Miroslav Volf lecture

These are my notes (random though they may be)….

Miroslav Volf lecture
9/20/08
St. Timothy Episcopal
book – Free of Charge (get it!)

Gift Giving Culture
Critique of a Cost-Benefit Analysis/Sales Culture as applied (or organized) to relationships

Enmeshment Globally vs. Isolationist tendencies of US culture (results in insecurity)

Kierkegaard quote re: in giving, in forgetting one’s self is not forgotten by God.  “That is why one who loves receives what he gives” sk – not a calculated formula

What you give is the relationship of love.

Every gift is potentially a sacrifice.  Every gift holds within it the seeds of my own death.

God’s love is not predicated on anything any creature does – that’s the immense beauty of Christian faith.

Culture has been stripped of grace (our culture is operating on reciprocity)

** idea – give $$ to students for them to give away to those who give **  (ask a church to give specifically, share research study, to this and then report back to them on how it went)

NKUWF – create a gift-giving culture following a Gift-Giving God

We participate in God’s gift-giving.  We are channels of God’s gift giving – we are not the final address of God’s gifts

Yale class – relationship between Faith(s) and Globalization (taught with former Prime Minister Tony Blair)

Questions:
- What does human flourishing consist of?
- What is the relationship with God connect to human flourishing?

John Kelsey – Islam scholar, written in Christian Century

What does it mean to live one’s life well?  The major task of the church of today!  (it is what evangelism and mission are predicated on)

At NKU WF this is what it means to live one’s life well:
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(can they even be written as bullet points?!?)

MT520 Book Review – New Testament and Mission by Nissen

Nissen, Johannes.  New Testament and Mission: Historical and Hermeneutical Perspectives.  2nd ed.  (New York: Peter Lang, 2002)

Johannes Nissen is an Associate Professor of New Testament Exegesis at University of Aarhus in Denmark.  This work on New Testament and Mission was written in Danish and was initially released in 1996, it is now it its fourth printing in English.  Nissen writes to bridge the common gulf between missiological studies and biblical scholarship.  He notes that there are inherent errors within both camps and the proposed division of labor that results.  “No interpreter can understand any text without prejudgments formed from his or her own context” (13).  The solution to this problem is an interdisciplinary theological process that includes missiologists as well as biblical scholars.  It is out of this new understanding of interpretation and application that Nissen’s thesis emerges.

The relationship between text and context can be understood as the fusion of two horizons….  The ultimate goal of this model of interpretation as conversation is to fuse these horizons in a way that is true to the past and relevant to the present (13).

In particular, the issue that Nissen addresses relates to biblical scholarship and mission.  It is the fusing of these two horizons that generate the scope of his work.  The book is structured, not surprisingly, around the canon of the New Testament.  Nissen addresses each gospel writer in turn, as well as Paul’s praxis, the books of Colossians and Ephesians, I Peter, and Revelation.  He notes that at least four aspects of mission can be discerned in the New Testament:

Mission is being sent out (especially the Fourth Gospel).
Mission is making disciples of all nations (cf. The Gospel of Matthew).
Mission is deliverance and emancipatory action (cf. The Gospel of Luke).
Mission is witness (especially the Acts of the Apostles and the Fourth Gospel) (18).

He concludes the book with a chapter addressing issues of our modern encounters of mission and the New Testament texts.  My reaction to Nissen’s thesis and development is very positive.  I appreciate his approach to scripture and the challenges of contemporary mission.  The openness with which he writes and deals with scripture and mission is helpful.  He definitely models the methodology that he is advocating.  As I approach ministry on a secular university in 21st century America, I am challenged by vastly different contexts in which students live as compared to what they read in scripture.  Contending with an open conversation between our missiological movement and our desire to allow the Bible to be a normative document is always a challenge.  Being content with the creative tension between the two, as Nissen implies, is important – certainly not easy – but important.

MT520 – Book Review – The Good News of the Kingdom

Van Engen, Gilliland, and Pierson, eds. The Good News of the Kingdom (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993)

The Good News of the Kingdom is an anthology of ecumenical missiological thought in tribute to the life and work of missiologist Arthur Glasser.  Like Glasser’s own writing, the Kingdom of God as a theological theme ties this work together.  We are introduced to Arthur Glasser as a Citizen of the Kingdom and overview of his work.  Appropriately for this course, and exemplary of Glasser’s theology, Part I deals with the Biblical foundations of mission.  Building from here the text addresses issues of Kingdom theology, Ecumenical Relationships, Evangelical Concerns, Missiological Issues, and Contextual Considerations.  In sum, these serve as an excellent overview of the field of Missiology and Arthur Glasser’s breadth of contribution to the same.

As this course deals with the biblical foundations of mission, the first part of the book is most applicable.  Building a strong missiological hermeneutic and understanding of how the scriptures form and inform our mission is paramount.  However, the rest of the text is helpful in appropriating a fuller panorama of missiological concerns.  As a missionary on the campus of Northern Kentucky University, the investigation and interplay of ecumenical, evangelical, and modernity are daily issues.  The thoughtful and careful attention to all of these concerns is helpful to me as a minister.  What is more, in this election year David J. Bosch’s chapter on church-state relationships was invaluable and enlightening.

Specifically, Bosch’s treatment of the Anabaptist approach to church-state relations was eye-opening.

The church simply exists in society in such a way that people should become aware of the transitoriness, relativity and fundamental inadequacy of all political programs and solutions.  The believing community is a kind of antibody in society, in that it lives a life of radical discipleship as an “alternative community” (92).

