Guest Blogger Series: Noah Carlson and the BIBLE
Guest Blogger Series: Part 3 
This is the third post in a guest blogger series on the Bible. Part 2, by Erika Funk, is here.
It has been an enlightening experience to transition from Princetonian theological theory to British parish praxis during my tenure in Scotland as a visiting seminarian. Most interesting perhaps has been the utilization, or lack thereof, of the Bible as I function as an assistant minister in a variety of roles—preacher, confidant, teacher, administrator, and disciple. For this series, however, I will discuss my use of the Bible proper in school assemblies.
I had prepared and certainly hoped to use the Bible more in Scotland than I have been and although it is a source that I readily and often utilize, it is not my primary source in my educational ministry by and large. For instance, my duties include speaking to high school-aged youth who have a strong opposition to the Church. Simply standing in front of two hundred youth during an assembly and using Scripture as a primary source of your message would not only not be received, but also, and sadly—mocked. Most importantly, nothing of substance and worth would reach these students if such a Scriptural tactic were employed.
Now, some may argue from ivory towers that it does not matter; the Word always triumphs and thus should be used nonetheless. To be sure, this is true, but there is also the reality of the context one is in when using or not using the Bible in ministry, at least directly, and that must be taken into account if one truly seeks to be effective in their overall corpus of ministry. And so, I have found my assemblies to be centered on basic moral concepts that are found in Scripture, but not pinpointed with chapter and verse—at least not to the students. And, I have found this route to be relatively successful, as it enables me to still use Scripture, but to translate it in such a way as to truly reach a skeptical and critical audience.
Conversely, during my assemblies for elementary school students, I use direct Bible stories quite frequently, as they are narrative, descriptive, and can be brought to life easily for children—Noah’s Ark, etc. This speaks for itself and it works 99.9% of the time. Thus, the paradox arises.
My use of the Bible is somewhat paradoxical in terms of Christian education of the young here in Scotland—using it directly with the young ones, and indirectly with the older youth. But, what is most interesting perhaps is how the Bible is so well-received with children, but as they grow older into their adolescent years, they become alienated from Scripture and in some cases, completely against it, even combative to it. Why is this? And what can be done? Should I and other ministers stand firm and use the Word despite the walls that would be built and throw modern contextual language out the door? Should a new hermeneutic be created and enacted? This problem is as paradoxical as my use of Scripture in C.E. and my mind and heart yearn for a sincere answer. Perhaps an answer will come. In the meantime, in the words of Saint Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” When you look at it that way, perhaps an answer already has arrived.
Noah Carlson is a yearlong intern/assistant minister at the Scottish parishes of Old Cumnock and Lugar. He is pursing a M.Div from Princeton Theological Seminary. He blogs at Radical Seminarian.
Facing a new ministry
Carol over at Tribal Church is hosting a great conversation on facebook and youth ministry. I’d like to broaden it a bit here. I suppose I can’t quite take for granted that you even know what facebook is, so here’s the mega-quick summary. (If you know what facebook is, skip the next paragraph.)
Facebook is a social-networking site launched in 2004. (Most of the following info is from here.) Facebook now boasts 62 million active users around the world. It originally began as a Harvard College social networking site, and later expanded to all colleges and universities, and is now available to anyone over 13 years of age–so you too can join at http://facebook.com. Folks now use facebook to show information about themselves on their “profile page,” and increasingly, as the major online source to interact with friends. Facebook also hosts applications–add-ons like scrabulous or other games–which increase its capabilities (here for my thoughts on scrabulous.
Ok, back to ministry…Though Columbia Seminary is doing its best to keep up in the web 2.0 age, my classes thus far haven’t considered ministry and facebook. Overall, I think facebook has huge potential for ministry. After all, millions if not most Americans under 30 have accounts, so if the church isn’t working hard on facebook we’re missing an enormous mission field. That said, ministers must be careful in their use of facebook as it presents new and dangerous questions to the profession.
I’m 24 and joined facebook back in its infancy while I was in college. Then, few of my friends were out of their twenties and we treated facebook as an extension to college social life. Now, as I’m facebook friends with my seminary professors and future colleagues in ministry, I treat my profile page quite differently.
