Pulpit of the Sint-Bavokerk, Haarlem, The Netherlands (taken by Mike Young, summer 2008)

I just started what is turning out to be a very interesting book by Hugh Heclo entitled On Thinking Institutionally. My interest was sparked by a review in the latest issue of The Christian Century as well as the water in which we’re currently swimming attempting to keep a denominational institution afloat in these challenging times.  I hope to write more about the book in later posts but there was an interesting point he made in explaining what he calls the PR Effect.

Heclo gives a “short list of some prevailing strategies used by today’s professionals in public communications”:

• Stay on a simple message (rather than dealing with complex realities).
• Appeal to emotions (rather than taking time to reason with the audience).
• “Frame” issues to steer people toward the desired conclusion (rather than informing them about the substance of any given issue).
• Project self-assurance (rather than admitting uncertainty or ignorance).
• Counterattack or switch the subject (rather than trying to answer tough questions).
• Avoid self-criticism (rather than trying to correct your errors).
• Claim to have the whole answer (rather than admitting there is any independent expertise that is not on your side).
• Above all, talk to win (rather than to get at the truth of things).

He then makes an interesting observation:

“So what does the PR effect have to do with institutional distrust?  To find the answer, we might return to the preceding short list and imagine two acquaintances.  One deals with you in the terms indicated at the beginning of each bullet and the other does so along the lines contained in the parentheses.  Once you realize you are the target of a sell-job, trust goes out the window.  It’s time to keep you hand on your wallet.  More than that, the rhetorical tricks, focus group-tested talking points, and slick strategies are a way of saying that you are not being taken seriously.”

I am still processing this but strangely enough my first thoughts went to preaching.  How has this philosophy of public communication impacted how we relate to people in the congregation?  I had a nice opportunity to preach for a World AIDS Day service last night.  My topic was “How are you spiritually healthy?”  I acknowledged how pretentious it would be for me to actually give a recipe for spiritual health…a “10 step” plan or something similar.  I received some nice comments following my talk.  But the one that probably meant the most was by someone who simply said, “I’m glad you let us think about that without answering the question.  I’m glad you let us know that you didn’t have the answer.”

I’m convinced that not only from the pulpit, but also in our “Christian/religious” communications with folk outside our particular faith tribe, our slide toward irrelevance has been greased by our attempts to sell faith.  Doris Bett says, “…faith is not synonymous with certainty…[but] is the decision to keep our eyes open.”  Our sales pitch approach to faith has run its course.  I really don’t think people want answers.  I think what they want are authentic relationships so they can work out their salvation together.  They want to be able to keep their eyes open.  Too often what we provide is an opportunity to change the channel.

—photo by Mike Young

“…everyone has a life that is different from the ‘I’ of daily consciousness, a life that is trying to live through the ‘I’ who is its vessel.   …there is a great gulf between the way my ego wants to identify me, with its protective masks and self-serving fictions, and my true self.”   —Parker Palmer, from Let Your Life Speak

Parker Palmer’s book is difficult for me to take in at times.  Each line resonates deeply leaving me wanting to highlight everything I’m reading.  The power and profundity stem, I think, from the modesty inherent in Palmer’s proposal…rather than selling himself as the expert, he merely plays the role of servant guide giving the reader permission to delve into the stream of the true self flowing free below the frozen surface of the public “I”.

I find Palmer’s lines above very provocative.  It moves me to look beyond the public persona and move deeper into myself.  Thomas Merton speaks to the same idea with the metaphors of a fire or a ship: “We are warmed by a fire, not by the smoke of a fire. We are carried over the sea by a ship, not by the wake of a ship.  So too, what we are is to be sought in the invisible depths of our own being, not in our outward reflection in our own acts. We must find our real selves not in the froth stirred up by the impact of our being upon the beings around us, but in our own soul which is the principle of all our acts.”  —Thomas Merton, from No Man is an Island

Often of late, I have engaged in conversations with people (mostly men) who are struggling deeply with issues concerning vocation.  So much of our identity is wrapped up in our vocation and our performance in that vocation.  Much of my current struggle with my identity is centered on the public “I”…the role, vocation, and social face of my life.  But that revolves around job, career, resume’, public perception and performance.  It is much more difficult for me to articulate what is happening in the stream of my self flowing below that sheet of ice.

The soul is like a wild animal—tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy.  If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out.  But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of a tree, the creature we are waiting for may well emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a glimpse of the precious wildness we seek.    —Parker Palmer, from Let Your Life Speak

Houses of the Future – The Atlantic (November 2009).

NEW ORLEANS - AUGUST 24: 1631 Tennessee Street - Photos of New Orleans Houses photographed for Atlantic Monthly on August 24, 2009 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for Atlantic Monthly)

This is a link to an intriguing article I read on Monday in the November 2009 issue of The Atlantic.  Several things were interesting to me.

