What's a Dissertation, and how do i get one?

This post will attempt to answer the question(s), "Are you REALLY writing anything, and what’s the dissertation about anyway"

Today’s post is a little shameless self-promotion. I figure if I’m up front about it, rather than being sneaky, it’ll be ok. It’s also a little attempt to keep myself on track, by blabbing to the world that I’m doing this thing. Perhaps some folks will be interested. If not, return to the Manning-to-Denver threads.

You may know that for unexplained reasons, I was mysteriously admitted into a Ph.D. program in Systematic Theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. Marquette is a Jesuit Catholic school of high standards, consistently ranking as one of the top research universities in religion in the states. No, I cannot explain, other than a momentary lapse of good judgment and taste (perhaps that sardonic Jesuit humor was in play?) how they let me in.

Regardless, (btw, please note I did NOT use the word “irregardless” because it’s not a real word. Nor should you. Unless you find it whimsical, as I do, and use it purposely to annoy the grammar Nazis, in which case it is perfectly acceptable)  I wandered through the program, often went to classes, wrote papers, took tests, which eventually culminated in them declaring that I had achieved “Ph.D. Candidate” status.  Which means that all I have to do now is write this incredibly boring really long paper, basically a book, give a brief presentation about it, answer a series of incredibly difficult, unfair, and tangential questions about it, and hopefully several distinguished scholars throw their little red beads in the hat and BANG I’m a doctor.  (which won’t make all that much difference, really, because I will continue to pay the  bills by working in I.T.) 

So what is this paper about, you ask. I’m SO GLAD you asked. I affiliate with a particular tribe of folks called the Association of Vineyard Churches. This has been my religious tradition of choice for about 18 years. The vineyard is a relatively new group, and pretty small, so if your unfamiliar you can read more. 

 

 So, in the vineyard (founded, like many other aberrant practices, in southern California by a musician of some renown)  we have this idea that the primary message of Jesus was this concept called the kingdom of God. Now, this is not exactly a startlingly new idea…in Protestant theology, for example this has pretty much been the consensus for ohhh...180 years or so. Big deal, might you say. 

Well, here’s where we think we might have a little different take on things.  Some of the early leaders in the Vineyard Movement took a good hard look at the Gospels (not of Thomas…nor of Peter…)  and found something quite interesting. The Jesus of the Gospels, contrary to the Jesus of the Scholars,  not only just talked about the kingdom of God, but he actually DID STUFF that backed up the talk. (In the extremely technical sophistry of the vineyard, we refer to this phenomena as “Doing the Stuff”) Furthermore,  upon even further examination, it’s almost as if the Gospel records are a textbook of sorts- that it, this continued pattern re-appears: Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, and then, does kingdom of god-like stuff. Sometimes the pattern is reversed: the stuff happens, and then Jesus does some explaining on what just happened- usually to his executive team/padawans but sometimes to the astonished crowd as well. And then, get this, not only does he seem to be teaching his team how to both proclaim the words AND do the works of the kingdom, it seems quite obvious that the guys who wrote all this down had a similar goal- they wanted to capture the dynamic so others could follow the example of proclamation/demonstration AND…..(TA DA!!)  TEACH OTHERS AS WELL!  

So in this sense, we say that Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God was “Inaugurated” that is, it had a beginning in the story of Jesus. And, it continues to this day.

However, there’s more. There is a big piece of this that indicates that in this “inaugurated” kingdom there is a taste of something bigger. It’s like a small appetizer that gives you just enough of an idea of the coming feast to not just water your mouth, but make you long for the feast, even while you are enjoying the delicious garlic-shrimp-on-a-cracker. It’s like the future is partially here now. I taste the shrimp, I taste a bit of the quality and quantity of the coming feast, in which there will not only be more garlic shrimp, but other culinary delights as well.  In kingdom terms, we talk about “the presence of the future”, which in my mind, would be a great title for a book.  