For example, one oft-used function of facebook is one’s “current status.” (In fact, my facebook status is also shown in the top right-hand side of my blog.) As I compose my status updates, I must now consider them public information. Back when I only had a few hundred friends, and most were in college, my status might reflect, well, more collegiate activities. Now when members of my congregation read my status regularly, I keep things much more calm.
But to more specific implications for ministry.
1. Accessibility. With cell phones and email, congregation members increasingly expect ministers to be available practically instantly. Facebook only heightens this problem. While work email can be checked only at work, and cell phones can be switched off, facebook pages are always out there ready and waiting for wall posts and messages. Further, though, ministers are stuck using one portal for work and personal life. I hope one day to have separate cell phones–one for work, and one for personal use (or at least one phone that somehow makes that distinction). But having separate facebook pages for work and personal use just doesn’t work. Similarly, parishioners can constantly check your status and check up on you. If your status says, “Adam is reading” they may wonder if you’re reading for fun or work. If you post family photos of your vacation, parishioners will consider you in ways they may not have before. What are the implications of instant and inside access to ministers’ “private” lives?
2. Ease of inappropriate relationships. I have a friend who is currently playing a raucous game of scrabulous with his professor. This game includes playing at all-hours of the day, consistent thoughts about one another, challenges and repeated clever emails to one another, and several bawdy scrabulous plays. The professor–or student–can also access photos of each other, view each other’s status, see what books each is reading, and send each other cute gifts. None of this is inappropriate on the surface, but it presents new possibilities for minds to wander.
You just have to think of “You’ve Got Mail” to remember the ease and allure of online relationships. As someone suggested, should all communication with church members be on one’s public wall rather than through messaging? There goes online interactions in confidence with the minister.
3. Time, time, time. I spend hours on the internet each day–Megan even more. I’m worried that ministers will be expected to be facebook friends with members of their congregation, and how much time these relationships might take.
Before you write-off the ministry possibilities, consider this story from a college chaplain who commend at Tribal Church on ministry and facebook.
Here’s an example. One of my students had “status” statements for 3 days running: Susie Q is sad. Then Susie Q is bummed, and finally Susie Q hates her life. Did I call her? Heck, yes. When I called (on day 2), she said, “I knew you’d call.
So are ministers now expected to check congregation member’s status every few days to make the appropriate pastoral visits?
But there’s also corollaries to my first two points. First, ministers have access to their members in ways like never before. If several members are reading the same book, how about they lead a church book group on it. If someone’s facebook status puts up red flags, what a great early indication of troubles. And sure, inappropriate relationships might be fostered, but so too appropriate ones.
There must be some studies or papers in this area, if not written specifically for minister written consider the caring professions and appropriate online interactions. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Photo by Jacob Bøtter.
Guest Blogger Series: Erika Funk and the BIBLE
Guest Blogger Series: Part 2 
This is the second post in a guest blogger series on the Bible.
My Bible hurts…and heals
by Erika Funk
My Bible hurts.
It hurts when I throw it across the room and it hits young people in the face.
It hurts when someone tells me “my Bible” is wrong.
It hurts when something I was sure I understood suddenly becomes very unclear.
My Bible hurts my head and my heart.
But sometimes the Bible heals.
The faith community I live in now, Broad Street Ministry in Philadelphia has a weekly bible study called No Holds Barred, run by our Dean for the Center for Subversive Theology. So already you can tell it’s different.
Because we are located in the heart of downtown Philadelphia and we serve food whenever we gather, we get all kinds of people who wander in for Bible Study…and for all kinds of reasons. Which if we’re going to be honest, isn’t much different than any church Bible Study from Anchorage to Ayr. We all come with our “bibles” in our brains; we come with the tapes in our heads from former Bible teachers and pastors and we all come with bruises from when someone threw their bible at us. We’ve learned too well to duck when something dangerous comes our way (like the gospel) and to re-load and re-launch our rhetoric when we see a breach in someone’s theological fortification.
Having seen some of this biblical bruising and scriptural scarring, our C4ST Dean created some ground rules for the No Holds Barred Bible Study. We call them table manners. One of the rules is no one knows it all, your thoughts and questions are welcome.
