emm in sem: Archive

“Your $20 won’t end hunger. Heck, you know what? You could give even a million dollars and it wouldn’t end hunger. You know why? Because the causes of hunger are systemic and structural, not financial. There is enough food in the world right now for everyone, but unfortunately most of it is owned by people who won’t share with the rest. Will they ever share? No one knows. But your $20 helps us continue to try to take care of those with too little. Until those with too much decide to share (if they ever do).” —Tales from the Hood, “Aid Marketing I’d Love to See”

Sep 29, 20115 notes

#good reads

“Go with God, but go.” —

Dirty Sexy Ministry, “Not In My Sandbox”

Being a Christian does not mean you can’t stand up for yourself…

in fact, you’re probably supposed to.

Sep 29, 2011

#doing church differently #good reads

“If the adage is true that evil persists because good people say nothing, then let those who have fostered such debilitating anti-gay rhetoric be put on notice. Gay Christians are pushing back, reclaiming their faith and standing up for their legitimacy to pursue God. Straight allies, clergy, divinity schools and just plain, ordinary Christian folk are no longer content to sit idly by and let the attenuated, conservative few dictate the terms of how anyone should proceed in their faith.” —Jennifer Knapp, “The Courage To Speak Out: Reclaiming Queer Faith”

Sep 29, 20112 notes

#good reads #Jennifer Knapp #lgbtq #calling for a full welcome

“As an example, the Gospels frequently say that Jesus spoke “with authority.” The Greek word is exousia which literally means “out of, or from, being.” It refers to Jesus’ speaking in a way which related to his listeners (and by extension with us, the readers) at the deepest levels of their being. His words went to the heart … Jesus’ power is not in his words, as such, but in their ability to call forth in people power they may not have known they had, but can hardly resist because it issues from their very being.” —Birch and Rasmussen, Bible and Ethics in the Christian Life

Sep 28, 2011

#good reads #books for class #seminary life

Play

Sep 28, 20111 note

#rosh hashanah #the book of good life

What numbers should the church keep track of?

The Online Conference Dashboard instituted by Bishop William Willimon of the Northern Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church:

Each Monday pastors supervised by Willimon report statistics on the online “dashboard” about membership, attendance, baptisms, professions of faith, outreach (people serving), outreach (people served), and apportionment dollars paid.

…

What questions might I like to ask other than the basic membership, giving, and service stats? What questions might I consider particularly telling for congregations?

Alternative Questions

For how many of your enemies did you pray in the last week?

How many times did you push yourself to an uncomfortable place for Jesus’ sake?

How often did you find yourself closed-off to the Spirit doing a new thing?

How many Bibles have you worn out from study?

How often did you pray your Facebook feed?

How often do you respond to a sermon with a specific question or action?

Is your faith static, or are you pushing for new ideas, new activities, new insights of the Spirit?

How often did you make numbers and statistics your idol?

Adam is a friend from college who is currently working on a mission start in Fargo and is one of the smartest and kindest men I know.

Sep 27, 20112 notes

#doing church differently #church

Sep 27, 20111 note

#makes me smile

Play

Sep 26, 20111 note

#take the bus #makes me smile

Sep 25, 201145,287 notes

#Ooooo

Sep 22, 201151 notes

#art #city pages #godzilla #minneapolis #minnesota #powderhorn #twin cities #graffiti #makes me smile

Poetry: To someone who said "I want to give up"

You matter.
But I woke up today
and there was nothing to say,
nobody to send praise
and I think I could simply
just runaway.

But you matter.
Still, I look in the mirror
and it’s never been clearer
because nothing’s nearer
to the truth than the fact that
I couldn’t be queerer.

And yet, you matter.
Nobody sees but the hideous me
in our otherwise glorious family tree
full of life successes, career devotees
and here I stand
banished to the bourgeoisie.

You still matter.
You keep saying that,
but my heart beats flat
with nothing to excel at
because I lack the brains
and my love routinely goes splatt.

I won’t say it again.
Good, because I never believe you
and what’s the point of breaking through
in a life with no one to turn to
because true love evades me like
a piss poor treatment of deju vu.

You need to believe it yourself.
How can I? I look at a blue sky
and fight the urge to cry
because life continues to fly by
and here I am in the corner
tredding, wallowing, watching paint dry.

So then stand up.
And do what?
Weakly cling to my half empty cup?

Have a little faith in life.
But how can I?
When all I crave is a dull knife?

Because you matter to me.
Yet I’ve locked away my courage
And I can’t find the key.

I’ll lend you mine.
I don’t trust myself with opportunity.
and that’s the bottom line.

Here, hold my hand.
It’s warm and soft and God,
what if I fail, take a beating, crash land?

I’ll pick up your rubble.
Why would you do that
when I’ve only caused you trouble?

Because you matter.
So shut up, smile, point your face to the sea,
and stop your negative chatter.
It’s true: to the could be,
You matter.
To the future she,
You matter.
To everything, everyone, and me.
You matter.
And it’s time you let it be,
make a change, and find the will to break free.

