The Hsu’s Views

My friends Rex and Connie Kennemer will be participating in a fundraising walk for Survivors of Suicide Loss (SOSL) and the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program. They lost their son Todd to bipolar and have since been doing a wonderful job of helping raise awareness regarding mental health issues. They do this through the Community Alliance for Healthy Minds (CAHM).

SOSL and the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program are great organizations providing a wonderful services in educating the community about suicide and the prevention of suicide. Together they host monthly support groups, maintain a call-in help-line, publish a newsletter as well as a speaker’s bureau.

Consider sponsoring Rex and Connie as they walk to raise funds.

Social Concern

Ran across a video that was helpful in tweaking my understanding of poverty. Like many, I would attempt a definition that begins with the lack of something(s) material. In this video, Brazilian “crazy” pastor walks you through a thought experiment and highlights relationships as a critical component to poverty. Reductionistic? View, then comment below.

Kingdom, Social Concern

How do you balance an understanding of the gospel that calls for individual response, with an understanding that includes the redemption and transformation of creation? Or put another way, is the gospel just about saving souls, or is there also a transformation of the ills of society and creation as suggested in a Kingdom theology?

Tim Keller sets out a few of this thoughts in this article for Leadership Journal. No surprise in my response. I enjoy the analysis and the attempt to proclaim both aspects of the gospel.

In this podcast from the folks at Audio Ur, Skye Jethani , David Swanson , and Matt Tebbe discuss Tim Keller’s article.

Evangelism, Kingdom, Social Concern, Theology

Ok, I admit giving a provocative title to the blog, but after hearing a bit of an interview on NPR today it spurred a few thoughts. This might give some insight to the crazy ways my head works.

Dan Mathews of PETA was doing an interview on the National Public Radio show, “These Days” regarding why he doesn’t mind that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is not mainstream or widely accepted. Much of the show was about the radical methods that they employ to draw attention to animal rights.

My thinking was spurred when he said, “We are the group that everyone else if a little embarrassed about.” A bit later he observes that when you seek to be popular, you lose your edge (or effectiveness, I don’t remember the exact words, but that was the sentiment.)

It made me draw the parallel with the need in the church today. It seems that the natural tendency of God’s people, if left alone to its own devices, is to lose its distinctiveness as an alternative community in the midst of the world. Secularism has often softened our sense of right and wrong, and has blurred the lines of moral and immoral. We tend to drift to a place where the counter-cultural values of the Kingdom lose it’s edge and we settle at a comfortable place not far from the values of the world.

Historically, the role of the Apostolic and Prophetic was to lead the charge to help the people of God keep its edge. The apostolically minded were the ones boldly pioneering into uncharted waters with little regard for what others thought of them. The prophetically minded would be calling God’s people away from their indistinct secular values and back to those that better represent a holy God.

As the church in North America becomes increasingly secular, there is a growing need for the apostolically and prophetically gifted to use their gifts in leading the church. They are the ones that can be the group that everyone else is a little embarrassed about. They are the ones that see injustices that the rest of the church has grown blind to. They are the ones that are engaging in “odd” practices because they want to call attention to the plight of “the least of these.”

I think we need more oddness in a time such as ours. We shouldn’t shun our brothers and sisters that are pursuing alternative forms of gathering as God’s people. We should actually listen to those devoted followers of Jesus that have difficulties with U.S. foreign policy. Some of those people with whom we are a bit embarrassed understand God’s creation mandate as a call to care for the world that God has created and called good.

Yes, there will be those who will be radical for the sake of being radical, often in self-interest. But it seems like if the body of Christ lives under his benevolent kingdom reign and rule, and that this rule is distinct from that of the worlds, and that the natural direction is secularization, then the existence of brethren that are “out there” is a good thing.

Leadership, Movements, Social Concern

Preacher’s Magazine over at Nazarene Publishing House has published an article by Hal Knight called “John Wesley and the Emerging Church.” Knight does a good job at trying to tentatively define “emerging church” in an effort to make the case that the Wesleyan tradition would do well to embrace this emerging development in the church.

He make several observations about the emerging church and then comments on parallels with Wesley.