The powers of the future, when “all will be all in all” are here, in a limited and provisional way, yes, but enough for us to see where this is going. So in this, we say, the kingdom is also Eschatological  which is a .25 theological  word for “pertaining to the end of the age”. SO, the kingdom of God is inaugurated, and eschatological. And cause we attempt to DO the works of the kingdom, in a real sense it’s also ENACTED.

So again say you, big deal, don’t all churches think like this? To which we reply, “well, yes…yes, many of them do.” 

OR DO THEY? OR DOES THE VINEYARD? DOES THIS MATTER?

So, another interesting quirk about the vineyard is cause we are so new, we haven’t had a chance to really work all this out yet in much of a systematic form. SO, for example, when well-meaning folks from other religious traditions ask us a question that begins with a “What does the Vineyard think about X?” we often have to say,

 “…well, uhhh…umm, we do the stuff, see, and we’re mostly good practitioner’s, and we have some kickin’ music, and uhhh..there’s some guys at Yale who…”

ONE OF THESE big questions we often get is about what we think of the Holy Spirit, that is, in technical terms, the third person of the Christian Trinity whom the tradition refers to as “The LORD and giver of Life”.  Now we mostly think what every other Christian group thinks of the person or being of the Holy Spirit. Nuthin’ new here. However, when it comes to the job description or what this person actually does, and how she makes herself known in the cosmos, we say with the preacher:

I have a lover
a lover like no other
she’s got soul, soul, soul sweet soul
and she’s teaches me how to sing
shows me colors, when there’s none to see
gives me hope, when I can’t believe,
and for the first time
I feel love 

Often however, this isn’t good enough, and so folks ask more questions. In short, my whole dissertation is an attempt to answer some of these questions, most specifically;
“What is the relationship between the inaugurated, enacted, eschatological kingdom of God and work of the Holy Spirit in the Vineyard movement?”

Hold on for more….

de

U2-egesis: Unknown Caller

"Unknown Caller" from No Line on the Horizon

Sunshine, sunshine
Sunshine, sunshine

(song starts with birds singing, gives the impression of early morning- dawn, a fresh start, new creation?)

Oh, oh
Oh, oh
I was lost between the midnight and the dawning

(sleeping during the night...)

In a place of no consequence or company

(that half-conscious dream state, not really sure where you are, etc)

3:33 when the numbers fell off the clock face

(3:33 is a common U2 reference to Jerimiah 33:3, "call on me and i will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know". See the cover of ATYCLB, the airport terminal marquee has the J 333 lit up. In numerous interviews Bono referred to this as "God's calling card". ) 

Speed dialing with no signal at all

(The repeated attempts of the Spirit to get his attention?)

Go, shout it out, rise up

( 'Shout it out' , a refrain from the Psalter, is another frequent reference in U2's corpus. See for example “With a Shout” from October (1981) )  

Oh, oh
Escape yourself, and gravity
Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak

(the 'I' is certainly God, telling Bono to shut up, to listen, instead of babbling on...)

Shush now
Oh, oh
Force quit and move to trash

(Brilliant imagery- in Mac speak, 'force quit' is what you have to do when the OS or program locks up...similar to windows CRTL+ALT+DEL but much more poetic. In this case, it’s the writers life course, the current path, or direction, that they must confront and alter...)

I was right there at the top of the bottom

(in other words, things were bad, but had the potential of getting worse...)

On the edge of the known universe where I wanted to be

(time of uncertainty, questioning.... fear? ) 

I had driven to the scene of the accident
And I sat there waiting for me

(the writer could see where his life direction was heading -to an 'accident'. He could see that the results of the decisions he was making would not be good. It is a futuristic vision, as he was 'waiting for me'...)

Restart and re-boot yourself
You're free to go

(HOWEVER GOD is offering the chance to avoid the accident, to change the path one's on, to 'alter the future as it were...) 

