Like a little boy on Christmas morning...

I arrived home after a long day of studying to find a package with my name on it at home. I knew right away that my new ESV Study Bible had arrived. I've been looking forward to getting this Bible for at least six months now and I thought the earliest I would get it would be tomorrow (the 15th) which was listed as the release date on the website. I felt like a little boy on Christmas morning as I tore apart the packaging and began to get to know my new best friend. My trusty NIV Study Bible, given to me by my grandparents who have since passed away, has been my companion for over a decade now and is seriously falling apart. My new ESV Study Bible will replace it and my venerable, marked-up NIV will take a place of respect high on my bookshelf. 

One of the things that made me so excited about this Bible are the theologians who worked on it and some of the pastors who recommended it. John Piper said, “The ESV is a dream come true for me. The rightful heir to a great line of historic translations, it provides the continuity and modern accuracy I longed for. Now the scope and theological faithfulness of the ESV Study Bible study notes is breathtaking. Oh how precious is the written Word of God.” And Mark Driscoll, "The ESV Study Bible is the most important resource that has been given to the emerging generation of Bible students and teachers. The ESV Study Bible is the best. Period.” I've cracked it open and have liked what I've seen so far. I'll look forward to another decade or two of meeting God through this Bible. Wayne Grudem of Phoenix Seminary was the general editor and the Anglican theologian, J.I. Packer was the theological editor.

Tradition Bound

Last night I was reading my Bible and I came to a passage where it seemed strange to me that the word "God" in my NIV was not capitalized. I have a wide selection of Bibles in my room and I happened to pull my John MacArthur Study Bible off the shelf. This John MacArthur Bible was given to me by a customer with whom I had become friends at a bookstore I worked at a few years ago. After I had looked up the passage in question, I decided to flip to 1st Corinthians 14 to see what MacArthur had to say about that. I had just read the 14th chapter of 1st Corinthians the night before and I was curious to see what MacArthur, a strong Cessationist, would do with the passage. I was disappointed by what I saw. In my opinion MacArthur had to seriously twist the clear meaning of Scripture to deny that there is a God-given form of tongues which is not any intelligible human language, and to argue that even tongues, as the ability to speak a real language unknown to the speaker, had ceased. His arguments were weak and they involved assuming that Paul was speaking "sarcastically" over a good portion of the passage and that the singular "tongue" had a different meaning from the plural "tongues." I'm always very skeptical when I hear someone give an interpretation of Scripture where the writer is interpreted to be speaking in a joking or sarcastic manner. I think it is often a way of just avoiding whatever truth is being expressed there. 

But on a deeper level, seeing MacArthur's commentary on 1st Corinthians showed me that MacArthur is just as tradition bound as any other Christian. His tradition is American Fundamentalism and in many ways I respect his tradition. I am thankful for the stress that the Fundamentalists place on the authority of Scripture, and the need for repentance and faith in Christ for salvation. I like the fact that Fundamentalists are about as far as you can get from post-modernism and relativism. But Fundamentalism is still a tradition that must twist Scripture here and there to hold on to some of its assumptions, especially its cessationist assumption. 

The fact is that all Christians are in some way "tradition bound." I've always said that if a person could show me any place where the Tradition I am a part of, Anglicanism, conflicts with Scripture in any way, that I will leave that belief or practice behind. And I think that is the spirit of the English Reformation and the attitude all Christians should have. That where the Tradition conflicts with Scripture we will remove that aspect from our belief and practice. But where there is no conflict, where Scripture is silent, we will allow freedom. Personally, I am thankful for the kind of Tradition that doesn't conflict with Scripture. I believe that much of this Tradition, like the liturgy, is a gift from the Holy Spirit to the Church. If I am going to have any Tradition I want it to be the Ancient Tradition, accepted by all Christians before the division between East and West and confirmed as good and true by centuries of Christians.

What Real Anglicans Believe About Scripture

If there were any word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God's Word; and if we be uncertain of God's Word, the devil might bring in among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or a synagogue of Satan.

