McLaren & Wallis conference

Brian McLaren and Jim Wallis along with some other folks are presenting a conference called Generous Orthodoxy in MD on Oct 7 & 8 and out in Seattle in Nov. This brings together a host of streams around the church in the newly emerging culture of the 21st Century. Visit the we site for more details. http://www.off-the-map.org/events/go/2005/index.html

Poison Ivy and China

My wife and daughter, Martha and Kate, are in China. Kate is singing with the Summit Choral Society's Touring Ensemble. She will be a sophomore in high school and has already spent 10 days singing in Italy and 10 days singing in China, as well as experiencing both settings. Martha is one of three volunteer choir managers and has made both trips also.

Molly, my other daughter, and I are at "home", but we hav been on our own trips. Molly has two weeks of dance intensive every week at her dance studio and next week during the day she will be at the University of Akron's soccer camp. This will be her 5th year at the camp under the tutelage of Catherine Byrne, head coach of the women's soccer team at UA, and also a great supporter of Molly and other young soccer players. Catherine was Molly's first premier soccer coach when Molly made the premier team in 3rd grade. Catherine is from Ireland and I love to hear her say Molly's name.

And I got poison ivy trimming trees and clearing out the back bed of our yard. Still have to say, the yard and beds around our house look the best in years.

David Loar
http://discipledavid.blogspot.com/ ...David's blog

http://readeachday.blogspot.com... clergy reading blog featured in the Akron Beacon Journal
http://www.fairlawnwest.org/ ...church

http://www.loar.org/ ...family

Here's my theological worldview

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 75% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 68% Roman Catholic 54% Classical Liberal 39% Reformed Evangelical 36% Modern Liberal 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 29% Fundamentalist 4% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

so wide, so far

Question: What is the one thing most of the world's church and reflief agencies as well as liberal and conservative public, entertainment, sports and church leaders are agreeing on?

Answer: The ONE Campaign to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty.

run until we remember

There is a scene in the movie "Seabiscut" which I think is important for us as the body of Christ in American culture.. Its when they take him to a park to let him just run to get him to quit slowing down at the end of the race as he was trained to help other horses to learn how to win. The rider asks the trainer how far they should go. The trainer says, "Until he remembers what its like to be a horse." That's the metaphor I see for the church today. We have to just keep running until we remember what it means to be a church.

prophetic ancestors

I encourage you to visit our family's web page where in the links list you will see some links for the Highlander Center and Myles Horton and for Saul Alinsky. http://loar.org/ These are two people that many of us on the left don't know or have forgotten about and whom we need to recover their vision and skill in helping to educate for change and to organize for change. We have become too one dimensional in our _expression...simply debating with those with whom we disagree to see who will be the last one standing, when what we really want is social change and transformation. Save these links for future reference! They are a must in our time!

what does it mean to be a Christian?

It means to turn your life over to follow and be an obedient servant of Jesus
Christ.  (Contrary versions are "I am a good Christian, but I don't go to
church."  That is a contradiction.  Going to church does not mean you are a
Christian.  But not going to church means you can't be a good Christian.
Because all Christians participate in the living body of Christ where 2 or 3
gather to worship, to serve, and to forgive.  There is an act of repentance
or change and turning around of one's life first for anyone who is a good
Christian which means you are on a journey of letting go of your life, dying,
to rise with Christ.  Unfortunately, our secular culture has captured or
hijacked the meaning of being a "good Christian" and turned it into a secular
meaning e.g. belonging as a member to an institution, or being a good person.
Neither one of these are at the heart of being a Christian.  And these must
have been issues back in the 1st Century because Jesus and Paul both confront
these notions of being a "good Christian" in scripture.  Which then raises
the issue of how much have people who think they are "good Christians" have
not studied the Bible.

prophetic, just or self-absorbed?

I have been part of so many different "conversations" in the last few weeks. In the evangelical part of the emerging church folks there is a "dialogue" going on between Brian McLaren and D.A. Carson (who I never heard of before). Below are some more links for this dialogue.** In mainline church circles there is "dialogue" around what is prophetic and socially just and institutional self-absorption and institutional survival. Here is some of my reflections on the latter:

These are some comments that are part of a listserv I am part of.  It struck
me that this goes right at the heart of what the present day, institutional
UCC thinks of itself. - David Loar

"... there is a link between the prophetic voice and the right time. "Voice"
and "Kairos" go together. At the right time, God raises up a voice. So it is
hard to compare one prophetic voice from one context to another in a
different time and context. God does what God needs to do to get his will
known ..."

I think we have spoken too many times on too much and not paid attention to
this matter above.  Thus, no one is listening!  We have taken "prophetic" and
run it into the ground. DL

1st person writes:"    Five years ago, I sat in on a meeting of the General
Assembly's (PCUSA) Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. These 12
souls were charged with monitoring and even suggesting new policy positions
to the General Assembly. During the staff meeting, an item of business came
up concerning something coming before the UN. Clearly the group did not agree
with the stated policies of General Assembly on the issue. On of the staff
said, "You know. Sometimes we are called to take a prophetic stand for
truth." There were nodding heads all around the table and the voted act in
contraction to direct and clear policy established by the General Assembly.

  What is the difference between prophetic and insubordination?"

2nd person replies: "Classic prophets do not operate within the hierarchy or
institution, but clear outside of it. John the Baptist was clearly outside
the Herodian court, Eliaha outside the Ahab court, Jesus outside the
Pharisaic institutional machinery. When staff behave this way, it is simply
power struggle, not prophecy. If they were serious about being prophets, they
would first resign their staff positions in protest, and then publicize their
dissent. As it stands, staff that function this way clearly want to have
their cake (salary & pension plan) and eat it too, and that lacks integrity."
end of comment

I remember Walt Brueggemann saying some years ago that he wished there were
more folks coming out of seminary who could preach the prophets than trying
to be "prophetic."  Too often cloaking one's self as "prophet" is covering
over the self-centered ways people use to try to control the behavior of
others (codependence).  Thus, "we need to raise their consciousness" (because
they are too stupid to figure it out on their own - which is implied) becomes
disrespectful and a contradiction to the values that the "prophets" claim
they are espousing.

The results of what is happening financially in the UCC would be acknowledged
by the true prophet as part of the territory when one seeks to speak for God
in calling the body of Christ back to a righteous and just relationship with
God.  It seems to go with the territory for the Biblical prophets.  Ask
Jeremiah and Jesus. 

http://vanguardchurch.blogspot.com/ Bob Robinson
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2005/06/are_we_a_moveme.html Tall Skinny Kiwi