Carl Leth

Christian Faith and Dialogue with Modern Science

A Challenging Conversation

The conversation between classic Christian Faith and the disciplines of modern science is a challenging one. This is true, in part, because of the polarizing and strident voices that are heard most loudly. Scientific imperialism and Biblical Fundamentalism stand at opposing ends of this engagement and call us to the margins. Either we offer an unqualified surrender to the authority of science to determine the boundaries of our conversation or we demand the submission of science to (particular) Biblical conditions. There is much more talking “at” each other than talking “with” each other.

Nonetheless, this is an important - even inescapable - conversation for the Church despite its difficulty. As a Christian theologian, committed to the classical and Biblical definitions of the Christian Faith, I will approach the conversation from that perspective – and without apology. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t engage the disciplines and findings of science seriously and respectfully. This article is an attempt to navigate a “middle way” that attempts to engage both domains seriously and respectfully.

Exploring Worship as Lex Orandi – Lex Credendi

One of the most dangerous popular notions of worship is that worship is simply one of the activities we do. We identify it as one of the activities of the church. Or, we see it in pragmatic terms as a key generator of energy or outreach, shaping our practice of worship to facilitate these outcomes. In this article I want to outline an understanding of worship as central to the life and understanding of the worshipping community.

The pastoral leader declares the priority of God’s story, placing our lives and self-understanding in the context of God’s work and Kingdom. But that declaration is also a call to formation, calling the church to live as people and a community within that story. The role of the pastor-prophet is never merely informative, but is to embed God’s story in the life of the community such that it forms the life of those within the community. One of the most important means for a pastoral leader to accomplish that is through the worship of the community.

Empezar bien: La dedicación de infantes

Para despejar cualquier duda, debo reconocer que fui bautizado por inmersión, siendo muy joven, sobre la base de una confesión de fe, que expresaba mi aceptación de la gracia salvadora de Dios en Cristo y mmi firme propósito de seguirle. Fui bautizado en el mismo santuario donde actualmente adoro. Sin embargo, entre aquel tiempo y el presente, viviendo en diferentes lugares lejos de aquí,  mi peregrinaje espiritual continúa regresando a mi bautismo y lo que significa para mí.

Emerging Church 101

Introduce the topic of the emerging church among pastors and church leaders and you will probably evoke a strong response. That response will tend to be either strongly positive or strongly negative. We're either "for" it or "against" it. The tendency is to categorically reject the perspectives of the emerging church or to uncritically affirm them. This article is an attempt to make our way into the conversation without being polarized. However we finally regard the critique and proposals of the emerging church conversation, it is an important conversation to be aware of and, in some constructive way, involved in.

The dynamic nature of the emerging church conversation makes it hard to simply define or categorize. Part of the ethos of the postmodern approach is to reject such categorical thinking. Nevertheless, we need to be able to have some orientation amidst the disorder if we are to make our way meaningfully. The characterizations suggested in this article are offered as tentative, or working, descriptions. I realize that they only serve to identify general tendencies or prominent themes and can't adequately or accurately portray the entire conversation or individuals in it.  But I think we can see some patterns that allow us to orient our thinking. I am not an authority on the emerging church but I am an interested observer. What follows is an overview of my observations.

Do You Have to Be Angry to be Emergent?

Do you have to be angry to be emergent? My most basic concerns about the emerging church conversation are really not theological. That is to say, while there are theological issues I would like to pursue in that conversation that is not significantly different from the ongoing theological conversation of the church in any time. What adds a problematic dimension to this conversation is the tone that seems to be characteristically present.

Let me acknowledge at the outset that any general consideration of the emerging church is an impossible task. The very nature of the conversation defies easy categorization. Proposals range from radical to incremental reform. So, any generalization can be easily critiqued. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there are some patterns that are, at the least, recurring.

The Importance of Life “On the Way”

"The medium is the message." Fifty years ago, Marshall McLuhan succeeded in bringing the insights of communication theory into popular culture with this dictum. The insight it expresses concerns the value and importance of the means we use - the medium - in communication. It challenges the popular notion that what is important in communication is what you have to say, not how you say it. It alerts us to significance of how we communicate as well as what we communicate.

What is true about communication is also true about other things. We may casually assume that what we are trying to do is the important thing, while the question of how we do it is only a pragmatic decision. What works? What will help us accomplish the outcome that really matters?

What a Christian Scientist Should be Able to Expect from a Theologian

En la "Batalla de las Ardenas" (Battle of the Bulge), durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, una de las estrategias de contraataque del ejército alemán fue la desorientación. Los soldados alemanes se deslizaron detrás de las líneas aliadas y cambiaron los letreros del camino. Este sencillo sabotaje creó confusión ya que las tropas aliadas y las unidades de apoyo tomaron la dirección equivocada, terminando donde no querían estar. Desentrañar estos líos confundió la respuesta de los aliados al avance del ejército alemán, poniéndolos en mayor riesgo. Es clave prestar atención a las direcciones.

Kingdom (Culture) Builders

Pastoral leadership is about creating and nurturing culture - Kingdom culture. It isn't essentially about growing the church or even wining people to Christ (though both of those are important facets of the work of the church). It should be centrally concerned with transforming the patterns of value and relations of this world's culture into patterns of living and community that express the embodied and practiced character of the Kingdom of God. Effective pastoral leaders are Kingdom culture builders.

We have been too easily seduced by a production culture. The church becomes a means of producing a desired end. A secular Management by Objective mentality forms the life and directs the energy of the church. We identify an outcome goal - worship attendance growth, new members, etc - and work "backwards" to determine how we can achieve that goal. The measure of our success is our ability to produce that result.

My objection is not to intentional planning, or even to identifying significant outcomes we want to achieve. My objection is to the adequacy of that kind of thinking to express and reflect the full measure of the message of the Good News - that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The point is not  that we shouldn't plan purposefully (even using MBO strategic thinking) but that these tools should serve a higher vision of the work of the church. That vision needs to focus on the Kingdom of God breaking in to transform persons and the life of community to reflect the life and character of God.

One aspect of rethinking leadership in light of the project of Kingdom building is recognition of the critical importance of leadership as culture forming. Strangely, the business world has been more keenly interested in this than the church. Over the last 30 years the business world has engaged in an active conversation about the importance of leadership and culture creation. It has recognized the power of culture, its impact on productivity and effectiveness. Formal structures, policies, and leadership initiatives are forever interacting with informally expressed values, practiced patterns, and implicit definitions of identity.

Beginning Well – Infant Dedication

In the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge that I was baptized by immersion as a young person based on a confession of faith, signifying my acceptance of God's saving grace in Christ and full purpose to follow him. My baptism took place in the sanctuary where I currently worship. Although in the years in between that time and this one I have lived in different places far from here, my spiritual journey continues to circle back to my baptism and what it means for me.

Mark Quanstrom's story and mine are different in this respect. And I'd like to bring my perspective to this conversation. At the same time I want to affirm my colleague and friend. Our disagreement is substantive but quite congenial. In this spirit let me identify some key considerations that should guide our thinking - and practice - of infant baptism/dedication.