- Thomas Cranmer, leader of the English Reformation

H/T Northern Plains Anglicans

Bishop Guernsey visits Christ's Church

This Sunday we were honored at Christ's Church to have Bishop John Guernsey preach and celebrate the liturgy with us. Bishop Guernsey spoke of how in many African churches it is customary to hear testimonies before the sermon and he then proceeded to give his own testimony as his sermon. In many ways I could identify with what he had to say. He talked about growing up in a church where conversion and the power of the Holy Spirit were not emphasized. He talked of the belief he had that there must be something more in this relationship with God and how he eventually found this through a woman at a church he was pastoring who had been filled with the Holy Spirit. After preaching, Bishop Guernsey led the congregation in a prayer of recommitment to Christ and of inviting a greater infilling of the Holy Spirit. I was very impressed with what the Bishop had to say and his obvious gift for preaching. The music also seemed especially good today and I got to sing one of my favorite hymns, "Holy, Holy, Holy."

Strengthen, O Lord, your servant...

Well, today was a blessed and exciting day. Today was my confirmation into the expression of Christ's one holy catholic and apostolic Church called the Anglican Communion. I was blessed to be confirmed by the laying on of hands of the Bishop Evans Kisekka of Uganda at Christ's Church (Anglican) in Highland, California, formerly known as Inland Anglican Fellowship. Our priest, Brian Schulz, was also just ordained this weekend in a service at St. James Church in Newport Beach. Bishop Kisekka preached a powerful message on being Soldiers for Christ, which in a later post I plan on writing about. It took time and discernment to make this decision to be confirmed as an Anglican. I actually went through a confirmation class at St. Patrick's Church in Lexington, Ky., a few years ago but I wasn't ready to make the commitment yet. With all of the problems in the Anglican Communion, some might question the wisdom of being confirmed at this time. But the way I see it, I was confirmed into the Church of Uganda, where the Authority of Scripture is still held high and where the Power of the Holy Spirit is invited into the life of the Church. I am excited to become very involved in this congregation which I have already grown to love and I believe that because of our openness to the Holy Spirit and our commitment to the orthodox faith, God will use us here for His glory. Amen.

Pictured Above: Six of the seven confirmands, Fr. Brian Schulz, Bishop Evans Kisekka and his wife and Fr. Menees of St. James - Newport Beach.

Real Inclusivity and Diversity

Thanks to Stand Firm for posting this response by the Church of England Evangelical Council to the TEC.

I think we make the issue of sexual sin so much more complicated than it really is. The only unity in the church will be based on repentance and not affirmation of sin. The British Evangelicals say it so well:

"Jesus Christ unites people from different races, cultures, economic groups, genders and sexual inclinations into a true inclusivity based on repentance, faith and the gift of the Spirit. This is the true diversity of the transforming gospel. In effect TEC′s approach to inclusiveness excludes the majority of Anglicans from other provinces who are faithful to Biblical teaching. We affirm as the will of God the biblical teaching that we are called either to heterosexual marriage or celibacy." [emphasis mine]

An Exciting Sunday

Well, this weekend was very enjoyable as I went on a retreat with most of my classmates into the mountains and got to enjoy a great sermon poreached by a South African brother from the Reformed Episcopal Church at Inland Anglican Fellowship. The retreat was relaxing and was a great time of fellowship with my classmates. We had an intense game of ultimate frisbee, did some hiking, had a couple of worship services and got to see a very entertaining talent show. The highlight of the talent show for me was getting to hear the wife of one of our professors expertly play a Chinese instrument called the zither.

Church was great also. Our guest pastor preached on the story of the rich man and Lazarus. He went so far as to say that by not caring for the poor we are earning ourselves a place in hell. It might sound harsh but I think it is a message that Christians in a rich country need to hear over and over again. I know that I need to hear it... and act on it. To me what made the sermon so exciting though was that he shared about the Common Cause Partnership and the strong possibility that a united orthodox Anglican presence will arise in North America. He also warned that as this comes to together, fulfilling the hopes and dreams of many Anglicans, that we must guard against becoming prideful about it. I think any newfound unity between Christians can only come from the Holy Spirit as it seems that human effort only leads to more divisions or to the sickly kind of ecumenism we have seen in the past century that seems only to lead away from Christianity and toward liberalism.

