The title of this post is, of course, both a rhetorical question and the title of the video we watched last Sunday during class. For those of you who did not get a chance to see it and to the extent you are interested, we can provide a copy of the video to you or the links. The title of this post is not designed to elicit comments from you about whether you think I am normal or not!
We enjoyed being back in class this week. While last week was a wonderful experience, we missed the fellowship of our class. We are excited about having you all over to our house next weekend.
Today, our class focused on following up on the BBC video, Am I Normal? We discussed the video and whether it was thought provoking or merely irritating. We all ended up somewhere in the middle of that discussion ... parts of it clearly provoked us to think about the way we are perceived in the world, but the video was not representative of Christianity as we see it today.
This should give us pause. The video itself leads us to believe it is time to discuss Christianity and how it is perceived today. Over the next few weeks, we are going to focus for a little while on Christianity -- what it means to be a Christian in the world today, how Christians are perceived, the real and semantic differences between Evangelicals, mainline denominations, the emerging church, conservatives, right-wing and liberal Christians, the Christian right, etc. We will be asking some hard questions and also will be presenting data about the way Christians are perceived, rightly or wrongly. We will also discuss our role in changing the way Christians are viewed in the world today, if that is an appropriate underaking.
We have many other topics to cover, and we will get to them. But in our view, there are few topics that are more deserving of our attention than this one. We look forward to class in the coming weeks as we work out what it means to be Christians in the 21st century. Have a wonderful week.
Bryan
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Evangelicals -- An Article from the New York Times
All,
I thought you would be interested in the article that my friend sent me from the New York Times given that we are going to be discussing what it means to be an evangelical in our class soon. My friend is quoted in the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/us/01evangelical.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Have a wonderful day.
Bryan
I thought you would be interested in the article that my friend sent me from the New York Times given that we are going to be discussing what it means to be an evangelical in our class soon. My friend is quoted in the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/us/01evangelical.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Have a wonderful day.
Bryan
Monday, June 2, 2008
Christian Spirituality -- Sunday June 1
Greetings! Thanks so much for the great discussion on spirituality on Sunday. It is wonderful for us to see the class becoming a community of believers who support one another on the journey towards perfection.
For those of you who missed class or had to leave early (because you sing for us in the choir -- we are so thankful for the choir), we had great discussion about our personal and corporate journey towards Christian perfection. We discussed Christian spirituality, and what that means for each individual. We talked about the difficulties we all have in finding sacred space for our time alone with God. One of the things we realized is that we need to find some space at the beginning of class to listen to one another's prayers, concerns, joys and thoughts and to listen to God for a moment. We inevitably have more material than we can get through every Sunday, but it strikes me that since our goal is community and conversation with God and with one another, we need to create more sacred space in our own class. We will strive to do this, but we welcome ideas on the best way to do this. Please send us an e-mail or give us a call.
One of the things we really appreciated about the class was the personal nature of your comments. We heard you share your stories, and we felt that we all experienced a taste of what Christian spirituality is during our class. Thank you all for coming and sharing last week. It struck me that we have so much to learn from one another's stories. Keep sharing!
Next week, we will have a video that comes from the BBC called "Am I Normal?" I really enjoyed watching this video. It will challenge you all, and we will probably discuss it during our next class to see what your thoughts were. We will also be discussing Marcus Borg since we are encouraging you to go see him at the Mercy Center June 13 and 14. If we don't finish our discussion about the video or Mr. Borg, we will continue the next week.
Check your e-mails for our fellowship that is upcoming in June. I will also send out a link to the video series in case you cannot make it to class next Sunday. You can watch them on YouTube on your own.
We hope that you all were able to take communion last Sunday. Part of our sacred tradition, and one of the great joys of being a Christian, is to participate in communion. It is always such a blessing; yet, in those few moments when we prepare our hearts for communion, take communion, and return to our seats, how many of you are struck by a desire to linger at the table? I know I feel like I need more time to prepare, to partake, and then to sit with the rest of the congregation at table. In part, that is why we decided to start our class. We enjoy lingering with you at table each Sunday.
Blessings to you.
Bryan
For those of you who missed class or had to leave early (because you sing for us in the choir -- we are so thankful for the choir), we had great discussion about our personal and corporate journey towards Christian perfection. We discussed Christian spirituality, and what that means for each individual. We talked about the difficulties we all have in finding sacred space for our time alone with God. One of the things we realized is that we need to find some space at the beginning of class to listen to one another's prayers, concerns, joys and thoughts and to listen to God for a moment. We inevitably have more material than we can get through every Sunday, but it strikes me that since our goal is community and conversation with God and with one another, we need to create more sacred space in our own class. We will strive to do this, but we welcome ideas on the best way to do this. Please send us an e-mail or give us a call.
One of the things we really appreciated about the class was the personal nature of your comments. We heard you share your stories, and we felt that we all experienced a taste of what Christian spirituality is during our class. Thank you all for coming and sharing last week. It struck me that we have so much to learn from one another's stories. Keep sharing!
Next week, we will have a video that comes from the BBC called "Am I Normal?" I really enjoyed watching this video. It will challenge you all, and we will probably discuss it during our next class to see what your thoughts were. We will also be discussing Marcus Borg since we are encouraging you to go see him at the Mercy Center June 13 and 14. If we don't finish our discussion about the video or Mr. Borg, we will continue the next week.
Check your e-mails for our fellowship that is upcoming in June. I will also send out a link to the video series in case you cannot make it to class next Sunday. You can watch them on YouTube on your own.
We hope that you all were able to take communion last Sunday. Part of our sacred tradition, and one of the great joys of being a Christian, is to participate in communion. It is always such a blessing; yet, in those few moments when we prepare our hearts for communion, take communion, and return to our seats, how many of you are struck by a desire to linger at the table? I know I feel like I need more time to prepare, to partake, and then to sit with the rest of the congregation at table. In part, that is why we decided to start our class. We enjoy lingering with you at table each Sunday.
Blessings to you.
Bryan
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