Joshua Case

August 22, 2008

New Conspirators Podcast is Here

(US Cover Art)

The other week, I posted the below about my interview with Tom Sine of The New Conspirators. Well, the podcast is now available on itunes for anyone looking for it. Hurray to Nicholas for getting it up while on his adventures with Michael Holmes! Yeah, I blogged about him before too;)

I hope you enjoy it.
jc

(UK Cover Art)

Today I did a podcast interview for an upcoming release on the Nick & Josh Podcast. I am continuing my duties with the fellas even as the transition continues. And to be honest, I love the gig as much as anything!

Today I had the privilege of talking to Tom Sine of Mustard Seed Associates and The New Conspirators (US-web). Over the course of about 3 hours, Tom and I got to talk several times while both trying to connect with the other. Just when it seemed as though all hope was lost, hope prevailed and the interview happened. No Barack Obama didn't jump in a save the planet, but it sure felt like it;) Tom really is a great guy.

I just wanted to put out the info that this podcast is coming soon. As much as anything, I urge you like Andrew Jones, 'If you cant make the conference, at least buy the book.'

Kester also has pretty impressive plug on the book. He writes, 'When the great book of life is opened, some would see it that it’ll be the stellar Christians like McLaren, Baker, Rollins and Wallis who should get all the plaudits. I wouldn’t want to take anything away from any of them, but quietly, ‘one mustard seed at a time’ Tom has been actually inspiring people to do the stuff. It’s a quiet, background role, perhaps, but I think if you could trace the significance of his words and actions through all the things that have happened because of them, you’d have quite an amazing list. Vaux certainly owes him its existence in many ways.'

So yeah, it was an honor to speak to Tom. And watch out, there will be another postcast after this one on life in community during major economic recession...with Tom. Yeah, the man has some great ideas for emerging, missional, mosaic, and monastic community in the global era.

Wait for interview...but check out the book!
joshua c

Posted by joshuacase at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2008

The New Conspirators & Tom Sine

Today I did a podcast interview for an upcoming release on the Nick & Josh Podcast. I am continuing my duties with the fellas even as the transition continues. And to be honest, I love the gig as much as anything!

Today I had the privilege of talking to Tom Sine of Mustard Seed Associates and The New Conspirators (US-web). Over the course of about 3 hours, Tom and I got to talk several times while both trying to connect with the other. Just when it seemed as though all hope was lost, hope prevailed and the interview happened. No Barack Obama didn't jump in a save the planet, but it sure felt like it;) Tom really is a great guy.

I just wanted to put out the info that this podcast is coming soon. As much as anything, I urge you like Andrew Jones, 'If you cant make the conference, at least buy the book.'

Kester also has pretty impressive plug on the book. He writes, 'When the great book of life is opened, some would see it that it’ll be the stellar Christians like McLaren, Baker, Rollins and Wallis who should get all the plaudits. I wouldn’t want to take anything away from any of them, but quietly, ‘one mustard seed at a time’ Tom has been actually inspiring people to do the stuff. It’s a quiet, background role, perhaps, but I think if you could trace the significance of his words and actions through all the things that have happened because of them, you’d have quite an amazing list. Vaux certainly owes him its existence in many ways.'

So yeah, it was an honor to speak to Tom. And watch out, there will be another postcast after this one on life in community during major economic recession...with Tom. Yeah, the man has some great ideas for emerging, missional, mosaic, and monastic community in the global era.

Wait for interview...but check out the book!
joshua c

Posted by joshuacase at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2008

Staying Alive & The Fidelity of Betrayal

Well, I am still alive after the majority of my time here with Laura's family. It has been a rich time of not merely getting to know family better, but of celebrating the life of our return with Laura. I do love my wife!

In other news, on Wednesday, Pete will hold a book launch for his newest book The Fidelity of Betrayal in Belfast.

If you haven't already ordered your copy, please please please get out there and check out the book. It is another fine piece of work!

Also, in case you didn't catch the taster on the podcast, you can check out our interview with Pete here. Its good fun, and a great interview. Make sure you listen.

I fly tomorrow to Tuscaloosa where I will finish preparations for a golf tournament this weekend with my grand father. We're playing together as a team and, well, I'm excited to get to spend this time with him!

Stay tuned...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)

July 01, 2008

Newest N&J Podacast Interview is Available

Make sure to check out the latest podcast with me and Josh, plus an interview with my good friend Pete Rollins.

You can also check out some other fine folks that we support such as The Church Basement Road Show and The Homebrewed Christianity Podcast. The Homebrewed guys are recording some nice interviews so be sure to check out their podcast and subscribe to it. And check out the calendar for the Church Basement Road Show so that you can swing by and have a rip roaring good time with some crazy holy ghost revialists. They also have some good videos up on YouTube.

Enjoy watching and listening...
joshua c

Posted by joshuacase at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2008

Apple=Community Part 2

So a few weeks back I posted a video about Apple culture. Well now, even more of what we-who-love Apple suspected is proving true according to Josh Brown.

Josh recently posted this blog about Apple culture in which he described the sense of relief with retail-that-works-for-good and a memorial service (of sorts) for one of the 'family' of the Apple store he now works at.

Here is part of the post:
"I’ve had so many positive experiences being a part-time specialist. And I hesitate to even write about the positive things that I’ve experienced because I don’t want to step on any toes by blogging about work. All that to say, I went in as a part-time specialist being pretty skeptical of the retail world. Granted I love Apple computers and have had both the hardware and software enrich and make my life easier for years. But I wrongly assumed that just because it was a retail company that it would be similar to my other prior retail experiences. And my hang-ups with commercialism in general.

I was wrong. Apple has been amazing. And the culture you become a part of when you use an Apple computer is only that much stronger when you become a part of the growing family who work for the company."

Read the rest here.

Again, as we all suspected, at least those of us who love Apple, it is more than a consumer good. It is a culture and a community to which we belong. Even after interacting for a brief period this week with Josh and his co-workers, they love what they do, and the goodness they add to the lives of those they care for.

Stay tuned for more updates of life in the community called Apple.

plotting goodness...
joshua

Posted by joshuacase at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2008

Emergent Survey and Input

Emergent in the US, are undergoing a review of their activities as they plans their future, and have put this survey online.

It’s also open to people outside the US, friends and critics alike.

Text for the request for input is:

“Dear Friends,

When the emergent conversation was born just over ten years ago in the US, we never would have guessed that in such a short time it would become a significant feature in the American religious landscape, and a small but significant part of something happening around the world. In many ways, those of us who originally “built” Emergent Village were simply trying to create safe space to ask our own questions and talk openly about problems we were experiencing in how we were “doing church” and living and thinking Christianly.

But soon a wide array of leaders – Evangelical, charismatic, mainline, and others; younger and older; women and men – began migrating to this conversational space called Emergent Village. Around the country, generative friendships were forming. New questions were being asked. People were grappling with the Bible, with philosophy, with church history, and with the practicalities of planting, leading, and renewing local churches.

Those of us who have found ourselves as conveners or leaders in this conversation have grown closer as friends and deeper in our mutual respect. Nobody has tried to control or dominate the space. We have tried to listen to both our friendly and hostile critics, learn all we can, and respond prayerfully and wisely, keeping in step with the Holy Spirit.

Having accomplished much more than we’d expected, we, the Emergent Village Board of Directors, feel we are at a crossroads as an organization. As we look ahead to the future, we are seeking input and counsel from three groups of people.
First, we are asking people who are highly committed to Emergent Village to give us their counsel.
Second, we would value input from people who value the emergent conversation.
And third, we would also like friendly critics to offer their input.

We would like to solicit input between June 10 and August 10. Then we will use this input to prayerfully develop a plan which we hope to announce November 1. Thanks for your participation, and your prayers, in this process. The plan involves you filling out this survey. Board members will also be having follow-up, 30-minute phone conversations with some of you – you’ll have the opportunity to indicate your willingness to participate in that way at the end of the survey.

Thanks again,

The Emergent Village Board of Directors"

Take a couple of minutes to do this if you want to contribute to the conversation personally. But do not be mistaken, there are only a couple of questions. So take your time answering the ones you come to!

hopeful and emergent...
joshua c

Posted by joshuacase at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Carl Raschke on Incarnational "Ecclesiology"

Carl Raschke, author of The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity recently put up pretty good post over at the church and postmodern culture blog. I first came across Raschke via his fore-mentioned book. It was one the first pieces of theological exegesis concerning postmodernity that I found articulating well the transition in equitable terms; namely those terms which enabled evangelicals to be evangelical postmoderns.

