. In the context of the US, a fatwa from July 2005 is very important:

Islam strictly condemns religious extremism and the use of violence against innocent lives. There is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism. Targeting civilians’ life and property through suicide bombings or any other method of attack is haram – or forbidden – and those who commit these barbaric acts are criminals, not “martyrs.”
The Qur’an, Islam’s revealed text, states: “Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.” (Qur’an, 5:32)

Prophet Muhammad said there is no excuse for committing unjust acts: “Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

via Fatwa against Terror (PDF).

Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion

When I attended a course in Detroit in 2008, we meet with representatives from various groups that are trying to change the life of individuals and communities for the better. An example of that is:

We work to address inequity throughout our region through a process of recognition, reconciliation and renewal.  We strive to build relationships that create social justice and build sustainable inclusive communities.

via Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion.

We focused especially on interfaith issues and how the conversation has changed over relatively short time. A resource to look at in the context of interfaith is Interfaith Heroes.

Christian Evangelicals Plot to Remake America In Their Own Image

“What they don’t know — what even most conservative Christians who voted for Bush don’t know — is that ‘Christian nation’ means something else entirely to these Dominionist leaders. This movement is no more about following the example of Christ than Bush’s Clean Water Act is about clean water.”

via Christian Evangelicals Plot to Remake America In Their Own Image.

Triangle Foundation

When I attended a course in Detroit in 2008, we meet with representatives from various groups that are trying to change the life of individuals and communities for the better. An example of that:

It is the mission of Triangle Foundation to promote equality and to secure freedom from violence, intimidation and discrimination for LGBT persons throughout Michigan.

We visited a community center in Detroit that had no markings on the outside do to intimidation towards LGBTQ. We heard about Ruth Ellis Center and their work with homeless LGBTQ teenagers and young adults.

There we were introduced to the “Heterosexual Questionnaire” that is a very helpful tool to address issues about sexuality. The questionnaire is found in various forms. Examples are 1, 2, 3 and 4.

More about Triangle Foundation can be found at www.tri.org.

COTS (Coalition on Temporary Shelter)

When I attended a course in Detroit in 2008, we meet with representatives from various groups that are trying to change the life of individuals and communities for the better. An example of that:

COTS exists to alleviate homelessness by providing an array of services that enable people to achieve self-sufficiency and obtain quality affordable housing. COTS also exists to advocate for long-term solutions to the problems of homelessness.

More about COTS in Detroit can be found at www.cotsdetroit.org.