...No thanks

Well, the bishop's response to the primates is in where they slickly side-step around the issues and also give a plan for "episcopal visitors." But as for me, if my church, which I love, or if St. Patrick's back in Kentucky had come under Episcopal "church"-oversight I would have had to and would now have to leave and find somewhere else to worship. I had enough liberal-mainline compromise and heresy growing up. I don't need to be connected to it any more. I doubt that any of these churches will come under TEC and I can say now that I am really hoping for a split. I don't want to be unequally yoked with unbelievers who claim to be Christians while leading people to hell. So I for one hope that my faithful brothers like Orombi, Akinola and Kolini will reject the bishop's response. And for me, connection with Canterbury is not all that important. My friend Alice C. Linsley described a sermon which my Archbishop Henry Orombi preached on Northern Plains Anglican's site. She says, "When asked about the importance of Canterbury, the Archbishop responded, 'Anglican identity is not tied to Canterbury.' While Anglicans recognize Canterbury as one of the oldest sees, 'there are other significant sees.' In this matter His Grace follows Church tradition in recognizing the authority of older sees such as Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome and Antioch."

I Love My Church

My new church-home, Inland Anglican Fellowship, continues to amaze me. It is truly just what I had hoped to find when I moved here. People there tend to be very open to all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit including speaking in tongues. I really appreciate the charismatic in the context of the liturgical and sacramental. Some people from my church are even headed up to Redding to Bethel Church in a few weeks where I experienced God’s miraculous power earlier this summer.

One of my fellow parishioners named Fred was kind enough to give me a book about when the charismatic renewal broke out into the Episcopal Church in the 1960’s. Actually, we traded books, he’s borrowing my copy of “The New Mystics.” The book Fred lent me is called “Nine O’Clock in the Morning,” and is written by Father Dennis Bennett. Father Bennett had been a priest in Van Nuys but moved to Seattle where he introduced many to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The book is a very inspirational read and shows what an openness to God’s power can do in a person. One thing I appreciate is how Father Bennett describes the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He says that Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not more of the Holy Spirit in a Christian, as every true Christian has the Holy Spirit in them. He says that Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit having more of the individual Christian. I think that he is correct and I think that this theology undoes a lot of what can seem problematic to some about this Baptism.

Two other things in the book so far have struck me quite deeply. One place is where Father Bennett describes a conference of the Assemblies of God at which he spoke at. Concerning the Pentecostal ministers there he said, “Few of these good men had what my church would consider adequate theological training, but I had more than an inkling that they were my superiors in the training that matters: knowing the Lord, and his ways.” It can be hard, as a seminary educated man, to admit that this is, in fact, true. But I learned this summer that it was most certainly true. I learned it while I was at Bethel Church in Redding with some friends from the Foursquare church I attend in Battle Ground. While I was there I became convinced that one of my friends was actually my spiritual superior. He had been in the school of the Holy Spirit while I had attempted by my striving and “knowing” more about God to draw closer to Him. I don’t think it works that way. Academics is no substitute for simply resting in the Presence of God. Please don’t misunderstand me though. Asbury Theological Seminary is a wonderful place, which I will always see as a home away from home, and God changed my life greatly for the better there. I think a person can be in “the school of the Holy Spirit” while in seminary but usually the two do not go together.