Make sure to check out the comments being added by Jason Clark and others.

Here is the original post:

Incarnational "Ecclesiology" - From Third Space to Smooth Space

Much of the conversation in this location concerns theology and ecclesiology. By the latter I have in mind not the doctrine, but the theory of the church. Increasingly the theory of the church has outstripped the ensemble of faith-articulations that we know as the "theological" enterprise. A recent post by Jason Clark on this blog called for a revival of ecclesiology and offered the prospect of a "third space" as an alternative to the familiar private and public spaces that serve as the axis of tension in the postmodern world. Clark also makes the telling point (in a general manner of speaking) that so much of today’s “conversation” about the church, including what is “emerging” or “emergent”, or old-style “modern” versus revolutionary “postmodern”, has grown threadbare because it amounts to little more than an entropic process of making ever more rarefied distinctions within this specific axis of tension and articulation.

The design of this axis, which generates endless cultural and intellectual styles of signification, arises from the clash between Medieval corporatism and Lutheran cum Cartesian subjectivism at the time of the Reformation and the dawn of the modern era. “Public” and “private” represent interlocking and reciprocal protestations – hence the term Protestant - against the epistemic (in Foucault’s sense) configurations of the other. The collectivisms of the modern era from French republicanism to fascism to Marxism to Maoism culminating in Hardt and Negri’s “multitudinism” are but forms of ongoing “counterreformationism”, or effort s to reinscribe the sovereignty of the corporate - that is, in terms of a totalized symbology of the dynamic power of the collective - in increasingly this-worldly or immanent terms.

Both reformationism and counterreformationism (terminology I myself have minted here), which express themselves in the ever more sophisticated ideologies of what Foucault named the “biopolitical”, define a never-ending metaphysical struggle within the realm of Western thought. Borrowing from Heidegger, we might term it the true “gigantomachy”, or titanic battle, within the metapolitics of the West. Mark C. Taylor in his most recent book After God (University of Chicago Press, 2007) characterizes such a struggle as the engine of secularization, the trajectory through the “death of God” to an ill-characterized age that comes “after God.” It is no accident that so-called “postmodern” theology has swung back and forth in an increasingly volatile manner between the radical reformationism of the early emergent church thinkers to the “left”-leaning counterreformationism (socialism with a sacramentalist heart and soul) of radical orthodoxy.

Źiźek’s observation that postmodernism amounts to little more than “late modernism” may be apt in this instance. It was Nietzsche’s implicit rhetorical point in his later writings – and it is the most telling ramification of the poignant parable of the madman - that a Christianity that needs to justify God really has lost God. In its effort to justify God what it is really seeking to legitimate is its own priestly, or “ecclesiastical”, Wille zur Macht. So is a “third space” simply the dialectical resolution of the conflict between assertions of these two congenitally modern spatialities? Or is it a space like no space we have yet envisioned? Theologies and ecclesiologies are nothing more, and nothing less, than elaborations or articulations of certain epochal “topologies,” the semiotic version of the Foucaultian episteme. These topologies can be characterized as “epochal” because they belong not to an era but to a vast range of time in which art, architecture, language, and modes of social and cultural organization are developed and go through their own life cycles in ways that express certain underlying, or indigenous, tendencies. Let us refer to such a topology as an inherent typology or “logic” of historical space. The space of Christendom and its secularized counterpart is both differential and dialectical.

The great “theologian” of secular Christendom, as Taylor observes, is Hegel. Hegelian dialectics are anchored in Chalcedonian metaphysics or ontology, where the paradox of two “natures” (physes) is held permanently in tension but ultimately “taken up” into a third space that reconciled rationality with reality. This third space Hegel calls the state. The Hegelian state is the secularized version of God on the cross. Hence Protestant reformationism comes to be manifested as the “spirit of capitalism”, embodied in Western liberal democracy and in the phase of late capitalism as Hardt and Negri’s “empire.” Corporatist counterreformationism undertakes a systematic critique of capitalism (the Hegelian “rational”) under the sign of a theory of fully productive labor and autonomous human desire (the Hegelian “real”) in quest of a new universal solidarity that expresses what is supposed to be truly human. But the secret of Chalcedonism is the “church visible”, while the secret of Hegelianism is the state, whether capitalist or collectivist.

Thus the third space of much contemporary ecclesiology, derived from dialectical theology, turns out to be either the imperial or territorial church where authority resides in its own magisterium which in turn has drawn its legitimacy ever since Constantine from the sovereignty of state, or it is the “voluntary association” of the Christian faithful – Luther’s priesthood of all believers – who act according to their own “sovereign” consciences, which is the basis of Madison’s “right” to the free exercise of religion. Both “spaces” in their own way sacralize the secular. The first sacralizes the earthly regime, or the communitarian political regime of social engineers and “experts”; the second sacralizes the Lockean “natural man” who pursues his or her own happiness. The Chalcedonian-Hegelian dialectic, which ultimately becomes a secular dialectic, finds its moment of incarnation in the state collective, which masquerades as “liberation” from previous regimes, but establishes its own regime and institutes a new form of the state apparatus.

But on a global scale we are witnessing the beginnings of a new kind of “incarnationalism” that is neither Chalcedonian nor Hegelian , but Antiochene. By “Antiochene” I refer not only to those arcane disputes of the fifth century in which the question of how the divine and the human were conjoined in Christ (the Antiochenes against what later became the “orthodox” position stressed the human as the “complete” expression of the divine), but also the post-Pentacost and “missional” dynamism of the early church, as idealized in Acts. Antiochene space was not a tertiary space, but a proto-space of incarnational and relational reality. To turn Hegel on his “ear,” the real is not rational but relational, and the relational is real. The living Spirit of the fast-growing body of Christians was the animating force of Pentacost.

enjoy the read...
jc

The space of the church is not yet “Roman” or ecclesiastical with its hierarchies, sacramental solemnities, enclosed basilicas, and doctrinal dicta, but “ecclesial” in the original sense of ekklesia, the “calling” together of those who empowered by the Spirit and responsive to Jesus’ “sending” (the Great Commission) of the spirit-led and spirit-driven to the ends of the earth It is the space of what Hugh Halter, with whom I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet and partner with in the past few weeks, calls “the tangible kingdom” (cf. Hugh Halter, The Tangible Kingdom, Leadership Network Publications, 2008). The tangible kingdom is the incarnational kingdom of those who are involved in mission, whose “being” is both being-sent and being-in-relation. Halter is not a theologian. Nor is he an “ecclesiologian.” He is a true Antiochene church theorist who see “churches” not as places or communities, but as relational networks.

The tangible kingdom is the ongoing and global incarnation of God in the mundus, the world. It does not represent the secularization of the church, but the Christification – not to be confused with the Christianization or “churchification”of the saeculum. He calls the congealing of these relational networks into effective nerve centers of outreach and benevolence as “communities of blessing.” They are not a “third space”, which is still an institutional space, but the spatialization and semiotic articulation on its myriad planes of the soma Christou. As Deleuze would say, such a soma is not codified into the mutual Platonic reflectivity of eternity and time, or of heaven and earth, but emerges as the “rhizomic” spreading and sending forth of intensities that radiate in all directions, what I in my new book call the GloboChrist.

The rhizomic community of blessing therefore constitutes the radicalization of the incarnate Christ in the relational and immanent reality of de-territorialized humanity we know as “globalization.” It is not a third space, but (again citing Deleuze) the “smooth space” of the new global and local (“glocal”) Christianity. Theology must not become anthropology, as Feuerbach sketching the secularist project once proclaimed. Theology must become a Deleuzian Christian nomadology, the nomadology that the Letter to the Hebrews foreshadows. It is the postmodern turn that the Great Commission is now taking.

Posted by joshuacase at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

April 09, 2008

Life between Anglican Spirituality, Modernity, and Church in the Age to Come

Recently, I have been introduced into a whole new group of bloggers, writers, thinkers and practitioners.

A couple of these people are Paul Fromont and Maggi Dawn. Below is an essay written by Fromont in response to Maggi Dawn's essay in the book Anglicanism: The Answer to Modernity.

Maggi Dawn, adding her voice to the mix of seven other Cambridge University deans or chaplains, has crafted a significant essay entitled - 'I Am the Truth': Text, Hermeneutics and the Person of Christ. Whilst not available on-line it can be found in the 2003 published book: Anglicanism: The Answer to Modernity (ed. Duncan Dormor, Jack McDonald and Jeremy Caddick, published by Continuum).

