Christ is everywhere. God, help us see!
...at least of Chapter 3. As I begin to editing of my third chapter, the systematic theology that I carry as a framework into my congregational research, reflection on which will then drive me back into my systematic theology, I thought it fitting to post the end of the chapter.
Read MoreThe church, in its sacramental practices, is bipolar.
Read MoreOne of the classic Lutheran debates is the number of uses of the law. Rather than try to weigh in on that topic, I want to show that the connection between vocation and worship does not send Christians into the third use (if there is one), but instead sends us back into the first use. But for the sake of clarity and the argument below, I should take a moment and clarify what these uses are.
Read MoreThis will break the line of thought I've been developing, but in an effort to get some interblog conversation going, I want to respond to a blog post from a colleague. Click here to read it. I would normally do this in the comments section of his blog, but given what will be my rambling response to his reasonable thought, I need more room. Of late, I've experienced several people, often pastors, complaining about lack of attendance at church. I give Frank credit for looking to some reason rather than just venting, but I think we as church need to look harder at both ourselves and the changing culture of the United States.
Read MoreNow that I've dissed the human practices of baptism and prayer to emphasize relationship and action as faithful expressions of vocation, I need to deconstruct the lurking dichotomy before it leads to a misunderstood autolaborological or morphological fundamentalism. If my thinking is on a solid trajectory, which will have to prove out, then the connection between the actions of vocation and the practices of worship meet in the relationships of baptism and prayer that expand imagination for discernment. Said (hopefully) more clearly, our worship practices shape our imaginations for seeing and hearing how God is calling us to help our neighbor.
Read MoreAfter an encouraging set of conversations with Marc Kolden and Dirk Lange (nerd squeal), I finally caught the cold that's been going around here for a while. As I'm on the mend, I thought it time to being piecing together vocation and worship, the task Kolden sees as the most daunting theological element of my argument. This post will look particularly to vocation, as a setup for the next post on worship.
Read MorePublic discourse in the United States has changed significantly in recent history. I've written on the fact-value split of Modernity before, but the current public discourse around the U.S. Supreme Court's hearings on Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 have attuned me to a significant change in the conversation. SInce this is one of the most heated conversations of our day, I have to spend some time setting the stage so I can point to this change. So bow to your partner... Allemande left... And dosado...
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