Oh, oh
Shout for joy if you get the chance
Password, you, enter here, right now

(After the choice is made to change [force quit/move to trash has been done - REPENTANCE ] now the fresh start, reboot )

Oh, oh
You know your name so punch it in

(the login, with the "password, YOU > enter here..right now" not a request, more like a command from God- )

Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak
Shush now
Oh, oh
Then don't move or say a thing

(again, the command to 'be still , and know that i am God..." )

This is an amazing picture of repentance and renewal. The song begins with an instrumental that builds the impression of dawn- birds signing, and starts the theme of fresh starts, renewal, creation. In the early morning hours, the character in the story gets a call from the "unknown caller" > God. Unknown perhaps because he had been ignoring previous calls....not wanting to answer...what is the "unknown" that comes up on caller ID? Usually someone you don't want to talk to- ex. a bill collector, or a salesperson.

Regardless, here is a picture of how we can get stuck when we know we SHOULD be turning to God for comfort or repentance, but we choose not to.


3:33, a play on words, the reference to Jeremiah 33:3 "Call on me and I will answer you..." . The Spirit tells me to 'shush now' - not to talk or complain to God, but to be quiet, and listen for a change.
“Driven to the scene of an accident waiting for me”, the character (Bono, you, me..) can "see" or knows what the current trajectory of his life will lead to- an "accident". We often know, as the Spirit convicts us of sin and the need for repentance, that how we are living our life at the moment isn't working, and the end result if we continue in this trajectory will be very, very, bad. Nonetheless, if often takes something significant for us to be willing to see this, and then change our direction.

The offer, or command, from God, is freedom- grace, the ability to leave our failing and hopelessly broken program ("force quit, and move to trash") and start fresh again. ("your free to go")
The result?

Fellowship, God's presence, freedom from guilt and shame, and hearing his voice that drives out confusion, fear and despair.

God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel"

So, the internets are all ablaze with this talk of John Piper’s recent claim that “Christianity has a Masculine feel”, that he gave at a recent conference. Now, lots of folks have chimed in on this, even big hitters like Scot McKnight. Popular blogger Rachael Held Evans has had quite a lively discussion flowing on her site, with the various parties going to and fro on Piper’s views.  

Which got me to thinking. One of my recent heroes is a person that fits Piper’s description perfectly. This exemplar of “Masculine Christianity” left a comfortable, affluent, upper class home in America and gave up the possibilities of college, career and influence to move halfway across the world and serve the poorest of the poor.  And I thought, hmmm…I wonder how well this masculine minister of mine fits Piper’s criteria. Fortunately for me, Piper clearly listed 8 or so characteristics of the “masculine minister” so I didn’t have to guess.

According to Piper:

What I mean by “masculine Christianity,” or “masculine ministry,” or “Christianity with a masculine feel,” is this: Theology and church and mission are marked by overarching godly male leadership in the spirit of Christ, with an ethos of tender-hearted strength, and contrite courage, and risk-taking decisiveness, and readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community—all of which is possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It’s the feel of a great, majestic God, who by his redeeming work in Jesus Christ, inclines men to take humble, Christ-exalting initiative, and inclines women to come alongside the men with joyful support, intelligent helpfulness, and fruitful partnership in the work.

Tender hearted strength?
Check! …taking on responsibility for a whole village of orphans…and actually adopting 13 of them…that seems like tender hearted strength.  

“contrite courage”? 
well, if facing down a group of AK-47 toting murderer’s that are attempting to abduct boys to become child soldiers counts as courage…check. 

“risk taking decisiveness”
hmm…lets see, giving up the privilege of comfort and affluence, and moving to one of the most dangerous places in the world to minister, where disease, war, famine, and death by creatures great and small is a constant threat…that looks like risk taking decisiveness to me. 

“readiness to sacrifice for the sake of leading, protecting, and providing for the community”
well, again, there’s the whole leaving every conception of  “Success” behind and choosing to live with the poorest of the poor…taking every ounce of wisdom and thriftiness you have to provide food, medicine and safe water for an entire village… showing the local people improved ways of caring for themselves. Yup, seems to fit.

Piper’s additional list of 8 qualities includes such things as courage, ruggedness and joyfulness:

- A masculine ministry brings out the more rugged aspects of the Christian life and presses them on the conscience of the church with a demeanor that accords with their proportion in Scripture.

