DanSheffield

freedom/liberty, at what price?

picked up a copy of Elton Trueblood's The Incendiary Fellowship at a used book sale recently. The book by Trueblood, a Quaker author, theologian and educator was written in 1967.

...the love of liberty is a very great thing and it has always been part of the Christian faith, but the liberty of the Christian has been vastly more than a concern for one's own freedom in isolation from the structures of society and the Church. It is the Christian concern for freedom that has produced such remarkable results as the emancipation of women and the legal cessation of human slavery. But the Christian philosophy of freedom has always involved discipline as its price.

The original statement of this philosophy appears in the words of Christ which are frequently quoted in part, but seldom quoted in their totality, "if you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" John 8:31-32. In other words, freedom is not a starting point, but always a conclusion; it is something to be earned. And the participation in the life of the disciplined and committed group is part of the price

church as counter-cultural presence

over the last few weeks some of my colleagues have been debating the relative merits of the idea of 'membership' in a local church. as i have been reflecting on the dialogue i have been wondering if the concerns have more to do with underlying assumptions/expectations about the nature of the church as a public or private community? Jesus gave a broad, wide-ranging welcome to the kingdom of God to the crowds who came to hear him. Jesus spent time with, interacted with, a broad range of people, mostly marginalized, non-religious people, in a very grace-filled, inclusive, manner. But those whom he called out of the crowds to follow him, he pointed to a narrow, sacrificial, learning direction as disciple-apprentices.  And then Jesus turned around and said this small, select group would be like a city set up on a hill for everyone to see, and that how those disciples interacted with one another would be 'some kind' of means for outsiders to recognize his character.

so I'm back to Will Willimon:

I hold to the statement that we (he & Stanley Hauerwas) made in Resident Aliens. "The only way for the world to know what it is to be redeemed is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people." The only way for the world to know that it is the world -- namely fallen, corrupt, yet being saved and redeemed -- is through the presence of a 'being saved and being redeemed' community, the church. Salvation must have institutional embodiment, for it is hard to keep so strange a story going, over time, across the generations when the triumvirate of the government, the economy, and Hollywood have such powerful means of marginalizing such a story. It's hard to envision a new heave and a new earth, all things restored in Jesus, if we do not at least have a glimpse of that future here and now. Left to our own devices, we tend to regard this world with its present princes, powers and social arrangements as normal. The church's existence is in itself a corporate, material, political claim about salvation that the world cannot smother, despite its best efforts.

Free Methodist world conference in Sao Paulo

The gathering of the Free Methodist World Conference is taking place in Sao Paulo, Brazil this week. In 2002 in Harare, Zimbabwe, I was the Secretary pro tem for the conference. Many in attendance are personal friends so I am missing participating in this event.

here is the blog of daily goings-on.  http://fmwc2007.wordpress.com/
good interviews...

Howard Snyder at Tyndale

In 1981 I worked for six months at the CLC Bookstore in downtown Montreal. Working in a bookstore means you occasionally get to read a book yourself, which was highly appealing to me of course. One of the books I read that year was Howard Snyder's The Radical Wesley: Patterns for Church Renewal. I have been both a John Wesley and Howard Snyder fan since that time.

Snyder grew up in the Free Methodist Church, was a missionary in Brazil, was one of the plenary speakers at the original Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in 1974, and, most lately, professor of the history and theology of mission at Asbury Seminary.

I find the current themes of missional church and the radical renewal sought by emerging church practitioners are all found in Snyder's writing from the 70s & 80s. Nothing new under the sun...

It was on his retirement from Asbury that some of us started wondering if we could get him to take the Chair of Wesley Studies at Tydale Seminary in Toronto. So... Tyndale announced last week that Howard will officially take up the position this fall.

Thanks Howard for being available to us.

considering orthopathy

If orthodoxy is "right doctrine" and orthopraxy is "right practice", then orthopathy is "right affections"...

we have all analyzed to death what right doctrine is, and we have all kinds of tools and suggestions about right practice, but who's doing the work on what is the right kind of emotional/soul engagement? or right experience of the presence of God?

let me tell you. Theodore Runyon, a Wesleyan theologian, 

first coined the term “orthopathy” in an article in 1987. He identified orthopathy as a concept originated by Wesley that stood as “a necessary but currently missing complement to orthodoxy and orthopraxy.” Runyon described orthopathy in epistemological terms as an event that occurs “between the Divine Source and human participant.” As he explicated it, there are four factors involved in this epistemological event: (1) the divine source of experience, which makes impressions on the spiritual senses of the human beings; (2) the telos of experience: the intention of the source, the purpose and goal for the human being; (3) the transformation brought about through experience; and (4) the feelings that accompany the experience.

this is from an article by H.S. Horton-Parker in the Journal of Renewal Studies.

Kevin Bauder has this to say...

“The Bible requires not only that we speak truly about God (orthodoxy) and obey Him (orthopraxy), but that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. …Doctrine is never…an end in itself. The purpose of doctrine is to teach us to love God aright. Obedience is never an end in itself. Obedience is always the overflow of a heart that finds its satisfaction in God rather than idols. In some senses, orthopathy is even more fundamental than orthodoxy and orthopraxy.”

I'm working with my colleague Jared to develop some small group discussion material that engages orthopathy, as well as theology and practice.