Because you matter.

- Dylan Hart, freeasabirdlostinthewind

Sep 22, 201142 notes

#beautiful #help #hang in there #poetry #good reads

… This is amazing.

Sep 21, 2011112 notes

A version of The Lord’s Prayer from The New Zealand Prayer Book

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever. Amen.

Sep 19, 2011

#prayer

“When statistics come in saying that only 29 per cent of American women would describe themselves as feminist - and only 42 per cent of British women - I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? ‘Vogue’, by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF SURVEY?” —Caitlin Moran (via shadow-sea)

Sep 14, 201183 notes

#feminism #good reads

a retelling of the story of the woman called a dog

(an assignment for my preaching class)

Sep 14, 201131 notes

#sermons #class assignments

“

So while it’s true that God may not prevent evil and we may never fully understand why… God does have a way of combating evil. It’s not punishment and it’s not retaliation, fear or anger. It’s forgiveness. Forgiveness is God’s way of combating evil.

Of course this offends our impulses for justice or retaliation like mercy always will. But that’s the God revealed in Jesus for you. Like it or not this is what we see at the cross. At Calvary, God allows our human system of scape-goating, fear, and retaliation to play its natural course, which ended as it always does: in the suffering of God. And then in turn, God shows us God’s system by not even lifting a finger to condemn those who put him on the cross but instead proclaiming, of all things, forgiveness. In doing so he cuts the world loose from our own sin because Jesus can’t stand to see us chained to it. At Calvary we see our God entering deeply into the suffering caused by human evil and saying

this.

ends.

here.

- I will not transmit it.

” —Pastor Nadia explains the cross.

Sep 13, 20112 notes

#good reads #nadia bolz-weber #sin and evil #the cross

“Now that I’ve mentioned evil here’s a disclaimer: this sermon will in no way answer the question of why a loving God allows evil and suffering. But mark your calendars because That’s the topic at theology pub this Tuesday. which brings me to disclaimer #2: it won’t be answered there either.” —Pastor Nadia’s Sunday disclaimer.

Sep 11, 20111 note

#truth telling is a holy act #good reads #nadia bolz-weber

“We realize that people can cheat and upload something that’s not a novel and still “win.” But since the only real prize of NaNoWriMo is the self-satisfaction that comes with pulling off such a great, creative feat, we don’t really worry too much about people cheating. Those who upload 50,000 words they copied from Wikipedia.org just to see their name on the Winner’s page are pitiful indeed, and likely need more help than a downloadable winner’s certificate can provide them.” —Well said, NaNoWriMo.

Sep 11, 2011

#writing #good reads

“

The Holy Spirit is subversive, and one of the things the Spirit does is blur lines that we’re comfortable maintaining. My experience has been that we like to have these lines of liberal and conservative — theologically and socially. I think that people, especially the younger generation, have experienced those lines becoming real blurry and are fine with that. I know that’s true for myself.

I’m at the point in my life where I don’t want to be a part of fundamentalism of the left or the right, mostly because it lacks two things that I can’t do without in my life anymore — which is joy and humility.

I don’t see a lot of joy and humility in these extreme stances that people take on either side. So I feel like the Spirit moves in the blurring of those distinctions that we all like to have. Every time you meet somebody who’s in a category of conservative or hateful or narrow-minded or fill-in-the-blank, there’s some sort of connection that’s made, and then you have to rethink the category. That’s the work of the Spirit.

” —Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber

Sep 9, 2011

#good reads #nadia bolz-weber #holy spirit

“

Jesus does that in the gospels. In Sunday’s lesson, Jesus and his male cadre of presumably straight disciples are doing whatever men do when a Canaanite woman starts shouting at them. And they get annoyed and urge Jesus to tell her to go away. Or they are embarrassed. That’s what people in power generally do when someone “beneath” them makes a commotion.

But she keeps shouting. When marginalized people shout, they shout because those in power aren’t listening. The holy thing is to shut up and let them shout.

And she does. She gets into conversation with Jesus. He refers to her, some say, as a dog. She comes right back.

“But even the dogs get the crumbs.” She refuses to be marginalized. Her daughter is sick, and she knows this man Jesus can heal her.

God bless those who refuse to be marginalized, those who won’t give up their seat on the bus, those who marched in Stonewall, those who knelt for ordination in the midst of shouts and jeers. God bless those who seek and serve Christ in the person or group and say to the Christ who calls them, “dogs,”

“MAYBE, BUT I AM A CHILD OF GOD, TOO. TREAT ME LIKE ONE.”

” —By the amazing women over at Dirty Sexy Ministry.

Sep 7, 20112 notes

#good reads

"How did you get on that path?"

(I make friends on the internet. I met one of my seminary mentors through Twitter. I can be convinced to show up at random bars because Tumblr people will be there. So I make new friends because of one random post or another and then we have to go backwards and do the “What do you do in your life” conversation that most friendships start with. One new Tumblr friend messaged me about seminary and said: ”How did you get on that path?” This was my response.)