The inadequacy of the “Constantinian” and “pietist” approaches had been apparent to me and, admittedly, a cause of much frustration as I survey the church in America today.  However, I was unsure how to distinguish pietist separation from Anabaptist “antibody-ness”, Bosch’s elucidation has been imminently helpful to that end.  Further, the fact that Bosch sets this all in the context of mission is helpful.  This missiological context of church-state relations moves the conversation from abstract possibilities to a lived engagement with God’s Kingdom mission.  I find myself increasingly drawn to an Anabaptist approach, but appreciative of “reformist” and “liberationist” movements as well.

MT520 – Book Review – Announcing the Kingdom

Glasser, Arthur with C. Van Engen, D. Gilliland, and S. Redford, eds.  Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003)

The scope and drive of Arthur Glasser’s Announcing the Kingdom is the primacy and unity of “God’s purpose and action in mission in human history” (17).  Both the Old and New Testaments are pointed in the same direction of God’s rule and reign.  Glasser tells the narrative of scripture through the lens of the Kingdom of God.  We see that from the creation of the world, God’s covenant with Israel, Jesus’ incarnation, and the church’s continuing mission; God is at work revealing and drawing all nations to himself.  Even in the dynamic story of Revelation we are aware of God’s redemptive Kingdom mission coming to its full conclusion.  In this sweeping narrative of God’s reign throughout scripture we understand the God’s activity in the history of the world.

This understanding of God’s Kingdom story is essential for our study of mission.  It is of utmost importance that we form our mission and ministry in the context of how God has engaged humanity throughout history.  By hearing the story of God’s Kingdom through the whole sweep of scripture we begin to understand the pervasiveness and completeness of God’s mission.  This is not an isolated story of merely how Middle Eastern deity dealt with an obscure group of people 2,000 years ago.  God’s mission extends from the beginning of creation to the end of all things.  With this appreciation for the scope of God’s Kingdom our mission is shaped and formed.  This is of particular import as I work with college students in 21st century America.

I have often found in working with students living in a post-Christendom world that how the story of scripture hangs together is almost entirely lost.  There may even be an appreciation for God, Jesus, or the Bible; but understanding the scope and mission is far from prevalent.  Furthermore, for students who do claim a Christian walk the Old Testament seems irrelevant at best, offensive at worst.  Setting the context for how both testaments hang together in the Kingdom mission is very helpful.  My current ministry context is as a campus minister re-starting a ministry on at Northern Kentucky University.  I many ways I feel an apostolic call as one sent from the churches in our conference to the students on campus.  As such, I highly value Glasser’s quote of Kung that:

As an individual Christian, I must become a true successor of the apostles.  I must bear their witness, believe their message, imitate their mission and ministry (302).

I very much see myself as a missionary sent to the people group called NKU.  Understanding that mission through the lens of scripture and, specifically, the Kingdom of God is deeply formative.

A Prayer Insurrection

So, we prayed.  I was a bit late (traffic) but Liz and Jackson and I spread out across campus and prayed that God’s Kingdom would come to campus as it is in heaven.  We “marked” our prayers with blank post-its or sidewalk chalk.  If you see random post-its (like this pic) or marks on campus – those are reminders of prayers!.  We’ll do this again sometime soon.

Thy Kingdom Come (emphasis on the "Thy")

I’m in wont of reflection.  But it just isn’t happening.  Start the new gig at NKU doing campus ministry 2 weeks ago.  I’m in my 3rd week now and it is going very well, but like all transitions it is a process.  I’m adjusting to the new schedule, the new tasks, the new “figuring out the the tasks”, a new computer, new phone, new commute, new relationships, etc….

Like I said, it is good.  Just a process.

But what I’m really missing is reflection.  I feel like I’m constantly juggling and adjusting.  Always thinking through what I should/could/might do next.  I know this will pass in time, routines and habits will be established, but for now it is not only draining (and not really that bad) but it is sapping me of the emotional energy to reflect.

These few minutes at 9:42 PM after I’ve gotten the kids in bed are about it and I’m forcing myself to do it now.

So, just what am I doing in this new job of mine?  Well, good question.  I’m getting to know the campus, the culture, the atmosphere of NKU.  I’m attempting to enter into relationships (or attend to the ones I already have) with NKU and UMC folk.  I’m working on designing and building a NKUWF(.org) website and get biz cards printed.  Those are the main things at present.  Events, programs, bible studies, service projects, worship experiences, etc… those may come in time, but I’m intentionally not putting my energies there.  I need to enter into this community (NKU) as a good missionary – listening, ear to the ground, prayerfully, contemplatively listening.  I need to truly hear people and structures and systems and cultures.

We will build in time.  I do deeply believe that there is a Kingdom movement at work on campus.  A Mission that God has called us to.  I sense a budding insurrection of sacrificial love and service.  I pray, God, help us to attend to that!

My prayer is that God’s Kingdom would come to NKU as it is in heaven.  I keep coming back to this and I truly believe it is as simple and as profound as that.

Come Holy Spirit, Come.
Come Blessed Jesus, Come.
Come Dear Father, Come.

Bring it.

Thy Kingdom Come.
Thy Will be Done.

in me.
in us.
on campus.

is this thing on?

is at a NKU WF Board Meeting (for the first time).

is wanting to read a Neal Stephenson novel (I just don’t know which one)…. (oh and I want to like John McCain, I really do).

just met with a dynamic young lady who may well reform education & spread the gospel all before she is 30 (in other words…. I love my job)