Another thing that struck me deeply was a passage on how the Baptism of the Holy Spirit affected Father Bennett’s view of the Bible. Bennett had been educated at a liberal seminary and steeped in higher criticism of the Bible. Before his Holy Spirit Baptism Father Bennett said that, “to accept the Scriptures in their entirety as the work of the Holy Spirit was foreign to anything I had been taught, and yet that is exactly what I found myself being pressed to do as I continued in the life of the Spirit.” At one point in a meeting, where a minister who doubted the veracity of Scripture was present, a woman spoke in tongues and it was translated by another in the room as, “This is my Book! This is my Book! You read my Book! Don’t criticize my Book! Just read my Book! For I am the Lord! I am the Lord! I am the Lord!” That was so powerful to me to read because I have noticed this summer, since my experience at Bethel that my own respect for the Word has greatly increased. I actually prayed at one point this summer, “Lord, help me to really believe the Bible.” To some of you this may seem strange coming from me. I am a very conservative person so you might not think that I would have a problem believing the words of Scripture. But I think that I was so steeped in the lies of liberal theology from my past that many of those lies took root and I really did doubt the truthfulness of portions of Scripture. I knew that it was where I had met Jesus but I still didn’t necessarily believe the veracity of some Old Testament miracles or maybe every word that is presented as having been spoken by Christ. But when you begin to see real miracles taking place today it is much easier to believe that God perfectly inspired the Bible and preserved in perfectly for today.

Medical school is going well, I hope. My first exams are the week after next. I’m already feeling guilty for having taken this much of a break from studying so maybe in a week or two I’ll post something new.

The Sign of the Skunk and New Church Families...

It's a strange title, huh? I thought about writing two separate blogs but I decided just to combine tow events that happened in the last two days...

Last night I decided to go for a walk. It was already dark but I went for a walk around Loma Linda Hospital and the campus of the university. I was ascending the stairs to my apartment in the near pitch-black darkness when I became aware of movement about three feet off to my left. I stared at what had moved and in the darkness it looked like a small plant. There are lots of plants near my apartment but I knew that this thing had just moved and made a sound. I stared at it for a second, barely able to see its dark outline. I starting walking again toward my door and it also moved. I looked back and I could clearly see two white stripes against a darker color. I hurried away a bit quicker, not wishing to smell of skunk when I start in the hospital on Monday. I was struck right away though by the appearance of a skunk outside my door as I start medical school. I was struck because two years earlier I had a nearly identical experience. On perhaps my first night at Asbury Theological Seminary I was walking back to Grice from Solomon's Porch and a skunk walked right in front of my dormitory. So I don't know what this means but it does seem a strange coincidence.

More importantly, today I found the church that I will most likely worship in for the next four years. It is Inland Anglican Fellowship of Highland, California. Inland Anglican Fellowship is a church-plant of St. James Anglican at Newport Beach which is under the authority of the Archbishop of Uganda. So I've moved from Rwanda to Uganda and continue to be thankful for the institutional connection with my African brothers and sisters. The people were extremely friendly and it was wonderful to be fed with Spiritual Food in the Sacrament of Jesus Christ's Body and Blood.

How Firm a Foundation Ye Saints of the Lord...

Henry Luke Orombi is the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda. Depending on where I find a church home in southern California, he may soon be my Archbishop. He has written something so profound and true that I could not help but post it here. It is called, "What Is Anglicanism?" and It makes me proud to be Anglican. I can only hope that an Anglicanism which reflects his words written here can arise in North America. Also, thank you to Titusonenine for posting this, which was originally published in First Things.

In the Church of Uganda, Anglicanism has been built on three pillars: martyrs, revival, and the historic episcopate. Yet each of these refers back to the Word of God, the ground on which all is built: The faith of the martyrs was maintained by the Word of God, the East African revival brought to the people the Word of God, and the historic ordering of ministry was designed to advance the Word of God.

So let us think about how the Word of God works in the worldwide Anglican Communion. We in the Church of Uganda are convinced that Scripture must be reasserted as the central authority in our communion. The basis of our commitment to Anglicanism is that it provides a wider forum for holding each other accountable to Scripture, which is the seed of faith and the foundation of the Church in Uganda.

The Bible cannot appear to us a cadaver, merely to be dissected, analyzed, and critiqued, as has been the practice of much modern higher biblical criticism. Certainly we engage in biblical scholarship and criticism, but what is important to us is the power of the Word of God precisely as the Word of God—written to bring transformation in our lives, our families, our communities, and our culture. For us, the Bible is “living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword, it penetrates to dividing soul and spirits, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The transforming effect of the Bible on Ugandans has generated so much conviction and confidence that believers were martyred in the defense of the message of salvation through Jesus Christ that it brought...

