Seminary Without Walls

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