In the next few days....

(This was sent out by our old pastor, Greg Newton. I loved it so much I decided to post here)

Love God with your whole being.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Vote your conscience (or don't vote if that's your conscience).

Accept that brothers and sisters have others ways of viewing political matters which you may never understand,
but they are still your brothers and sisters.

The Kingdom of God is much more important than even our country and its institutions.

Our hope is in the love of God.

Our identity is in Christ.

We all are sinners in need of grace.

Let us love,
be peacemakers,
cast out fear,
be humble,
keep the unity of the Spirit,
and focus on following Jesus.

Sharing devotional methods

First off, let me say I really enjoyed our Celebration yesterday. One thing that kept coming up is that some of us (myself included) feel a need to have a greater devotional life. I know some of you have passed some stuff around, and I thought maybe we could list some of them here to help people. In the words of Thomas Kempis, from The Imitation of Christ, "Not everyone can have the same devotion. One exactly suits this person, another that." So, let's share some ideas and help each other find practices that will work well for each of us.

Please comment and post some successful devotional practices you have done in your life that might benefit other people.

Planning Camping - Input Please

Ok - camping details as of now: Fri/Sat Oct. 31/Nov. 1 - Red Brush Cottage near Mohican St. Park and Loudenville, OH. Thank you to everyone who has paid their share thus far - almost all the money has been collected. Some things that still need to be decided/discussed:

• Carpooling? Who is leaving/returning when? We need to let the owners know when we will arrive on Friday (no sooner than 4pm) and check out Sunday is 12pm.
  
• Food? Kel and I found a great little cafe in Loudenville last time we were there. It's fairly inexpensive and would be good for at least one night out - ideas for the rest of food? Everyone bring your own snacks? One person in charge and everyone contribute $$?
  
• Activities - obviously, at least one good hike in the park. Also, the cabin has a fire pit and a hot tub. But if there are any other ideas for fun games or activities, please chime in.
  
• Sleeping arrangements - there are 3 beds and a few couches, so some people will need to bring a sleeping bag or air mattress.
• Sunday Nov. 2 discussion plans? Will we cancel/postpone this meeting? Or those in Columbus still get together?
  

Alright- throw in your ideas so we can all know what to expect -

Celebration 10/26

Nick and I will be holding this month's celebration (a few hours of community worship followed by a meal) at our house, 1270 Courtland Ave., Columbus OH. We will start at 5 pm.

For the food, we thought it would be fun to do a "cracker party," meaning all the food will be things that go on crackers (although, some people should probably bring fruit and vegtables and drinks, which don't have to go on crackers). We did this kind of thing a few years ago and it was actually pretty cool. Have you ever wanted to try one of those recipes that are on the back of ritz boxes? Well, now is your chance. If we do it right it can actually be a really good and filling meal. So...starting dreaming up things to put on crackers.

If you plan to come, please let us know what you plan on bringing by commenting on this post.

Sunday Discussion... On The Island Of La Grande Jatte

This Sunday, we will be meeting at the Topiary Garden in downtown Columbus at 3:00.

Here is a link to a map. Let's meet at the entrance at the Northwest corner close to the parking for the Main Library.

The loose topic of discussion is Faith and Politics. Now I realize that entire foundations have been created based on that topic and we won't be able to do it justice in a mere two hours.

Perhaps a better approach may be this: Below are links to several recent and relavent political and faith resources, some of which have been forwarded around, others of which may be new or just interesting. Perhaps three or four of us could assume ownership of one of the resources or something similar and present a short summary to the group. I think this would be part informative and part discussion generating.

The Faith Life of the Party, Left

The Faith Life of the Party, Right

Energy, Consumerism, and the Economic Crisis

Churches out of Politics

Friedman: Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Ten Reasons

The Green Bible (!?!)

These are just a couple of things I've been looking through, there are obviously countless more. If you have something to share, post a link so if we have time to expose ourselves to it before the meeting we can. If you know you want to present something, share so we know what to look at. Thoughts?

I don't feel trained in the tools for how do intelligintly deal with so many of the complex issues of the ongoing debate (literally: 9:54 Wed. eve). I for one would love hearing not only what information you discover and want to share with the group, but how you process that as a Christian.

Where does Biblical truth fit into $700 Billion bailout packages?

How does God involve his will with who is president?

Is America supposed to be a "city on a hill?"

Would rather be governed by a smart Turk than a dumb Christian? (Martin Luthor would)

What are local issues you know of that we should be aware of?

If you need another reason to come, the Topiary Garden itself is quite the wonder of the world: It is the only topiary interpretation of a painting in existence. It is based on Georges Seurat's Famous post impressionist painting, A Sunday On The Island Of La Grande Jatte.

Now that's maverick.

Camping Decision / Details

So the details for camping have finally been made. We have the Red Brush Cottage reserved for Friday and Saturday night (Oct. 31 and Nov. 1). It has three bedrooms, hot tub, fire ring and is near Mohican State Park which has nice hiking, as well as Loudenville, OH which is a cute little town with good food and shops.