...As the Bible came with the authority of Christ, it revealed a God that is greater than the evil spirits and the kingdom of darkness that controlled so many people’s lives. In Uganda, the Bible has grown into a cherished source of authority that is central to Christian faith, practice, and mission. For all God’s people, obedience to this Bible is the source of confidence, abundant life, and joy. It is an absolute treasure that no one can take away. Isaiah, later quoted by Peter, wrote, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isa. 40:8; 1 Pet. 1:24-25). The grass on which our cattle feed, the grass from which our roofs are thatched—all this withers. But the Word of God has withstood the test of time. The Bible is at the heart of our Anglican identity, and we Ugandan Anglicans joyfully submit to its life-giving and transforming authority...

...From Thomas Cranmer to Richard Hooker, from the Thirty-Nine Articles and the 1662 Ordinal to the 1998 Lambeth Conference, the authority of Holy Scripture has always held a central and foundational role in Anglican identity. This is true for the Anglican church in Uganda; and, if it is not true for the entire Anglican Communion, then that communion will cease to be an authentic expression of the Church of Jesus Christ...

...Consider, first, the centrality of the Word of God in faith and life. No honest reading of historic Anglican formularies and the English Reformers can deny the central place of Scripture in Anglicanism. Our worldwide communion is in danger today of confusing doctrine and discipline. The various disciplines of the autonomous provincial churches can be contextualized, but doctrine, based on Scripture, transcends all such cultural distinctions.

We would not be facing the crisis in the Anglican Communion if we had upheld the basic Reformation convictions about Holy Scripture: its primacy, clarity, sufficiency, and unity. Part of the genius of the Reformation was its insistence that the Word of God and the liturgy be in the language of the people—that the Bible could be read and understood by the simplest plowboy. The insistence from some Anglican circles (mostly in the Western world) on esoteric interpretations of Scripture borders on incipient Gnosticism that has no place in historic or global Anglicanism.

Amen

If you want to be encouraged by the wonderful workings of God in Uganda, go here. It is the entire text of the article by Archbishop Orombi.

Discernment, discernment, discernment...

If you keep up with this blog, you have noticed a change lately. I would say that there has been a revolution in my mind and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that revolution is. Maybe some of you have been troubled by my "slide" into charismatic Christianity. I've actually quite enjoyed the slide but I do have some serious reservations about the way things are in some charismatic circles. For me it all comes down to discernment. What is from God and what is not? I think a very wrong attitude to have is that every time someone claims a revelation or vision or prophecy or whatever we just accept it. This should not be. Things need to be tested. I'm still trying to figure this out. Charismatic Christianity has a great strength in that it is open to the miraculous and so the miraculous does occur. People are healed, people see visions, people prophesy and other weird stuff happens. But I feel like I see a serious weakness in a lack of discernment and a willingness to accept whatever claims people make about healings, visions and so on. I'm glad that I have friends whom I can trust and that these friends have experienced some of those various things. Heck, I've experienced them so I can't deny them. The way I feel right now makes me so thankful for my experience in the Anglican Church and it drives me to stay in that place. Even though I love the Foursquare church I go to when I'm home, I think that Pentecostalism + Congregationalism it probably not a good thing. I should read Cantalamessa's book on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Maybe that will help. Well, I hope you enjoyed my rambling. God bless you all.

Manifestations of God's Presence

What follows is some rambling birthed out of my experience at Bethel Church in Redding California at a conference I was at from the 20th to the 22nd of June, 2007. It is part of an attempt to work through some profound changes in thinking I am dealing with as a result of the conference.

I am a skeptical person. When I see something or hear something, my first impulse is to look for the naturalistic explanation. This might be a sin. If it is, I pray that God will correct my thinking. I know that there have been charlatans in the history of the church, especially its recent history. There have been those who have claimed to be faith-healers who were fakes and I'm sure that many "miracles" have been staged by certain people looking to gain because of their follower's credulity.

