Seminary Without Walls

I’m not a fan of political conventions. They tend to be what media critic Daniel Boorstin called ‘pseudo-events.’ They are staged and scripted, produced and performed in order to garner media coverage. Here’s an example of the difference between a ‘pseudo-event’ and a real event. If my neighbor’s garage burns down because of errant bottle rockets, that’s an event. The news trucks show up because something real happened. But if my neighbor burns down her garage to get the news trucks to come, that’s a pseudo-event—a reality created just to grab some TV time.

Twice in the last month, the arsonists have struck. First the Democrats burned down their garage, with the news media dutifully covering the conflagration. And then the Republicans were all set to burn down their garage—with what they hoped was a bigger, better and certainly redder fire. But this second pseudo-event ran smack into hurricane Gustav. Hot air turned out to be far less interesting than dangerous air.

Of course by now everyone realizes that, as events go, Gustav was a bit of a letdown. Gustav failed to live up to the speculation about its devastating potential. (At least it failed to devastate New Orleans or other major US population centers. There’s no clearer sign of our national egocentricity than the fact that the devastating impact of Gustav on impoverished neighbors like Cuba has gone largely unnoticed.) In fact, Daniel Boorstin might point out that because Gustav got more news coverage as something that might happen than it did as an actual happening, it was more of a pseudo-event than a real one.

Why does any of this matter for Christians? First, because pseudo-events tempt us to lose sight of Jesus. The clamor and glitz of the pseudo-event disorient us from the still small voice of God (1 Kings 19:12) and from the Savior who “had no form or majesty that we should look at him” (Isaiah 53:2). So our sense of what is real and what really matters is shaped more by the news of today’s pseudo-events than by the good news about Jesus. Second, because pseudo-events lure us away from daily discipleship. They are so big and splashy that our everyday life begins to seem small and boring by comparison. Yet it is precisely here in the humdrum that Christ calls us to follow him. Finally, because pseudo-events distract and disengage us from serving our neighbors. They do this partly by taking our time; I can’t watch the political convention and mow my neighbor’s lawn at the same time. But they do it more by stultifying our imaginations. When is the last time you saw a pseudo-event that propelled you to active, loving service of your needy neighbor? Not the Oscars or the Golden Globes, not the Super Bowl half time show, nor a nominating convention either.

Which is why it is so interesting that the Republicans have curtailed their convention in favor of showing concern for and giving attention to the potential victims of Gustav. (And to be fair, the Democrats have worked just as hard to parade their concern for Cajuns in front of the camera.) Perhaps this is one of those rare moments when the collision of human need and neighborly concern bring out our best, transforming even a pseudo-event like a nominating convention into a call to something that looks quite a bit like loving service. If so, I’m glad. But I’m not going to pin my hope for substantive change on that kind of politics, because it remains far too uncommon, and far too unreflective. And more than that, I’m not going to pin my hopes there because my hope—all of it—has already been claimed by and for Christ.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t engage in local politics nor wish that the American political process were less addicted to the pseudo-event and more committed to substantive change. In the aftermath of Gustav, what I’d really like to see, what we could really use, is a thick public policy discussion about the viability of building (and rebuilding) an entire city below sea level. Surely it’s time for somebody to point out just how crazy it is to try to fence out the sea. That’s what we need, but that’s almost certainly not what we’ll get. Why? Because we don’t find substantive discussion of complex issues nearly as interesting as pseudo-events, and because Hurricane Hanna is already heading toward the Atlantic coast.

Brent Laytham

Professor of Theology and Ethics

North Park Theological Seminary

The Center for Spiritual Direction at North Park Theological Seminary recently graduated its second class of students on July 27, 2008.

Many of you have received the Exploring Covenant Affirmations DVD. We would love to hear your thoughts on the dvd, how you use it in your church community and any other feedback you may have. We hope that it has been a wonderful resource for you!

Last week students descended on North Park University’s campus from six different conferences of the Evangelical Covenant Church to take part in this year’s Youth Nexus program. The program is a part of the Making Connections Initiative which strives to strengthen connections between North Park Theological Seminary and Evangelical Covenant Churches. The program is funded by a Lilly grant and seeks to help develop a “Culture of Call” in the lives of youth across the denomination, as well as expose them and their youth leaders to theological thinking and experiential learning. The program is staffed by seminary students as counselors and support staff and the teaching and discussion times are led by both Seminary and University Faculty.

This year, students gathered from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska and California. However, the participants were not only from different regions. This intentionally diverse group included people from at least 6 different ethnic backgrounds as well. This diversity in socio-economic, cultural and regional backgrounds sets the stage every year for some great conversations as each participant brings their own lenses through which they view life and important issues.