In particular are the comments sprinkled throughout the article that pertain to remembering, re-building, nurturing , and sustaining community and the role that is playing in the architecture on the homes being built.  One interesting section describes features of some of the traditional homes of New Orleans…tall ceilings (“allow residents to live below the worst of the summer heat”); shotgun cottages lack hallways (“allowing for efficient cross-ventilation in every room”); transoms (“make the walls porous and keep the air moving”).  Michael Mehaffy, Executive Director of Sustasis, says “What we’re learning is that these traditions are not just fashions.  They’re rooted in the real adaptive evolution of a place.”  Such an observation requires living in a place and listening to its voices.

An observation by Andres Duany, co-founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, was particularly insightful:

“When I originally thought of New Orleans, I was conditioned by the press to think of it as an extremely ill-governed city, full of ill-educated people, with a great deal of crime, a great deal of dirt, a great deal of poverty,” said Duany, who grew up in Cuba. “And when I arrived, I did indeed find it to be all those things. Then one day I was walking down the street and I had this kind of brain thing, and I thought I was in Cuba. Weird! And then I realized at that moment that New Orleans was not an American city, it was a Caribbean city. Once you recalibrate, it becomes the best-governed, cleanest, most efficient, and best-educated city in the Caribbean. New Orleans is actually the Geneva of the Caribbean.  …All the do-goody people attempting to preserve the culture are the same do-gooders who are raising the standards for the building of houses, and are the same do-gooders who are giving people partial mortgages and putting them in debt,” he said. “They have such a profound misunderstanding of the culture of the Caribbean that they’re destroying it. The heart of the tragedy is that New Orleans is not being measured by Caribbean standards. It’s being measured by Minnesota standards.”

As someone who grew up in south Louisiana near New Orleans, this is the first time I’ve heard that description of the city…frankly, it rings true.  Much damage is done to culture, place, community in the name of progress or good intentions.  Duany came by his observations by living in New Orleans and walking the streets, talking to people who love the place.  Brad Pitt, of all people, has bought a home in the city and is an integral part of the “high design” Make It Right development in the lower 9th ward.  Again, grew to love New Orleans, moved there, spends time there and becomes part of the solution.  (from the article, “BRAD PITT FOR MAYOR t-shirts are not uncommon around town.”)

The writer of the article quotes Steve Mouzon speaking to a group of contractors and architects: “The very core of sustainability can be found in a simple question: ‘Can it be loved?’”  Ultimately, that will be hinge of success in the rebuilding of New Orleans.  Wayne Curtis closes his article with, “The past here has much to inform the future, not just for New Orleans, but for an entire country that needs to rethink the way it designs its cities and homes.  New Orleans won’t be rushed—it never is—but the chances are good that whatever results here will be loved.”

I wanted to go to Christianity 21 but decided to spend money to go to the Jurgen Moltmann Theological Conversation instead…and it was an awesome and formative experience for me (and also sent me scurrying off to buy/read some more Moltmann books).

However, the Christianity 21 thing has stuck with me…particularly after reading/watching some of the responses of folk who were able to attend. The thing that profoundly occurs to me in these responses is how much more is said about the space created by the event to “be” …be followers of Jesus…be in community…be who attendees were created to be. I was struck particularly by 3 comments in the video above:

• Nadia Bolz-Weber says, “…and then there are those evangelicals who have discovered the liturgy, which is…adorable”…One, Nadia is hilarious and profound (check out her book). Much of the energy I have felt in the various emergent type meetings I’ve been privileged to attend has centered around such rediscovery of my tradition and the traditions of others who are also attempting to follow God in the way of Jesus.
• “We are more often than not people of doubt, who have beliefs than people of faith, who have moments of doubts.” TOO TRUE!!! I believe our getting this bass ackwards in our church “communities” is probably the biggest barrier to authentic community we face.
• The elderly man toward the end of the video… “This weekend has been something my heart and soul has been waiting for for 38 years…I wanted to go to heaven when I was 75, my password on the computer is heaven75.  I lived 4 more years, I now I know why!” Is that not an amazing statement?  I’m immediately reminded of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35) who waited with great expectation for “the consolation of Israel”…and upon seeing the infant Jesus proclaimed,

“²⁹“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss^[a] your servant in peace.
³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”

I’m certain this cannot be written off cynically as just another over-hyped event.  There is something going on here among us.  I for one want to be a part of it.  It has nothing to do with being hip and cool.  It has everything to do with rediscovering the joy of my salvation.

photo by Mike Young, on the grounds of Ignatius House, Atlanta (March 2008)

I rediscovered this “examine” received while attending a Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation in March of 2008.  I thought I would post it here.  I found it to be very thought provoking.  (I am unsure of the source)

Examination…The Lord’s Prayer throughout the Day…

Our Father in heaven

• When did you sense the greatest intimacy with God?