- A masculine ministry takes up heavy and painful realities in the Bible, and puts them forward to those who may not want to hear them.

-  A masculine ministry welcomes the challenges and costs of strong, courageous leadership without complaint or self-pity with a view to putting in place principles and structures and plans and people to carry a whole church into joyful fruitfulness.

Here’s a  painful reality that Piper should consider:
As you probably guessed by now, my model of “masculine Christianity” is a girl; Katie Davis, and you MUST buy her book “Kisses from Katie”, or follow her blog on Amazima ministries.

de

A Vineyard Readin' List...part I

From time to time people ask me for resources that will help them understand the Vineyard movement or Vineyard theology. While the sources for gaining this kind of understanding are growing by the day (including numerous blog’s like this one) I thought I would compile a quick bunch or resources that I find helpful. And so, I present (in no particular order of usefulness or chronology)…

 A Vineyard Reading List : a baker’s dozen or so of books that will help you to understand John Wimber and the Vineyard movement.

1. John Wimber: Power Healing

Begin with the beginning. John’s first book, Power Evangelism is solid, but in my opinion, Power Healing has had a stronger, long-term impact on the Vineyard movement. The patterns and practices of the prayer model in this book have become the standard praxis in many Vineyard churches.  To understand the Vineyard’s approach to such things as physical healing, the power of prayer, and the relation of these practices to the theology of the Kingdom of God, this is must read.

2. Derek Morphew, Breakthrough.  To date, probably the best explication of the Vineyard’s theology of the kingdom. Written by a long time Vineyard pastor and theologian from South Africa, Breakthrough is the most academically oriented work so far. Morphew explicates the Vineyard’s kingdom theology by drawing on numerous sources that focus on the dominant leitmotif within protestant theology over the last 150 years: The doctrine of the Kingdom of God. However, his book is accessible to a lay audience and is highly readable.

Special mention: Don William’s Signs, Wonders, and the Kingdom of God

3. Bill Jackson, The Qwest for the Radical Middle. The unofficial “history” of the first twenty years or so of the Vineyard movement. Bill has been around the movement for a long time, and his perspective as one of the early Calvary chapel leaders gives him some unique insights into the attraction and energy of Wimber and the early years of the movement. Jackson’s history follows the birth of the Vineyard movement through the time of John’s death in 1996, with extended discussions of crucial periods in the formation of Vineyard identity: the separation from Calvary chapel, the interaction with Mike Bickle’s Kansas City Fellowship, and the Toronto outpouring. Jackson’s even handed treatment of many of these trying times in the life of the Vineyard brings a flesh and bones  realty to the complex and dynamic personality of John Wimber.

4. There are several biographical works about John Wimber that are absolutely crucial in understanding the Vineyard. The most significant of these is John Wimber: the way it was by Carol Wimber, John’s wife. This book has many fascinating details about John, including his childhood, his coming to Jesus, and his growth as a pastor, teacher, church planter and leader, all written from (mostly) Carol’s perspective.  Two other works provide some insight into Wimber’s teaching on many topics: Everyone Gets to Play and The Way In is the Way On. ­ Out of print and thus somewhat harder to find, but unbelievably insightful is a book edited by David Pychtes John Wimber: A Tribute. Pytches was a dear friend of Wimber’s who edited this collection of stories and impressions by friends and colleagues of Wimber. Folks such as Matt Redman, Bert Waggoner, Don Williams, Bono, and others all contribute. I actually don’t have the book in front of me now, but I seem to remember Bono in there. Might be a projection.

