True Stories and Tall Tales: a summer film series

Oy, this blog's been dormant for too long... Don't know 'bout anyone else, but this summer's film series has been getting under my skin big-time (in a good way :-). This week's the mid-point; a good time to step back and think about the series. Here's the schedule we're following:

• June 23: Hotel Rwanda
• July 7: About a Boy
• July 21: Signs
• August 4: Dead Man Walking
• August 18: Saved!
• Sept. 1: Big Fish
  

BIG thanks to Mark and Marta for hosting the Saturday afternoon screenings to date. The 2 Sundays after each film viewing, we've been talking about these films, using (loosely!) a set of detailed discussion guides.

In crafting the series, Mauricio and I were seeking fresh, challenging angles on important themes. We considered several more "churchy" films (some of which are excellent -- "Chariots of Fire," "The Mission," etc.) but decided to keep things a bit more metaphorical, more allusive, to give our minds and hearts a bit more of a workout. After a long and arduous process (sorry Mauricio!) we finally chose these six; but still, we didn't know what we were doing; weren't sure what to expect; it was a bit of a flying leap. Well, so far the films, and our discussions of them, have exceeded my expectations. I've especially enjoyed "About a Boy," which (despite? thanks to? Hugh Grant's starring role) held up very well to scrutiny and reflection, has nudged me to new lines of thinking and living, and continues even now to challenge me towards more intentional, more generous friendships.

Hopefully the next few films will be just as rewarding / challenging / disturbing / refreshing.

From Blue(s) to Gospel

The blog-experiment continues! as our focus moves on from "Blue Like Jazz" to the Gospel of John. We're treating the Gospel like a book to savor, rather than a reference volume -- thanks in part to an annotation-free manuscript (*) we assembled just for the purpose. We'll also listen to segments from the "Bible Experience" CD series, and we'll watch portions of the "Gospel of John" DVD set. Here is the schedule we're following:
April 15: Manuscript pp. 1-2 (Ch. 1)
April 22: pp. 3-11 (Chs. 2-6)
April 29: (no class - Ministry Fair)
May 6: pp. 11-18 (Chs. 7-10)
May 13: pp. 18-27 (Chs. 11-16)
May 20: pp. 27-34 (Chs. 17-21)
May 27, June 3, June 10: TBD (more on this in a later post)

Throughout the study we'll be pondering questions like What questions did Jesus ask? ... Why did he perform these miracles? ... How did Jesus relate to women? ... What did he say about knowing? ... About believing? ... What did Jesus explain? ... What did he not explain? etc.

(*) I'd love to post it for all to enjoy; but Zondervan might break my kneecaps.

Eyes on Miller

Since this is in response to remarks made two weeks ago, thought it would be good to post this as a new thread rather than a comment.

Eyes wrote: "In a way, Miller is a salesman. He caters to our weakness and taylors his message so as not to be overly challenging to the dominant ideology."

What evidence do you have to support your assertion that Miller consciously seeks not to "push the envelope" too much -- in your words, not to "challenge the dominant ideology" too much?

More Eyes: "God's frightening power, his fearsom rod of correction, and the aggressively reactionary nature of the gospel message is largely ignored."

I would tend to agree that this biblical theme is not loudly spoken of in Miller's book. By the way, what do you mean by the "aggressively reactionary nature of the gospel?" Please elaborate.

Eyes again: "Miller's tendency to make startling deferences to American postmodernism deserves our attention. Chapters 5,6,7 are so much about "me", so much less about "us" and even less still about "Him" that I feel unsettled."

Are you equating postmodernism with self-centeredness? I think a handful of us in this community consider ourselves postmoderns (myself included), but I should hope not to be thought of as self-centered for that reason -- I'm perfectly self-centered all by myself, thank you very much; I hardly need any help from any particular world view.