Hallowed be your name

• When were you most aware of how unique and different God is?

Your Kingdom come

• When and how did you see the kingdom making itself real?

Your will be done on earth

• When were you most alive?

Give us this day our daily bread

• When were you given bread?
• When did you share bread?

Forgive us our sins

• When were you most aware of sin and the desire to end your relationship with it?
• When were you a part of the problem, rather than light toward a solution?

As we forgive those who sin against us

• When were you forgiving or an agent of forgiveness?

Lead us not into temptation

• When did you feel God’s guiding and defining action?

Deliver us from evil

• When did you feel God protecting you from evil in yourself and without?

For the kingdom, power, and glory are yours

• When did you sense or confess it is about God?

Forever

• When were you most aware of eternal realities or the Eternal?

Amen…

I guess you all have heard that David Ortiz’s name has turned up on the infamous “secret list”…the same one that has brought down Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez, etc.  As a Red Sox fan, of course I was disappointed…but by no means surprised.  It doesn’t take a drug test or an opportunist reporter to recognize the difference in production and the sudden breakdown health wise with Big Papi to know what’s going on.  In this day and age, when someone begins to do “super-human” things in the world of sports, my skeptical antennae get REAL sensitive.  I guess that’s a shame but its part of growing up…innocence lost…all that stuff.

Since I find myself on the road a lot with my job, I tend to listen to a lot of sports talk radio…that is until a steroid story breaks…then it’s time to hit XM Channel 45 (The Spectrum) for some good music and a break from the constant noise of this particular issue.  Here’s my take on it:

• Baseball has a steroids era…deal with it.  You can talk about it “tainting the game/records/stats/etc.”  However there has always been cheating in baseball.
• Every team was “enhanced” in some way by this particular drug induced epoch, so I don’t necessarily feel anyone’s titles are tarnished.  Heck, it was a pretty great feat to beat the other ‘roided up teams on their schedules.
• Please spare me the I-WAS-CLEAN-I-NEVER-TOOK-IT-DON’T-BLAME-ME garbage.  If you were in a major league locker room during this time period, you either took it or you knew people were taking it.  If supposed “clean” players knew it was going on, they should have shouted about the integrity of the game then.   All this whining after the fact rings really hollow.
• I’m sick of journalists making their careers one name at a time with a list that was supposed to be confidential.  Their “journalistic” integrity looks a lot more like opportunism to me.  (funny how the writer of the story about Ortiz is with the New York Times)
• Now that some of the names have leaked…ALL the names should be made public.  A few guys should not take the fall for the whole league.
• As to the Hall of Fame, I don’t really care…to repeat myself, we have a “steroid era” in baseball, and we all know it.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to justify any of this.  I think it’s irresponsible, destructive, and a very poor reflection on the game.  It reinforces my belief that I don’t mind someone admiring an athelete’s athletic exploits on  the field…but there are much better (and safer) role models elsewhere.  The athletes have received WAY TOO MUCH money and WAY TOO MUCH exposure for WAY TOO LONG.

Rembrandt Coffee Shop

I was able to grab a quick cup of coffee at my favorite Chattanooga cafe Tuesday before an appointment.  It’s located in the Bluff View Art District near the river, between downtown and UT Chattanooga.

This is a city that has done a fantastic job in revitalizing its downtown area and lots of folk are noticing.  One thing that stood out in my very quick and quite incomplete google research was it’s rank as #2 Arts Destination (midsized city) by American Style Magazine (2009).

I read what I found to be a disturbing article in the current issue of Harper’s Magazine this week.  Normally, the Harper’s Index is the first thing I turn to when my new magazine arrives in the mailbox.  However, an article written by Rachel Aviv entitled Like I Was Jesus: How to bring a nine-year-old to Christ jumped off the front cover.  The title used terms very familiar to anyone who has been brought up in a religion that stresses personal salvation and evangelism.  It was a little disconcerting to see them in the context of a cover article in Harper’s.

Though I never resorted to use of an EvangeCube, I recognized some of the techniques being described from my college summer missions assignments.  I was always somewhat uncomfortable in those types of “ministry” situations.  Several questions usually arose: Where are the parents of these kids?  What would they say about this?  What will be the long-term result of these “conversions”?  What does that type of conversion mean when made outside the context of a nurturing community of Jesus followers?  Activities the religious/evangelical/revivalist culture of our churches considers almost normal practice look manipulative and predatory to those outside that culture.

