AKA Dr. Raymond A. Blacketer. Reformation scholar, sometime professor, native Californian, lover of the Reformed confessions, brought into the Christian Reformed Church through evangelism. Formerly pastor of Neerlandia CRC in Northern Alberta, Canada, and First Cutlerville CRC, Byron Center. Currently working as a theological editor and translator.
I'm devastated. I can no longer self-differentiate or act as a non-anxious presence because of this. You don't think I've earned it? Slaving away in the trenches of reading boring commentaries and visiting dysfunctional families and going to endless committee meetings? Have you ever been to a classis meeting? Let me tell you, I've earned it ten times over (background music: Battle Hymn of the Republic, to reinforce the heroic-martyr image).
Fine. I'll find someone in Jerusalem to acquire one secretly and surreptitiously from the hidden bunker at 2850. :p
Hmmm...option one is unethical, sneaky, deceptive, dishonest, fattening, politically incorrect and probably contrary to church order, so I'm really tempted to go with that one.
Number two is a better idea. I know we have a few more Network members than two here in Neerlandia (where we also barely have internet (we connect by smoke signals to our ISP, so wherever Crossroads is, we have it worse than they do). The temperature is currently -30, and the official boundary line of human civilization is one mile south of where we live. A trip to the city (Edmonton) is a good hundred miles on the way there, and a hundred and fifty on the way back, uphill on ice roads both ways, with moose hyped up on meth constantly running crossing the road tyring to commit suicide by minivan. We take our lives in our hands every time we need to go to Starbucks or Eddie Bauer. And we never complain about it because our grandparents who went through the war had it a thousand times worse, because they had to go church about fifteen times on the days surrounding Christmas, which is the real reason the Germans left Holland.
I know of at least two other Neerlandians who are on the Network (ecclesiastical spies, actually), who probably haven't completed their profiles (bad weather has been interfering with the high speed smoke signal connection and also with the sled dog mail service). I would expect that number to rise!
Thanks Tim. Unfortunately there are no sample job descriptions for functionaries of council. Also, we need a basic guide for taking minutes, especially for communities in which few people are familiar with business/board meetings. If we end up finding or creating some, we will share them on the network.
Another question: If I am logged in, why do I still have to type that captcha thing all the time?
...I should add that there is a sample job description there for treasurer and assitant treasurer. We have used those resources and they are very helpful.
Thanks Sheri, You might notice I tried to correct my oversight there in that last post. These comments arise from recent experience of looking for resources to train new officebearers, many of whom have never chaired a meeting or taken minutes. We tend to get minutes that are too vague to be useful or else overly detailed. Also, I think the seminary ought to have some kind of training in policy and process for pastors (what I received years ago was not all that adequate or practical; it was all about big theories of how systems works and not the basics about how to get things done and how to communicate effectively), Do you know who teaches church admin over there?
Thank you, Meg. There is complementariansm, and then there is the way one expresses it. I wonder if this recent post on CT may be quite relevant to this point. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/mobile/hermeneutics.html?id=105509. My opinion is that when we Balkanize ourselves into affinity classes, we all lose. We lose the opportunity to disagree with civility. We lose the benefit of radically different perspectives. Synod has rejected this before and it should do so again.
Thank you for that fascinating reflection, Mark. As a (part-time) academic theologian and full-time pastor, I can personally imagine some of what Küng fears, how he laments his decline, and how he will grieve his loss. On the other hand, I would expect one of the most famous (sometimes infamous) theologians of the twentieth century to understand that lament and grief are part of living in a world groaning for its redemption, and that suffering can at least potentially be or become redemptive; not least of all in the Suffering Servant himself, but also how our suffering can in some mysterious way participate in Christ’s sufferings. I think of the very difficult-to-interpret saying of Paul, Colossians 1:24: “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Not that there is something lacking in the value of Christ’s suffering, but that we also take up our cross, die with Christ, and also experience fleeting moments of resurrection and new life. The NLT might be on the right track when it renders this verse “I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.” Suffering is a profound mystery, one that apparently eludes this theologian (presuming his views are rightly represented, and presuming that his utterances are deliberate reflections and not just cries of desperation.) Being united with Christ also means that our suffering, perhaps even what we think of as “natural” suffering, can at least potentially take on a meaning and significance that cannot be found in a naturalistic worldview, one with which Küng found himself far too comfortable. The utterly secular, vacuously utilitarian view of suffering that Küng appears to buy into is astounding and disappointing. It is not, however, terribly surprising to those familiar with his rationalistic theological method, which exegetes culture more than listening to Scripture, and seeks to defensively justify Christian faith to a secular world, when the Christian faith rather stands as a prophetic critique of secular, materialistic, utilitarian—in a word, hopeless naturalism. When I was in seminary I read his 800 page book Does God Exist? and at the end I still had no idea what Küng’s answer was. I hope for his sake, and perhaps for the sake of those who admired his culturally respectable, but scripturally inadequate and, it seems, spiritually comfortless theological work, that he comes to a deeper, more authentically biblical, more genuinely spiritual view of the matter, and also that he comes to see how harmful and dismissive his statements are for those who don’t have perfect minds and bodies. And perhaps this is not Hans Küng at his best, but in his weakness, and perhaps were he in a better state of mind and spirit he would not say such things.
Posted in: Network Quiz
I'm devastated. I can no longer self-differentiate or act as a non-anxious presence because of this. You don't think I've earned it? Slaving away in the trenches of reading boring commentaries and visiting dysfunctional families and going to endless committee meetings? Have you ever been to a classis meeting? Let me tell you, I've earned it ten times over (background music: Battle Hymn of the Republic, to reinforce the heroic-martyr image).
