Reclaiming The F Word

A Friday Funny

PZ Myers is a biologist, U of MN prof, and blogger who broke the story on this side of the border about a couple of pesky Toronto college students who took all the books on the "Bibles & Bible Studies" bookshelf in their local store and quietly reshelved them in other areas i.e. Fiction, Humour, Sexuality, Erotica, Cuisine, Parenting, Mental Disorder, Parapsychology and the Occult. They left one book standing on the Bible Study shelf: Sam Harris' "Letter to a Christian Nation" calling all reasonable people to embrace a worldview sans god.

Public Service Announcement?

Most of the speaking I do is for closed or semi-closed groups - at conferences, assemblies, convocations, etc. Doing an "open to the public" event is a little scary but also kind of exciting. I'm going to be speaking on "Reclaiming the E Word: Waking Up To Our Evangelical Identity" on Thursday, June 5, at 7:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, IL. This is a pre-assembly event for the Metro Chicago Synod and all are welcome. There's no charge. If you're in Chicago, I hope you'll come say hi. If you're not, spread the word to all your Chicago friends. Tell them to say they came because of The F Word. It'll make me smile. (And also make me a little less nervous.) Thanks.

Map It.

Pursuing Vision

Over at A Renewal Enterprise (A.R.E.), we're preparing to lead another webinar tonight. The topic: Pursuing Change. If you're a leader in any type of organization - but especially if you're working to help your church reclaim the f word - you might want to log on. We'll get started at about 7 PM Central time tonight (Tuesday, May 27). To read more about it go to the A.R.E. website. It's free. But you do have to sign up ahead of time in order to get the information you need to log on. To register, go right to this link - https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/980290581.

Memorial Day, Again

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back." He's blogging today at HuffPost about the Memorial Day speech he wants Barack Obama to give. It ends like this:

A Graduation Message

This weekend at least one ELCA seminary is celebrating graduation - and I happen to have a soft spot for a lot of this year's graduates. Although I don't miss being a full-time member of a seminary faculty even a little bit, I do miss the students. It was a joy to experience their passion, intelligence, curiosity, frustration, honesty, doubts, and hopefulness on a daily basis. I miss that. I miss learning with and from them. Even when the traditional (if unhelpful) faculty/student divide had the potential of creating an awkward wariness, many of them were among my most respected colleagues and good friends. It's a wondrous thing to see them, now, spilling out into the church as leaders and pastors and missionaries and teachers. I felt the same way last year at this time and, in response to a request from a regular F Word reader, I wrote A Message To The Graduates. He wanted to know the top five things I'd say to a graduating class. I gave him 10. They still work, I think. So, for all you seminary graduates out there, getting ready to follow wherever Jesus leads, remember... 

A Great New Front Porch

Not quite a year ago, I wrote a short but sharp piece critiquing the web sites of mainline denominations, including my own (ELCA). It went something like this: 

"Check out the web sites of these mainline denominations and ask yourself, "Which of these faith communities are expecting to EVER be visited by people who aren't members? Which ones are working to communicate with people who don't speak 'our' language? Which ones are really serious about reaching 'new' generations? New cultures? New people of ANY generation or culture?"

Last August, the answer was basically "none of them." In fact, I concluded: 

"...overall this is a dismal exercise. It's no wonder we just keep shrinking. Not even WE expect new people to show up."

Not so today.

Hands On, Again

I don't think I imagined ever doing this again - for all kinds of reasons - but as of a week ago Sunday I'm on the front lines of the renewal effort in a scrappy little church right here in my neighborhood. I'm serving as one of two "pastoral leaders" (let's be careful about the language here) at Christ the King Lutheran Church (CTK). 

Link To Love

So, I'm blogging about Barbara Walter's new book and the importance of love as you're leading organizations through change over at A.R.E. today. And I think it might be helpful and interesting to anybody out there who cares about revitalizing the mainline, especially church leaders who occasionally get sucked up into thinking that "the secret" to renewal is found in a business seminar somewhere. There's good stuff coming out of the business world, of course. But nobody beats Jesus when it comes to knowing a thing or two about transformation. "Love God," he said. "Love one another. And love your neighbor as yourself." Could it be any simpler? Anyway, here's an excerpt (below) from today's A.R.E. post, "The Power Of Love":

(Un)Holy Redundancy?

What percentage of our churches TALKED about the Holy Spirit this past weekend, in celebration of Pentecost Sunday, without actually EXPERIENCING Holy Spirit power? I have no idea but I'd guess a fairly big one.

How come?

Go Speed Racer, Go

OK I admit it: I went to see Speed Racer on opening day. This is a picture of me (on crutches - don't ask!) wearing my Pitt Pass, waiting to get in.