Recently, we were studying a passage from Isaiah and got into a discussion about the New Jerusalem and wondered together what that meant, where it is, when we are likely to see it. Rather than leading an exegesis on the historical understandings of the biblical concept of “New Jerusalem” we thought it through together, as homeless, student, professional, worker, and teacher. Michael, one of our regulars at BSM, said he thought he’d found New Jerusalem right here. Michael is a 60+ years-old, well educated, formerly homeless man who speaks 12 different languages, once worked for the U.N. and was raised Jewish. He now lives in a permanent residence run by a wonderful organization called the Bethesda Project. I asked where he sensed this New Jerusalem. He said here at Broad Street Ministry. So I asked what markers he saw that displayed to him that this was the New Kingdom, a place of God’s continual presence. To him, he said, it was the way we didn’t tell him what to think, we didn’t tell him what he had to believe. Instead, we said “invite your neighbor to dinner”. He heard, “come join us at the table and be who you are and have a cup of coffee.” That was to Michael evidence of God’s Kingdom on earth.
My Bible hurts when the unexpected joy of its truth pierces my hardened heart and fills it with grace.
Erika Funk is the Youth Initiative Minister at Broad Street Ministry in Philadelphia. Check out their fantastic ministry and contact Erika for information on youth mission experiences and Broad Street Ministry.
Sermon: Confidence in God, Psalm 27
An American author and friend of mine Carol Howard Merritt, tells the story of her Grandmother’s amazing faith [found here]. Carol was about ten when her Grandmother told her the story of the ceiling fan.
Carol’s Grandmother was shopping for a new ceiling fan, and couldn’t decide which one to buy–the white one or the brown one. So, Carol said, “my Grandmother prayed about it, and the Lord spoke to her and told her to buy the white one.” And the Grandmother testifies, years later, she never once regretted the purchase.
Now this easy conversation with God may be the norm for some, but for many of us, confidence in God is a difficult business.
Perhaps we think, “God is too busy to bother over the relatively small issue of the shade of ceiling fan.”
Perhaps we consider ourselves unworthy to approach God. We might think: “My friends are so holy, so prayerful. Compared to them, my faith is pretty weak. And after all, I just don’t have the sort of time and energy to pray every day.”
Or maybe we ask God about most things, we pray to God every day, but hope as we may, we never hear a clear or satisfying response.
This evening’s reading, Psalm 27, is described as a “Triumphant Song of Confidence” in my Bible. Indeed, much of the psalm is about sure and certain confidence in God. The psalm begins:
The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom then should I go in dread?
… Continue Reading
The world is watching
I can report, after reading this NY Times article, that the Scottish are following the US elections as closely as the rest of the world. Primary results head BBC newscasts. I’ve been in many a conversation about the race, the candidates, and how our election system works in general–I think someone called our process “the longest election process in a modern democracy.” Others are interested in Obama as black, or Clinton as a woman.
I’m happy to give my perspective (though I don’t explain my eschatology claims as fully as here), but such conversations never lead to much substantive discussion of policies. Similarly, today’s Times article noted folks around the world knew specific policies only when they were of particular interest–Israel’s for Clinton, apparently, Mexico likes Obama, India wants anybody but Bush.
I wouldn’t expect citizens of other countries to be up on the particular policy proposals of US presidential candidates, but I wonder, does the average American know much more?
Most of the American media coverage I see from here presents a very fluid picture of the race. There needs to be something to fill the 24/7 news space, so not particularly meaningful things hit the news and make the headlines–another Bill jab, what Huckabee is eating these days, whether Romney is wearing a tie–and real policies and positions are lost in the fuss.
For example, the candidates have presented their policy positions on same-sex marriage and same-sex unions. These positions were made clear years ago, and the candidates would be crazy to change them now. But an important issue, since it’s static, rarely makes the headlines. Static positions don’t sell newspapers, or get web hits, or television viewers.
Perhaps this is just the way of the primaries, and the general election will present us with a more substantive debate. Somehow, though, I’m a bit skeptical about that. For now, I’ll sit back and watch the world’s coverage, yearning for a discussion of static policy rather than fluid fluff.
Photo by Gabriel Pico.
Updated Jan, 27 after lunchtime in Scotland:
In an endorsement of Obama today in the NY Times, Caroline Kennedy writes,
Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.