Dawn, writing this essay on hermeneutics - one would imagine during 2002 / 2003 - hopes that as a religion 'of the book,' Christianity will maintain 'confidence in its holy Scriptures,' and that rather than taking up defensive positions to protect the Christian tradition 'against the ingress of new and apparently dangerous ideas,' will choose instead to regard our Christian tradition as one that is living and growing. Dawn's hope is that we will adopt a position in which we 'focus our vision, not short-sightedly on the tradition' as it has been handed to us, 'but on the living God whom text and tradition convey (emphasis, mine).'

She encourages us to dare 'to step towards God on the shifting ground of intellectual enquiry,' and one could also add, upon the shifting ground of significant discontinuous cultural change. Dawn writes that 'for Christian hermeneutics to remain truly Christian, we must avoid treating [the] text [of Scripture] as a means of preserving a historical religion in terminal decline, and instead expect it to voice the living truth of Christ.' This is an important statement, one that for this reader highlights the necessary and important linkage between the serious practice of Christian hermeneutics, in which we engage with the living voice of Christ, and any talk of reforming and/or renovating historical models and ways of being church. How we both hear and enter into dialogue with Christian Scripture seems vitally important to how we are in turn the faithful people of God in our various contemporary contexts.

We must resist these positions for Descartes warns that they lead only to death. While we still have space to think and dream, we must still believe that change is possible. And while we still believe that it is both possible and necessary, we must urgently apply ourselves to the key question that springs immediately from it: how does change occur? It is a question that has taxed the minds of philosophers, politicians, scientists and sociologists for as long as thinking has been recorded.

In what will prove both timely and prophetic, given the great pressure currently being bought to bear on her denomination and academy, Dawn reminds us that 'it is essential for the survival of each that we maintain the advance of Christian theology as a joint endeavour. Academic theology that loses its connection to a confessional faith becomes self-consciously exclusive; Church theology, if it loses a rigorous approach to difficult questions championed by the Academy, will find its theology gradually reduced and simplified until it can no longer approach the searching questions of life in the world it inhabits (emphasis, mine).'

Writing about the Anglican Church's 'three-cornered foundation - an equal appeal to Scripture, to tradition and to reason' Dawn notes that a 'dependence on Scripture keeps our faith rooted in the faith of ancient Israel and in the story of Jesus Christ. The dependence upon tradition gives [the Church] continuity - a steady and measured development, in step with, but not eclipsed by that of the culture it is a part of. Its dependence upon reason - it's commitment to make the faith make sense in the light of human thought - prevents it from becoming a religious ghetto: the commitment to reason is a commitment to interact with the thoughts, ideas, and cultural development of [the] world we inhabit.' Further, 'the commitment to reason and to tradition means that our tradition must always be subjected to historical analysis.' Our 'commitment to tradition and to Scripture means that new ways of reading - new hermeneutical theories - are embraced, but always with an eye to the continuity of the faith we profess.' Finally, 'the commitment to both Scripture and reason means that we have to account for our hermeneutical method: we cannot simply say 'the Bible says'; we need to account for our interpretation, and its application to the life of the Church in its present setting (emphasis, mine).'

I hope you enjoy it. And I look even more forward to blogging about this subject in the months, weeks, and years to come.

at home in the world...
joshua

Much in this essay resonates with an equally significant earlier essay written by Dawn (You have to change to stay the same' - published in 1997 by SPCK in their book The Post-Evangelical Debate). Some will no doubt also read much in 'I Am the Truth' that resonates with the very recently published Windsor Report, particularly with its opening two sections, and certainly from within the sub-sections that reflect on 'the authority of scripture' and 'Scripture and interpretation.' Here, for me, are three good examples taken from the aforementioned report; they are illustrative of the kind of helpful resonances to be found in Dawn's essay:

Virtually all Christians agree on the necessity for theological development, including radical innovation, and on the fact that the Holy Spirit enables the church to undertake such development…

Healthy theological development normally takes place within the missionary imperative to articulate the faith afresh in different cultures…

A mention of scripture today can sometimes seem actually divisive, so aware are we of the bewildering range of available interpretative strategies and results. This is tragic, since, as with the Spirit who inspired scripture, we should expect that the Bible would be a means of unity, not division. In fact, our shared reading of scripture across boundaries of culture, region and tradition ought to be the central feature of our common life, guiding us together into an appropriately rich and diverse unity by leading us forward from entrenched positions into fresh appreciation of the riches of the gospel as articulated in the scriptures.

Dawn's essay is divided into six broad sections:

1. Introduction.

2. The Church, the Academy and the Written Word.

3. The Church, the Academy and the Anglican Tradition.

4. Coleridge: Romantic Inspiration for Postmodern Hermeneutics.

5. Dynamism and 'Voice' in Text.

6. Conclusion: Christian Hermeneutics is about Development, not Defensiveness.

Perhaps of most interest for Anglican and non-Anglican hermeneutical conversations will be sections 3, 4, and 5. These sections whilst drawing from Dawn's doctoral work have a more general audience in mind. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, through Dawn's interaction with him and our so-called postmodern or late-modern western context, proves to be a 'prophetic,' lively, and engaging conversation partner.

Dawn's longstanding "conversation" with Coleridge mines some important insights. Not least of which are his ideas developed in the posthumously edited and published Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. In this work he addresses 'directly the problem of treating the Bible as a special or unique text;' doing so, he proposes, renders the text lifeless and voiceless. Coleridge's solution to this problem is to develop what he calls 'a dynamic view of the Biblical text,' challenging in the process the notion that the 'written word' was merely a container - a neutral means of conveying ideas' or doctrines.

'For Coleridge, the text had, in some sense, a life of its own - the text became part of the meaning of what was conveyed…How the text is presented has everything to do with the meaning it conveys, and this invests a dynamic quality to it.' Coleridge, Dawn notes, treated texts, including the Biblical text, 'as if it has some power for growth and creativity residing in it.' Further, she adds, for Coleridge, 'the written word has the capacity to "live" and speak, but it can be petrified into silence through a non-dynamic view of Scripture.' Coleridge's perspective is useful given the current prevalence of much naive fundamentalist and conservative thought that sees Christian Scripture as having been dictated word-for-word by God, its writers and their contexts having no part in the compositional process, and its meaning now unchangingly fixed, set as it were "in stone."

As Dawn notes, 'the opening up of a hermeneutic approach to Scripture allows the words the freedom to be interpreted, and in a sense, "written" by the reader.' Instead of 'a static view of text [which] restricts the possibility of [the] text to allow for the personal revelation of God,' Coleridge's hermeneutic 'enlivens the text - enables it to be the means through which God speaks again and again.' This hermeneutic approach recognises 'a dynamic relationship between the author, the text and the reader.' It recognises also 'that the role of God's Spirit is not to dictate the text, but to interact with human minds in the writing, the translating and the reading of the biblical texts. It restores a "voice" to the text, enabling it once again to embody God's voice.'

Dawn importantly recognises 'that the 'Word of God' is not primarily expressed in the words of Scripture, but in the incarnation of Christ. For the Word of God is not primarily the written word, but the Living Word - Christ himself.' With this view, Dawn adds her voice to that of Anglican Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, who has pithily written, 'the Word became flesh and the church has turned it back into words.'

At its heart then, Dawn's essay is both a call to serious Christian hermeneutical practice and an important plea to the Church that Christian hermeneutics should be about development, not defensiveness.' She emboldens us to agree.

While not setting out to provide practical guidelines as to how we might interpret and "read" Scripture (or for that matter, how Scripture might read us!), this essay, together with Dawn's earlier one, mentioned above, helpfully frames and points toward a number of practical hermeneutical questions many so-called mainline, evangelical, alt-worship, emerging, and missional church congregations are grappling with. Questions that might include, develop, and/or expand on the following starters:

If, as Dawn writes, 'since medieval times…reading has gradually changed, to become predominantly a solitary, silent and visual activity…' how are we practically, at the level of congregation, to "read" Scripture in ways that are communal, that are more than just a 'silent and visual activity'? How can we seriously and creatively allow Scripture to be 'heard' and engaged with in ways that encourage our communal life, ministry and mission to be Scripture shaped and nourished?

Dawn notes that 'while theology faculties wrestle with [the problems of doing theology at the turn of the twenty-first century] the Church, week by week, is dealing with another set of problems also produced by cultural shift.' One such problem is how, at a congregational level, we might practically engage (given low levels of biblical & theological literacy) in a vigorous hermeneutical conversation, such that Scripture and tradition are seriously heard, communally discussed, sifted, evaluated and beautifully woven into every dimension of what it means to be church in our various contexts?