Fine. I'll find someone in Jerusalem to acquire one secretly and surreptitiously from the hidden bunker at 2850. :p
Posted in: Network Quiz
Hmmm...option one is unethical, sneaky, deceptive, dishonest, fattening, politically incorrect and probably contrary to church order, so I'm really tempted to go with that one.
Number two is a better idea. I know we have a few more Network members than two here in Neerlandia (where we also barely have internet (we connect by smoke signals to our ISP, so wherever Crossroads is, we have it worse than they do). The temperature is currently -30, and the official boundary line of human civilization is one mile south of where we live. A trip to the city (Edmonton) is a good hundred miles on the way there, and a hundred and fifty on the way back, uphill on ice roads both ways, with moose hyped up on meth constantly running crossing the road tyring to commit suicide by minivan. We take our lives in our hands every time we need to go to Starbucks or Eddie Bauer. And we never complain about it because our grandparents who went through the war had it a thousand times worse, because they had to go church about fifteen times on the days surrounding Christmas, which is the real reason the Germans left Holland.
I know of at least two other Neerlandians who are on the Network (ecclesiastical spies, actually), who probably haven't completed their profiles (bad weather has been interfering with the high speed smoke signal connection and also with the sled dog mail service). I would expect that number to rise!
Glory, glory Hallelujah!....
Posted in: Reformed Worship and the Lectionary
I can't even get a response to my original post. But that is an interesting idea.
Posted in: How Annoying Is the Captcha?
If it's based on reputation...that explains why I have to do it every time! You can never escape your past.... ;)
Posted in: What Should Be Added to This Network?
I would love to see sample job descriptions for: President of Council, Clerk, Adjunct, Treasurer etc.
Also, a good guide for taking minutes that are useful and contain enough information to be effective but not overly detailed.
Posted in: What Should Be Added to This Network?
Thanks Tim. Unfortunately there are no sample job descriptions for functionaries of council. Also, we need a basic guide for taking minutes, especially for communities in which few people are familiar with business/board meetings. If we end up finding or creating some, we will share them on the network.
Another question: If I am logged in, why do I still have to type that captcha thing all the time?
Randy
Posted in: What Should Be Added to This Network?
...I should add that there is a sample job description there for treasurer and assitant treasurer. We have used those resources and they are very helpful.
Posted in: What Should Be Added to This Network?
Thanks Sheri,
You might notice I tried to correct my oversight there in that last post. These comments arise from recent experience of looking for resources to train new officebearers, many of whom have never chaired a meeting or taken minutes. We tend to get minutes that are too vague to be useful or else overly detailed. Also, I think the seminary ought to have some kind of training in policy and process for pastors (what I received years ago was not all that adequate or practical; it was all about big theories of how systems works and not the basics about how to get things done and how to communicate effectively), Do you know who teaches church admin over there?
Randy
Posted in: What Should Be Added to This Network?
Hi, Sheri, wondering if you've thought about those council functionary job descriptions, or if any other churches have made them up.
Thanks, Randy
(from Riverside, not far from Redlands!)
Posted in: Overtures 3 & 4: Laying Out the Debate
Thank you for your clarification; it is all too easy to misread someone's posts online. Hartelijk bedank.
Posted in: Overtures 3 & 4: Laying Out the Debate
Thank you, Meg. There is complementariansm, and then there is the way one expresses it. I wonder if this recent post on CT may be quite relevant to this point. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/mobile/hermeneutics.html?id=105509. My opinion is that when we Balkanize ourselves into affinity classes, we all lose. We lose the opportunity to disagree with civility. We lose the benefit of radically different perspectives. Synod has rejected this before and it should do so again.
Posted in: Hans Küng Prefers Death to Disability
Thank you for that fascinating reflection, Mark. As a (part-time) academic theologian and full-time pastor, I can personally imagine some of what Küng fears, how he laments his decline, and how he will grieve his loss. On the other hand, I would expect one of the most famous (sometimes infamous) theologians of the twentieth century to understand that lament and grief are part of living in a world groaning for its redemption, and that suffering can at least potentially be or become redemptive; not least of all in the Suffering Servant himself, but also how our suffering can in some mysterious way participate in Christ’s sufferings. I think of the very difficult-to-interpret saying of Paul, Colossians 1:24: “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Not that there is something lacking in the value of Christ’s suffering, but that we also take up our cross, die with Christ, and also experience fleeting moments of resurrection and new life. The NLT might be on the right track when it renders this verse “I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.” Suffering is a profound mystery, one that apparently eludes this theologian (presuming his views are rightly represented, and presuming that his utterances are deliberate reflections and not just cries of desperation.) Being united with Christ also means that our suffering, perhaps even what we think of as “natural” suffering, can at least potentially take on a meaning and significance that cannot be found in a naturalistic worldview, one with which Küng found himself far too comfortable. The utterly secular, vacuously utilitarian view of suffering that Küng appears to buy into is astounding and disappointing. It is not, however, terribly surprising to those familiar with his rationalistic theological method, which exegetes culture more than listening to Scripture, and seeks to defensively justify Christian faith to a secular world, when the Christian faith rather stands as a prophetic critique of secular, materialistic, utilitarian—in a word, hopeless naturalism. When I was in seminary I read his 800 page book Does God Exist? and at the end I still had no idea what Küng’s answer was. I hope for his sake, and perhaps for the sake of those who admired his culturally respectable, but scripturally inadequate and, it seems, spiritually comfortless theological work, that he comes to a deeper, more authentically biblical, more genuinely spiritual view of the matter, and also that he comes to see how harmful and dismissive his statements are for those who don’t have perfect minds and bodies. And perhaps this is not Hans Küng at his best, but in his weakness, and perhaps were he in a better state of mind and spirit he would not say such things.