Check out her larger article here. I guess Kennedy is right, Clinton and Obama’s overall goals are similar. However, Obama’s non-policy goals of changing the way in which we do politics, giving a new generation hope in our country, and embodying a testament to how far our nation has come since Selma, shows how essential other matters are. Is “hope” a policy matter? I guess not, but it sure affects policy.
Guest blogger series: The BIBLE
My Bible broke. In some ways, this happening is exciting, the culmination of many years of prayer and reflection. I admit, some small part of me exalted when I noticed the significant split in the spine. After all, a faithful church member I know says we should wear out a Bible every three years. But don’t throw it away then, she says. After that, cut it up and use the parts when traveling.
Another part of me mourned. I loved that Bible and it had been with me for years (eight, in fact). I literally traveled around the world with it. I read that Bible through cover to cover. It survived, years ago, a full cup of water being spilled on it. It was a good size, shape, and feel, that Bible. And I will miss it dearly.
Mostly, however, I’m struck by the cruel irony. These last few months were the least taxing ever for that Bible. While in Scotland, I kept it in my briefcase, but pulled it out seldom. I receive (and usually at least skim) daily emails with suggested daily Bible readings. And though I left it in the car for the first few weeks of pastoral visits, I’ve never used or needed the Bible on a visit.
It’s this last point that bothers me most. I’ve never used a Bible on a pastoral visit. Sure my visits have been made in light of the Bible. After all, a presbytery committee has been convinced of my “thorough competence of the Bible,” but shouldn’t the Bible be discussed and consulted at least occasionally by the pastor on visits?
To help consider these questions and more, I’ve asked a variety of folks to become guest bloggers on A Wee Blether and reflect on the Bible and their lives. Fellow interns from both Columbia Seminary and Princeton Seminary will reflect on their use of the Bible in pastoral care. Seminary professors will reflect on the Bible and their personal devotions. Pastors will reflect on the Bible and their congregations. A non-churchy friend will present her perspective, and a Director of Christian Education will reflect on her congregation’s “year of the Bible.” And there will be some surprises along the way.
My hearty thanks goes out to all those who have agreed to participate: Mary Hinkle Shore, Emily Martin, Erin Kobs, Noah Carlson, Bruce Reyes Chow, Erika Funk, Mark Douglas, Christopher Henry, and Rebekah Abel Lamar. These guest bloggers have come up with some great work, and I’m eager to share it with you and hear your perspective. So check back often, comment away, and let the guest blogging begin.
Sermon Workshop: Transfigure this — Exodus 24:12-18 and Matthew 17:1-9
I don’t like starting another sermon before finishing the first, but as I’m trying to take a few days off next week I’ve begun work on the February 3, 2008 lectionary texts.
We had such a great discussion with the Christmas Eve text, I thought I’d try some Transfiguration and see what you folks shine the light on (get it…horrible churchy pun).
With just brief study, I’ve got the following ideas flowing.
1) There’s the “mountaintop experience” option. Here’s article that touches on this, calling the mountains “memory sites.” What are some memory sites in your faith lives? Is preaching on warm fuzzy places faithful to Matthew’s intent? Hmm.
2) There’s the “can’t bottle up God” option. I love how Peter tries to set up tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah to, perhaps, try to make the good times last. But he learns one can’t bottle up God. As a wise man once said, “God just may be doing a new thing, and God’s new things knock our socks off.”
3) Revelation. In these texts God both seems incredibly close, easy to believe and understand, while also unclear in many ways, still distant and impersonal–so they get it, Jesus is God’s son, but they can’t tell anyone? I’d need to go much deeper into the text, but Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Revelation” always comes to mind when considering these moments.
Ok, those options all seem way simple, quick, and a bit to topic-driven rather than text-driven, but I may just be functioning with unrealistic seminarian idealism. Oh, and the context of the sermon will be two small country churches I’m covering for the day–small congregations, village communities, guest preacher (which I both love and hate).
Comment away!
Exodus 24:12-18
24:12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Matthew 17:1-9
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
I like how friend Rachel puts it, “every time you comment, an angel gets its wings.”
Photo by Nina Briski.
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