David - The Way of Imperfection

On p. 91 in The Jesus Way, Peterson mentions the way of imperfection taking us into slums...homeless shelters where we find common ground with addicts and the abused...It reminded me of a mission trip that I led during a seminary internship to a homeless ministry for men in Corpus Christi. I was probably 5 years out of college, engaged, working on my M.Div., working for this wealthy church in Austin. At the homeless shelter, a guy my age was living there. He had a short army-haircut and drove a beat up truck with a Texas A&M bumper sticker so I told him I was an Aggie. It turned out we were in the same class at A&M except I had ended up in seminary 5 years later and he had ended up a drug addict in a homeless shelter. I remember being so struck by how easily our roles could have been reversed and so humbled by the experience. I had to repent of my arrogance and presumptuousness that all these men had mental illness or had always lived in poverty, etc. It really is only the grace of God working through so many people in my life that keeps me from living in the homeless shelter myself.

I'm intrigued by the imperfection of David's way. It's something I know so well in my heart, but I still struggle so much with the desire to "have it all together." I want to look good, dress right, say the right things, not let anyone or anything slip through the cracks. And frankly, often, I feel like perfection is what's expected of me as a pastor. We recently had a wild weekend with 3 funerals, a wedding, a worship leader candidate in town...and one of our elderly members went into the hospital. No one went to see him until Monday, and he'd already been released. His daughter has been very vocal about the fact that no one visited and hasn't been accepting of any of our explanations. I know this is just one of those things that happens because we can't be everywhere at the same time. BUT, there's still a part of me that says, "I should have gotten there. I really did let them down..." and I know that part of me is trying to be what Rob Bell appropriately calls "Superpastor." I wish someone would give me some more specific details on how to follow Bell's suggestion of taking Superpastor out on the back porch and killing her. What about you, how does perfectionism get in the way of your ministry?"

Reading and Conference Call Schedule

May 1: David in The Jesus Way and Gene's essay assignment

June 5: Prophets section of the The Jesus Way and the Herod chapter

July 10: Remainder of Section 3 of The Jesus Way

August 7: No reading - Getting ready to be with Gene!

Sorry Charlenes - I couldn't figure out how to get this where our prior schedule was!

The Uncongenial Bible - pp. 59-77

So when was the last time scripture gave you or someone else -- or a group of people (like a Session or ministry team or congregation) -- a stomach ache? Seems like scripture-induced stomach aches should be a somewhat regular occurrence among Christians -- a sign that we're really ingesting the Word of God.

Stories and Main Characters - pp. 37-58

"Our contemporary unbiblical preference, both inside and outside the church, is for information over story" (p. 41).

I'm pretty sure this is empirically true, but I'd like to talk about it on our next phone call. How do we and the people around us express or demonstrate a preference for information over story generally? How about when it comes to handling -- studying -- scripture? What are we actually doing as pastors/teachers/preachers to help people approach scripture in the ways Eugene describes in this chapter?

What do you think about the idea that we're characters in God's story rather than God being a character in our stories -- a kind of "supporting actor" to the main character who is ME (or, possibly, someone else)? I'm afraid that I, at a practical and functional level, am often operating as the main character in my own story -- or giving someone else a lot of dialogue and space on the page -- and then pleading with God to please get involved in what's going on with me. Reading The Shack was helpful to me on this point recently: it gave me more of a feel for living my life within the life of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Where are you and I catching a sense of what it means to live lives that are embedded in God's life and interpreted by who God is -- and where is that persistently not happening with each of us?

How does -- or can --the way we read and exegete scripture help us read and exegete our own lives? What does each of us need to import from those practices into our lives as a whole? And, as we make our way into this book, what modifications are you beginning to consider to the way you currently read and exegete scripture?

Information vs. Formation - pp. 23-36

I remember going to a session with Bruce Metzger during Fitz's orientation week at PTS. He had just one thing he really wanted everyone to take to heart that day: You're about to embark on 3 years in which the Bible will be used primarily as a tool; whatever you do, don't neglect to spend time in Scripture devotionally while you're a seminary student.

What is the difference between Scripture as "informational" and Scripture as "formational"? After all, this was the difference Bruce Metzger was getting at that day, and it really was quite impressive to have one of the giants of NT scholarship subordinate the academic study of scripture to the intimacies of what happens in our "quiet times." But there it was, and in the form, really, of a plea.

I'm wondering how this distinction between an informational approach and a formational approach plays out in our personal lives: which approach to Scripture does each of us tend to take? And, how has this changed, perhaps, over the course of our Christian lives? But I'm also wondering what we notice about this in the way that we (and others) preach and teach; in what people in our congregations seem to want, and maybe even explicitly ask for, when it comes to "Bible study"; how this distinction informs our critique of published resources for studying Scripture; and where this idea fits into our denominational tensions (or not).

Who's someone (besides Eugene) who models well for you what it means to treat Scripture as the primary formational text for life -- someone who isn't quite as interested in knowing more as in becoming more? What is this person actually like??

To what degree does each of us think about being such a person ourselves, and how does ministry promote or subvert our commitments and efforts along these lines?

The Bible as Primary Text - pp. 15-22

Eugene emphasizes in this section that the Bible is the primary text for Christian spirituality. In the Christian spirituality of Americans, however, Eugene thinks the primary text is "the sovereign self" -- or, in other words, personal experience. The "sovereign self" and "personal experience" are pretty broad categories, so I'm wondering if we could get a little more specific about what these are in, um, our personal experience.

What "texts" besides scripture are people reading/eating where you live and work? What "texts" besides scripture are shaping their lives and getting lived out in the day-to-day. Perhaps all of these "texts" are examples of the sovereign self/personal experience, but exactly what are the "texts" themselves?

For example, here are some of the things I hear people say a lot, and they usually say them as though they have an a priori authority of some kind: It is what it is. Everything happens for a reason. This [particular situation] will work out the way it's supposed to. Where is this kind of stuff coming from? Does it come from scripture or from other "texts"? If such statements don't come from scripture -- or, perhaps are mixing a little scripture with a little something else -- what other specific "texts" are people drawing on? Who and what is authoritative for them besides, or instead of, scripture?

***

Eugene says on page 17, " I want to confront and expose this replacement of the authoritative Bible with the authoritative self." Once we flesh out a little what kinds of replacing we actually see in ourselves and others, and hear from ourselves and others, I'd like to talk about what it might mean for us to "confront and expose this replacement of the authoritative Bible with the authoritative self." How is such replacement work a part of our various metaphors for pastoral ministry, and how do we/ought we to go about it?

Reading But Not Reading...Participatory Reading

I loved the story of Hans "reading" his New Testament in the park with Jan. How much of this kind of reading -- reading but not reading, reading "marked by devout indifference" -- shows up in our lives and in our congregations, seminaries, and presbyteries? Let's jot down a few examples to share in our phone call on December 6.

I think participatory reading was first modeled for me in Young Life. But I gained a fresh sense of it in my early twenties when I visited a Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, near where I was living at the time. A monk named Father Charles taught us about lectio divina and led us in an experience of it. It was amazing and unforgettable. The metaphor of eating this book first took root in me on that weekend.

As we get started on this new book, I'm curious how familiar or how new this leisurely, ruminating, swallowing and savoring kind of reading is to all of us. If it's familiar, how did you learn about it? If it's new, how does it strike you?

What's a passage or section of scripture that you've been gnawing on recently, like that old dog of Eugene's with his bone?