5. Alexander Venter, Doing Church

If you hang around a Vineyard for any length of time, you’re sure to hear talk such as centered-set vs. bounded set, as well as terms like values, priorities, purposes, practices…on and on. Alexander was an intern with John Wimber, and thus was able to observe John and the other Vineyard leaders as they taught and lived their kingdom lifestyle. In Doing Church, Venter basically details Wimber’s philosophy of ministry that is implicit in most Vineyard churches today. While some things have been modified since Venter wrote this book (for examples, the values themselves have been somewhat refined) the relationship between these concepts and their definitions still hold. In a sense, this book gives a peek “under the hood” of how many Vineyard churches operate, as most Vineyard pastors share the philosophy of ministry outlined in this book. So if you’re wondering what “Centered Set” really means, this is the place to find out. Venter’s other books are well worth the time as well: Doing Healing and Doing Reconciliation.

6. Gary Best, Naturally Supernatural.  

Gary is national director of the Vineyard Churches in Canada, and as long history of being a blood and guts kingdom kinda guy. Naturally Supernatural speaks to the Vineyard “style” of ministry- no hype, low key, but with BIG expectations of God’s showing up and bringing his kingdom. This book is not so heavy on the theological side, as Gary is targeting practical ministry applications- what it means to “do the stuff” Vineyard style.

7. Ken Wilson and Rich Nathan, Empowered Evangelicals

Ken and Rich collaborated on this book which in many ways, defines the Vineyard movement as a via media between the American Pentecostal churches emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit and witness on the one hand, and the American Evangelical churches’ emphasis on the new birth, biblical fidelity, and cultural engagement on the other. Revised in 2009 to include relevant details of Vineyard identity that have emerged since the first publication of the book.

8.  Andy Park To Know You More.

Vineyard worship has spread to the global church- in fact, it has been noted that many branches of the church family know of Vineyard worship long before they know of the Vineyard as a church movement. Park has been a worship leader, songwriter, and teacher in the Vineyard for many years, and has written many Vineyard songs that have become ubiquitous in contemporary worship services across denominations. Park lays out an Vineyard philosophy of worship that is wholistic, participative, and Kingdom oriented. This philosophy of worship, Park believes, gives Vineyard worship both it’s distinct identity and distinct practice.

9. Don Williams, Start Here.

Don is an elder statesmen of the Vineyard, he was a Vineyard pastor and teacher for many years and a confident and theological source for John Wimber as well. Don has written this book as a discipleship primer from a Vineyard perspective. To a person new in the faith or new to the Vineyard, this book is an invaluable resource.

10. More authors…

This is where we get heavy, man. After a person has read through the previous list, if you are still hungry for more that means you have some serious personality disorders, and therefore are fit for more scholarly theological reflection. So at #10, I am going to cheat and list a number of works that are more academic in nature, but have proved to be sources for much of the thinking and reflection that is exhibited in 1-9 above.  So here goes:

George Eldon Ladd
Ladd was a tremendous influence on John Wimber and the early vineyard, although John freely borrowed and modified many of Ladd’s views. Ladd represents the culmination of Protestant Theologies’ two-century theological exploration of the kingdom of God which mostly began with Immanuel Kant.  Ladd represents the late 20^th century consensus that Jesus spoke of the kingdom as both immediately present and futuristic. 

Start with The Gospel of the Kingdom, which is the shortest work and lays out the basics. The Presence of the Future: the Eschatology of Biblical Realism delves more deeply into eschatology and Ladd’s argument that the kingdom of God has been fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus, but not yet consummated, i.e. brought to completion.  Hence, fulfillment without consummation or the already-not yet view of the kingdom.  Once you’ve waded through that, if you’re still hungry, Ladd’s magisterial A Theology of the New Testament has been a staple for a generation of New Testament students and theologians.

James Kallas
Wimber was hugely influenced by Kallas as he began to develop his views of demonic deliverance, spiritual warfare, and intercessory prayer.  Again, Wimber was a sophisticated reader: he freely borrowed, modified or discarded as he saw fit. However Kallas gave him a usable framework to begin to understand the nature of spiritual conflict.  Start by reading The Real Satan and The Significance of the Gospel Miracles.

Next time, we will visit some books that either are a bit more scholarly in nature, or that take things a bit further than this basic list.

Happy Reading!  

p.s. I have next list in mind, and several important books that i want to include, but what else do you see as being important to understanding either the Vineyard movement, or so-called "third wave" Christianity?