There is much in Dawn's essay to reflect upon, discuss, and explore. Dawn's is a heartfelt, passionate little essay that deserves to be read more widely than the Anglican tradition out of which it emerges. The invitation to enter into dialogue with the text of Scripture and the Living Word, Jesus Christ himself, will prove to be a vital and necessary one for any congregation that takes seriously its vocation to be, through the work of the Spirit, what the Windsor report refers to 'as an anticipatory sign of God's healing and restorative future for the world.' I warmly commend Maggi's voice to that end.

Posted by joshuacase at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2008

Brian McLaren's thoughts while at Davos

These are a few of Brian's thoughts on Davos from when he was at the World Economic Forum.

While they may be few, I think there is something very important for us to consider..are we even more synchronistic than we would like to think? Is the too much of us in our Christianity? Do we need to listen more closely to our critics than our allies?

Enjoy...
jc

Also to be noted, I need to come out of the closet: this post was created on my iPod touch. My computer is in use. By the way, the touch was all I needed and hoped it to be!

Posted by joshuacase at 10:20 PM | Comments (3)

January 24, 2008

eurochurch.net conference 2008

Lammert has joined the eurochurch team and is participating in the planning of the 2008 conference in Lisbon Portugal.

It should be a pretty good conversation and conference based on the title: the bible and mission in the new europe.

if you are interested in attending the conference, with conversationalists alan roxburgh (of allelon), colin greene, and henry cappello, check out the brochure here.

check it out, and if you are planning to go, let others know about it too!

peace...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2008

UPDATE: Pagan Christianity

Josh and Nick have posted a recent conversation with Frank Viola, author of the recent "Pagan Christianity". I had posted Nicholas' review as a Seriously Good Conversation. Make sure to check out Josh's thoughts here.

engage...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2007

This Sunday: God is a baby!!!

This Sunday, Shema community's 'God is a baby' at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.

Here is a teaser video for this week's gathering:

join us...wont' you?
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 06:03 PM

December 08, 2007

TOMORROW= God is a Drifter: Join us!

This Sunday, Shema at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.

Here is a teaser video for tomorrow's gathering as we reflect on the drifting narratives within Christianity and our lives. We all have them!

hoping you can join this expression of our community in Geneva....
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 03:00 PM

December 04, 2007

Shema this Sunday- God is a Drifter

This Sunday, Shema at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.

Here is a teaser video for this week's gathering:

hoping you can join this expression of our community in Geneva....
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:22 PM

November 26, 2007

Shema this Sunday

This Sunday, Shema at the pub. 11h00, Mr. Pickwicks.

Here is a teaser video for the above series:

Hope to see you there!
joshua

Posted by joshuacase at 11:04 PM

November 08, 2007

Thursday is for Greg, and Thomas..together!

Greg Boyd has been getting loads of feedback apparently about his entry entitled, "Washing Osama's Feet". Here is a link to his most recent entry, which is a follow up entry, entitled, "The Worst Heresy Imaginable".

On Tuesday I didn't manage to get up a Tuesday is for Thomas, but maybe, that wasn't so bad. The question of 'who is my neighbor' and 'who is my enemy' is one that Jesus continually wants us to ask. In fact, from generation to generation, the answer to this question changes quite often. The portrait and conversation that Greg is having is quite a tough one in light of the person that Osama represents; however, we must ask the question, who is my enemy and how would Jesus ask me to treat them?

Thomas Merton, in 1961, was facing quite a different enemy. In fact, in his journal entry of 12 November of that year, he begins to wrestle with the way the enemy is illicting response from people within America..where he is living as an monk in Kentucky. He writes:

"I must pray more and more for courage, as I certainly have neither the courage nor the strength to follow the path that is certainly my duty.

With the fears and rages that possess so many confused people, if I say things that seem to threaten their interests or conflict with obsessions, then I will surely get it.

It is shocking that so many are convinced that Communists are about to invade or destroy America: "Christians" who think the only remedy is to destroy them first. Who thinks seriously of disarming? For whom it is more a pious wish, beyond the bounds of practicality?

I need patience to listen, to learn, to try to understand, and courage to take all the consequences and be really faithful. This alone is a full-time job. I dread it, but it must be done, and I don't quite know how. To save my soul by trying to be one of those who spoke and worked for peace, not for madness and destruction."

Indeed, knowing how to love as Christ would in this age of madness will be confuddled at best. People who choose to follow Christ's call to love extravagantly will be persecuted for their sense of passionately offering grace as Jesus modeled. People who work to provide humanitarian kindness as Christians might be misunderstood as trying to replace the gospel with works. Neighbors will become enemies, enemies are already our friends, and maybe most confusing of all, which religion or nationality one possesses won't mean squat.

As we move increasing towards the advent season, I hope that we will rediscover a ancient way of active longing. A longing that is described in Isaiah 2 as 'for the last days'. A longing that led Jesus Christ to live in a particular way; a way which is a way of goodness, and mercy, and justice for all. A way of living which leads others to that discover that deep longing for the time when,

"The mountain of the LORD's temple
will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore."

Indeed, may we reflect this season how Christ's humble coming and practical demonstration has prepared us to live differently for our age. And how this living will call out to others, 'there is another way,' 'we can achieve peace for our time.' May we who can, do. May we who pray, seek. May we who love, love extravagantly.

may peace and grace be yours today as you seek to love all, and to serve all...
joshua c

Posted by joshuacase at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2007

Shema today..

Today at Shema, we used the following video in our discussion on new creation and hope.

enjoy....
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2007

Brian McLaren's New Book: A (Positive) Review

Tomorrow, Brian McLaren's new book gets released. Over the course of the last few weeks I have been working through it, or rather, devouring it and being challenged by the way it is forming the way i see the world.

Here are my thoughts, my plug, my endorsement:

In Brian McLaren's newest book, Everything Must Change, Brian connects the dots of the days' largest global crisis and shifts in global thinking with the heart of the message of Christianity. Brian's careful weaving of story and reality happens in such a way that it will make everyone from his friends to his greatest critics pause and reflect.

In what maybe his most accessibly comprehensive work yet, Brian tells his story of wrestling with the nature Christianity as we have it today, and why it must not merely change, but learn to confront the 'suicidal framing stories of our day.'

Whether you are new to Brian, read every one of his works, or a staunch critic...READ THIS BOOK!

Theologically, politically, spiritually, and economically this book might just be the straw that breaks the back of the camel of colonial, modern, daulistic thinking in every religion. Many who have left the church will read this book and again experience a revolution of hope welling up inside of them.

The message of Jesus as explored in Everything Must Change is good news for all who have the capacity to read and who choose to understand it. But maybe more importantly, it is GREAT NEWS for those who will experience this compassionate, loving, truth-telling, non-violent shift in their communities, in their families, and in their nations.

In the end, its simple: if what Brian puts forth is true, not only can everything change, but everything must change because of Jesus!

buy it, read it, share it!!
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 05:53 PM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2007

A new musical discovery for a new season

Later this week I will be blogging about Brian McLaren's upcoming book, 'Everything Must Change'. Like several others, I have been reading an advanced copy. wow. For now, I'll just say wow.

If you visit the new website Brian has developed for the release of this book (and more), you will find a link to this group: 'The Cobalt Season'. My friends Nick and Josh Interviewed Ryan. There is a link on there site from a last year.

Like Iron and Wine, they really seem to speak in a language i get. A musical pace that connects with my heart and longings.

check them out.
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)

September 18, 2007

Where does your faith lie?

Pete Rollins is a friend. More than just i read his books, he is a friend. And Ikon, the community he is a part of, its my community as well. Or at least i feel that way.

Here is a poem written from that community, posted on their page here.
Where does your Faith lie?

