I would have been more of a geek had they asked me about my erstwile interest in academic theology/sociology.

I went to Jen's blog, got inspired, and took the test:
I scored as:

Tri-Lamb Material
65 % Nerd, 21% Geek, 52% Dork
For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd and Dork, earning you the coveted title of: Tri-Lamb Material.

The classic, "80's" nerd, you are what most people think of when they think "nerd," largely due to 80's movies like Revenge of the Nerds and TV shows like Head of the Class. You're exceptionally bright and smart, and partly because of that have never quite fit in with your peers or social groups. Perhaps you've realized, or will someday, that it is possible to retain all of the things that you like about being brilliant and still make peace with the social cliques around you. Or maybe you won't--it's really not necessary. As the brothers of Lambda Lambda Lambda discovered, you're fine just the way you are and can take pride in that. I mean, who wants to be like Ogre, right!?

I hear Pentecostalism is 100 this year. I've been changing a lot since I dropped out of one of the oldest and most respected Pentecostal Bible colleges. That was 1995. A lot has happened to me since then. That school taught me how to study. I've learned to think often times in reaction to the classes there. But in all honesty a lot of that learning was really important and good stuff. When I dropped out it was because of my own personal mess and practical direction rather than any serious theological divergence. When my theological interests changed it was years later and in response to American Revivalism as a whole rather than Pentecostalism in particular. Pentecostalism as a historical narrative is fascinating and if anything its' acceptance and popularity within Evangelicalism has made it less relevant. I have never personally taken variance with the doctrine of tongues being the initial physical evidence of the Spirit.
It was and is one of those things other Evangelicals want to minimize and strip from Pentecostals.

More important to me are the early social separations within Pentecostalism. They were persecuted for their insular emphasis on Spiritual ecstatic experience. Early on this put them in a great place to question the State on matters of the economy and War. Nowadays the health and wealth gospel and radical Nationalism are (to the outside world) the most identifiable traits of Pentecostalism. Pentecostals would like to say its their missionary activity. But wouldn't all Evangelicals? Maybe that old story from antiquity fits here:

When Dominic was in Rome, seeking authorization for his order from the Pope, the Pope gave him a tour of the treasures of the Vatican, and remarked complacently (referring to Acts 3:6), "Peter can no longer say, 'Silver and gold have I none.'" Dominic turned and looked straight at the Pope, and said, "No, and neither can he say, 'Rise and walk.'"

Why is the power missing from Pentecostalism that it had a century ago? Because like every other renewal movement throughout time it has emphasized the marketable passages of Scripture and left out the unmarketable. Oral Roberts (who by the way is not claimed by classic Pentecostals) talks glowingly about how when he started out as an Evangelist they didn't have a lot. But when God gave him the principle of Seed Faith he told him that he didn't intend for his children to be poor anymore. This thought, and not the initial physical evidence or Evangelism or Missions has spread like wildfire. It was the magic ingrediant that was always missing. It finally made the Post World War American church a God-blessed, Spirit filled, commercially driven enterprise. It assured its' consumers God's favor, continued security, and of course eternal fire insurance. But for me it has become the wound on Pentecostalism that has been its' undoing. And when that wound spreads to the ends of the earth as I fear it is doing, God alone can heal it.

When I attended Bible college I had a theology professor who honestly listened to the class's horror stories about churches teaching tongues and emphasizing scary unbiblical practices. He taught us that the Holy Spirit's work always points to Jesus Christ. Anything that does not point to Christ's work or even points away is just plain not Pentecostalism. I've heard preachers on television teach how to sing in tongues. I've seen Benny Hinn "heal" a man, "slay" him in the "Spirit" and then laugh at his terrible tie and tell him the Holy Spirit told him to get a better one. God in his mercy somehow sees fit to let people like this use Him wrongly. My theology professors had much less charity. I had one prof. say "If your theology is wrong you're going to hell." I instantly thought of Kenneth Copeland. I'm glad that even good theologians don't have God's power to send anyone to the hot place.

Has Pentecostalism done more harm than good in the last century? I'm inclined to say "No." No more harm than any other movements. But I'll let God alone be the Judge.

Tags: pentecostalism, Prosperity Theology, Kenneth Copeland, Bible College

it matters whether

It matters

I do not expect any one to believe me.

Worse than not taking my word I fear that what I say has with time ceased to matter.

But it does. . .

It matters whether it is in a man to love. It matters whether a man can truly love himself.

It matters whether he can truly love his neighbor. It matters whether humans are truly made in God’s image. It matters whether we can love in Community.

Tags: Community, humanity

Upon the advice of a friend whom I respect I have listened to Guns N' Roses "Appetite for Destruction" album and looked up bios on the band so that I could officially know what I'm talking about when I say I DON'T CARE FOR THIS MUSIC. I imagine it could get worse but I'd prefer better thank you very much.

Tags: music, guns n' roses

Would you like cream cheese with that?
McCabe's "we can string anything" oddity.

Tags: Music, McCabes, strings

overheard

"A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient
capital to form a corporation."
---Howard Scott

Tags: corporations, criminals

Love?

If my life were a question it might be worded this way: “Is it in a man to love?” I want to believe in love with all my heart, with my whole life. But my personal history has hardly been an example of faithful love. Even as I have desired to be loved throughout my life and that desire has been left wanting, so my efforts at loving completely and with faithfulness have finally met with failure.

