April 15, 2010
Are We Talkin’ ‘bout a Reformation?
The more I reflect on the state of the the church in our world today, the more I believe we are in a period that historians of the future will define as the second great reformation.
Authors
Trace Haythorn
Recent entries:
April 02, 2010
On This Dark Friday
I came across the following poem while reading Daniel Pink’s new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. It is the opening of the first verse of “Sext:”
You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation, you have only to watch his eyes: a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon making a primary incision, a clerk completing a bill of lading, wear the same rapt expression, forgetting themselves in a function. How beautiful it is, that eye-on-the-object look.
As we receive application after application for fellowships this year, I wonder about the faces and lives and stories behind them all.
March 26, 2010
Electronic Erosion
In a recent edition of the UK periodical Standpoint, writer Lionel Shriver bemoans the spiritual cost of the electronic gadgetry which have insinuated themselves into our lives in ways that leave us feeling as if we can not live without them (http://bit.ly/bNU3Qp). She writes,
The more gadgets promise to do for us, the more complex they grow, and thus the more fragile and the more likely to fail. Given the frequency with which whole businesses are paralysed due to some obscure IT crash, the Malfunction Tax surely costs Western economies billions per year. So maybe they should print warnings on digital packaging, just as on ciggies: "Do not purchase unless able to spare time and hair-tear when device craps out." All this newfangled junk costs us in spiritual terms, too, if only because we don't understand it. I don't mean we don't know how to "right click" to retrieve a menu, I mean we don't understand it...Since every new thingamajig may capriciously go on the fritz but only after having insinuated itself as indispensable, you've just handed another inanimate chunk of plastic the power to make you cry.
I had coffee with a friend this morning who shared a story of accidentally backing over her Blackberry on a Sunday afternoon, leaving her “disconnected” until Monday morning. She described feeling lost and fearful,
March 19, 2010
Compelling Questions
Our doorbell rang at a little after nine last night. It had the same effect that a ringing phone has in the middle of the night. The three of us who were still awake looked at each other with a mix of confusion and concern.
The man on our doorstep, a stranger, was holding some cash and lists of names. When I opened the door, he immediately began to put my anxiety at ease, giving me his name, telling me where he lives, and launching into his story. The story was of how his nephew was tragically struck and killed only a few blocks from our home, that the driver had not been identified, but that he suspected someone who lived in a nearby house that was known to all as a drug house. The tragedy left his family more than bereft; amidst the chaos in the economy, they have no money for a funeral for the boy. So he turned to his neighbors for support. He wondered how much I could offer.
He was passionate about the injustice. He was deeply sad about the loss of his nephew. And he was sorry to even have to ask for money.
As I went back inside to look for my wallet – because I felt compelled to help him – my wife stopped me. She pointed to a story in a local neighborhood news piece about a recent scam whereby men were knocking on doors and asking for money for the funeral of a son, a nephew or another family member who had been struck by a local drug dealer.
March 13, 2010
In Honor of Her
When the National Congregations Study was released last year, I was struck by one particular finding: the number of women in senior leadership positions has remained essentially flat over the last ten years. During that same time period, the percentage of women in seminary has reached almost 50%, and in some settings has surpassed that number. For many denominations and independent churches, women have been eligible for ordained pastoral leadership for almost 40 years. Granted, for some traditions women are not eligible for such an office. It is also worth noting that some traditions have welcomed women as pastors for generations. So for those where the change seems to be well-integrated, I wonder what’s going on. Why are so few women in senior leadership positions?
February 08, 2010
Hope and Hard Times
As the church turns its eyes to a new decade, hard times and hope compete for attention, gifts and resources from all of us.
The hard times are real and pervasive. Continued financial pressures challenge seminaries and students alike. Many schools are struggling, restructuring and reimagining their futures. Many young people who aspire to serve the church and academy look at the long road ahead and wonder if they have the faith and support to invest their futures in following God’s call. Local congregations strive to stay true to their particular missions in the world while also facing the intense challenges of diminished financial resources.
October 16, 2009
All or Nones
In a recent edition of the magazine Culture (PDF - 822kb), Christopher McKnight Nichols notes the rising trend in the U.S. of those who some sociologists are calling “Nones.” These are people who profess no religious affiliation. Nichols is quick to point out that this is not necessarily the end of religion in the U.S. as we know it. Instead, it marks yet another change in the flow of a river that has coursed through the American psyche and spirit since our founding. This latest move, he argues, is not so much a rejection of religious belief as it is a rejection of those institutions and traditional forms which have governed or managed religious practice. The phrase “spiritual but not religious” can be found on car bumpers from Berkeley to Celebration City. One way of framing this might be to say that just because I reject the food you offer does not mean I’m not hungry.
August 25, 2009
College Rankings
They’re back! Every year about this time as a new recruitment season begins, U.S. News and World Reports presents their latest rankings of U.S. colleges and universities. And while I understand the timing as it relates to the admissions cycle, I also have to wonder how many new students take time to look and see how the school they’ve just moved into and written checks to and completed a schedule for ranks among others. How many hearts will rise? How many will sink? And how many minds will waste time coming up with rational defenses for why their school sits where it does in this educational poll of polls?
August 12, 2009
Academic Cross Currents
A recent study shows that students who pursue studies in the humanities in college are likely to show a decrease in religious belief during their four years, while education majors tend to see an increase and folks in the “hard” sciences remain about the same. What’s going on here? And what are the implications for our communities?
Let’s start with the education students. The fact that their faith is increasing seems to parallel the kind of hope that is central to the very act of engaging young people in any pedagogical exercise. One must not only know the content; one must have a deep and abiding trust (faith?) that children can learn, that the next generation can build upon the successes of the previous generation, that the world is not as it should be and education plays a special role in moving societies towards a greater good. Further, schools function in a similar way to communities of faith: they are places where citizens gather, where they share certain common commitments, where they experience common rituals, where memories and friendships, connections and deep bonds are formed. It is no wonder education majors experience an increase in faith.
August 06, 2009
Ode to Summer
I am a child of autumn. Born in September on a rainy Wednesday, there is something in my core that loves a cool, wet day. Gray clouds invite me to reflect, fall colors fill me with a sense of home. I’ve always had an irrational love for college football (despite deep misgivings about the expense and violence of the game). And I have always loved school. There’s just something about the smell of those old institutions that makes my heart race a bit, perhaps with a longing for the potential they embody. And yet….