Where does your faith lie?
Does your faith lie in the belief that the universe was created in six 24-hour days?
Does your faith lie in there being an ark on Mount Ararat?
Does your faith lie in the account that God once made a donkey talk?
Does your faith lie in the belief that miracles don’t happen?
Does your faith lie in God once wiping out a city of thousands because it had homosexuals living in it?
Does your faith lie in the belief that everything the Bible says about ancient Israel is directly applicable to the modern state of Israel?
Does your faith lie in the belief that you will beat the odds and your smoking will not lead to a long and very painful death due to emphysema?
Does your faith lie in the research of the Royal College of Physicians or in the research funded by the tobacco industry?
Does your faith lie in the notion that the next politician you vote for will not support the next war?
Does your faith lie in Jesus having brothers and sisters?
Does your faith lie in the hope that heaven is full of people like you?
Does your faith lie in the free market?
Does your faith lie in the postcards that Christian Aid has you sent to the Prime Minister?
Does your faith lie in making poverty history?
Does your faith lie in the next president of the United States?
Does your faith lie in the United Nations?
Does your faith lie in scientific rationalism?
Does your faith lie in Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK?
Does your faith lie in the belief that there must be a good reason for why your government is detaining people indefinitely without trial?
Does your faith lie in your own ability to discern the mind of God?
Does your faith lie in the physical resurrection of Jesus?
Does your faith lie in the belief that civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are unavoidable?
Does your faith lie in the hope that a nineteen year-old Iraqi man whose sister and mother were killed by an errant allied cruise missile will not hold you responsible because you once carried a sign that read ‘Not in My Name’?
Does your faith lie in the belief that God does not punish sin?
Does your faith lie in the belief that there was nothing more that you could have done?
Does your faith lie in your tradition being closer to the truth than another?
Does your faith lie in the virgin birth?
Does your faith lie in a balanced diet and exercising?
Does your faith lie in your own body image?
Does your faith lie in the belief that anyone who shoots back is a terrorist?
Does your faith lie in maintenance of the status quo?
Does your faith lie in he (or she) eventually coming to their senses and taking you back?
Does your faith lie in a hell beyond this life for those who didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and saviour?
Does your faith lie in an endless supply of cheap energy?
Does your faith lie in the Stormont Assembly?
Does your faith lie in the words ‘peacemaker’ and ‘peace supporter’ being synonymous?
Does your faith lie in the belief that ‘follower of Jesus’ and ‘member of a church’ being synonymous?
Does your faith lie in your job?
Does your faith lie in financial savings?
Does your faith lie in the belief that sectarianism has nothing to do with you?
Does your faith lie in liberalism?
Does your faith lie in your own good intentions?
Does your faith lie in the belief that the investment and development coming into Belfast City Centre is significantly improving the lives of those living in the estates in Shankill, Ballymurphy, New Lodge, Ballysillan, Glencairn, Dundonald, Ballymacarrat, the Village, Finaghy, and the Markets?
Does your faith lie in Loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself?
Does your faith lie in God loving the world so much that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life?
Where does you faith… Where does your faith… lie?
(Written and performed by Jon Hatch)

thanks Ikon. Thanks Pete.
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:28 PM | Comments (1)

September 16, 2007

Shema Community Today.

Here’s a recap of today’s Shema gathering. We had a great time of being together.

Opening Prayer:
All: I should like a great lake of finest ale, for the King of Kings
I should like a table of the choicest food, for the family of heaven.
Let the ale be made from the fruits of faith, and the food be forgiving love.
I should welcome the poor to my feast, for they are God’s children.
I should welcome the sick to my feast, for they are God’s joy.
Let the poor sit with Jesus at the highest place, and the sick dance with the angels
God bless the poor, God bless the sick, and bless our human race.
God bless our food, God bless our drink, all homes, O God, embrace.
---Brigit the fifth-century Irish saint

Song: Surrender (Marc James – Vineyard Songs UK)
I’m giving You my heart
and all that is within
I lay it all down
for the sake of You, my King

I’m giving You my dreams
I’m laying down my rights
I’m giving up my pride
for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to You, all to You
And I surrender all to You, all to You

I’m singing You this song
I’m waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear
I count it all as loss

For the sake of knowing You
the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy
even sharing in Your pain

And I surrender all to You, all to You
And I surrender all to You, all to You

Observation: Don’t you find it difficult (at times) to sing a song like this? Do you realize what it is you are singing? Do you realize following Jesus means giving your dreams and rights to Him? Giving up your rights? Sing it once more…

Question: do you miss the thread of God’s compassion for the poor?

Christianity Today magazine reported in 2005 on Rick Warren's experience of poverty in Africa: "Around this time", Warren says, he was driven to re-examine scripture with "new eyes". What he found humbled him. "I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God's compassion for the poor?

Read Passage:
Psalm 14.2-3, 6-7: God sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around. He’s looking for someone not stupid— one man, even, God-expectant, just one God-ready woman. He comes up empty. A string of zeros. Useless, unshepherded Sheep, taking turns pretending to be Shepherd. The ninety and nine follow their fellow. […] Do you think you can mess with the dreams of the poor? You can’t, for God makes their dreams come true. [in TNIV: You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.].
Is there anyone around to save Israel? Yes. God is around; God turns life around. Turned-around Jacob skips rope, turned-around Israel sings laughter.
Answer: Most of not all miss it!

Question: Was Sodom destroyed because of sexual immorality?

Passage: Ezekiel 16:49-52: The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives. And you know what happened: I did away with them. And Samaria. Samaria didn’t sin half as much as you. You’ve committed far more obscenities than she ever did. Why, you make your two sisters look good in comparison with what you’ve done! Face it, your sisters look mighty good compared with you. Because you’ve outsinned them so completely, you’ve actually made them look righteous. Aren’t you ashamed? But you're going to have to live with it. What a reputation to carry into history: outsinning your two sisters!

Answer: No. Sodom was destroyed because it “was arrogant, overfed and unconcerned (a strangely correct description of the western world); they did not help the poor and needy! (Ezekiel 16.49, NIV)

Passage: Mark 10: 17-31: “Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't cheat, honor your father and mother.” He said, “Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!” Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, “There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.” The man’s face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go. Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who ‘have it all’ to enter God's kingdom?” The disciples couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: “You can't imagine how difficult. I’d say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom.” That set the disciples back on their heels. “Then who has any chance at all?” they asked. Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”
Peter tried another angle: “We left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land—whatever—because of me and the Message will lose out. They’ll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life! This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.”

Theme: God's concern for the poor

1. What do you think about when you think of poverty (think local, national and global)
2. Who do you know that suffers these kinds of poverty (write down all people by name)
3. What can you/we do to engage with people who live in poverty?

If we do not know them by name and know how they live we will have no idea how to have compassion. Take this week to work on these questions. If we do not engage, we will not know; if we do not know, we will not care; if we do not care, we do not fully live. Following Jesus is surrendering everything. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” – Jim Elliot

Prayer:
Open Prayer for selves (familial)
Ending each prayer with: Teach us Christ to love ourselves as you love us.

Open Prayer for others, systems, and creation (local)
Ending each prayer with: Teach us Christ to act justly, to live kindly, and to love all as you love them.

Open Prayer for others, systems and creation (global)
Ending each prayer with: Teach us Christ to love, serve, and protect your creation as your stewards in this age.

Announcements and Blessing

Prayer for the poor – Body Prayer (Doug Pagitt and Kathryn Prill)
I ask that you bless those who are needy
With roofs when it rains,
With food and drink when wants arise,
With care when it cannot be bought.
I ask for our friends who have less than the world’s standards
To know that they are loved,
To rest in knowing that they are not alone in figuring out life,
To be surrounded by your tireless, guarding love.

See you all next week same place, same time!

PS: if you find yourself struggling to care…
Read “under the overpass: a journey of faith on the streets of America" by Mike Yankoski.

Posted by joshuacase at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2007

Shema community, Geneva, and the poor

You can see the details about our upcoming gathering this Sunday here. We'll be asking ourselves the question 'are we missing the Bible's thread when it comes to the poor?' And reflecting about what it means to really be Christ in culture, among the poor of every kind.

Here is a video we posted on the Shema blog to get people thinking:

If you are in Geneva and able to help tomorrow am, we are helping a group called Voix Libres unload a shipment of quinoa for sale. They work on behalf of children working in the mines of Bolivia; a really tragic situation. If you are available, please drop me a line here so that I can give you the details for meeting to help unload this shipment. Basically, we need to help from about 10:00am until we get it unloaded (depending on how many of us there are, 2 hours+/-)

let me know..serve the world..
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2007

Tonight at Shema meeting...

We had a good Shema team meeting tonight. Its always a moving time of conversation, exploration of what it means to be church, prayer and communion.

Tonight, Sebastien, who has been working on his memoir for daily for a while now, played this song by Joseph Arthur. This probably isn't the best Arthur ever played it, but its quite moving song.

Enjoy. And if you are in Geneva, join us this Sunday for Shema at 12.30 at Ave d'Aire, 75. You'll be glad you did!

peace...
jc

Here is another one Sebastien has done with us before. Again, not best quality. But words..powerful.