“How did I get on this path… hrrrrmmm. I get something out of God, Jesus, church. It’s meaningful and transformative to me to be spiritual, to go into deep prayer, to be in community, to talk with others about justice and compassion and mercy, to struggle to actually live that out and to be around people that will call me to accountability on it. All this actually does something to me, physically. And it feeds me.

And it’s fed me even when certain members of the church have done their damndest to starve me, have offered me stone when I asked for bread. Even then I can’t leave, I can’t get away from it, I can’t just go into my room and do prayer on my own. I want to be part of the community. And I want to be part of calling out the ones who hand me stones, saying to them “No, this is bullshit, you have missed the point.” I want to create a space where others get fed like I’ve been fed.

So I’m on this path because I have to be, in a way. I would die if I wasn’t doing this — studying, learning, meeting new people and loving them, struggling with the hierarchy and the power structures and the few idiot classmates who still fight me and my vision for the church. I’m on this path because if I am putting one foot in front of the other, this is the only place I can be. Anywhere else, I’d be standing still.

And then the rest of my life will be about this. Whether I’m driving a bus or teaching or counseling or bartending or writing or whatever, I’ll always be a pastor. I’ll always be looking for spaces to create reality, to break down walls, to cross boundaries, to speak truth to power in love.

Does that make sense?”

Sep 7, 20111 note

#doing church differently #personal

a poem by Gerhard Frost, in his book "Bless My Growing"

A good question deserves to live.
One doesn’t so much answer it as converse with it,
Or, better yet, one lives with it.
Great questions are the permanent
and blessed guests of the mind.
But the greatest questions of all are those which build bridges to the heart,
addressing the whole person.
No answer should be designed to kill the question.
When one is too dogmatic or too sure,
one shows disrespect for truth and the question that points toward it.
Beyond my answer there is always more,
more light waiting to break in,
and waves of inexhaustible meaning
ready to break against wisdom’s widening shore.
Wherever there is a question, LET IT LIVE!

Sep 6, 2011

#good reads

“God is love. God is not out to get the world, God is out to save it.” —Shane Claiborne

Sep 5, 201166 notes

#Shane Claiborne #good reads

a-vicar-of-minneapolis replied to your quote: They should figure out who their people are and…

Yup. Though I would also say it gets a little complex sometimes, too. My internship site is not 100% a context to which I’m native. Sometimes we grow into fluency for a given context, I think.

Also true. And I think I would grow to be comfortable in Nadia’s church even though it’s not my true context. I think once you find your people and create a space for them, the circle expands into “not your people.”

Sep 4, 2011

#a-vicar-of-minneapolis

“

They should figure out who their people are and try to be their pastor.

Older folks from the church will say, “What do young adults want? What do they want so that we can do it?” I’m like, “I’ve never had to ask myself that question.”

I get to be in ministry in a context I’m native to, so I’ve never had to second-guess, “Will they like this?” or, “Will they get this joke?” or, “Would they enjoy doing X, Y or Z?”

There’s something about doing ministry as the person you are that ends up making a big difference, and who you are is going to be different than who I am.

” —Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, answering the question: ”For those clergy who want to be doing what you’re doing, what do they need to know?”

Sep 3, 20111 note

#doing church differently #good reads #nadia bolz-weber

Play

Sep 2, 20111 note

#Friday fun films #Ooooo #makes me smile

“I reject the premise I often hear in progressive Christianity that in order to be down with multiculturalism or with peace and social justice you have to jettison the Bible and Jesus. I think those are the only two things we have going for us.” —Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber

Sep 2, 2011

#good reads #nadia bolz-weber #progressive christianity

A quick reminder from Pew Research

Odds are that you know Mother Teresa was Catholic, but what religion is the Dalai Lama?

How about Maimonides?

And - no Googling - what’s the first book of the Bible? How about the first four books of the New Testament?

Americans who can answer all of those questions are relatively rare, a huge new study has found.

Just a little reminder to keep myself in the “real world.”

Sep 2, 20113 notes

#Answers are: #Buddhist #Jewish #Genesis #Matthew Mark Luke and John

Come to My Window Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge - Come to My Window

From a playlist made back in 2005 when I fell in love with Kristi.

Sep 2, 20112 notes

#love #thank God for this woman

Sep 2, 201121 notes

#makes me smile

“

I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed. I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to. No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to. I guess I just didn’t know. I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.

I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.

I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.

” —

whatever, etc.: no shit.

This made me cry. In a good way. I’m dieting and upping the exercise regimen right now, for a lot of reasons, but I know I’m never ever going to be happy with my body, even if I lose these cursed five extra pounds, even if I get back down to my high school track and field weight, unless I love it where it is.

I wasn’t put together wrong.

Neither were you.

Sep 2, 201113,301 notes

#good reads

emm in sem

October 2011

24 posts

September 2011

35 posts