With that said, I have come to realize that miraculous and even peculiar manifestations of God's presence should not be discounted simply because of the sins of some evil men. I saw what might be called a "peculiar" manifestation in Redding at Bethel Church. It was the last night of the conference so I decided to go up front in the church for worship. As we worshipped, material of some sort began to fall in the sanctuary. At times more material would be falling than at others. Some pieces wafted down slowly and would even move upwards in the air if caught in a slight gust of wind from the waving hands of the worshippers below. But there were other pieces that just fell. They couldn't have been blown up towards the ceiling by any force of wind present in the sanctuary. The ceiling of the church was made of metal painted black. There was no insulation of any other material up there that could have been breaking off and falling. As far as I can tell, the material must have materialized in thin air and then fell. One person claimed to have picked up a piece and eaten it - they said it tasted like honey. Manna? I don't know. But I know something happened that as far as I can see is not easily explicable from a materialist perspective.

When someone claims a miracle, two questions must be asked. Is the person correct - that is, did it really happen? And the second question must be, "what was the source of the miracle?" I believe that the spiritual world is real and that it interacts with the natural world and that there are spiritual forces of good and evil. I think a miracle can come from either one of these sides in the spiritual war going on around us. So how do we determine whether a miracle is from God or from something else? I'm sure that some more mature and experienced persons must have better ways of discerning than I do. But the only conclusion I come to is that the fruit of the miracle or the ministry in which the miracle occurs must be what we use to discern where the miracle came from. The fruit of Bethel's ministry is increased desire for intimacy with God, a focus on holiness and an expectation that God is going to do miraculous things that many Christians have either rejected or no longer expect to happen. I have heard the "Toronto Blessing" denigrated by many. I have even heard people suggest that it is from Satan. For a long time I didn't have much of an opinion one way or the other. But after my experience at Bethel, after reading that the Toronto Blessing has been accepted at Anglican churches like Holy Trinity Brompton and reading of fruit like the explosion of churches and orphanages in Mozambique under Heidi Baker after she experienced the blessing I'm beginning to think that those who reject this are wrong. I'm certainly willing to be proved wrong.

One reason I think that many of us reject things like the Toronto Blessing or the miracle I witnessed at Bethel is because it seems weird or that it's not really accomplishing anything. But I think maybe God just wants to say "I'm here and I love you" to those of us who were praising him that night. I believe that the manifest Presence of God is with me in every Eucharist. I believe that the substance of the bread and wine is miraculously changed to the real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ even though the elements have the appearance of bread and wine. I have sensed His Presence in the Eucharist at St. Patrick's so strongly that I felt that I should be lying prostrate. I sometimes worried that as I took the elements that I would be "slain in the Spirit." Why could not have God chosen to meet these believers in a manifest way other than in the Eucharist? I don't think there's any answer to that question that would satisfy me.

Churches I'll Check-out in Cali

I'm moving to Loma Linda, California at the end of July to go to medical school there. I've surfed the internet to find some churches in the area that I'll check out. Here's what I've found. . .

Christ's Chapel Reformed Episcopal Church in Riverside
http://www.christschapel.org/

This church has a cool website. They might be a bit too reformed for my Arminian Anglo-Catholic sensibilities. I will definitly check them out though.

Inland Empire Orthodox Anglican Fellowship in Riverside

This is a church-plant of St. James Anglican in Newport Beach. According to St. James' website, they have "Charismatic roots" which I would certainly appreciate. St. James Church is part of the Anglican Province of Uganda so if I end up going to this church I will have ended up moving from Rwanda to Uganda. I like the idea of staying in an African church.

Brookside Free Methodist Church in Redlands

When I was at Loma Linda for my interview someone recommended this church to me. Even with my antipathy for certain regions of the United Methodist Church, I am somewhat of a Methodist at heart and would probably agree with the teachings I would find in a Free Methodist Church. Their website is currently down but I checked it out a few months ago and it looked like it would be a good place to meet other Christian 20-somethings. Even if I don't end up regularly attending worship here, I think they might have some ministries I'll check out.