Posted by joshuacase at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2007

Shema Community..a few changes...

You can read more over at the Shema blog; however, the low down is this: as a community, we've felt that we were seeing each other so infrequently, that we needed more regular rhythm in order to really practice what we were dreaming and hoping and striving to be about. It was almost like we were beginning to spend so much time re-inspiring ourselves every other week, that we were not making the time to go and, as Ghandi said, 'be the change we want to see in the world'.

So, we changed in order to change. A New time. A New place. A New frequency. 12:30. 75 Avenue d'Aire. Every week.

This is going to be fun. It's going to be an experience. It's going to be good news for everyone!

Watch here for the developments to come as we explore, quite literally, for the next couple of years: The Path of Restoration. Good news for us. Good news for Geneva. Good news for the World.

peace...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 11:18 AM

August 26, 2007

Nick and Josh Podcast

My friends Nicholas and Josh have a podcast. I like it a lot. Here is the link. Check it out. Subscribe. Be bothered, inspired, challenged, and maybe most of all, laugh. They have a good time and challenge us all to do the same while taking faith, politics, and life seriously.

peace....
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:06 PM | Comments (3)

Boyd and Cizik: Jesus' friends

Here is a video of Greg Boyd much like the one i posted the other day with the extention of Richard Cizik. Cizik is a vice-president for the National Association of Evangelicals (USA) and one of belief.net's nominee's for 'Most Inspiring Person of the Year'.

See both video's here:
Greg and Richard

Cizik's nomination

Lammert and I are both reading a book which Cizik wrote the forward for. It's written by Matthew Sleeth and is entitled, 'Serve God Save the Planet'. One word: WOW.

check it out...read it...be changed...be challenged...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 09:46 PM | Comments (3)

August 17, 2007

Suicide and 'Reactivity and Iraq'

Yesterday the US military released a report stating that suicide among servicewomen and men was the highest in 26 years. Today, the number of coalition force deaths reaches 4000 with over 3600 US casualties. These numbers apparently do not reflect the deaths of Iraqi government or police forces.

Wednesday, Brian McLaren also posted these blogged thoughts at Sojourners/God's Politics. I thought the two are interesting side by side. Frighteningly so.

'In his July 20 commentary, James W. Skillen of the Center for Public Justice struck a non-partisan note of honesty and balance that I wish I heard more often.

He summarized the basic narrative of the Iraq War that both our president and his party and many Democrats seem to share:

... first, America liberated Iraq from Saddam Hussein; second, we returned sovereignty to the Iraqi people; third, sectarian violence tragically increased; and now, in the fourth phase, we are "deploying reinforcements and launching new operations to help Iraqis bring security to their people."
The elegant word Skillen chooses to describe this narrative is "delusional."

He counters:

U.S. forces did not liberate Iraq; they wiped out its government, and the Bush administration then failed to exercise American responsibility to govern the country so it could be rebuilt and eventually governed by Iraqis themselves. We opened the floodgates to chaos, civil war, the death or flight of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and a continuing influx of terrorists whom our 'war' was supposed to destroy. That is not liberation.
He follows with a withering critique of both the "stay the course" proposal of the executive branch and the quick withdrawal plans increasingly popular in Congress. Both lines of reasoning, he says, lay the blame for our dilemma on "the nearly powerless Iraqi government for not climbing out fast enough from the hole we dug for it." We may well criticize the Iraqi government for taking a long summer vacation in the midst of its crisis, but that doesn't negate our culpability for them being in this particular crisis in the first place.

He chooses another elegant word to describe a nation that creates a crisis and then blames the victims for it: "immoral."

Delusional and immoral are strong words. Whether you believe the invasion was an ill-conceived and badly-planned mistake or you believe that the invasion was justifiable but the problems have been in the execution, either way, we're in a mess. We need a way out.

A friend of mine says that we're only as sick as our reactivity. If our reactivity to Sept. 11 played a part in getting us into this terrible situation, we will not be well served by reacting to the status quo with still more reactive behavior.

For those of us who supported the war, and for those of us who opposed it but failed to stand up and speak up strongly enough, this is not a time for reactive behavior. It's an opportunity, as Senator Obama recently said, to be as careful in planning our next steps as we were careless in planning our steps in the past. With more foresight and forethought, with less blame-gaming and partisanship and more deliberate collaboration, we can take the next steps—whatever they will be—with more honor, intelligence, sanity, and responsibility, and less reactivity than we have employed so far. Voices like Skillens' can slow us down to indulge in second and third thoughts, perhaps breaking the cycle of unwise and destructive reactivity into which we have plunged the Iraqis and ourselves.'

be less reactive...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 09:54 AM

August 13, 2007

Pretty dang interesting...'i' think

image ht

Reformed Heart posted this video on youtube , and apart from a wrongful linking of Brian McLaren and Rob Bell to the message that is being spoken in the background, it is pretty interesting. I am not sure who the voice is in the background, but the only other person I have heard talk 'like this', meaning in person, is John Piper. And as my friend Nicholas Fiedler said of the same talk which we later found out we were both at, 'it was scary!' (paraprhase). Nicholas, clear me up on what you really thought...

So yeah, its interesting, but if it leads to a theological processing likened to what Piper has been saying about the Minnesota bridge collapse, ummm...umm..well, just look at Greg Boyd's blog response here. Not advocating..just processing. It is a tragedy in the community of each Pastor. Yet each seems to have handled it differently from their understanding of God. Isn't the diversity beautiful?

What do you think, is this a fair treatment of Brian and Rob? I can't speak for Olsteen and Meyer; however, i guess it was good for me to see that Rick Warren has personally focussed even more on mission in a 'different way' in Africa, and he thanks is wife for that. Plus, he is also a friend of Obama;) and has had to defent it. YES!

let me hear from you..what do you think about the video..or the bridges...or..?
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 11:33 AM | Comments (9)

August 04, 2007

The Bealtes, Restoration Village, and Worship

I love music. It moves me. One of the earliest worship experiences I can remember moving me to dance was performed by the initiators of Restoration Village. Even today, bands like: U2, Coldplay, Matt Redman, the David Crowder Band, Iron & Wine, Alanis Morrisette, Sufjan Stevens, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis move me towards a deeper understanding of how infused song is with God's dreams for creation.

A song which has most recently spoken to me has been the above Beatles' track entitled 'Let it Be'. Many of you will remember that while i was visiting Brussels I worked with the nuns of the Missionaries of Charity in the order of Mother Teresa. Indeed, their praying, waiting and calling to Mother Mary, and to Mother was deep and rich experience. It was calm. It was assuring. It hopeful. For some, such experiences and expressions of faith will be written off as trite, supersticious, or even pagan. Yet, some how, I wonder as Scot McKnight and others have more recently, if many within the protestant tradition haven't written off Mary (or even the company of the saints) a little too quickly.

So what does this all have to do with anything? One of the things I long for is a rearticulation of song in the life of the Church which not only speaks with a clearly prophetic langauge, but that articulates God's heart for redemptive change today. I long for songs which aren't just those from an earlier generation (I am not knocking them, I love them too and come from their rich expressive history) but which wrestle with the issues of today in authentic ways.

This video shows something of what i think it might could look like..it's a wrestling...with real issues today...by artists of today...about the events of today...in the context of belief today that is from the ages.

What about you? Are you finding others who are wrestling with finding new song(s) for new faith? Can you share the links with others? Me?

peace...wrestling...listening...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 09:21 PM | Comments (4)

August 03, 2007

Brian's Second reading from 'Everything Must Change'

Here is Nicholas Fiedler's review of Brian McLaren's upcoming book. Can't wait to read it for myself. I've heard it will be the best one yet! Here is Brian doing a second reading from the book.

enjoy...and pre-order here.

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 08:54 PM | Comments (43)

July 23, 2007

Brian McLaren, Youth Ministry, Willow Creek

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 05:26 PM | Comments (2)

July 08, 2007

Engage starts today!

Well, after loads of preparation, promotion, searching out projects and organizing them, asking for volunteers, and finding them, engage Geneva starts today!

The team of Shema has done an amazing job of bringing this stuff together. Particularly, Conny Vrieling (engage Coordinator), Lammert Vrieling (video master extraordinare), and Todd Dallanegra ('woo' master flash).

Currently we have over 130 volunteers, 11 main projects, and sponsorship from Startbucks (free coffee in the mornings), HSBC, UBS, Pickwicks Pub (hosting our kick-off and closing events), Throssel Golf (hosting golf clinics), Migros (donating sporting goods), and several others.