How to Create a Strong Password for your internet accounts

From time to time, I get asked by friends and family members to help them understand all this internet security stuff. They think that because I’ve worked with computers some, that I actually know something about this and therefore would be a valuable resource. Hmmmm.

One of the unfortunate realities of our technological age is that with all the wonderful conveniences and pleasures, there are countless dangers and difficulties. One of these dangers is the whole having a thousand different passwords for computers, web sites, company networks, email, etc. etc. We love internet banking BUT most of us naively hope, that by god someone on the other end of these things really, really knows what the Hey is going on. Well, it turns out that sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, but there ARE some things that you can do to enhance your personal security online. One of these things is learning how to create a strong password.

 In many of the security autopsies done on the more famous security snafu’s in the last several years, one of the consistent and disheartening discoveries has been the incredible ease in which common password-cracking software programs can chew through millions of stolen accounts, in minutes, even seconds. In the famous Sony online attack, something like 94% of the 25 million or so stolen accounts were unscrambled in hours- primarily due to the lack of strong passwords on these user’s accounts. In every major data breach, an extremely high number of user accounts are easily cracked because either the company or website failed to enforce a strong password, or the users themselves chose weak, relatively easy to decode passwords.

You goal in cyberspace is not to become invincible...that’s…impossible…but to make your accounts more difficult to crack then the next persons. Most hacking attacks are targeted towards the lowest hanging fruit...that is, they attempt employ well known and not technically difficult password cracking scenario’s to gain access to users accounts. If the software employed discovers a strong password- it often skips over this account and moves to the next one. Hey, when you’ve captured millions of accounts, you can afford to pass over a few when so many easy one’s are there for the taking. Your goal is to become one of the problem children that gets skipped over.

While there are a lot of web sources for this kinda thing, I thought I would throw out there some material that I have compiled and used. Read and follow at your own discretion.

Strong passwords need to be at least 10 characters. So what we need to do is create a password that is at least a 10 character mix of numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols.  Due to how passwords are stored and mathematically encrypted, the more characters, the better.  You should be aware that some systems- some banks, agencies, etc. restrict which special characters are allowed. If you find yourself in one of these places, adapt as needed.

1. For the first step, let’s create the letters, and make them a mix of upper and lowercase. There are several ways to do this.

a. you could use the name of a favorite pet, your first school, or a child. This could be a five or six letter word. This creates an easy-to-remember root word, but is generally less secure than…

b. creating an acronym from an easy-to-remember sentence. Because this is not a “word” or a common sequence of letters, this is considered more secure.

Let’s create our root letters using each method.

                a. A favorite pet, my dog “fluffy”.
                I’ll make the VOWELS UPPERCASE and leave the consonants lowercase, so I get:
                 flUffY (6 characters)

b. “I really love working at Enron”
I’ll take the first letter of each word: irlwae and what the hey, let’s make the consonants UPPERCASE
iRLWae (6 characters)

2. For the second step, let’s add some special characters to our examples.

a. flUffY  becomes: !flUffY%   (adding an ! and the % signs)

b.  iRLWae becomes: !iRLWae% 

any of the following characters would work for this step:
` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) + = , ? / “ ‘

So far, we have 8 characters, with a mix of lowercase, uppercase, and special characters. The only thing we need to add is numbers to complete our strong password.

3. For the third step, we add some numbers to the mix. This will be important, because many web sites  require you to periodically change your password. Using a two-digit number combination makes this pretty easy, you can “count up” or “count down” to create a new password from your root password.

So again, building on our previous example, let’s put a favorite number -something that makes sense to you, into our previous example. I will use #24, my age when thought I reached nirvana. It doesn’t really matter where you put the numbers in the sequence.