Some Foursquare Church in the area

While I'm home in Battle Ground, I go to Wellspring Foursquare Church. I have had a great experience with this denomination. I love their commitment to living by the word of God and their openness to the activity of the Holy Spirit. Even if I don't end up at a Foursquare church, I'll probably have to go somewhere to get my necessary dose of Pentecostalism.

P.S. - Big announcement this Sunday at around 7 or 8 Pacific Standard Time - I promise!

The Blessings of Asbury Part I: St. Patrick's Church

Now that finals are winding down and as I prepare to leave Asbury, I want to reflect on the amazing blessings I have received from God at this place. I have been at the seminary for almost two years now and my life has been transformed more profoundly in this time than any other equivalent period of my life. The first subject I will write on is the church I have attended almost the whole time I have been here. I found St. Patrick's church, thanks to my friend Ed, the third week I was at Asbury. The three great blessings of St. Patrick's I want to concentrate on are: St. Patrick's has allowed me to find God in the Eucharist and the liturgy; the preaching of our priest, Father Peter Matthews; and last but not least, the community at St. Patrick's - the people I've met in this church.

I Eucharist and Liturgy
Before I came to Asbury I had read some Catholic and Orthodox authors, particularly Chesterton, a Kempis and Dostoyevsky, which made me more open to those traditions. I had also become friends with a Catholic guy, who had great knowledge of the Fathers and an obvious devotion to Christ, at the book store I worked at in Vancouver, Wash. So when I came to Asbury I was ready to embrace liturgy and to have my understanding of the eucharist changed. St. Patrick's has been the perfect classroom to learn more about the liturgy. As my priest has said, "Liturgical prayer forces me to pray in line with the redemptive historical narrative of scripture. Liturgical prayer forces me to pray in line with God's will disclosed in scripture and the living tradition of the Church." I have also come to see that Scripture and the Church through the ages were serious when they said that the Presence of Christ is really in the eucharist. When you think of how God has chosen to relate to man, that is, incarnationally in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, then it makes sense that God would continue to meet us materially. This happens in the eucharist. I believe that God meets me every week substantially there. I find that I have a hunger for it and and am fed spiritually each week when I take the true Body and Blood of Christ in the eucharist.

II The Preaching of Father Peter Matthews
I have been greatly blessed by the preaching of Father Matthews. His preaching is authentic and doesn't have the off-putting quality of some highly polished mega-church style sermons. Peter preaches from Scripture and he gives the word of God the highest authority in his sermons. He also often cites personal experience in his sermons which makes them easier to connect to our own lives. I wish that I would have taken notes more often at St. Patrick's but one sermon I do remember was on the line from the Lord's prayers, "Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven." Peter defined the Kingdom as God's reign. He said that this was not a prayer of resignation like in Gethsemane and that Jesus isn't talking about us going to Heaven but about Heaven coming to us. I loved Peter's image of Heaven being right on the other side of a curtain, that it is real and immanent. This imagery made me think of an experience I once had when I was deep in prayer. I suddenly became profoundly aware of God's presence behind every object in the room, I felt that there was a kind of brightness behind the very blanket on my bed which I clutched as I prayed. It was one of the most mystical experiences I've ever had and I thank God for it. Another good point Peter made was that we don't build the Kingdom of God, God does. We are to be a witness to the Kingdom God has built and is building. We are to live lives that show what it looks like when God is in charge. Peter said in this sermon that discontentment comes from our placing our longing for hope and fulfillment in temporal things when our longing for hope should be placed on the Kingdom of God. He identified some basic longings that are fulfilled when the curtain is pulled back and the Kingdom is revealed, our longings for justice, beauty and for relationship and that these are all fulfilled in God.