If engage happens the way we think it will, it will be good for the whole city. Expatriots will engage with locals, locals will engage with internationals, and together, goodness and unity will blossom in the city. For us, this is great news, especially as Shema. The prophet Jeremiah teaches us, 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

May engage bring prosperity and peace to Geneva. May those of us who have good news share it with those with whom we serve. And may those who serve for different reasons experience grace and community and peace with those of us who desire as much as anything to resist the evils of this world that divide and displace humanity.

Please engage with us this week via engage-geneva.com, or if you pray, pray with us as the week goes on. We are seeking the prosperity of our city: joy, peace, patience, reconciliation, equality, justice, and love. Pray that we who serve would model these and that the City in which we dwell will be renewed...

there once was a reformation in Geneva...someday, it could happen again.....
joshua c

Posted by joshuacase at 11:01 AM | Comments (2)

June 15, 2007

Shema gathering this Sunday

This Sunday, we continue in our series entitled 'Engage'. We'll be highlighting the 'Train'-ing aspect and looking at the lives of Moses and Joshua. You can see more at the Shema site or on Lammert's blog.

Hope to see you there!
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 11:38 AM

June 06, 2007

Brian McLaren on Justice, Power, and the Kingdom

Here is a new video with Brian. Pretty good. Enjoy.

blessings...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 07:05 AM

June 03, 2007

One more 'Seriously Good' i forgot...

There is one more conversation that I forgot to highlight that is happening at Open Source Theology. It's on "Belief in traditional Christianity'.

I wanted to highlight it, because I realized not only had i missed it, but what Andrew Perriman and others are doing over there is a great thing. And while i may not say it is the only demonstration of wikinomic's principles in Christendom, I do think that there is some definately unique open source exchange happening!

Let me also once again use this to plug Danutz blog, and Andrew Perriman's ground breaking work 'The Coming of the Son of Man'. Very excited to see the next book which is coming!

participate...
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

Seriously good conversations...

Here are a couple of conversations that made me laugh or, that i enjoyed following this week. They are not all funny, just like me;) I did need a little bit of lighter stuff this week as we had two major fundraising events on Friday and Saturday. They were good, but there was quite a bit of busyness going into them.

Enjoy and reflect:
The Tall Skinny on 'Offensive language: I Think My Mother Taught Me'

Josh Brown's honest reflection at 'I'm Back'

Thinking Outside the Bunn's 'memorial tournament's fashion critic'. All I can say is LUCKY!!!!!

Greg Boyd on 'why i hate war'

SmuloSpace's "Questioning the logic of not drinking'.

And last but certainly not least: PrezVid's 'More mouths, more babes'. Wisdom of youth?

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)

June 02, 2007

Rating Churches?

Helen has posted a blog at jasonclark's site about a new system for rating churches around the world. Put together by Jim Henderson and Off the Map, the system allows people from inside or outside the church to rate them. It's called 'Church Rater'.

Helen asks some good questions on the blog. Part of me says 'watch out' because i have the feeling it could become one of those pastoral competitions. You know, where on sunday you might hear: "so get online vote and lets make sure the world knows we are a great community for Jesus".

Alternatively, i see the value if votes for non-christians count more. You know, if they have particpated in a church and had a bad experience, their 'i felt completely judged and unaccepted' ought to count for more than a person from within the church who says, 'the church meets all my needs'.

Maybe it's wrong? Maybe it's just another way of measuring things that don't need to be measured? Your thoughts? Here, or there...

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2007

Shema Community's EngaGE

This Sunday at Shema, we are looking at our passion to 'Inspire'. We'll be looking at the story of Daniel, taking a 'inspired walk' around the city, and thinking about how we can inspire people with an ancient way of life in Christ.

We're definately looking forward to it. It's been good to process it together as a team the last week.

Watch for more here.

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)

May 25, 2007

Shema Community's EngaGE

Lammert has put together a great teaser video on the Shema engaGE week. Similar to a Serve the City project, engaGE will provide people from all over, and of all types, to plug into the city of Geneva through practical service.

Make sure to check out this website to register in the next few days (or early next week). If you would like to bring a group, or just come to Geneva to engaGE as an individual please email me here.

We look forward to engaging with you!

Watch this video...

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 11:15 PM

May 20, 2007

Shema tonight...

Tonight at shema was special. We've really been exploring a lot with story lately and the way that story can form community! Tonight we retold the story of Esther in the spirit of Purim as part of our engaGE series.

As part of the evening, with 'hilighting' being the theme, we joined with lots of other people to highlight the issue of slavery that still exits today. As Mike Morrel puts it, we sought to join with other abolitionist communities to stand against today's slave trade. Morrel has highlighted the book 'Not for Sale' as a rallying point.

Also during the evening we watched this video...it was our call to community...our call to worship...our music for the evening...

stay tuned on the shema page for more!

peace...jc

Posted by joshuacase at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2007

Seriously good conversations...

Here are this week's conversations. There is a bit of a variety here, but i am increasingly amazed at the way we can discover threads all across the web that form and give real shape to practice locally. Good stuff here this week. Some hard stuff. But some really really good stuff here!

Gregory Boyd on 'Is the Kingdom Invisible?'

Prodigal Kiwi's 'Spiritual Direction, Being Church, Being Mission-Shaped'

Armand Frasco's at moleskinerie on the 'Anatomy of a System for Getting Things Done'

Leslie Treece's RFK

Nicholas Fiedler's Good new/Gospel/or Links that give Hope

Mike Clawson's 'American Exceptionalism or Imperialism?'

Posted by joshuacase at 10:00 AM

May 14, 2007

'Christian' in all sorts, colors, and practices- Part 2

Last week I posted a part one of this and had not intended to do another part. However, as I read through the week, there were quite a few things that interested me about how others in the blogsphere and my community were wresting at the same time with some similar stuff.

Case #1 - Mike Clawson and The O Project. Yeah yeah, I highlighted this under Seriously good conversations, but really. This is good stuff. It highlights the ethical side of life that is centered in a non-religious atmosphere but...committed to doing things that are, I believe centered as well in the things of God. Things that God cares about.

Case #2- Link- the aupair connect. Link is one of the initiatives of the organization I help facilitate in Geneva. Link works with au pairs through the region providing support, care, and the opportunity to explore faith in Jesus in community with others. Each of these happen in their own right. Subject one to another.

An au pair recent let the lead team know that during one of their movie nights, she had an encounter with love and God and decided she wanted to know more about following God in the way they were folling God. Really, they were shocked. She told them several weeks after she had her experience...Anyway, she had been a part of an initiative called Straight Edge. I had not heard of it, but please read about it here. Seems really interesting.

The point of case 2 is this, the pendulum of Straight Edge takes you to the extreme of everything while not proporting (it seems) one religion as key over the others. Like a heavy metal rock culture version of alcoholics anonymous, it seems to help people who need firm boundaries set firm, what I would consider 'extreme' boundaries. Again, while the 'extreme' of things may not be the case, the act of setting boundaries and being formed by a set of principles for living in the world that are healthy for you, and for community is deep. It is rich. Isn't part of what the church is meant to be about in the world? Not legalism, but helping people set healthing habits for living in the world that are more constructive than destructive?

Case #3(s) Nicholas Fiedler's Good News or Gospel. Again, case and point. Good things happening which may or may not be what we have know to typically be 'gospel'. But aren't they 'good news' to celebrate?

I am not sure if this is taking us anywhere, but its worth the wrestle for me. Worth the jeez look at the ways that God is using people and organizations that wouldn't necessarily claim God to bring about the kinds of change in people's lives that is necessary, good, and constructive. Maybe I am just looking for something to celebrate. Or maybe my vision is off?

What thinks ye?

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 07:45 AM | Comments (2)

May 07, 2007

'Christian' in all sorts, colors, and practices

I've been thinking lately about what it means to be a christian and maybe even more so what it means to see the world as Christian. And while this blog isn't about to be an exhaustive, i hope it stirs up some conversation about the diversity in what it might look like to be a christian in the world, or maybe even, how we can see people and activity in the world as Christian.

I must admit, I far too often hear people say, 'to be a christian, you need x" and yet, when i look around the sorts and colors and practices of Christ in the world, they seems to be made incarnate in all kinds of people and activities. And isn't it the spirit of God working in and through people for the redemption of all things that defines 'Christian in the world' and/or even the world as Christ's cosmos?

