After a year or so of contemplation and questioning, I've decided to launch a new ministry in the Twin Cities under the namethe Living Room. It's a project...a conversation of sorts...being sponsored by Waite Park Wesleyan Church, If the small group takes off and becomes a large group, we'll splinter off and hopefully have several Living Rooms meeting at once. But for the time being, the conversation will start in the living room my wife and I rent in St. Paul.
Authenticity—Community—Depth—Dialogue—Love The conversation begins at 1288 Hazelwood St. #107, St. Paul, MN August 9th, 7pm.
Several different strands of thought and experience have fed the idea: First, my wife and I are fellow vagabonds, searching for authentic community in the midst of fleeting relationships. Second, there are so many questions that are left unanswered every Sunday morning and need space to be heard and wrestled with.
Perhaps the biggest push cam from Miroslav Volf. When trying to come up with the "angle" of the gathering, I heard Volf speak at Bethel University. I had been reflecting on Jesus' words in John 10, that he had come to show...or demonstrate... or make available the "abundant life." What is this life? What does it look like? I had priviately come to believe that this question had universal appeal and then Volf gave my thought some credibility -- "The question the Church must ask if it is to be relevant and meaningful in the 21st century is 'What does it mean for human life to flourish?'"
The abundant life...what is it? Who do we look at and say "there it is...they have it!"? To be honest, I'm not sure I have a clue. But I do know that whatever this "abundance" is, it's most likely to be discovered in the midst of a community of people who are asking similar questions and vulnerably living out the answers they are finding.
Come be a part of the conversation.
Email me at michaelr.cline@gmail.com
"Reality" TV "stars" Heidi and Spencer Pratt are Hollywood's new faces of "Christianity" (sorry for all the quotes, but trust me, they are necessary). Heidi has supposedly been a Christian for some time now, and her new husband Spencer was recently baptized by Stephen Baldwin. Sorry if I'm not too excited.
Heidi and Spencer have primarily gained their fame by being obnoxious on MTV's pseudo-reality show The Hills. But they have really turned it up a notch on NBC's I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here, combining their obvious self-promotion with Christian lingo. Before praying in the jungle, Spencer announces that he would have voted for Patti Blagojevich's husband for president (yes, it's who you think it is). After all, Patti and Rod are the "Heidi and Spencer of politics." Way to make the rest of us Christians look like morons, Spence.
In other news, right after Heidi yelled "hallelujah" at Spencer's baptism, she signed her name on a deal to pose in Playboy. But don't worry Church, People Magazine reports that the photo shoot is "tasteful."
Only in America.
(in the spirit of Spencer and Heidi, this blog post is a shameless attempt to get more site traffic)
Almost a year and a half ago, I made the decision to become a member of The Wesleyan Church and pursue ordination in that denomination. When applying for my student ministerial license (the first step in the process), I was asked the following question:
What is your attitude toward the above practices (tobacco use, alcohol, etc.) or other personal habits which are injurious physically or hurtful to one's influence?
At the time, I answered the question this way:
The key is that last little statement, “hurtful to one’s influence.” If something you are doing is causing other people to reject God’s vision for their life, you have to be willing to lay it down and walk away from it. With that said, I actually don’t believe the drinking of alcohol necessarily falls in that category (although, at times it certainly may). However, I believe submission to rules and authorities that I may not fully agree with is a healthy discipline for any Christian, and I humbly submit to the Wesleyan Church Discipline in this matter.
I did not receive one bit of flack for my stance from the District Ministerial Development Board. In fact, it never came up. I have a hunch that many of the board members would answer the question with a similar spirit and tone. More and more, my Wesleyan brothers and sisters are abandoning the view that "drinking is wrong" in favor of a more nuanced opinion. The decision to drink moderately, despite being a member of a denomination that favors abstinence, is already a non-issue for many younger Wesleyans (and surprisingly, more older members as well!). So not surprisingly, the ideas for changing the Discipline on this issue have started to surface. I'm not sure on how official a level the concern has been addressed, but I hear the rumblings on a weekly basis on the local level. Though I'm currently serving at a rather small church and hear the moderationist position articulated by quite a few, I have been told that it's even more widespread in some of the larger Wesleyan churches who appeal more to "outsiders" who already drink moderately.