III The Community
When I went on a church retreat earlier this year I became much more aware of how amazing the congregation at St. Patrick's is. We have a congregation of interesting people of diverse backgrounds who know how to have a good time and seek to serve the Lord and one another. It's been great going to church with some seminary people I've gotten to know better. Dr. Tsoukalas and his wife Sandy Richter go to St. Pat's and I've gotten to know him a little better. It has been interesting to hear him talk of the problems of postmodernism and how naively it has been embraced in many Christian circles. He encouraged me not to give up on Protestantism just yet and that people who will stand firm for doctrine should stay and fight - so that's what I'm doing. Another one of my favorite people at St. Pat's is Hubert who is a Greek professor at the University of Kentucky. It's great to see a committed Christian in the context of the secular university and I have been greatly impressed by his wisdom and great knowledge of a diversity of topics. I regret not having gotten to know many of my brothers and sisters at St. Patrick's church better.

Akinola Does It Again

"We are a deeply divided Communion. As leaders of the Communion we have all spent enormous amounts of time, travelled huge distances - sometimes at great risk, and expended much needed financial resources in endless meetings, communiqués and reports – Lambeth Palace 2003, Dromantine 2005, Nottingham 2006 and Dar es Salaam 2007. We have developed numerous proposals, established various task forces and yet the division has only deepened. The decisions, actions, defiance and continuing intransigence of The Episcopal Church are at the heart of our crisis."
-Archbishop Peter Akinola

AMEN!!!!!

Akinola Smacks Down Liberals

(For those unfamiliar with the current situation: Schori, who supports ordination of practicing homosexuals and is the head of the Episcopal Church, wrote a letter to the Nigerian Archbishop, asking him not to come to the U.S. to ordain some clergy. In her letter she appealed to the "ancient customs of the church." Archishop Akinola pointed out her hypocrisy in a reply. This is a quote from that letter.)

“I also find it curious that you are appealing to the ancient customs of the church when it is your own Province’s deliberate rejection of the biblical and historic teaching of the Church that has prompted our current crisis.”

-Archishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola

Emergent, no; Global South, yes.

Archbishop Peter Akinola

This semester I have been blessed to have a roommate who is in many ways sympathetic with the "emerging church" movement. You can read his blog as it is linked from my page in my "friend's blogs" section under Dan Bellinger.

Dan has helped me to moderate my views a bit of the emerging movement. My opinion is not as negative as it once was as I see that many of the critiques that the emerging movement offers are well-founded and helpful. Among these helpful critiques I would include the admonition to be open to what other strains of Christianity might have to teach us, a more chastened view of how far we can get with rationality or with apologetics and a questioning of many of the ways protestantism has done things in the modern era such as evangelism or worship.

But I still think that there are some serious problems with the emerging church. I think this is quite clearly seen in the lack of clarity by such emerging leaders as Brian McLaren on certain controversial subjects. I think that McLaren's strain of the emerging church, one of the more popular strains, is simply modern liberal christianity disguised as something else. I would go so far as to say that certain strains of the emerging movement are just a Trojan Horse of modern liberalism positioned smack in the middle of evangelicalism. Another problem in the emerging church is the strong, over-arching commitment to "dialogue." The problem is that this "dialogue" often seems to include questioning doctrines and moral stances which have been accepted by the huge majority of the Church for the huge majority of its existence. I'm thinking specifically of such doctrines as the Virgin Birth and such moral stances as traditional sexual morality.

I was on the Emergent website today and saw that they want to be at the forefront of what they think God is doing in the world today. That sounds great but from some of the things I've read from emerging leaders I have a hard time believing that that is the "new thing" God is doing. I was momentarily disappointed but then I realized that there is another condidate for the "new thing" God is doing. That "other candidate" is Global South Christianity - biblically conservative, charismatic, self-sacrificial and highly evangelistic. I thought - maybe this is what God is really doing in the world. That's not to say that God's will is not being done in certain circles of the emerging church but I will gladly take Global South Christianity over much of what I see in the "emerging" church.

Disclaimer: I would love to be proved wrong about many of my negative feelings toward the emerging church and I am very thankful for the faith and the contributions of many who would define themselves as emerging church people here at the seminary.