Vatican 'forgives' John Lennon

By David Willey  BBC News, Rome At the time radio stations banned their music and concerts were cancelled A Vatican newspaper has forgiven the late English singer John Lennon for saying four decades ago that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. In an article praising The Beatles, L'Osservatore Romano said Lennon had just been showing off. Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 - at the height of Beatlemania - that he did not know which would die out first, Christianity or rock and roll. At the time, the comparison sparked controversy in the US. The semi-official Vatican newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of The Beatles' "White Album" with an article praising Lennon and the Fab Four from Liverpool. Youthful joke The paper dismissed Lennon's much-criticised remark that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ as a youthful joke.  more

George Barna: the days of the institutional church are over.

 Evangelical marketer George Barna, similar to the findings of  the Willow Creek study, says that what individual believers do on their own is more important than what the church does for them. Barna, however, takes Finney's legacy to the next logical step. A leading marketing consultant to megachurches as well as the Disney Corporation, he has recently gone so far as to suggest that the days of the institutional church are over. Barna celebrates a rising demographic of what he calls "Revolutionaries"-"millions of believers" who "have moved beyond the established church and chosen to be the church instead." (2) Since "being the church" is a matter of individual choice and effort, all people need are resources for their own work of personal and social transformation. "Based on our research," Barna relates, "I have projected that by the year 2010, 10 to 20 percent of Americans will derive all their spiritual input (and output) through the Internet." (3) Who needs the church when you have an iPod? Like any service provider, the church needs to figure out what business it's in, says Barna:

Ours is not the business of organized religion, corporate worship, or Bible teaching. If we dedicate ourselves to such a business we will be left by the wayside as the culture moves forward. Those are fragments of a larger purpose to which we have been called by God's Word. We are in the business of life transformation. (4)
Of course, Barna does not believe that Christians should abandon all religious practices, but the only ones he still thinks are essential are those that can be done by individuals in private, or at most in families or informal public gatherings. But by eliminating the public means of grace, Barna (like Willow Creek) directs us away from God's lavish feast to a self-serve buffet.

Addressing his readers in terms similar to the conclusions of the Willow Creek study cited above, Barna writes, "Whether you choose to remain involved in the congregational mold or to venture into the spiritual unknown, to experience the competing dynamics of independence and responsibility, move ahead boldly. God's perspective is that the structures and routines you engage with matter much less than the character and commitments that define you." Believers need not find a good church, but they should "get a good coach." If the gospel is good advice rather than good news, obviously the church is simply "a resource" for our personal development, as Barna suggests. (5)

If the local church is to survive, says Barna, authority must shift from being centralized to decentralized; leadership from "pastor-driven" to "lay-driven," which means that the sheep are primarily servers rather than served by the ministry. Further, ministry must shift from "resistance" to change to "acceptance," from "tradition and order" to "mission and vision," from an "all-purpose" to a "specialized" approach to ministry, "tradition bound" to "relevance bound," from a view of the people's role as receivers to actors, from "knowledge" to "transformation." (6)

"In just a few years," Barna predicts, "we will see that millions of people will never travel physically to a church, but will instead roam the Internet in search of meaningful spiritual experiences." (7) After all, he adds, the heart of Jesus' ministry was "the development of people's character." (8) "If we rise to the challenge," says Barna, America will witness a "moral resurgence," new leadership, and the Christian message "will regain respect" in our culture. (9) Intimate worship, says Barna, does "not require a 'worship service,'" just a personal commitment to the Bible, prayer, and discipleship. (10) His book concludes with the warning of the last judgment: "What report of your commitment to practical, holy, life-transforming service will you be able to give Him?" (11) The Revolutionaries have found that in order to pursue an authentic faith they had to abandon the church. (12)

This is finally where American spirituality leaves us: alone, surfing the Internet, casting about for coaches and teammates, trying to save ourselves from captivity to this present age by finding those "excitements" that will induce a transformed life. Increasingly, the examples I have referred to are what people mean by the adjective "missional."

Like the nineteenth-century revivalist Charles Finney, George Barna asserts that the Bible offers "almost no restrictions on structures and methods" for the church. (13) In fact, as we have seen, he does not even think that the visible church itself is divinely established. Nature abhors a vacuum and where Barna imagines that the Bible prescribes no particular structures or methods, the invisible hand of the market fills the void. He even recognizes that the shift from the institutional church to "alternative faith communities" is largely due to market forces: "Whether you examine the changes in broadcasting, clothing, music, investing, or automobiles, producers of such consumables realize that Americans want control over their lives. The result has been the 'niching' of America-creating highly refined categories that serve smaller numbers of people, but can command greater loyalty (and profits)." The same thing is happening to the church, Barna notes, as if it were a fate to be embraced rather than an apostasy to be resisted. (14)

However thin, there is a theology behind Barna's interpretation of Jesus as the paradigmatic "Revolutionary," and it is basically that of Finney. "So if you are a Revolutionary," says Barna, "it is because you have sensed and responded to God's calling to be such an imitator of Christ. It is not a church's responsibility to make you into this mold....The choice to become a Revolutionary-and it is a choice-is a covenant you make with God alone." (15) In this way, however, the work of the people displaces the work of God. 

 read it all 

Father Roy Bourge facing excommunication for advocating Ordination of women

U.S. priest facing ouster to appeal

ALBANY: An American priest facing excommunication for supporting the ordination of women said he plans to visit the Vatican with a contingent of fellow priests and a bishop to appeal the decision.