So what's a Wesleyan to do? Well...surprising to those of you who know my past...I favor abstinence at this point in time. I haven't "landed" on the issue completely, but I think a very good argument can be made for abstinence that is theologically robust and Scripturally sound. Perhaps one of the main problems with the current Discipline as written is that it opens itself up to the critique of those wanting to use specific Scriptural verses to favor moderationism. I can't tell you how many times I've heard: "How can we have membership requirements that Jesus himself wouldn't commit to?" So if we are going to convince anyone to not pick up that longneck of Bud Light or take a sip of Jose Cuervo, we're going to have to do it another way than simply placing references to Scripture in parantheses next to our argument.
I have just began to articulate what I believe is a more robust argument, one that connects the issue of consuming alcoholc with Scripture's call to embody an ethic of hospitality to our neighbors. It also briefly draws on Walter Wink's understanding of the "Powers" language used by Paul and looks into the social realities involved in the decision to drink. Below is an excerpt from a recent paper I wrote entitled The Church and Alcohol: Abstention as Social Hospitality:
In the modern landscape of ethical debate, the issue of alcohol consumption has largely been consigned to the realm of individual choice. Because alcohol in itself is thought to be morally neutral, the morality of the decision of whether to drink or not drink comes down to an individual’s susceptibility to drunkenness, which has uniformly been considered a vice in historic Christianity.As long as one can avoid drunkenness and the perils of alcoholism, the consumption of alcohol is morally legit. This position, known as “moderationism,” is typically supported by Christians with a propositional appeal to Scripture and a glimpse into the actions of Jesus. Scripture nowhere explicitly forbids the drinking of alcohol; in fact, it celebrates wine and its effects in many places. Furthermore, Jesus’ first miracle at Cana was to turn water into wine (possibly even strong wine) with the result that the wedding festivities could continue. So how can anyone support any other view of alcohol than that of moderationism?
This essay does not seek to support a view of alcohol as inherently evil. Nor does it pursue policies of national prohibition. The main aim of this essay is to expose the argument of “personal conscience” as overly simplistic as it pertains to the choice of whether or not to consume alcohol. As a daily decision with massive social consequences, the decision to drink alcohol by the Christian should be considered in light of social, not just personal, harm. The social realities in play in the manufacturing, selling, and consuming of alcohol – combined with Scripture’s consistent concern with hospitality to the “neighbor” – provide sufficient grounds for Christian abstinence from the purchasing and consuming of alcoholic beverages. Abstaining from alcohol in solidarity with those who suffer from its oppression is a compelling way for the Church to mirror Jesus’ concern for the afflicted and name one of today’s significant “Powers.”
Interested in reading the entire paper? Send me an email at michaelr.cline@gmail.com and let's dialogue.
I've been following the election in Iran and the subsequent protests. I'll openly admit I'm not an expert on the political process of America, so I won't even begin to pretend that I know something about whether or not this election was "legit."
Keith Drury & Charlie Alcock come together to share their thoughts on the tremendous need to better equip twenty-something ministers in today's church setting. Most churches and D.S.'s think colleges and seminiaries need to do a better job with "training," as opposed to "educating," which is what most colleges and seminiaries feel they are responsible for. The Wesleyan Church is launching a new MDiv program (it's first!) to try and address this gap between practical training and academic knowledge. But the problem runs deeper than the old "The Church vs. The Academy" debate that constantly gets recycled. A shift has taken place in the people entering ministry and most denominational seminaries and local churches have yet to develop the curriculum to match.
If the number of Bethel Seminary students "Facebooking" (is that a viable verb in today's world?) during a lecture in Social Ethics is any indication, I would say there is a fair chance the OSU study is on to something. Of course, the fact that their is correlation between lower GPA's and Facebook use does not mean that one causes the other. Causation is much hard to prove.
