Rally Brings Bikers from All Walks of Life

Rally Brings Bikers from All Walks of Life: Proud of Cyndi Nance former dean of the law school at the University of Arkansas, member of Good Shepherd Lutheran, and now board member of Bikes, Blues, and BBQ.

A Mission Statement from the 80s

Someone recently gave me a copy of the bulletin for the 1987 20th anniversary rededication of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Let it be known that the first information in the bulletin was the menu--smart move. Menu included: Roast sirloin, baked ham, or turkey and dress; whole potatoes in white sauce, broccoli spears, or yellow corn; salad bar, rolls, coffee/tea, and apple cobbler.

After this, they printed the mission statement and "purpose and mission." Lately mission statements are kind of a contested matter in the church and business worlds, but I thought this one illustrated well how things have changed even in the short 24 years since 1987. Here they are, for your reading pleasure:

Mission statement: The Congregation is a group of Christian persons to whom the Gospel of reconciliation has been given.

Purpose and mission: To focus and coordinate the resources and activities of the members to the end that the triune God may be more fully made known to all people. This will be the continuing ministry to members through the Word and Sacrament of the Church. They, in turn, will be encouraged to dedicate themselves to bear witness to their Christian faith in fullness and by every possible means, and to perceive and extend the unity of that faith. -- Specifically, this congregation commits itself to the proclamation of the Christian faith in the community in which it is located as as well as to all people everywhere, and among the membership through faithful use of the Means of Grace. This congregation shall also continuously seek avenues of service in Christ's name which will extend into all areas of human need.

Greatest Influential Living Theologians

Generations like to name their greatest influences, whether it is in art, science, or theology. Typically it takes a while to evaluate this, because fame does not equal influence, nor does influence equal influence, in the sense that someone who is very widely read at the time does not always translate to subsequent generations, whereas someone mostly ignored in their lifetime later rises to prominence.

A colleague was recently asked by an older pastor and lectionary study group participant to name the theologians that were most influential with us "younger" clergy. This particular pastor name Joseph Sittler and Paul Tillich, among others. For this exercise, I set a limit. I had 15 minutes to write down as many names as possible. They had to be living theologians, preferably alive and still writing. I had to have read at least a few books by anyone I mention, and I had to have had significant conversations about their work with pastors or fellow theologians.

I tried to break them down into lists (theologians like Sittler, theologians like Tillich), and they needed to be theologians I value reading right now, and I believe have a fighting chance of being theologians that endure.

This is certainly not a comprehensive list. It's enigmatic and unique to me as a reader. But I think it's helpful at illustrating what a profound and transformative generation of theologians we inhabit.

Theologians like Sittler (confessional, ecological, or both):

Eugene Peterson
Wendell Berry (not exactly a theologian, but worthy of this list)
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Ellen Davis
Jurgen Moltmann
Vitor Westhelle
Walter Brueggemann
Phylis Trible
Nicholas Lash
Serene Jones
Risto Saarinen
Desmond Tutu
Brian Brock

Theologians/authors like Paul Tillich:

James William McClendon Jr.
Robert Jenson
Douglass John Hall
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Rowan Williams
David Ford
Colin Gunton (I know, he died, but too soon, so I include him)
John Zizioulas
Gordon Kaufman
Eberhard Jungel
Alasdair MacIntyre
Elizabeth Johnson
Bruce Marshall
Hans Kung
Kathryn Tanner
Sara Coakley
Walter Kasper
Francis X. Clooney

Other theologians that will have an enduring influence (I think):

Stanley Hauerwas
Marilyn Robinson
Will Willimon
Gary Dorrien
Timothy Wengert
Robert Kolb
Peter Leithart
Miroslav Volf
Richard Hays
John Milbank
James Cone
Justo Gonzalez
David Bentley Hart
Cardinal Ratzinger
Oliver O'Donavon
Oswald Bayer
N.T. Wright
A.K.M. Adam

9.5 Metriopathic Theses for the Church

1. Church should be interesting. The Scriptures are interesting. God is interesting. When the assembly gathers for worship, preaching and worship should reflect this. Too little of it does.

2. The church should be safe. It is a refuge for those who are lost and abused, and it needs to be a safe place for those seeking solace, comfort, and care. It should especially be safe for those (like, for example, the LGBT community, minorities, and the poor) who find it difficult to find safe places in our culture.

3. The church should seem saintly not sinful. Often our sinfulness in the church is a barrier to those outside the church hearing the gospel and trusting in it. It is a travesty that we fight so much, and care so much about our own internal disputes that we do not often reflect the glory of God to the world.

4. Laity are the new monastics, and all the skepticism concerning monasticism in the reformation period applies equally to clergy today. Clergy, though simply one of the baptized, hold a sacred office in the church, and the spirit works that office for the upbuilding of the church. Elevation of the laity at the denigration of the minister of Word & Sacrament is damaging to the church.

5. More worship (and more sermons) should be clear, to the point, and focused. Too often we have not done the hard work of focusing our preaching and worship to the point where it resounds, clear and tonal, like a poem.

6. Churches should enforce the law more often. Too often we are the last refuge for those who wish to flout the law, such as predators, and in general people who lack boundaries and are antagonistic and know that churches are confused about what grace actually is, and how to be assertive while simultaneously being gracious.

7. That really is bread and wine you are eating in the Eucharist. Hopefully someone in your congregation made it and grew it.

8. That baptized person next to you in worship really is not yet a member of your own body, but will be, eschatologically, in the resurrection to life in Christ. But then they will be Jesus. And so will you. And Jesus will be in God. And beyond that I have no idea how to describe stuff that far beyond the beyond.

9. The church is a closed set, not a free for all. We have a canon, and a creed, a rule of faith, and dogma and doctrine that have developed over time, and there are ways of preaching, teaching, and living that are outside of this set. 

9.5 God is genuinely interested in what kind of music you listen to, because God is a fugue.

[I violate most if not all of these theses in my life and ministry, but nevertheless believe they are true and theologically faithful.]