On the whole, I disagree that "Blue Like Jazz" is not about Him, although I admit I don't have the particular content of chs. 5-7 in view when I say this. I find the material challenging to me on a personal level. In particular, I resonate with the kind of thinking that led Miller to describe his perception of the world as a story about him in which other people play minor roles. I want to become a more considerate, thoughtful, loving person, and I think the Lord is using this book to achieve this in me.

We want to hear from you

Last Sunday we filled out evaluation forms for the class. (Doing it at this early date means we have a chance to fix things before the class ends.) Here were the questions:

1. What are some good things that have happened in this class? What aspects of the class are working for you?
2. What bad things have happened? What aspects of the class aren't working for you?
3. What would you like to get out of this class / this community?
4. What would you like this community to look like?
5. What would you like to do after we finish "Blue Like Jazz"?

Please consider answering these questions in the comments below. (Or if you prefer, email them to James, Suvia, or John. Using comments here lets you remain anonymous; and it lets others read and respond to what you write.)

Links

Last Sunday we discussed Chapters 11 and 12 of Blue Like Jazz (skipping Ch.13 for lack of time). I promised to provide some online links:

In Ch. 12 D.M. talks about his church, Imago Dei, and its pastor, Rick McKinley (seen at right). (He also refers to "Mark the cussing pastor" in Seattle -- almost certainly Mark Driscoll (left).)

In our discussion I singled out the word "missional" (found on p. 135). You can read more on this approach here, here, and elsewhere. (Surprisingly, I can't recommend Wikipedia's article.)

Don Miller will be speaking at a conference near us, May 3-4 at McLean Bible Church. The Friday eve. / Sat. am program is only $20-25! Here are the full details, and one person's view of how it went in Florida last month.

But wait! More links:
- An in-depth interview with Don Miller (left) about BLJ and related things.
- "Tony the Beat Poet" (right) is now a mortgage broker.

For next Sunday: read Chapters 14 and 15.

More Theology, Fewer Stories?

As we talked about the book today, I think people were expressing frustration about the type of book Miller has written. How can he still be questioning? Why doesn't he point us to more scripture? When will he resolve his issues? And, I believe to some extent, why are we studying the book of a guy who can't get it all together? I appreciated hearing these concerns, because they were not ones I had really thought of. My reactions, as you can see below, have been a little different. And so in the interest of starting a conversation about the book I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts....

As I sat turning this over in my head, I realized how much I appreciate this type of book. In homeschooling circles, there is a large movement towards 'living books." These are books which (besides being well written) teach by telling stories that draw the reader in, rather than presenting information in textbook format. This allows people to interact with the ideas in a personal way, helping them to own the ideas, rather than just appealing to their intellect. I see Blue Like Jazz as a similar type of book. He lets us see into his life so we can learn from one another. I, for one, am glad to hear someone else express the questions and doubts which come back to me from time to time, especially as I have moved in the world of Academia and Science.

I also realized that I am reading the book with a definite attitude towards the author. I am assuming, whether or not correctly, that he loves God, is comfortable in his beliefs and is well versed in the Bible. He makes reference to Paul's frequent imprisonments. He talks about Jesus saying feed the poor. In fact, his stories about Andrew the Protester encouraged me to go back and reacquaint myself with the basic simple message of Jesus to see if I am applying it to myself. If he had quoted a lot of scripture, I probably, based on past experience, would have skimmed it to save time and thought yeah, yeah, I know that.

As for his focus on individual rather than communal Christianity, I appreciate the challenge it gives me. It is too easy for me to say that we as a church are doing great. But am I? Or, I can say that I wish we as a church would do XYZ, but no one else agrees, so I'll sit on my hands and do nothing. But if I allow the Word of God to change me, and my neighbor allows it to change him, then we are on the way to changing the church and the world! I need to be reminded that I am responsible for what I do with the gospel. Of course this all assumes that one of the things I am supposed to do is love the body of Christ and make disciples of all nations. I see it as a call to take my part in doing the work of the Body.

Of course, those are just my thoughts. I do see that the book has weaknesses, but I am hoping to learn from its strengths.