Everyone and anyone is welcome to join us. I'll be emailing those that I know are interested individually to get a sense of who will be staying at the cabin and when, in order to divide up the cost. But anyone is welcome to join for just one night, or just for hiking. If you have ideas for games or other fun things to do throughout the weekend, please post them here.

This should be a really fun time to hang out and relax together - I'm looking forward to it!

New Global Gallery Location

Just a quick FYI - if you haven't heard, Global Gallery moved their German Village location north to 3535 N. High St. If you drop by our meetings every now and then, be sure to not come to German Village, but follow us to the new location in Clintonville. We'll be meeting there tomorrow (Oct. 5) from 3pm-5pm.

Film, Faith & Philosophy #3

Hey all,

Its time for another installment of Faith, Film, and Philosphy! For anyone who is interested, I am having people over the evening of Saturday, October 11th at 7:00 to watch and discuss an in-depth interview of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

This film is one of the most compelling I’ve seen recently and am looking forward to sharing it with you. I had heard a lot about him in the past but was mesmerized by the power of his presence and spoken word. The last film we watched together, “Constantine’s Sword” focused on the sad history of religiously inspired militarism in the West. Tutu’s work in contrast points to the way Christian theology can be a transformative force towards peace and non-violence.

My address is 1212 Summit Street and I live on the corner of Fifth Ave
and Summit. Parking is available on the street but if you have any
trouble there is some room behind my duplex as well. My number is
(937) 572-2751.

Feel free to bring snacks if you like but don’t feel obligated. I will have lots of popcorn!:)

till then,
Julia Sullivan

Reading now available!

Hi all,
The reading for our next discussion (Oct 5th) is now available in PDF form. If you're interested please e-mail me at chrisorban@yahoo.com and I can send you the file. (Disclaimer: I'm not making any money off this!)

The meeting on Oct. 5th will be last week that I'll be leading a discussion this term on evolution and related theological topics. If you're still curious to learn more there are some events at Ohio State University and COSI coming up that that may be of interest.** I've posted that information below.

peace in Christ,
Chris

** Not an endorsement of the views of the visiting speakers!


October 20, 7:00 PM, Independence Hall, Federal Judge John Jones who
presided over Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School Board will give a
lecture entitled: Our Constitution' s Intelligent Design. (pun
intended). In addition, Judge Johns will be available from 9:30-11:00
on October 21 at the Davis Heart Lung Auditorium for an informal
discussion "A Conversation with Judge John Jones" which Entomology is
sponsoring in lieu of it's normal Tuesday seminar.

October 21, 7:00 PM, Jennings Hall Auditorium, Pulizter Prize winning
author, Edward Humes, author of Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education,
Religion and the Battle for the American Soul will give a lecture
entitled" Talk Radio Evolution: America's Love-Hate Relationship
with Science.

October 22, 7:00, live at COSI with videolink to Fawcett Center
Auditorium, annual panel discussion on science and religion. This
year's panelists are: Joan Roughgarden, Evolutionary Biologist from
Stanford, Connie Bertka, Geologist and Theologian currently at
Carnegie Mellon and Carol Anelli, Assoc. Prof. Entomology from
Washington State. The panel will be moderated by David Brancaccio,
host of PBS's NOW.

Sunday's Celebration

So, for this weekend's celebration, I'd love to facilitate!
I have something in mind, but don't have all the details ironed out yet, so here is what you need to know as of now:
--please wear comfortable clothes.
--bring a towel or mat with you.
--if you are comfortable, leave a comment with the general theme you'd like to be/are/hope to/want to/need to be praying/feeling. (e.g., wholeness, honesty, etc)
We will meet in a park (TBD) and eat there afterward. I am going to bring pitas, and ask everyone to bring their favorite "insides" of a sandwich for the pitas. and maybe a snacky item to go with it, if you want. (for example, I'm going to bring pitas, hummus and olives. hummus and olives is one of my favorite sandwiches!)

Evolution Discussion Part 2

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone who made it to the Park of Roses Sunday for the discussion we had about making sense of evolution and, in the process, making sense of God's interaction with nature and the fallen-ness of the world. I really enjoyed the discussion, which kept me on my toes, and I hope everyone got something out of it. The backdrop of the park and the bike ride along the river to get there really added a lot too. It was great to talk about God and nature while in nature.

For the "Part 2" of the discussion, I suggest that we read two chapters out of

"Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion", a Pulitzer-prize winning book by Edward J. Larson. The chapter "The Trial of the Century" gives a lively narrative of the famous 1925 trial of a Tennessee school teacher accused of teaching evolution to his students, and the last chapter, "Distant Echoes", talks about the wider significance of the trial for Christian and secular culture in America and the legal battles between then and now. If you are interested please e-mail me at chrisorban@yahoo.com and I can send you the PDF of the relevant chapters. (Disclaimer: I'm not making any money off this!)

