Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Finally Done...Bring on Pete Rollins

I just got home from my second-to-last class of the semester and now am done with all of my work for this term. What a relief. This semester has been a bear for some reason. It should not have been that bad because I only had 3 ongoing classes throughout this fall, but I never quite found my rhythm and really struggled my way through the past few months of finishing up procrastinated projects and papers.

Now I can finally get excited about Peter Rollins coming to Seattle tomorrow. Pete is an Irish theologian/philosopher whose writings I have come to love. My friends and I have been in contact with him on Facebook for a few months and asked him if he would be willing to come out to Seattle and hang out with us and lecture at my seminary, Mars Hill Graduate School. So tomorrow afternoon he is flying in and my friends and I will be hanging out with Peter all evening. Thursday afternoon he will be having a conversation with the M.Div. students at the school and Thursday night he will be lecturing to anyone who comes to see him. The title of his lecture is "When God Doubts God: some thoughts on belief, metabelief, and doubt." I have no idea what he is going to talk about, but I am sure it will be brilliant, provocative, and challenging of normal theology and spiritual thought. I can't wait! Click HERE to see the Facebook event for his Thursday night lecture.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting Peter Rollins! I, too, enjoy his work.

    I'm hoping you, or perhaps others who read your blog could shed some insight on my question:

    In light of the emerging church and the emerging postmodern world how might one minister to a modern population in a mainline tradition?

    Thanks.
    Jerry

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  2. That's a pretty weighty question Jerry. I don't envy your position. I know that if I were the pastor there I would not come in guns blazing, looking to change everything they have been doing, even if I don't really agree with it. I would settle in for the long haul and move toward change over a period of years. I would honor them and respect them for their years of dedication and devotion to Christ. I would recognize how modernity has worked perfectly for them and try to get them to recognize how postmodernity (whatever that means) might work better for different generations and types of people. I would focus less on theology at a church like that (since you probably won't be able to come to any sort of conclusion that both sides can agree on) and focus more on the person of Jesus Christ and what he does in the world. What would it look like to more faithfully pattern our lives after him? Who are the people he cares about and can we care about the same kinds of people? Just a few thoughts. Good luck Jerry.

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