discipleship | mission | practical theology

Just started reading this as part of my lent reading this year. It has been a while since I have read any of Miroslav’s work and as soon as I started it stuck me how much I have missed doing so.

I can only encourage you to get a copy details here. You might also be interested in looking at the Lenten Blog by Jason Clark which is based around this book and even has the author commenting to the posts!

Went to my placement, New College Chapel (NCC), for the Ash Wednesday Eucharist and Imposition of Ashes.

NCC has a coral foundation, which means it has a choir, one of the best in the country it appears (see). So the service is imbued with beautiful singing, which given the right posture can do something to lift you, or transport you, or just open the veil a little for a glimpse at God.

So what is it about music, and in this case a male (small and older boys) choir, that enables this momentary thinning of the veil? Why in fact, in whatever, tradition or culture, is music so linked with access to the transcendent?

My other experiences have largely been in the evangelical wing of the church, part of which was standing in a cow shed, or more latterly in a large tent, with thousands of others singing songs, which on the face of it have very little meaningful content, but nevertheless have the same thinning effect! To the extent that we were falling over ourselves to experience this thinning, or more precisely who is on the other side (as it were)

Oh, I also had a black cross on my head, which at first looked like I and the others belonged to some cult that you might encounter in a work of fiction; a cult that was either guilty of some conspiracy or there for laugh material only.

I did however, amuse myself thinking about a contextualised version of this very ancient practice that involved permanent black flipchart markers?!?!

This week is an Integrated Study Week; where a particular subject is looked at through the whole range of subject s covered in a normal weeks lectures.  Along side this there are sessions with a guest speaker bringing experience and wisdom on the subject.

This current ISW is on Health and Healing and we have Rev Chris Mackenna from St Marylebone Healing and Counselling Centre.

It has been a fairly full week since my particular course has only 2 sessions a week normally and this ISW means I need to attend doctrine, OT, NT etc etc.  Aside from that it has been a thought provoking week in all kinds of ways.  The low point and high point was watching a recording of a series that I think was broadcast on TV a few years back.  This documentary followed a two people who claim that miracles of healing occur in their ministires; Benny Hinn and Reinhard Bonnke.  Showing these videos in a college of students primarily from liberal / catholic / low evangelical churches was a brave thing to do and it took the student body the best part of 24 hours to debrief themselves and calm down. I am sure there will be some long term damage for some of us!!

For myself; even though I have seen this kind of ministry before, although have never been to either a Hinn or Bonnke rally / service, I still found the experience quite disturbing.

The parts of the video that we watched concluded by showing that the 5 people they had names and addresses for from the Hinn meeting had not actually been healed as was claimed on stage. In many ways this affirmed our groups belief that this sort of ministry ought to be legislated against.

However, my question is what if one, even one of those claimed to be healed on stage were in fact healed!! As was said by Chris Mackenna; I am sure there are people who have been blessed greatly at such meetings.  My point is that grace does not justify.  Even if someone was healed at such a meeting it does not justify the way Benny or Richard conduct their meeting or ministry. In the same way that it would not justify mine or yours either!

God, it seems to me, does not wait for us to get it right before he visits in his sovereignty.

More reflections about this ISW week of health and healing later.

Monday saw the termly quiet day at college, quiet meaning silent except during the offices, the Eucharist and the input sessions.

We had quiet days at LBC (now LST) when I studied there and I was one of those who saw the opportunity of no lectures that day as the perfect chance to read and write. However, this time, with a little encouragement from Kate I ‘did’ quiet day.

Are having long periods of time with nothing to do but sit and think in a prayerful attitude a luxury? Is it a bigger luxury when the subjects of thinking are not work or church or even people related – just selfishly following my own thoughts? Is it one of those ‘important’ things to do that always gets crowded out by the ‘urgent’?

I find it is one of those things that when it happens it so great you think that you must do it more often … and you never do. Giving God the chance to raise the issues he wants to in you life rather than always attending to the things you think should be top of the list.
The phrase that stuck me the most during the input sessions was from some wise monk whose name I did not catch – ‘Nothing comes up but healing.’ Allowing God the space to entering your thinking with out being crowded by your agenda can only lead to healing. Certainly that was my experience.

A choice question since this is the title of the MTh I am currently reading for!!

But not so obvious as it seems at first…

Surely there is no such thing as ‘pure’ theology – is there!  Can we really talk about GOD outside of our interpretive cultural framework of time, language, space, hope?  I don’t think so. But if that is the case then is all theology ‘applied’ in the sense that it is what we say today.

My first systematic theology lecturer had a phrase – ‘all theological statements are interim statements’.  What I say today might be different tomorrow, but on what criteria are they allowed to change.  Just because I feel good today and bad / depressed tomorrow does that mean I can change my theology? Just because we are current in boom but when tomorrow comes we find ourselves in crash, does that mean we can change our theology?

What is the process of discerning our theology?