Each day the group shared in a time of spiritual formation which ranged from worship, to using the arts to understand themselves in relation to others, to seeing the big picture of who was a part of God’s kingdom here on earth. A time of theological discussion around important issues followed each day, as participants wrestled together by challenging their own preconceptions. On one particularly poignant day, the focus was on race and immigration. Participants were struck by the way in which opportunities had shaped their position in life and how the lack of these same opportunities made for some very different circumstances for others. Another important aspect of this day was struggling with the many-faceted sides of the immigration issue. Students were able to hear from activists within the organized church who were trying to make a difference in determining what is and is not “just” related to this important issue.

Each afternoon held an activity related to the topic of the day, to help bring theology to the everyday.

In the evening, participants were able to sample some of the great aspects of living in the world class city of Chicago. From dinner on the great lawn at Pritzker Pavilion while listening to classical music, to taking in the sights and sounds of Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile and a great Wendella Boat Ride, to theatre and museums, there was something for everyone to see and experience.

At the end of the week, participants were looking forward to sleep after a pretty amazing adventure. Even in this short time together, a strong sense of community forms and it is hard to go our separate ways. Participants are connected through a Facebook group and share pictures and stories together, keeping each other informed of what they are doing in their post- Nexus lives and praying for each other.

If you want to be challenged in your faith, and experience how faith and theology impacts real-life, then maybe you should check out Youth Nexus. Next year’s program is scheduled for the end of June on the North Park University Campus, so watch for more info to follow. You can find out more about Youth Nexus at: http://www.northpark.edu/sem/mci/nexus.cfm There will be updated downloadable forms available soon to apply for next year’s program on the site. We hope to see you next year at Youth Nexus!!

The Bible, North Park, and the Annual Meeting

The focus of the recently completed Covenant Annual Meeting was the centrality of Scripture. A point made over and over again during the conference was that it is not enough to simply value Scripture. For the Bible to truly be central to our existence as God’s people we must read it with rigor and dogged determination. As John Weborg put it in his magnificent sermon on the first night of the meeting, we must not become mere consumers, picking this bit and that bit from the Scriptures according to our interests and prejudices. Rather we should see the Scripture as capital, as an ever renewed and ever renewing resource for our communal and individual lives. And we must read it together. Our private interpretations are not enough. “What the Bible means to me” is not enough. Competent reading of the Bible is communal reading. And communal reading is not only a contemporary reading, but listens to the readings of the past. Competent Bible reading “gives the dead a vote”. (Please see my “The Bible, Culture, and Mission” in the May 2008 Covenant Quarterly for an expansion of these themes). If you did not hear John’s sermon, go online and listen to it. It is among the best sermons I have ever heard.

North Park’s Stephen Chester and Klyne Snodgrass continued the conversation about reading Scripture. Stephen provided an excellent workshop for the pastors on reading Paul according to the great Apostles own parameters. Stephen also had us reading together, engaging some of Paul’s more difficult texts in groups of three or four. Paul was a master at taking the Hebrew Scriptures and the life and teaching of Jesus and applying it to very different cultural situations. This is a task we face every time we preach or teach or share our lives and faith. Klyne lead the Annual Meetings discussion of the new Covenant teaching paper on how the ECC reads Scripture. North Park alum Becky Eklund, who just finished the first year of her ThD studies at Duke Divinity School, also contributed to the discussion. The paper was very well received. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, go to the Covenant website and take a look. As Klyne, Becky, and Donn Engebretson all said, there is nothing new in this paper. But it is a concise statement of our long-term commitments to reading well and living well from the Scriptures. One pastor said during the debate that he was delighted to have such a document for use in his congregation, especially with people who don’t quite understand what the Covenant is about. “Thank you,” he concluded, “for doing something useful for a change.” Another useful resource contributed to the discussion: the DVD series on Covenant Affirmations , funding by the Making Connections Initiative of the Lilly Endowment. Klyne was feature on that presentation as well.

I am proud of the Biblical field at North Park. With Klyne and Stephen, and Max Lee in New Testament and Bob Hubbard and Jim Bruckner in Old Testament I think we are second to none. Paul Koptak adds a course or two to the Old Testament field as well—particularly in Wisdom Literature. These are all excellent teachers and publishing scholars. Klyne’s Stories with Intent is now on the shelves of most Covenant pastors. Jim just published a new commentary on Exodus. Everybody else has something in the works for the near future. Max Lee is under contract for three books. We call max “Red Bull” for his legendary use of the energy drink to keep himself going during the completion of his dissertation. He must have a case of it at home right now!

In a few days I am heading on vacation and I am reading three fascinating books and will be carrying several others with me. I want to recommend our own David Olson’s The American Church in Crisis. I am going to be saying some more about this book in a column for the Covenant Companion. Most of the pastors received this book at the Midwinter Conference. Please take it off your shelf and read it. As strange as it may seem an Orthodox Rabbi friend of mine recommended the second book I am currently reading; Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope is a scholar but writes as both a scholar and a pastor. It is well worth a look. I am also reading a book by Daniel Aleshire the executive director of the Association of Theological Schools.