Penguin sex, deadly carrots, charity, and grace

(OK, so these three chapters are hard to summarize..:-)

I underlined several great phrases from Chs. 5-7 -- here are my high(est)lights.

"There are plenty of things that are true that don't make any sense. I think one of the problems Laura was having was that she wanted God to make sense." (p.54)
- To what extent do I \ should I seek to "explain" God?
cf. Romans 11:33-34, Isaiah 40, Isaiah 55:6-9, Philippians 4:7, I John 5:20, Colossians 1:9 (keyword search: understanding)

"Our 'behavior' will not be changed long with self-discipline, but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible." (p. 86)
- To what extent do I live according to discipline vs. affection (or lack of these)?
cf. Luke 24:32, Galatians 4:15, Psalms 42:1, 73:25, 119:10 (topic search: affections)

Other quotes worth discussing: "I don't want to be charity"(p.84); "we do what we love to do" (p. 77); "things we wouldn't do" (p. 80).

Chapters 5-7

Here are my notes from chapters 5 to 7. Hopefully these will serve to jog our memories about what we read when we come together to discuss this material.

Chapter 5

• An imaginary friend
• Laura wants to confess
• God doesn't make sense
• A belief that chooses you
• A toast to penguins
• Chess players or poets?
• About all that stuff...

Chapter 6

• Seeing the gears
• Faith as romance
• Try staying sober?
• Aliens
• Don Rabbit chases Sexy Carrot
• Loving the things of heaven

Chapter 7

• Navy SEALs for Jesus?
• Rick fails the God who saved him
• Food stamps
• The dung of my own ego
• Accept God's love!
• A beggar's kingdom
  

Snack Schedule

I figure we should have administrative details in a place where people can quickly access. So if you are wondering if it is your week for snack/food, you can check here.

Feb 11th - Pam
Feb18th - Mark
Feb 25th - Sue
March 4th - Joanna
March 11th - Gary
March 18th - Kaydee
March 25th - Jenny

Beginnings: God on a dirt road walking toward me

Chapter 1 completed! (I hope reading it in real-time this morning wasn't too awkward..? I for one couldn't seem to relax and just read. :-) We discussed Miller's (and our) perceptions of God; and began to compare them with the father figure in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 (esp. v. 20). James asked, "what does 'PRODIGAL' mean anyway?" Maybe that'll turn into another post here.

[Update Feb. 6: here's the painting we discussed, Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" (click to enlarge); and an excerpt from Henri Nouwen's reflections on it.]

What thoughts have you found yourself chewing on as a result of the chapter or the conversation?

For next Sunday: "Blue Like Jazz" chapters 2, 3, and 4 (35pp. in all). We'll (somehow!) condense one full page of the study guide into 45 minutes of conversation.

Please fasten your safety belts...

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... We've begun our Sunday School study of Don Miller's "Blue Like Jazz." It'll run through March; most weeks we'll tackle 3 chapters; sometimes only 2. Details to follow.

We'll try using this blog to comment on the reading and on our weekly conversations. Here are some ground rules to keep us on track and out of trouble.
- Anyone (in the world) can read the posts and comments. If there are objections, we can change this policy; but you get used to it soon enough. Obviously you'll want to use email, phone, or face-to-face for any truly confidential material; but there's real value to discussing the Christian faith "in public" rather than always in private.
- Anyone can comment on posts -- even anonymously. (If we get overrun by spammers, we can tighten that up but let's hope for the best.) Who knows, we may get deep insights or probing questions from complete strangers halfway around the world.
- Anyone may join the blog as a co-author (able to post new topics for discussion): I just need to send you an invitation. [It requires free registration with Google, which owns blogspot.com.]
- Be nice! Welcome and value each other's views; ask genuine questions and look beyond obvious answers; speak the truth in love; etc. (I Cor. 13) The goal (for the class and this blog) is to create a "safe space" for a win-win conversation (not debate) in which to develop our own, genuine expressions of the Christian life, faith, and story.

- Any other rules to suggest?