SO,

a. !flUffY%   becomes 24!flUffY%   OR 2!flUffY%4 OR !flUffY%24  (ten characters)    

b. !iRLWae%  becomes: 24!iRLWae%  OR 2!iRLWae%4 OR !iRLWae%24 (ten characters)

So, when I’m forced to change my password, I increase my # by 1:

25!flUffY%   or   2!flUffY%5
26!flUffY%   or   2!flUffY%6
27!flUffY%   or   2!flUffY%7

25!iRLWae%       or            2!iRLWae%5
26!iRLWae%       or            2!iRLWae%6
27!iRLWae%       or            2!iRLWae%7

 

Easy-speasy, huh? The important thing to remember is that your password should be at LEAST ten characters (it could be more) and a combination of upper and lowercase letters, AT LEAST ONE symbol, and AT LEAST ONE number. Starting with an easily recalled number makes the password change process easy- so if you start with a two digit date that’s meaningful (birth year, high school graduation, longest steelhead caught, anniversary date…if you remember it… ) THEN when forced to change, add or subtract 1 to the previous number.


(or if you’re a math geek, use something like a quadratic equation to come up with your numbers…) 

A good reminder here is to set up a schedule for yourself to change your passwords frequently- especially for your most sensitive data. Having a number sequence like the above makes this process much easier to do and easier to recall.

It’s also important to remember that a strong password is ONLY ONE aspect of staying safe in our new electronic world. More to come on this….

an orbital centered-set spirituality?

Something i have been pondering for some time…

  Having been in ministry for a long time, and seeing lots of models of sanctification in teaching and in operation... it seems that people really don't change all that much. ok, i said it. maybe it's because of my evangelical cessationist, heavily "not-yet" upbringing that i lean this way. But it seems that spiritual transform is often, slow, non-linear, two steps forward one step back kinda process. we make progress in one area, other areas falter. I get my lust life in check, and my anger seems to get the upper hand. I find myself loving those I previously thought it was ok to ignore, but at the same time still harbor elitist and judgmental attitudes. Egads, what a wreck I am sometimes!

So i wonder...is the straight line trajectory model of center set a realistic graphical representation of spiritual transformation? The center set model vs. bounded set has become vineyard orthodoxy. Lots of place on the web explain this, so I will defer. However, the basic graphic for a centered set looks something like the following:

                                                               

With the basic idea being, the center is defining as the goal, the highest good, as you will. For the sake of simplicity we shall call this “jesus”. The arrows represent people, seekers, persons in the world. The key idea is that is doesn’t matter where a person is in proximity to the center, what matters is the trajectory. Thus, a person far from the center, say person A, but who is directed exactly towards the center, is in a better place than someone who is in close proximity to the center, (person X) but whose trajectory is away from the center. Get it? If confused, take a look at the contrast with a bounded set model.

now, when it comes to describing doctrinal/confessional issues the model works just fine. However, use of the CS model in the vineyard especially, has been expanded- hence questions like "what does a center set spirituality look like?" have been raised. Here is the rub as it seems to me- and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a person that just thinks too much, or if there is something about the model that needs to be altered.

At least in terms of spiritual transformation (sanctification...maybe...depending on one's confessional tradition)  that is, who really knows EXACTLY WHAT the center demands of us? Isn't the walk of faith often composed of trying things out, believing at the time, that this is what god was asking us to do? In the spirit of Peterson’s  “a long obedience in the same direction” doesn’t the walk of faith take us to places where we would rather not go? Places where the guide himself seems lost, or, perhaps, not forthcoming with adequate directions?

What i am proposing is this: rather than a linear trajectory where either I am pointing directly towards the center OR NOT, what if we change the visual representation to be more like an orbit, or a vortex. I realize this may be quibbling, but i think it's more reflective of the provisional and conditional nature of our knowledge, loving and acting.  I am rarely in direct trajectory towards the center. The center does, however, have a certain pull, a gravitas, that I sometimes give in to, sometimes resist, and sometimes am unaware of.  Am I moving towards the center? Usually, but more in a spiral pattern, or a vortex. Perhaps my graphic would look something like this:

                                                                               

 

SO at times, I coming nearer to the center, and at other times, I’m fading away a bit, while my OVERALL trajectory is being pulled to the center by the weight, the love of jesus.

What do you think?