One of my summer projects is to read on the future of the church and theological education in preparation for a year long listening tour designed to help us rethink our approach to ministerial preparation. Dan’s book, Earthen Vessels , reflects on that future and I suspect will be an important part of my preparation. Other books I will be taking with me on vacation are For Life Abundant , edited by Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra (another book on theological education), Finding Our Way Again, by Brian McLaren, and Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright. If you think this all sounds a bit heavy, I am taking a few novels along as well!

Jay Phelan

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

Waiting in their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

A WORLD PRAYER FOR THIS WEEK (C. John Weborg)

Merciful God, Creator of all who inhabit the earth, you behold your image and likeness in each of us.
How grieved you must be, even angered, at the suffering your image-bearers in China and Myanmar now endure. While the devastation exceeds one’s imagination, the demand of it defies our comprehension.
Merciful God, awaken in those near and far an unquenchable compassion and an equal outrage wherever injustice permits your image bearers to suffer degradation. May the people who name the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, as their own be like him, emptying themselves for the sake of those who now, like Jesus, have nothing except death and loss.
We pray this through Jesus Christ, who has dominion with you, merciful God, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and always. Amen.

Let me begin with an incident that occurred outside my clinical consulting room on a warm day here in the Midwest. This morning I had driven into the city early to grab a cup of coffee before my day started. I went to my usual place, and as usual, was greeted warmly by a young African American woman behind the counter. As my latte was being prepared, we discussed the Sox’s victory. When we reached a pause, our conversation took what I considered to be an odd, and sad, turn: leaning forward and speakly a little quieter, “what are you mixed with?” she asked. I must have drifted here, I thought, with some anxiety. Was she asking me about the coffee? I looked at her—hoping for some clarification, some clue as to what I had missed. “I beg your pardon” I offered. “What are you mixed with? You’re not from Chicago? Where are your people from? Are you part Indian? Your skin—it’s nice—not too light or too dark. And your hair, your hair is good hair”. “Oh”, I said, “no, I’m not mixed”.

I wondered what other lessons she had learned in her twenty-something years of life concerning color/blackness/her self. I felt sad as I imagined her looking at her chocolate brown skin each morning with her thick dreads reaching her shoulders and her wondering if her hair, her skin—her lovely brown skin–her self—“was good”.

What happens when a black girl encounters a mirror–here, in a place, called home?

Kimberlyn Leary has stated it ever so eloquently, “race is worn and lived similarily and differently by each of us”. Yes. We all wear this highly contested and socially created and perpetuated idea called race. Do we choose how we wear race? Do we choose what we see reflected in the mirror? What happens to the mirror image when we move into blackness? Move with me.

This entry is taken from the blog of Dr. Phillis Sheppard http://womanist-journal.blogspot.com/

Last week pranks, proof read commencement directions, prayers before phone interviews, extra treats for final studying – all are known in the seminary these days. Outside there are ducklings and baby bunnies but no undergrads (they graduated last weekend.) Inside are Pentecostal scarlet chapel cloths (paraments designed and sewn by Lois Weborg) and the sounds of a new song at the closing of class.
Like the sweet spring air, the Spirit is moving around us. As one chapter is closing, we thank God for the gifted teaching, warm friendship and engagement Paul Bramer has given the Lord and Covenanters here for the last thirteen years. We hold him and Marlene in our hearts and prayers as they move to Toronto for a new chapter of ministry and warmth of family. And we anticipate another chapter opening here as Linda Cannell transitions from Gordon-Conwell into leadership among us as Dean of Academic Life. She will begin with new students and new insight, arriving with our returning seminary community in August. We hold her in prayer too.
Like the seminary graduates, we at the seminary are growing into who we are meant to be. We know Who we belong to and who we are. We have wisdom of years of experience and growth in the Lord. Like the students, we have followed God’s calling to resource, guide, pastor, empower, teach, discipline and befriend those called into Christian ministry. God is not done with us yet, even though commencement is at hand!

Dr. Linda Cannell has accepted the Seminary’s invitation to an appointment as the Dean of Academic Life. Dr. Cannell follows Dr. Stephen Graham who accepted a position at the Association of Theological Schools.

Dr. Cannell has most recently served as the Lois W. Bennett Distinguished Professor of Educational Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  She served from 1990-2006 as Professor of Educational Ministries at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.  From 2000-2006 she was the director of the Ph.D. in Educational Studies at Trinity.  She has served widely as a consultant and workshop leader in both the United States and Canada.  She has also taught and consulted internationally.  She has a long interest in the future of theological education and has served as a board member of the Association of Theological Schools.  She has worked for many years with the development and evaluation of curriculum for such companies as Scripture Press and David C. Cook.  Her research and publications are focused on theological education and on children’s ministry.  A native of Canada, Dr. Cannell received her Bachelor of Religious Education from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and a Master of Religious Education and Doctor of Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Dr. Cannell will begin her duties as dean with the new academic year.