Three (potential) ways of seeing 'Christian' in the world as I've been thinking:
1. Sacremental- Those communities or persons or activities who would say they practice and participate in regular community that is shaped by the distinct practice of ritual and sacrement springing from the tradition of the church throughout history. These kinds of christians or christian activity mayb e 'high' church (catholic, orthodox, anglican, episcopal) or 'low' church (baptist, methodists, vineyard, etc) but the disticntiveness lay in the practice of sacrement at the center of the community.

2. Sociological- These are newer forms and practioners of the church who would by and large say their primary desire is to be christian in the world 'relevantly'. Many of the shapes that these forms of christian in the world might take will be very different. Theologically and philosophically they may be quite varied on the place of sacrements in community or even the place and appearance of worship in community. However, the activites and beliefs of these people and activites still have the proverbial 'christian flag' waving about them. And while they may not say it, these activites still struggle with how God is working to 'redeem all things'? Is it enough to give bread in Christ's name? Or should we not also make sure they get Jesus too? Or is the even a false dichotomy?

3. Ethical- These would be people who for the most part would not want to be affilitated with Christianity, or are not affiliated with it, and yet find themselves living out the Good News of the Kingdom of God in their culture and context. The Spirit of God in the world compels them forward working for issues of justice, goodness, and change. They practice a different-but-similar value set with those things at the heart of christian goodness; however, this message of hope, justice and peace for all mankind is rooted firmly in the heart of their lives.

It was interesting for me to think about this topic and then read one of Ryan Dueck's posts on 'The Ethical Imagination'. Similiar kinds of processing here in some ways; not to mention he was one of my Seriously Good Conversations from two weeks ago.

What do you think? Does this kind of seeing the world as 'Christian' make sense? Or is it rather about seeing who in the world is not 'Christian'?

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 10:13 AM | Comments (100)

May 05, 2007

Seriously good conversations...

Conversation at Obama.com's The Gospel is a message of Hope. This is one of the conversations that demonstrate many people are pro-Obama, and you should be too!

Tallskinny Kiwi's Mark Driscol and Paris Hilton and Banned Video Rumors.For a funny and yet sad view of the skinny. There was another article i found on this too, but lost it. It was pretty seriously good too. Sorry.

Brian T Murphy's steve malone.A great honest reflection on life in ministry, transition, and 'church' as job.

John Smulo's Not Against For. and Rethinking Education

Jason Smith's Consequentialism.

Posted by joshuacase at 12:07 PM | Comments (245)

May 03, 2007

New Shema Series

Here is the flier for the new Shema series. Pretty excited about it. Wanted to post it here!

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 04:07 PM | Comments (1)

May 02, 2007

Tuesday was for Thomas, Fr. Antony, and Philip

Yesterday our team (as well as Nicholas and Leslie) had the opportunity to spend some time with a couple of the Pastors/Priests in Geneva. As you may remember from my blog here on Lusmarina, it is a opportunity for people in the YFC Geneva office to get a little bit better glimpse of some of the streams of within Christianity as they are practiced/experienced in Geneva.

Fr. Antony is one of the priests at Pope John XXIII Centre. It was amazing to listen to him talk about "The Sacremental Life'. As a person who before coming to Geneva spent 32 years in East Africa, he has some real amazing stories. He has also done a significant amount of thinking and work on spiritual direction and the Ignatian Way.

The other person who came to talk to us about "The Spirit-filled Life' was Philip Kuruvilla, pastor Church for the Nations in Geneva. Coming from a completely different stream, that of the pentacostalism, Phillip shared some of the amazing stories of healing, of release from demonic oppression, of worship, and of freeing the captives of addiction that takes place in his community here in Geneva. Combined with his own personal stories of healing and deliverance, it as a really special time for many on our team who had never hear such stories.

To sum up the experience, I thought I might quote from Merton:
Man, the microcosm, the heart of of the universe, is the one who is called to bring about the fusion of cosmic and historic processes in the final invocation of God's wisdom and love. In the name of Christ and by his power, Man has a work to accomplish-to offer the cosmos to the Father, by the power of the Spirit, in the Glory of the Word. Our life is a powerful Pentecost in which the Holy Spirit, ever active in us, seeks to reach through our inspired hands and tongues into the very heart of of the material world created to be spiritualized through the work of the Church, the Mystical Body of the Incarnate Word of God.

If I can unite in myself, in my own spiritual life, the thought of the East and the West, of the Greek and Latin Fathers, I will create in myself a reunion of the divided Church, and from that unity in myself can come the exterior and visible unity of the Church. For if we want to bring together East and West, we cannot do it by imposing one upon the other. We must contain both in ourselves and transcend both in Christ.

Posted by joshuacase at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2007

A New Shema Series and More

In the next few weeks we'll be starting a new series at Shema which we feel has some pretty important implications for how we do life with others in Geneva.

Lammert has been blogging about them here a little and you can follow the Shema blog as well.

I'd also like to add this song as a bit of a teaser/taster for where we'll be headed. Thanks again to our patron Saint.

please....jc

Posted by joshuacase at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2007

Seriously good conversations...

Here are a few from the last week....

Nicholas Fiedler's Another Vlog

Josh Brown's Faith & Science (Part One)

Jason Clark's Heresy is an attitude

Mike Clawson's Is Science More Ethical Than Religion?

Posted by joshuacase at 11:06 PM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2007

Seriously good conversations...

This week's SGCs (and there are a few) are (in no particular order):
The Evolution of Faith at Danutz

Subversive Syntax by Tony Jones at Church and Postmodern Culture

John Smulo on Capital Punishment and the Bible

Brian T Murphy- March 25

Ryan Bolger on 'Continuing Jesus' Mission Into the World (Part Two)'

Jonny Baker on gandhi

Ryan Dueck's Rewind?

How Might Scripture Read Us? by Prodigal Kiwi

Hope you enjoy this week's seriously good conversations! I know i did!

Posted by joshuacase at 08:23 AM | Comments (1)

March 23, 2007

Shema, Sudan, and Spiritual disciplines

The last few months we have been looking at a couple of very challenging series in Shema. For both Lammert and myself, we have found that these series have really given us (as individuals) and Shema (as a community) an opportunity to really explore what is forming our habits and living theologically.

This Saturday, we will be having an opportunity for those in the broader Shema network to hear stories from Conny Vrieling about her recent trip to the Sudan. There will be a program for children and one for adults.

Also, today, Todd Dallanegra is starting a group for people who want to explore spiritual disciplines. The will be meeting for the next several weeks over lunch in Geneva. To learn more, email Todd.

Posted by joshuacase at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2007

Collision Course Theologians?- A Video Blog

Please feel free to respond with video blogs and/or written ones. Looking forward to hearing from all!

Also, sorry if it is a bit jumpy at times. You can close your eyes if the out of time nature messes with you;)

jc

Posted by joshuacase at 02:37 PM | Comments (6)

March 19, 2007

Children See and Do

Recently I had a mother from Geneva send me this video under the title- 'Very True'. At first, i thought, 'ok- maybe I'll watch it but it probably another silly video'. Now, I am glad i watched as it is...very true!

There is another interesting conversation happening at Jason's Clark's blog based on a post by Dean around the question of whether youth are 'emerging' as well. In my first response you can see my thoughts; however, i think this video says some of the same things!

What do you think?
jc

Posted by joshuacase at 01:54 PM | Comments (2)

The Conversation Over There..

As you may have seen, or not, I have been a part of discussion over at Jason Clark's blog on "Ethical Good News'. It has been a good conversation with several different voices involved. I would highly recommend you take the time to read through some of the things being said there..and respond when/if you are able.

In a similar vein I wanted to take the time to highlight a story i came across via a friend. It is an article about some churches in Sydney that posted the below sign outside. It turns out, it has caused quite a conflict among some of the press and parishioners of the area.

My friend, Ian, when telling me about this article made a comment to the effect, that this upheaval was just further evidence of how the message of Jesus isn't always the messsage Christians want to hear. For years it has been..for years the itching ears were given what they wanted to hear...but not so much any longer.

I know it sounds scary to some people, but i think this is great news!! Jesus really was about upseting the privileged, the religious...the normal!

Posted by joshuacase at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2007

Brian McLaren on Joseph, Noah, and Pre-emptive Preservation

As first posted on Sojourners:

Monday, March 12, 2007
Brian McLaren

I've been thinking about the recent controversy regarding James Dobson and other conservative religious leaders who wrote a letter criticizing Richard Cizik and the National Association of Evangelicals for taking the threat of global warming seriously. They described global warming as a distraction from the top moral issues of the day. Their perspective made many of us from an evangelical heritage feel