It’s been said that love is an overused word, that we really don’t even know what we mean when we say it anymore. It’s a code word for any number of things. For some people “I love you” falls so easily off the tongue that we question the depth of their sincerity. And it’s also true that words themselves fail to be taken seriously anymore as we humans drift in and out of relations with each other without thought for our proximity or the effects of any forms of language we encounter.

I also see people desperate for real relationships but unsure of themselves. There are few things more frustrating than a promise unfulfilled, and the ultimate promise is from God. The first part of God’s promise is that he himself shaped people in his image and called them (male and female)“very good.” He created them from earth so that in relation to creation and to himself they would be as he intended. God’s creation act is the first sign of promise. We are made for a reason. We are good.

Far from being exhausted with humans or fearful our weaknesses, God emptied himself and became a man to reconcile us to himself. Jesus set an example of love for his disciples in washing their feet, commanded that they love each other as he loved them, and then laid down his life in the Supreme act of love. This activity precluded one simple belief on God’s part. That we are capable of Love. That in spite of the possibility that we would choose otherwise God invests himself in us for a future joy, a future hope that he will right us.

Tags: proximity, love, humanity, fear, weakness, faithfulness, "Is it in a man to love?"

Selfhood and Destiny

Wolfhart Pannenberg "What is Man?", Fortress, 1970. pg. 55-56

Insofar as the direction of a man's life is toward God,

community with God is already actualized in this movement. To

that extent, the destiny of man already becomes effective and

becomes a reality for us in this life. This pre­supposes that

we remain in this movement and do not stop along the way.

The fact is, however, that men repeatedly interrupt their

course through the world toward God. They establish

them­selves in the world and, at least temporarily, forget

their quest for God. This is temporary, because it lies in the

nature of the question that it cannot be forgotten

indefinitely. Men do not forget God simply because they are

lazy. This forgetfulness has a deeper root, namely, man's

egocentricity. Left to their own initiative, men by no means

live in a constant movement beyond themselves in an open­ness

to the world. Rather, as they actually are, men strive to

assert themselves and to prevail. Each person seeks to attain

all the riches of life for himself. It is common for the

clever person to exercise moderation as a means to this end.

A person seeks to establish himself through his achievements,

and he basks in whatever recognition others accord him.

Whatever task a man might take on becomes a matter of his

concern by the very fact that he puts his hand to that task.

The more he spends himself in its service, the more he

establishes his own self along with accomplishing the task.

This is the source of the ambiguity of all human behavior.

Each person experiences time and space only in reference to

himself. Each person is the center of his world. Therefore,

the here and now is different for each person.

It is clear that such egocentricity does not stand in an

obvious harmony with man's openness to the world. On the

contrary, there is an inherent tendency in the ego to adhere

to one's own purposes, conceptions, and customs. Thus a

man not only has a tendency to break out into the open, but he

also has a tendency toward a certain self-enclosement.

However, even where a person breaks through into the open, the

ego is always involved in it. The person who thinks he can

move beyond his self only lives in a dream world. Wherever he

might move, he brings. his self with him.

A person does not escape his self either through diversion or

through asceticism. To be sure, that is not even worth

striving for. The wish to escape one's self is only a short

circuit in the whole enterprise. Aversion to one's self is

ingratitude. A person can overcome his self centeredness not

by throwing away his ego, but by incorporating it into a

larger totality of life. This actually happens, however, a

person actually transcends his egocentricity in this sense,

only at the boundary of actual human existence (that may

happen just by learning to be content). For it is just at that

boundary that what existed up to that point is abandoned. What

exists, however, is at all times and at all places an ego.

Even if it has just been abandoned, it is immediately there

again in the new situation. All human life is carried out in

the tension between self.

Tags: Theology, love, "Is it in a man to love?", Wolfhart Pannenberg, Community, quotes

Tags: Zoa Free Paper, photos

I had a fiery and loose tongue in eighth grade. I inherited the ability to make anyone feel two inches tall with just a few words. I was messing with the wrong red-kneck kid in class one day and he just snapped. I learned from another kid that between classes I should watch my back because I was going down when the bell rang. Now that I knew what my mouth had done I wanted to apologize and make amends. No dice. My lover-not-a-fighter instincts arose and I determined to “turn the other cheek.” By the time the bell rang this kid had four friends ready to beat the tar out of me. I walked up the hall and got slammed into lockers, beat about the head, my clothes ripped and shoved to the ground before faculty finally pulled the kids off of me. This generally served to throw me into my shame mode. I spent most of the rest of the week hiding in the principal’s office afraid to go to class.

After this experience I felt like I had hit rock bottom and I called out on Jesus begging for help. The change in my life was like night and day after that. I started reading the gospel of John and it was like everything came alive to me for the first time. I really wanted to pursue a relationship with Jesus more than anything else.

Tags: conversion, stories, fights, kids, school

I am so excited about this group a friend just told me about. Pentecostal Charasmatic Peace Fellowship. From their mission statement:

"Our mission is to encourage, enable, and sustain peacemaking as an authentic and integral part of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, witnessing to the conviction that Jesus Christ is relevant to all tensions, crises, and brokenness in the world. The PCPF seeks to show that addressing injustice and making peace as Jesus did is theologically sound, biblically commanded, and realistically possible."
Their website says they're only 300 strong internationally at this point, but let's pray the fire grows and gets stronger!

It only makes sense that Pentecostalism does not have to be co-opted by the agenda of the religious right any more than does any other segment of Christianity. I've been reading all the stats about the new global south and the Next Christianity (Philip Jenkins book, Sojourners article "Ready or Not") and since us Westerners are on the way out anyway, don't it make sense to pass the Justice on to the real players?