The discussion itself will take place at 3pm on Sunday October 5th (location TBA) so there is still plenty of time to pick up the book. If you can read more than just the two chapters before then that would be even better, especially since my hope here is to have a discussion about the historical and cultural impact of evolution, rather than have another discussion about evolution and theology.

peace in Christ,
Chris

What's in a name? (part 2)

What is your response to this article? Post a comment on the Out of Ur website.

Evolution Discussion Sunday

Hi all,

Chris here -- by popular demand we'll be having a roundtable discussion on Sunday at 3pm about issues around evolution, creation and faith. This is something I've thought a fair amount about as a Christian and a physics grad student at Ohio State and I hope some of what I've learned and my thoughts on the topic will be useful to you in your Christian journey.

By "evolution, creation and faith" I'm actually looking to have a discussion around a much broader topic than just the current Evolution vs. Intelligent Design debate since the much larger question being asked in all of the rhetoric is the question of "How does God interact with the natural world?" And at the end of that debate is the ever-relevant question of "What is, or ought to be my relationship to the natural world?"

Acknowledging the huge scope of these kinds of questions and the many details that often cloud the discussion (e.g. "Did Darwinism cause World War II?" or "Who gets to decide what to teach in public schools?") I don't expect that we'll be able to cover everything on Sunday. I would however like to focus our upcoming discussion on what the experts might call "theodicy" and evolution -- in other words: how should we reconcile our understanding of a loving God with "survival of the fittest" or is it reconcilable at all? Another good question is "What is a miracle?"

For more food for thought check out these articles

"Theological Implications of an Evolving Creation" by Keith Miller (relatively short)
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1993/PSCF9-93Miller.html

"Theologies of an Evolving Creation" by Robert J. Schneider (longer with more theological meat)
http://community.berea.edu/scienceandfaith/essay07.asp

See you Sunday

Chris


P.S. I acknowledge that these links are biased towards theistic evolution. My intent here is not to shut down the debate between the two theories, nor to imply anything about the abstract reasoning power of people who might be sympathetic to Intelligent Design. (And, in any case, neither of these articles are anything like a Richard-Dawkins-esque scientific refutations of creation science.) If you have other articles of mention, or questions please comment.

What's in a name?

This past week several emerging/emergent bloggers have written about why they are dropping the label emerging. You can read Andrew Jones' post here, Dan Kimball's here, and another sort of summary blog here. I haven't seen any responses from anyone explicitly associated with Emergent Village.

The gist of these posts seems to go like this: Emerging/Emergent conversations started 5-10 years ago as a way to rediscover what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus in our current 21st century context, especially with an emphasis on reaching non-Christians with the gospel. However, over the past few years, the name and label "emerging" has taken on new forms, and has become much more of a marketing brand that is most clearly associated with Emergent Village and corresponding authors like Brian McLaren, Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. The movement has gained recognition and has experienced a good amount of criticism (which even we in this small cohort are familiar with). Now when a person is identified as emerging, or the term is even thrown out, it is necessary to defend theological positions, explain who you are with and who you disagree with, and exhaustively locate oneself on the evangelical spectrum. So, writers/authors/bloggers/speakers are saying, "Look, this isn't worth all the hassle. And I don't agree with Emergent Village on a lot of stuff anyway. So I am no longer emerging/emergent. I am 'missional' or a part of the 'church being reformed' or simply finding new ways to faithfully follow God in my context. But I/we/our church is NOT Emergent."

**Insert deep sigh here**

I have so many mixed reactions to these posts that I've been reading over the week. On the one hand, I empathize and can understand the need to make this move and identify (or un-identify?) oneself for the sake of the ministry you feel is important. On the other hand (and this is what I really feel), I thought we were done with all this label bullshit? I thought as a post-modern Christian I was post-denominational, meaning I don't care what you call yourself, if you celebrate the Eucharist or communion, if you were baptized as an infant or an adult, or if you hold the penal substitutionary view of atonement above all others. I thought emerging/emergent was all about recognizing and even celebrating our differences.

I get the sense from these writers that they have deep differences with guys like McLaren and Jones, and thus feel the need to separate theologically. That is really sad to me. I'm also a little concerned about what this means for Emergent Village and those associated. Does this relegate these others even further out on the orthodoxy spectrum, teetering somewhere between truth and heresy? (Again, I thought we were getting beyond such words....have none of these guys read Peter Rollins?)

Alright - as always, I could say/write a lot more about all this, but perhaps you have thoughts. I would especially like to hear from those outside of our cohort, if you happen to be reading this. What are your reactions? Is mine an overreaction? I mean, it is all just a name after all right? It won't really change what we do in our cohort or what I believe about Jesus.

Nevertheless, it is an example of why I am emergent - to get past all this "label" crap.

Good Neighbors Picnic

A coworker of mine is helping to organize the annual Good Neighbors Picnic in Columbus. It's basically a day of free food, entertainment and looove for those who are without homes (and no, Greg, that doesn't mean renting...). They need volunteers and I was hoping to generate some interest from you guys! I'll be there! What a cool opportunity to meet some of those in our community who need some extra love and support right now and to make a start to some great relationships! Let's do it!