Disqus - Latest Comments for jtedvoigt

Re: She is So Beautiful

jtedvoigt — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:20:23 -0000

right on. I love this imagery and I don't think we talk about it nearly enough, so thank you for bringing it up.

I think it's important to remember that though we are the bride of Christ, we are not yet the wife of Christ- that we are in a state of waiting for the bridegroom to come. In that state of waiting, we SHOULD be concerned about how we look, but it should be how we look TO CHRIST, not to everyone else. that would be adultery, as you suggest.

Re: Gospel Fun with Wordle!

jtedvoigt — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:07:30 -0000

Luke, Matthew, Mark, John

Re: The Church of the Nazarene Will End in the Next 15 Years

garthur — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:48:15 -0000

The point of needing to change in order to survive is certainly correct for the COTN and pretty much all denominations. So the question then is what changes need to be made. Here are some of my quick reflections.

1) Globalization of Leadership - as you pointed out David the North American church will have to become less for the COTN to become more. We certainly don't need to continue the endless stream of North American white people, especially from the Midwest to the role of GS.

2) Restructuring - the institution itself of the denomination is set up simply to propagate its existence. The changing economic realities and the lessening of the North American domination of the church will, as you pointed out, require a flattening and a divergence of the leadership. Top down isn't going to cut it for long.

3) Holiness Reeducation - Had to throw this one in here since it is the name of my blog. Our ideas of holiness must expand beyond some sense of personalized sin management and become an awareness of our corporate responsibilities in this world.

4) More Wesley Less Fundamentalism - We are at best a bastardized version of Wesleyanism at this stage. The fundamentalist roots of our founding have really taken a toll on our Wesleyan heritage. Let's dilute the fundamentalist background with more sacraments, liturgy, and celebration of our connection rather than our individuality.

5) Stop pretending we are something that we aren't - We have emphasized our peculiarity for so long that we have started to believe our own press clippings. Despite a 100 years of holiness emphasis, revivals, and evangelists, and 100 million altar calls (give or take) we are facing the same dilemmas as everyone else. Our people live like the rest of culture, we can't keep our young people in the church, we are losing any denominational loyalties, and we are struggling to effectively minister to the communities on the margins.

There's my nickles worth..

Re: The Church of the Nazarene Will End in the Next 15 Years

jtedvoigt — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:12:33 -0000

I've worked as a Volunteer in missions for the Nazarene church for the last 6 months, and the observation I have is that there actually are a lot of USAmerican leaders who WANT to see this kind of diverse global leadership, but to an extent it's not there yet. You can't just have USAmericans step down and fill their spots with random global leaders, it has to be more organic than that, which, in my experiance, takes a lot of time (maybe more time)

that said I do think our general (and sometimes very specific) tendency to identify "ministry" as "USA / Canada" and "missions" as "the rest of the world" is seriously unhealthy, and hopefully this is something that will be reconsidered soon by.. the people who are in the position to reconsider that kind of thing for us.

Re: The Discipleship Struggle

jtedvoigt — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:58:34 -0000

Yeah, this is the question facing us in the church today. I feel, as the previous comment eluded to, that the answer is found in part in the rethinking of church as program.

I think discipleship can only work when it´s NOT made into a program or a prescribed model. We have to learn how to disciple in ways that work for each individual disciple, and with such a variety of people there can not be one model that just works, or one program that is really as effective as we want it to be.

this begins with being discipled. It also involves a lot of time in relationship with others. I´ve been working with MissionCorps (formerly NIVS) for 4 months now and I´m constantly surprised at how little value nazarene missionaries place on relationships. there can be no discipleship with out relationship. In his entire life Jesus only managed to personally disciple what, 12 guys? And we have pastors who are trying to disciple what, 100 people at once? forget about it. that´s the approach to ministry that forces us into discipleship as program, because it´s easier to cast our net wider that way. and it´s killing us.

Re: Order of the Brokenhearted

jtedvoigt — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:05:11 -0000

Thanks! I totally agree about reasonable-ness.

After I wrote this I felt like it still lacked some things, so here in the comments I wanted to put the question to you folks: What heartbreaks have you endured as a follow of Jesus? I´m sure there are more out there than the few I sketched...

Re: on justice

jtedvoigt — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:09:08 -0000

Wow, fabulous writing! Thank you for sharing this. Your passion really comes though in your words. Our generation needs more poetic/prophetic voices like yours.

Peace
Ted

Re: When is enough enough?

jtedvoigt — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:30:39 -0000

I'm honored to be the first to second these thoughts! Every time I ride a bus I resent my car-related bills a little more. We don't need more, we need to use what we've already got better. And I feel the same way about theology, to an extent, insofar as we need to read and know the great works of the past 2000 years instead of only reading the newest stuff out there, as I sometimes am in the habit of doing.

Thanks again for your your beautiful writing and your imagery here!

Re: The Man and The Couch

Nate McKay — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:18:39 -0000

I would argue that if one is truly using the resources at their disposal, one has already jumped off the couch.

The image of a new earth would most certainly be what we are hoping for.

Re: The Man and The Couch

jtedvoigt — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:25:30 -0000

You raise some equally important points here.

Personally, I feel convicted -- I believe convicted by God-- to a life of compassion for the poor --those upon whom the wealthier of us rest our feet, whether we care to realize it or not. I do not, however, believe that everyone does or should share that conviction. Some are called, as it were, to "go as poor among the poor", while others are called to use their resources and position to do what they can in the hierarchies of power, be it the church, the state, or what have you. I think if you can honestly say that you are using the resources at your disposal for the good of humanity, to benefit people of all "worlds", then perhaps the man on whose back our couch is resting may well be cheering you on, gladly carrying you toward a better future.

As for the question of whether there is enough space on the couch for everyone, I think that may be an image of the "new earth" we are hoping towards as Christians.

Re: Thy Kingdome Come

jtedvoigt — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:05:12 -0000

Mountainguy, Federico- muchas gracias, y bediciones a ustedes tambien. I'm working on writing Spanish versions of some of my poems, I'll let you know when I get some done, maybe you two can edit them for me!

Thom, yeah I agree. There is actually a lot of this going on the US right now, unfortunately the church isn't involved in much of it. Reusing building materials and re-purposing buildings is really popular, but for environmental reasons, not theological ones. Maybe in a few years these ideas with trickle their way down to church building committees... I'm sure there are churches out there that think with a kind of building-project-as-community-redemption mentality, but it's not as pervasive as it should be.

Re: The Man and The Couch

jtedvoigt — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:50:53 -0000

wow, thanks for writing that. Right now I feel like I'm off the couch and having a chat with some of the folks underneath it, but I still find myself looking forward to the time I can go back to sitting and talking about my experiance. This metaphor is really quite accurate I think.

The more I think about it, the more I think that there will always be people sitting on couches, and simply getting up off our butts may not be quite enough; we must find ways to help carry the load. And not just enable the people under the couch to get their own couches either. How does that happen? God help us find a way.

Re: The Beauty of Subjectivity

jtedvoigt — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:26:44 -0000

The ugliness of objectivity
repels like magnets
I wish I could be judged on a
poetrometer
a theologometer
but I am stuck to the opposite pole
so I will continue to write
crappy poetry
and find in subjectivity
freedom of humility
permission to be wrong