Maybe more damning is this observation of the writer:

The missionaries attempted to present the Bible as clearly and simply as possible, but it was the rigidity of their lessons that ultimately disoriented the children I spoke to.  As they discovered that, in fact, the Lord had not swooped down to heal their wounds and scrapes and disappointments, the new beliefs they had adopted seemed destined to break down, along with whatever was driving them to have faith in the first place.

What effect does this have on the long-term possibility of mature faith?

hyper |ˈhīpər| — (adjective informal)  hyperactive or unusually energetic

I spoke to my youngest son on the telephone last night.  He and his brother have been in Louisiana for 16 days…I would round that off to “about 2 weeks” but it’s been every bit of 16 days.  Mom and dad and sister miss them both very much, and from the phone conversations the feelings are mutual.

Now they have had a blast in Louisiana with the grandparents.  A quick rundown of their itinerary: 3 days with the cousins from Texas (they do not get together nearly enough); logged numerous miles driving (I do mean driving…not merely riding) papaw’s pickup truck around the fields, to the store and the co-op; explored the home place on the 4-wheeler; swam in the river nearly every evening, toured various points of interest along the Louisiana gulf coast (Grand Isle; South Lafourche High School-their dad’s alma mater; visited the Wedell-Williams Aviation Museum; visited LSU; Mike the Tiger’s habitat; TigerMania for baseball National Championship gear; hung out with Aunt Sherry and Uncle Tony, enjoyed numerous “guilt-free” trips to WalMart for more toys they do not need; enjoyed hot, home-maid biscuits every meal on demand; “camping out” in mamaw’s living room, etc.   I could go on, but you get the idea.
Ethan, the youngest, had a bet on with his brother that big sister Hillary “didn’t miss him.”  Austen, with 4 years more maturity and experience in such things knew better.  But Ethan had his doubts…until he talked to big-sis and decided it was necessary to reverse his bet.  So last night, on the eve of their return home, Ethan verbalized the following observation:

“I’ll bet the house isn’t the same without my hyper self.”

I had to laugh…nothing more true has ever been said.  He was expressing many things with that observation.  He knew there were no little boys from the neighborhood descending on the refrigerator and the pantry like locusts picking them clean of soft drinks and snacks.  He knew the house was quieter without his “hyper-self” creating new worlds via the mediums of Lego, action figures, pens, paper, and computer games.  But most of all, he wanted to hear someone verbalize that he was missed—that in his absence was a hole that could not be filled.  And he was absolutely right.
I’m thankful for summer vacations with the grandparents…those are memories I still cherish from my own childhood.  I’m also thankful for that hyper-self returning today to refill his space.  I don’t think I’ll be telling him to chill out…at least for a couple of days.

My last post was a “flash” post on my first day of the assembly.  I was quite honestly not very excited to be there.  It came across as sort of pitiful upon hearing some of the comments people said to me subsequently.  It wasn’t intended as a pity party…I had a great time, hung out with some very cool people, was re-energized by some of those people, and was able to spend some good times in Houston…so don’t feel sorry for me…

However, I truly wasn’t very excited going into the Assembly.  We find ourselves still in a (seemingly) never ending time of transition here in Tennessee, there seemed to be a resignation surrounding the meeting that the numbers of regestered participants would be way down (they were) and that we were all sort of in limbo…I sort of played into that feeling of dread in several conversations I had this past week.

However, I got up this morning and began to reflect on the week and the conversations I was fortunate enough to engage and I’ve changed my mind.  Some of the positives:

• I met/talked with/hung out with several very cool, very gifted young women that I would love to be my pastor someday (hopefully soon).  I am very encouraged! (check out this sermon from one of them…Ann Pitman-A Tale Of Two Daughters.
• I saw a much younger crowd than I have seen in years past
• I hung out most of the time with a group of college students there participating in the Houston Sessions…I miss that very much…this was very energizing…THANKS all of you!
• I was encouraged by those who attended the workshops I participated in…great questions…great potential…
• I was thankful to be a part of a large gathering of Baptists where nothing was discussed that I was embarrassed to read in the papers the next day
• my CBF google feed produced the following blog post this morning…it made me smile…it made me happy to be a part of CBF:  Meant to Love

There are a lot more things I could say.  For all of the above, I could find several corresponding things to bitch about…why aren’t we hiring women pastors, we were younger because we were close to Baylor and Truett, we could do better by college students, yada, yada, yada….  That makes me weary…I’m rather tired of that…even though I’ve contributed to that type of bitching in the past.

It felt good to be a Baptist this week.  I’m optimistic about the future, if  not about denominational systems, very much so about the church and the kingdom of God and our upcoming leaders.  I hope to be a part of that movement…or at least witness it.   Enough…lots of work to do today.  Peace!