1. Emerging churches understand discipleship as “following closely and emulating the person and ministry of Jesus.” Knight comments that many of these emerging post-evangelicals “are actually very much in the spirit of an earlier evangelicalism that was rooted in Wesley’s vision of holiness of heart and life… This evangelicialism was committed to ministries with the poor, abolition of slavery, and women’s rights as well as fervently evangelistic.”
2. Emerging churches are pre-eminently missional. They seek to be communities who participate in the mission of God in the world. They understand church structures not as ends in themselves but as means to mission. Wesley believed God had raised the “people called Methodists” “to reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.”
3. Emerging churches are radically incarnational. They see all of life as being holy, rejecting the dualisms of sacred/secular, public/private, mind/body, faith/reason that are so central to Enlightenment thought.
4. Emerging churches are alternative communities. The church is seen as a people who do not “go to church,” because they “are the church.” They are frequently networks of small groups seeking mutual accountability as a central practice. “The parallels with Wesley are obvious: a network of small groups, mutual accountability, transformed lifestyles, relationship in community and living for mission.”
5. Proclamation and teaching in emerging chruhes finds truth more in bibilical narrative than a rational/propositional reading of scripture.

Knight also notes one other feature of emerging churches, namely their generous orthodoxy. Read the article. It is good stuff.

Missional, Movements, Order, Organizational Theory, Social Concern

I dunno. He looked confused, cold, tired and hungry. I didn’t know who he was. It didn’t seem like anyone else knew who he was. But he opened the door, looked in, seemed to see the coffee cart, then walked right in making a beeline for the coffee.

The forty of us sat a bit bewildered, but continued to press into our theological discussion on the meaning of James 2 regarding favoritism for the man that comes to your meeting with a gold ring and fine clothes. We boldly pressed on, not wanting to be distracted or to insult our visitor with a stare. We tell our kids not to stare because it is rude… but some of us were rude that morning.

Ken got up and helped our visitor with some coffee and exchanged a couple of words.

“Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also come in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’…”

Our visitor got his coffee and began to look around the large ring of table that we all sit around. He made his way to the one seat that was unoccupied. Chuck was actually sitting there, but at the moment was at the restroom. Chuck had just returned from a several month absence due to his brush with death. Chuck was moving slowly with a cane due to the paralysis his illness brought on. We had to save Chuck’s seat.

Our visitor was headed to Chuck’s seat. I thought to myself, “Oh please let him see Chuck’s coffee cup, bible and notes. Is there another seat for our visitor? I hope somebody does something.” As our visitor crouched to sit in Chuck’s seat, the only available at our table, he heard, “This seat is taken.”

“…but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him? But you have insulted the poor.”

The only remaining seats were a couple of armchairs off to the side and well below eye level of the rest of the group, so much so, you couldn’t see our visitor. These were not seats of honor.

I thought to myself that if I were the visitor, entering into a room of new people and was told I couldn’t sit at the table with everyone else, I’d be embarassed. I might even want to sit out of view of everyone… besides, they were all staring. How insulting.

Is this really happening? I can convince myself that I don’t go to a wealthy church, and that the expensive cars in the parking lot… aren’t. I can try to tell myself that it is just a coincidence that we didn’t have a single chair at the table for this dazed, homeless (?), I-don’t-know-what-his-story-is man. But did it have to be this passage of preferential treatment that we had to pretend to be so preoccupied with that we could pretend to ignore the profound object lesson that our visitor was teaching us without words?

Wayne whispered to me, “I think he is an angel.”

Like the 40 others in the room, I had no idea what to do. I closed my bible, I couldn’t hear a thing behind the voice in my head that was swimming in that surreal world when something was happening that couldn’t possibly be happening. The whole room had to have felt the palpable presence of God’s Holy Spirit pressing in on our hearts and minds. I was getting ill with my desire to do something, anything. But I was paralyzed. Nothing came to mind.

Eventually I thought about leaving and telling our visitor that he could have my seat, but what if he didn’t want to draw further attention to himself? If I came over to insist that he take my seat, I’d get points for being Jesus-like, but at whose expense? That’s not gonna work. I calmed down but remained quite uneasy.

Next thing I knew, he was gone.