Father Roy Bourgeois, 69, a peace activist, ran afoul of Vatican doctrine by participating in an August 9 ceremony in Kentucky to ordain Janice Sevre-Duszynska, a member of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Recent Popes have said the Roman Catholic Church cannot ordain women because Christ chose only males as apostles.

“Who are we as men to say to women that our call to the priesthood is valid, but yours is not?” Father Bourgeois asked. “As Catholics we profess that the invitation to priesthood comes from God, and I believe that we are hampering with the sacred when we say that women must be excluded from being priests. That invitation is from God.”   more

525th anniversary of Luther's baptism

Celebrations mark 525th anniversary of Luther's baptism

by Ethan Cole, Christian Post

Posted: Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 22:59 (GMT)

Lutheran congregations worldwide are joining in celebrations today for the 525th anniversary of the baptism of protestant reformation founder Martin Luther.

The worldwide “Baptism Festival” on Tuesday, the day after the anniversary of Martin Luther’s birthday on November 10, 1483, will see at least 270 baptisms in 249 congregations celebrating baptismal remembrances in 13 countries.

“A developed theology of baptism is a central part of our Lutheran heritage and this festival is a way to emphasise that importance in our home congregations and worldwide,” said the Rev Scott A. Moore, an ELCA pastor serving St Andreas-Nicolai-Petri in Lutherstadt Eisleben and Saints Peter and Paul Church in Volkstedt, Germany.

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben and was brought by his parents to be baptised in St Peter Church the day after he was born, according to the customs of the time.

He grew up to become a monk, theologian, university professor, church reformer and the father of the Protestant Reformation. Luther gave his last sermon at St Peter Church before he died February 18, 1546, in Eisleben.  more 

Diocese of Pittsburgh Re-Elects Bishop Robert Duncan 50 days after deposition

Diocese Re-Elects Bishop Robert Duncan

Document Actions

•  
• 

Bishop Robert Duncan is once again the diocesan bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. 

Clergy and lay deputies to a special convention of the diocese on November 7 voted to invite Bishop Duncan back into leadership of the diocese the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church voted to remove ("depose") him.

"It is good to be back.  God has clearly watched over the diocese and watched over me and Nara as we have walked through these challenging days together.  God willing, I look forward to many years together sharing the good news of Jesus Christ," said Bishop Duncan.

Leaders representing a majority of the world's Anglican Christians, as well as many inside and outside The Episcopal Church in North America, never accepted the validity of The House of Bishops' decision to remove Bishop Duncan from leadership.  In spite of the decision's deep defects, Bishop Duncan and the diocese elected to submit to the purported "deposition," so long as the diocese was part of that denomination. 

Theology Reader: Evolution of Fundamentalists

Emergingg.Emergent churches Theology Reader

Emerging vs. Emergent Churches

Reflections on the emerging and emergent church

 

While I would never offer a blanket endorsement of all things “emerging”, the evangelically inclined emerging church movement can generally be viewed as a positive force within the church.  Wherever we find emerging churches remaining faithful to the authority and truths of Scripture, the wider evangelical community should embrace and support them as co-laborers for the Kingdom.  The goal of spreading the gospel to the entire world, including the postmodern world, is a clear biblical mandate and the emerging church movement is helping to carryout this task.

 

The church must recognize that throughout history the tactics we’ve used in communicating the gospel message have regularly changed.  The medium for delivering the message, as long as it does not clearly violate biblical norms, should not be our primary concern.  Rather, the advancement of the message of the gospel should be paramount.  When sharing this goal, the emerging church movement can be viewed as an ally of traditional evangelicalism.

 

The emergent church movement, on the other hand, has given traditional evangelicals more cause for concern.  As I have observed the evolution of the emergent church over the past few years, I have noticed an increasing trend towards theological revisionism, theological liberalism, and an open embrace of postmodern philosophy.

 

The emergent church has moved beyond the practice of simply adapting the methods we use in order to reach the postmodern world for Jesus Christ.  By and large the emergent church has adopted an uncritical embrace of the postmodern worldview.  And postmodernism is a worldview that in many regards is antithetical to biblical Christianity. Prominent leaders within the emergent church are on record denying objective truth, promoting relativism, and questioning a number of the core doctrines of biblical Christianity. All of these facts greatly disturb me and should concern all discerning believers. 

more

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF DIALOGUE IN THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF DIALOGUE IN

THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

Ecclesiology Bibliography 


SJ Samartha on Globalization and its cultural consequences 

A Wisdom Archive on Ecclesiology