I was fortunate enough to have the Minnesota Christian Chronicle publish something of mine last month. Unfortunately, the MCC doesn't publish their op-eds online. A few have asked me "how the article I was working on" turned out, so I've republished it here. It will be next month before I get feedback from the readers of the MCC (that is, if anyone writes in to comment), so feel free to leave some comments and let me know what you think.
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Established in Nashville, Tennessee, LifeWay Christian Resources is one of the world’s largest providers of Christian products and services. Operating over 140 stores across the nation, LifeWay sells everything from homeschool curriculum to sanctuary furniture. The publishing division of this Southern Baptist owned company has even produced “one of the most accurate and readable Bible translations ever” - the Holman Christian Standard Bible. With their firm commitment to providing “biblical solutions for life,” the avenues seem endless for LifeWay to expand the ways in which they help “spiritually transform individuals and cultures.”
A recent avenue being explored is in making sure the local Christian book buyer doesn’t end up with content that could steer the reader down perilous paths. Titles that may espouse ideas or concepts that are “inconsistent with historical evangelical theology” have been stamped with a Read With Discernment™ label. And yes, it’s trademarked. The works deemed as needing such a warning include William P. Young’s The Shack, as well as anything by Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, and Donald Miller. This doesn’t mean their books are pulled from the shelves – $21.99 will still get you The Secret Message of Jesus – but it does suggest you read these authors with “extra discernment,” a level of inspection evidently not needed when reading Wayne Grudem’s opinions of gender inclusivenessor Beth Moore’s bible studies. Browsing the online store, one comes to the conclusion that The Prayer of Jabez is apparently more historically evangelical than Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, even though LifeWay describes his book as the story of “an earnest evangelical who nearly lost his faith.” The spiritual fiction of The Shack receives the unflattering label while the provocative fiction of The Left Behind series seemingly gets a pass. One question to be asked here is just who is calling the shots for what is and what is not “evangelical?”
But an even deeper question to probe is why these books and not others? Pulling information from Wikipedia (so much for discernment), all of the authors mentioned above with the exception of Young are linked to the Emerging Church movement. That seems to be the central indictment that establishes the need for the trademarked discernment label. Whether or not this is fair procedure, and whether or not the Emerging Church movement is really worth the extra dose of scrutiny, will be left up to the bloggers to debate (and believe me, they are).More disturbing is the fact that the one book most deserving of the warning, the bestselling book of all time, and the title that LifeWay pulls its “solutions” from, is in fact void of the Read With Discernment™ label – the Holy Bible.
After all, it is hard to fathom another book more apt to challenge our historic lines and push our inherited paradigms. While being capable of such sweet revelation, Scripture simultaneously confronts our eyes and ears and has the capacity to pull us in directions we never set out to travel. On the road with Jesus in the gospels, we encounter evangelism strategies unheard of in historic evangelical seminaries and we witness the actions of a God who seems to know very little of our modern sensibilities and consumerist preferences.If there is any book that deserves a “reader beware” label, it’s one that claims itself to be alive and not one that readily admits its inventive nature. No text has such a power to transform while at the same time being so open to the impulses of the interpreter. As history has demonstrated, Scripture can be read in a numerous ways, leading to numerous consequences, both for good and evil. And yet in LifeWay’s system, the message of McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy should be handled with more care than the King James Version. Rob Bell’s Jesus Wants to Save Christians merits more careful inspection than SBC’s own highly touted Holman translation.
The Bible doesn’t come with a trademarked discernment label, but perhaps God should take some cues from LifeWay’s marketing strategies. As past Christian boycotts of everything from Disney to Martin Scorsese movies have proven, a warning label only makes items that much more attractive. Let’s hope LifeWay customers have their shields up, because despite their companies concerns, The Shack is currently #15 on their bestseller list
Michael Cline is a freelance pastor and over-employed learner. Despite being a theological mutt, he has decided to take his Anabaptist, Orthodox, Holiness, Ancient-Future Faith into the Wesleyan church to seek a life of radical discipleship within the traditional church setting. After a few years of overly glorified cynicism, he’s entering a second naiveté. When not reading and writing towards his MDiv from Bethel Seminary, he’s doing more of the same here.
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