Heart of a Leader, Mercy, Social Concern

(This book report was written in 2005 for a DMin class at Bakke Graduate University. I was still on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ at the time. I’m posting it now in the event it is useful for the upcoming U40 meeting.)

Thesis and argument of the authors
This book is an assessment of the influence of white evangelicalism on black-white relations in the United States. The authors of Divided by Faith, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith argue that evangelicals want to stand against racism but due to several aspects of the way they understand their faith, they are limited in their ability to see the real problem and actually contribute to the perpetuation of racial division and inequality.

Presentation of the argument
The authors begin with a historical overview of evangelical thought from the time of slavery in America (1700’s) to the Civil Rights era. During this time, we learn that evangelicals have held many positions, from deciding that slavery is consistent with scripture and that slaves should be Christianized for their own good to support in the North to end Jim Crow laws. We learn that while there has been some progress in racial thinking, we have still only moved from enforced separation to voluntary segregation.

The contemporary situation has seen some movement toward racial reconciliation, but the authors identify several reasons why evangelicals cannot make much progress in genuine racial reconciliation. The first of these is a focus on the individual or what is known as a freewill-individualist tradition . Evangelicals see individuals as independent moral agents that must personally take responsibility for their sins and accept Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. With this perspective, evangelicals see only individualized solutions. They are unable to see larger systemic or structural issues that perpetuate racial inequality.

Read more…

Books, Culture, Social Concern, U40

My friends Rex and Connie are doing a great job of raising awareness on the issues of mental health. Upon losing their son took his life two years ago, the Kennemers have been active in promoting the work of several great organizations that come alongside the roughly one in five American teenages that have diagnosable, treatable mental illness.

Consider coming to a double event on Dec 28. First a Forum that includes a keynote speaker, Q&A, and breakout sessions. Second, there will be a concert and art show that evening hosted by Molly Jensen.

Missional, Social Concern

We had a wonderful meeting today reflecting on the significance of the prophetic function within the church and it’s impact on our lives as disciples of Jesus. The role of the prophets were to remind the people of God of their role in the world as representatives of his reign. Often, the prophets were those annoying folks that called God’s people from static institutionalized patterns that had slowly drifted from God’s design.

In many ways, I believe the next generation of church here in N. America is taking on a bit of this prophetic hue. They seem to understand Jesus and his mission in fresh perspectives. Looking to existing expressions or paradigms of church, there is a frustration because they do not seem to effectively further Christ’s Kingdom cause as they understand it. This fosters a hope and a longing for new contextualized expressions of being the church.

Many of these frustrations are centered around issues of inequality. Some have more resources than others, more access to clean drinking water, or better treatment because of skin color. The tragedy is that there are many ways in which the church is unwittingly contributing to the problem because of our confusion of the mission among other things.

Walk around any high school in the country today and you will find posters that seeking to draw attention to any number of causes that kids today believe are human tragedies that desire our intervention. From the crisis in Darfur, to the HIV/AIDS crises in Africa, you name it, someone cares about it… except seemingly, many of the churches in our fine land. Does that make sense?

We need to listen to the prophetic voice of the U40 crowd because it is calling us to repent and reorient our thinking, our systems, and our forms such that the church once again is in lockstep with Jesus on his Kingdom mission.

Social Concern, U40

…is what the opposite of leading from the center would be. I resonated with Drew Goodmanson’s post entitled, “You Can’t Program the Gospel.” He comments,

“If church leadership creates a program and tells people they should attend, it is not the gospel.”

Religion thrives on the notion of “oughta.”  At times it can feel as though our churches expect our participation in its various programs.  Our participation in frequency and fervor is an example of our maturity in Christ. The Gospel is more of a “wanta” deal. Our experience of God’s grace drives us wacky with a desire to serve him.

Drew comments that program driven churches lead from the center. And with that approach, you wind up with people that have to execute the “program” that the pastor feels led to do (”oughta”). This can deaden the ability for people to hear and follow the leading of the Spirit in people’s lives. If however, we foster, encourage and support the people who have a passion for a particular ministry, we release them to the ministry that they are burdened with (”wanta”).

I bet church works better this way.

Leadership, Mercy, Organizational Theory, Social Concern